Wuthering Heights: Vengeance and Self-Hurt – English Essay
Many themes lie within this film, but the most important theme is revenge, the factor that leads the characters to their blind hate. The film story, too much like a 19th century version of today’s soap operas, proves there is no peace in eternal vengeance. In the end, the self-injury involved in serving revenge’s purposes will be more damaging than the original wrong.
Heathcliff never finds peace in his revenge. His plan for revenge on Edgar and Catherine is to marry Isabelle. He wants to hurt Edgar because of his marriage to Catherine, and he wants to take revenge on Catherine by making her jealous. Even after Catherine’s death, Heathcliff is still motivated by the need for revenge and tries to get young Cathy away from Edgar to having her marry his son, Linton. Heathcliff never finds peace until he gives up his plan for revenge just before he dies. When Heathcliff gives up his plan for revenge, he meets Catherine in death and truly becomes happy once more. Catherine’s revenge neither makes things better for her. She and Heathcliff “are” each other, but her wants of social status and popularity bring her to Edgar. Catherine’s revenge on Heathcliff does not help her in finding happiness. She looks forward to dying. Her death is, however, miserable as she wanders around her lands as a soul for 20 years, occasionally visiting Heathcliff and torturing him. Just as Heathcliff and Catherine’s revenge make them miserable, Hindley’s revenge on Heathcliff causes him to go bankrupt and, after, die. The fact that Hindley is mistreated as a child reflects the built up anger and resentment inside him and towards others. Hindley’s loss of Wuthering Heights to Heathcliff and his mysterious death reflect also how revenge does not make anything better.
Therefore, this film serves to show how negative revenge can be. However, it is as human as other instincts and it is difficult for people to avoid obeying impulsively the spontaneous reaction of vengeance’s desire in really cruel situations.