why still?

[meenakshi]

Heathcliff is genuinely bad .His deeds are atrocious...
Why still do readers feel an admiration for him? why do we feel he is justified and why do we tend to forgive /forget his deeds at the end?
Well some of the reasons i got are..

-b'coz "he has a handsome figure"as Lockwood says it.
- b'coz of his ambiguous origin,pointing 2 a deeper misery.
- b'coz of Man's innate attraction for anarchy....Which do u think is more correct?
All ur views and any further ideas are welcome.

[downing]

I guess that the second and the third points are more correct, but the 1st could be taken into consideation,too. His ambiguous origin is certainly a fact that brings mystery to his character: at one point in the novel, Nelly suggests that he has a royal origin(don't know the quote right now but you could search for it and use it in your argumentation or whatever it is). Of course, the 3d point is also interesting. People do appreciate what is more original, what is more uncommun, even though they firstly seem disgusted by it. The 1st point of view could also be a good one,because people seem to forgive easier pretty'' people.
In my oppinion, if I had to choose one of these 3 facts, I would choose the second.
As for my oppinion about Heathcliff, I agree that he was a demonic character; he had a very complex personality, who was capable of a huge love(he says at a point in a novel that he could love in a day more than Linton loves in a few years...sorry again for not having an exact quote). Notwithstanding, I feel sorry for Heathcliff because he was ''cheated'' by Catherine and he had a poor life,living in misery at the beginning, till he was found by Earnshaw and then, because of Hindley's hate.

[JCamilo]

Because he is a complex, well build and powerfull Character and when you read a book you are after the qualities of the writing not morallity ?

[mirz]

i dont think he is genuinly bad. i htink if that were the case he would have been bad from the start but he wasnt he was good & kind but i think it was the fact that he felt that he had been betrayed that made him seek revenge against the people that he belived injured him. when he does turn evil at the end though people tend to remember how he was at the start and the circumstanses that led him to be wahat he is so they forgive him

[meenakshi]

.....

[belinda]

Personally I think it's our nature to believe in the power of love. I found Heathcliff's many atrocious acts to others easy to forgive by seeing them as acts of pain caused by his fiery and passionate love for Catherine. When he sensed her rejecting him, the deep wound of his unrequited love created the most indescribable pain, and his only way of coping was to inflict some of this agony on those associated with Catherine, and his loss of her. It is pity and heartbreak that I feel for this loyal but rejected lover. Of course this does not excuse his abhorrent treatment of others, but explains it.

[downing]

I do totally agree with belinda! Love and pain caused by Heathcliff explains his behaviour, even though it does not completely justify it.

[Bodily_Bedlam]

I think that believing that Heathcliff was ever kind to anyone other than Catherine because of the affect her love had on him is naive. Heathcliff never disguised his manipulations, and even went so far as to reveal it himself. For example, After marrying Isabella, Heathcliff tells her that she is being used as leverage over her brother Edgar. It was Isabella who refused to believe it, and of course, was proved wrong and had to run away.

Anyway, I believe the question was: why do people like/admire Heathcliff? In my opinion, this isn't so hard to answer. In essense, he is 1800's version of the modern bad-***. His behavior was constant, even, if not especially, in it's erraticism. It may seem a little weird to hear, but even as many of the other characters changed and evolved, Heathcliff stubbornly remained unchanged. His 3 year disappearance actually refined his cruelty, making it easier to hide.

And in my opinion, his conduct in contrast to his love for Catherine, which was to me, nothing but pure, was refreshing in that he did not lose any one part of himself to prove to Catherine his love: he practically became its physical embodiment. He throws himself wholeheartedly to the task of obtaining Catherine so that their seemingly metaphysical attraction could come to physical fruitition. Much like his need to decompose into Catherine, their hearts and souls were already encompassed in one another, before Edgar, and before anything physically happened. There is so much more I could say about this novel, but I'll just be content with answering the question.

[Sunshineyness]

Personally, I think everyone in the book acts deplorably. I only give credit to Heathcliff because at least he's honest about his atrociousness. The Lintons and Earnshaws all think they're better than Heathcliff- they're class standing brainwashes them into believing him to be lower than him. Heathcliff- being unable to follow societies laws innately- can't behave the way someone of "his standing" is supposed to. Catherine is the same- as a child she "runs wild" as opposed to they way she should act- until she is brainwashed by the Lintons into believing she's better than Heathcliff even though she has always believed (and rightfully so) they're one in the same. Just look at the way Edgar treats Heathcliff and Cathy when they are caught spying on him and Isabella. Cathy is the fallen angel he thinks needs to be "fixed" and is welcomed into their home due to her higher station where as Heathcliff is unceremoniously kicked out due to his apparent "low class." I've always akinned Heathcliff to Shylock from "Merchant of Venice"- both are after their pound of flesh from their racial and social class opressers and both grow cruel and dark and destroy themselves and lose their dearest loves to the "other side"- the ones that opress them.

Everybody else in Wuthering Heights acts with airs and graces that they're the good ones. But really everyone is reprehensible. I don't "forgive" Heathcliff- but you have to admit he never hides his cruelness, never pretends to be someone he's not. Never claims to be better than anyone. Also an interesting point of note: Are people cruel to Heathcliff because he's cruel to them, or is Heathcliff cruel because they are to him? It's kind of a chicken and egg question, innit?