Catherine Earnshaw As A Dominating Presence In Wuthering Heights Essay

Catherine Earnshaw As A Dominating Presence In Wuthering Heights In the novel Wuthering Heights there was one character who had a dominating influence on the way the novel went. Her name was Catherine Earnshaw and even after she died she still left a lasting impression on the people around her and after she was gone people still made some decisions based on her. While she was alive she had Heathcliff and Edgar rapped around her finger; she could have made them do anything she wanted and sometimes she did. While Catherine was dying Heathcliff spent the most time with her and she knew that at that point he would do anything for her and she used that against him. There are many examples of Cathy's dominance in the novel and they will all be discussed in detail. The major instance of Catherine's dominance is one that continues through the entire novel and that is her influence over Heathcliff. Catherine acquires this grasp over Heathcliff by telling him that he is not good enough for her and that he is also not civilized enough for her to marry him. To make Heathcliff even more desperate Catherine decides she will get married to Edgar instead of Heathcliff; ?she is na?ve enough to think that by doing so she will be able to lift Heathcliff from the degradation into which he has been thrust by Hindley?. When in fact this makes Heathcliff very jealous and he goes away to make him self more refined for Catherine. When Heathcliff returns to find Catherine has married Edgar it sends him over the edge he gets furious and revenge is on his mind. He thinks that if he marries Isabella that it would bring Catherine back into his arms. Of course this does not work it only succeeds in making Edgar furious. Edgar disowns Isabella and tells Catherine she is not allowed to see Heathcliff, this enrages Catherine and she locks herself in her room with no food or water. She hopes that this would change Edgar's mind as well as give her the sympathy that she craved. Her plan did not work and she became very ill; Heathcliff snuck in to see Catherine a number of times because he was the one who felt sorry for her and was willing to risk his life to be with her which was just what Catherine had in mind. ?After Catherine died Heathcliff commands her to haunt him saying, ?I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul! Catherine had such a dominating impact on Heathcliff that he could not let her die he wanted her soul to be with him always. An example of Catherine's dominating presence even after her death made Heathcliff come up with a plan to take control of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Catherine's death forced Heathcliff into a rage where he came up with a plan to get back at Edgar for marrying Catherine and not taking better care of her. One of the things he decided to do was take control of Wuthering Heights from her brother Hindley. He accomplished this by getting Hindley drunk and having him a game of cards in which Heathcliff won the deed to Wuthering Heights. Next Heathcliff would get Thrushcross Grange taking his revenge on Edgar, he accomplished this by getting young Cathy Linton to marry his son Linton Heathcliff. Then once Linton died Heathcliff was in control of both Wuthering heights and Thrushcross Grange. Once Heathcliff had his plan completed he settled down in Wuthering Heights but Catherine's presence never did settle down. Heathcliff often went into Catherine's old room and sat on the bed calling Catherine's name hoping she would answer. Catherine's impact on Heathcliff changed Heathcliff so that he never concerned himself with anything else but his wanting to be with Catherine. Her presence on him was so great that he would do anything so he could be with her even after death. An example of this is when he invaded her grave and paid the gravedigger to break the one side off her casket and turn her body facing in that direction. Heathcliff then paid the gravedigger to bury Heathcliff on that side of Catherine and break away the side of his casket and face him towards Catherine's casket. He did this because Heathcliff thought that if he did this that he and Catherine would be together forever because she