Do we like them?

Do we like Heathcliff?

A character from Wuthering Heights (1847)

Our score: 2 out of 10. Wounded and magnetic, but he turns pain into cruelty and control. We feel for him, but we wouldn't back him.

Mr Earnshaw brings a dark-haired, nameless child home from Liverpool to the isolated Wuthering Heights farmhouse and names him Heathcliff. He grows up beside Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw. He forms an intense, almost wild bond with Catherine, while Hindley resents him. The story is mostly told by the housekeeper Nelly Dean to a newcomer to the area.

Heathcliff is shaped by humiliation and exclusion, and the novel invites us to pity him. But pity isn't the same as backing him. He is proud, brooding and violent. When he is hurt, he doesn't heal. He plans, and he makes others pay. That puts him far from the hero many readers expect.

After leaving and returning with money and a polished manner, he sets out to ruin those he blames. He gambles Hindley into ruin and takes his home. He marries Isabella Linton to hurt her brother, then mistreats her. He also uses the next generation as pieces in his scheme. His cruelty is deliberate and lasts years, so he scores low despite his tragic love.