Friday, March 12, 2010

Group 3

3) Heathcliff’s return to Thrushcross Grange, his marriage to Isabella, and his guardianship over Hareton are motivated by hate, not love.

Posts are due by Monday before class and replies by Wednesday before class.

7 comments:

  1. True, because Heathcliff wants to get revenge on Catherine who chose Edgar over him.

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  2. I believe that this statement is false. Heathcliff originally decided to return to Thrushcross Grange because he wanted to see Catherine again, whom he loves. Heathcliff stated, "I swear that I meditate no harm: I don't desire to cause any disturbance" (Bronte 144). By this point, Heathcliff has seen Catherine before and realizes that she is happily married. He is willing to suffer personal emotional distress to even talk to the one person he loves. Heathcliff, knowing he can't have Catherine for himself, and moves forward with his life and chooses to marry Isabella, as a way to stay connected with Catherine. Even though Heathcliff didn't marry Isabella out of love for her, he did so out of love for Catherine. All of his actions were focused on reamining close to Catherine, the one person he loves, making his actions motivated by love.

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  3. Alexandra, I agree with your point that Heathcliff marries Isabella out of love for Catherine; however, you didn’t mention Heathcliff’s rescue of Hareton earlier in the book. When Heathcliff “rescues” him, Nelly exclaims to the reader, “It expressed, plainer than words could do, the intensest anguish at having made himself the instrument of thwarting his own revenge.” (Bronte 70). When Heathcliff rescues Hareton, he realizes that he has prevented his own revenge upon Hindley because of his instincts. He realizes that he desired revenge upon Hindley because of his “intensest anguish.”

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  4. I believe that it is true that Heathcliff was motivated by hate and not by love to marry Isabelle and guard Hareton because they were just tools in his mission to get revenge on Catherine, Edgar and Hindley. However Heathcliff character makes it difficult to distinguish if his motive is hate or love. Lockwood describes Heathcliff in the beginning "He’ll love and hate, equally under cover" It is important to acknowledge that his revenge is actually his deep destructive love for Catherine, but his need to take revenge reveals that Heathcliff's love has taken on a hateful possessive quality. Because of this he is unable to forgive those who have wronged him and his actions are driven by hate.

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  5. I agree with both Joanna and Jack that Heathcliff's treatment of Hareton was motivated by hate, not love. When Hindley was drunk one night and almost dropped Hareton off the balcony in his house, Heathcliff catches Hareton and it's narrated, "It expressed plainer than words could do, the intense anguish at having made himself the instrument of thwarting his [Hindley's] own revenge" (Bronte 69). Although Heathcliff caught Hareton and saved him, it wasn't intended to rescue Hareton as much as it was to cause Hindley great anguish in having to live with the near death he caused to his son. Heathcliff was motivitated out of spite and hate for Hindley when he rescued Hareton, not even close to love.

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  6. Joanna, I agree that Heathcliff's love has taken on a "hateful possessive" quality, however, at times, he still shows a visible intense love that isn't necessarily possessive. He expresses his feelings for Cathy when she is recovering from her illness. Heathcliff says, "Two words would comprehend my future – death and hell: existence, after losing her, would be hell... If [Edgar] loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day" (Bronte 136-137). <---I have a different version of the book, so the page numbers might be a page or two off. Sorry. Here, Heathcliff boasts about his extreme love for Cathy. It doesn't seem like it is necessarily possessive. He thoroughly believes that he deserves Catherine's love much more than Edgar does.

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  7. Mary Carol's response:

    Joanna, I agree with your point that Heathcliff's actions of love and hate are very similar. He seems to be so in love with Catherine that it has taken an obsession over him and evil is intertwined. The entire confusing relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff was started by one regretted decision by Catherine to marry Edgar. After this, it is a continuous battle between the two, both of them using Edgar and Isabella to get the other jealous. During an argument between the two Heathcliff says to Catherine, "I'm not your husband: you needn't be jealous of me!" (105). By connecting her jealousy and him not being her husband it is obvious that he is using the marriage between him and Isabella to override the marriage between Catherine and Edgar. So, although this was all originally started by his love for Catherine, because that chance has come and gone he has used this passion to display his hatred for Catherine and Edgar's relationship.

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