luence took priority over Hindley’s influence on Hareton because the negative attention from Heathcliff outweighed the rejection from his own father. Heathcliff’s attention to Hareton thrived solely on his desire to get back at Hindley, however, ultimately making Hindley the biggest impact on Hareton’s life, although in an extremely indirect way. Finally, Cathy reflects her mother more than any of the other children. With Catherine dying immediately after the birth of Cathy, Cathy serves as a direct continuation of Catherine’s legacy. She shares many similarities to her mother, and “is in many ways a reincarnation of her mother. Though she is softened by the characteristics which she has inherited from her father”(Woodford, 2). The kindness and meek nature of Cathy’s father Edgar contributed greatly to Cathy’s improved personality over her mother’s. Cathy repaid her father for his caring upbringing by giving great loyalty to her father. When she learns of what Heathcliff did to her father, she declares to him, “‘I shan’t speak to you, Mr Heathcliff!’ answered Catherine. ‘Papa says you are a wicked man, and you hate both him and me; and Ellen says the same’”(Bronte, 171). When she learned about the situation between the residents of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, she failed to understand because her limited experience was “conversant with no bad deeds except her own slight acts of disobedience, injustice, and passion, rising from hot temper and thoughtlessness, and repented of on the day they were committed, was amazed at the blackness of spirit that could brood on, and cover revenge for years, and deliberately prosecute its plans, without a visitation of remorse”(164). In dealing with relationships, Cathy matured where her mother could not. “She parallels her mother in her ‘sunshine’ and in her impe...
