"I cannot express it; but surely you and every body have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning : my great thought in living is himself."
"Heathcliff, a tormented soul with terrible manners and a worse temper, may be the English novel's most problematic boyfriend mad, bad and dangerous to know. What redeems him, at least in the reader's eyes, is Catherine's love. As children growing up in the same highly dysfunctional household, the two form a bond more passionate than siblinghood and purer than lust."
Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 and is set in a wild, desolate corner of Northern England. Heathcliff is a tormented outsider with terrible manners and a volatile temper whose presence shapes the novel's dark, gothic atmosphere. Catherine Earnshaw forms a consuming bond with Heathcliff that transcends siblinghood and lust and becomes the emotional core of the story. The two grow up in a highly dysfunctional household, marry other people, and remain neighboring frenemies until sorrow and tragedy follow. Much of the narrative comes through Nelly Dean, and Catherine's soliloquy reveals the intensity and identity-fusing nature of her devotion to Heathcliff.
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