I don't remember this book as well as I thought I did...

2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë introduces the characters in the present, but she does not stay there for long. The majority of the book is spent telling a story from the past that eventually helps the reader understand Heathcliff. His relationship with the past leaves him bitter and, arguably, insane.

In the beginning of Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood arrives at the home of Heathcliff and what is left of his family. The reader, and Mr. Lockwood himself, is left wondering why Heathcliff is distant and bitter. Mr. Lockwood acts on his curiosity and asks a house maid, Nelly, to tell him Heathcliff’s story. As she tells the story throughout the novel, the reader concludes that all of Heathcliff’s faults seem to come from one event from his past: Catherine chose Edgar.

Prior to Catherine choosing Edgar and Heathcliff leaving Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff seems to be a mostly normal boy with a crush. However, when Heathcliff overhears Catherine tell Nelly that she couldn’t possibly marry him, he runs away and is a completely different person upon his return. From the moment he returns, Heathcliff tries to get Catherine to chose him, even though she’s already married to Edgar. Heathcliff is no longer just a boy with a crush, he’s a man who will do just about anything to get the revenge he wants.

As part of his revenge, Heathcliff marries Isabella Linton and puts himself in line to inherit her family’s property. This marriage, having nothing to do love, is doomed from the start. Heathcliff treats Isabella so poorly, she flees to London, where she raises their son alone. After she dies and their son, Linton, returns to live with his father, it is clear that Heathcliff has no intentions of treating him the way a father should treat his son. To Heathcliff, Linton is just another reminder that he didn’t get Catherine. Because Linton isn’t Heathcliff and Catherine’s son, he means next to nothing to Heathcliff.

The novel comes full circle when Nelly’s story catches up to the present. Mr. Lockwood and the reader both now understand why Heathcliff is bitter, and why the others in the house are reserved. Heathcliff’s relationship to his past is what sets the plot for the entire novel, providing for different characters to get involved in various ways as he seeks his revenge for the love he lost.