Wuthering Heights and Macbeth Thesis
Munisha Sarfraz
Professor Leighton
AP English Language & Composition
6/7/2012
Haunting Past “You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.” (Glidewell) People say that one should leave the past behind them, but the past is always following them, holding them down like an anchor. The past comes back as a ghost, causing sane people to go insane, causing them to drown in their own past. Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare died as a result of not being able to deal with their haunting past.
Heathcliff, from Wuthering Heights, didn’t have an easy past. He’s an orphan that was brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw. Although Heathcliff was accepted by Mr. Earnshaw and Catherine, Hindley always disliked him. After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley becomes the master of Wuthering Heights; he mistreats Heathcliff and prevents him from getting a proper education and is forced to labor as one of the servants; however, “under Hindley’s tyranny, Catherine and Heathcliff grow closer and more mischievous, their favorite past time being to wander the moors” (Telgen 310). Heathcliff starts to fall in love with Catherine. But when Catherine returns from the Linton’s after five weeks, she returns changed and becomes closer to Edgar Linton and Isabella Linton. Eventually, Edgar starts to develop feeling towards Catherine, and “when Edgar proposes to Catherine, she accepts” (Telgen 310). When Heathcliff overhears this, he becomes devastated and goes. During this time, Catherine marries Edgar. After three year, “Heathcliff returns, mysteriously wealthy and educated. He takes up residence at Wuthering Height” (Telgen 311). When he returns, Heathcliff seeks for revenge and tires to take other’s property. First he gambles Hindley out of all his possessions, and then he marries Isabella for her property. “Heathcliff, desiring Isabella’s
Professor Leighton
AP English Language & Composition
6/7/2012
Haunting Past “You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.” (Glidewell) People say that one should leave the past behind them, but the past is always following them, holding them down like an anchor. The past comes back as a ghost, causing sane people to go insane, causing them to drown in their own past. Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, and Macbeth in The Tragedy of Macbeth by William Shakespeare died as a result of not being able to deal with their haunting past.
Heathcliff, from Wuthering Heights, didn’t have an easy past. He’s an orphan that was brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw. Although Heathcliff was accepted by Mr. Earnshaw and Catherine, Hindley always disliked him. After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley becomes the master of Wuthering Heights; he mistreats Heathcliff and prevents him from getting a proper education and is forced to labor as one of the servants; however, “under Hindley’s tyranny, Catherine and Heathcliff grow closer and more mischievous, their favorite past time being to wander the moors” (Telgen 310). Heathcliff starts to fall in love with Catherine. But when Catherine returns from the Linton’s after five weeks, she returns changed and becomes closer to Edgar Linton and Isabella Linton. Eventually, Edgar starts to develop feeling towards Catherine, and “when Edgar proposes to Catherine, she accepts” (Telgen 310). When Heathcliff overhears this, he becomes devastated and goes. During this time, Catherine marries Edgar. After three year, “Heathcliff returns, mysteriously wealthy and educated. He takes up residence at Wuthering Height” (Telgen 311). When he returns, Heathcliff seeks for revenge and tires to take other’s property. First he gambles Hindley out of all his possessions, and then he marries Isabella for her property. “Heathcliff, desiring Isabella’s