y son, then, I’ll tell you; and your mother was a wicked slut to leave you in ignorance of the sort of father you possessed’”(153). Early on, Heathcliff insured that Linton would suffer and serve only as a means for revenge by “reversing the golden rule, he does to his son, Linton, what Hindley had tried to do to him. His words even echo those used earlier to describe him, as he calls Linton ‘my property,’ ‘it’ (Shapiro, 5). Despite Heathcliff’s attempts to turn Linton into a little version of him, Linton remains a product of his mother’s upbringing, which increases Heathcliff’s abhorrence of the boy, for he already had “an antipathy to the sound of his voice, and could not do at all with his sitting in the same room with him many minutes together”(Bronte, 155). Only when Heathcliff realizes the use Linton has for getting revenge on Edgar Linton through Cathy does he begin to foster a paternal attitude. Cathy’s love for Linton spurs from his needy attitude, which resulted from his father’s neglect. Seeing the human side of Linton, they start their romance, which was “typical of the adolescent absorption with romantic notions, and the fact that the relationship was taboo made it all the more alluring”(Federico, 4). Cathy’s devotion to Linton never dies until he does. Even though forced to marry Linton, Cathy stays with him, “prepared to accept the consequences of her situation by loving Linton in spite of Heathcliff”(4). In his romantic endeavors, Linton proved superior to his father, for he found the true affection his father desperately yearned for. The next of the unfortunate orphans, Hareton Earnshaw never experienced real love while growing up. Raised by his father Hindley, whose only passions were drinking and seeking revenge, Hareton grew up to be like the one person his father truly hated: Heathcliff. Having...
