Heathcliff really father of Linton?

[Wilde woman]

No, I think the timeline works out (to confirm that Linton is Heathcliff's son) and that Linton may even have been more premature, perhaps a contributing cause to his continuing bad health.

But when I first read that Isabella gave birth, I wondered too if Heathcliff was the father. Honestly, I could not (and still cannot) imagine Heathcliff having sex with Isabella. He made it very clear that he was revolted by her; I can't see him lowering himself to actually sleep with her, and thus degrade Cathy's memory. I can't even see him doing it out of spite; others may disagree with me on this, but I just can't imagine him doing it.

Still, however it happened, I still believe Linton is his child. And I'll tell you why. Remember when Nelly first sees Linton (he's about a year old); she sees all his external resemblances to Isabella - fair skin and hair, slender frame, etc., but she notices a peevishness or sullenness in his eyes, even at that young age. THAT, I think, is the Heathcliff in Linton. I know that sounds rather accusatory (after all, the boy cannot control who his parents are) BUT Nelly even voices that thought much later in the book. When Linton has married Cathy and is lording it over Thrushcross Grange with no pity for his suffering wife, Nelly cries "that's your father in you" or something similar. I really believe that's the undeniable proof that Heathcliff is his father.

Thus, kos7365's theory encompasses an alternate reason for Isabella's moving to London - she was ashamed of the deed she had commited and naturally wished to be away from the Heights and the Grange should anyone find out. It would also alternatively explain Edgar's sense of detatchment from Catherine in the months prior to her death, and why he chose not to talk about her much with his daughter. He didn't feel justified to reccount for the woman he had wronged. Furthermore, Heathcliff's emotional indifference to both his wife and son suggests him less likely to consider that he may not have been Linton's biological father.

Hmmm, this is really interesting. I'm sure someone could find even more proof for this incest-theory as an alternate interpretation of the book. It would completely revolutionize the way we interpret the novel.

[kev67]

I wondered whether Linton was Heathcliff's son. Even Heathcliff wonders where his part of him is. No doubt Emily Brontë knew very little about genetics but it seems to me from the description of Linton that he cannot be Heathcliff's son. Linton is fair and frail. Heathcliff is dark and powerfully built. I don't suppose he was Edgar's son, but if not his and not Heathcliff's than whose?

[UGLA]

I do not think Edgar is Linton´s father, because it doesn´t have any purpose to the plot. But I do think that Isabelle was pregnant before she married Heathcliff. I think that Heathcliff had sex with Isabelle before marriage, because if anyone tried to stop the marriage they couldn´t. At that time, if you had sex before marriage, the only right thing to do was often marry the person. Of course Linton could have been premature, Isabella had faced a lot of stress when she ran away from Wuthering Heights

[kelby_lake]

Heathcliff does say things about Isabella that hint that Linton was probably conceived before marriage. He often refers to her as a slut and said that no form of brutality shocked her. Isabella's attraction to Heathcliff is a masochistic one. I can well imagine Heathcliff wanting to ruin Isabella before their wedding day.