#linton heathcliff

[princesssarisa]

(🔥 for the unpopular opinion ask)

Wuthering Heights:

I find Heathcliff's treatment of Linton more appalling than his treatment of Isabella. Other readers often seem to view his abuse of Isabella as his darkest hour and not care as much about Linton because they don't like Linton. But to me, while of course what Isabella goes through is horrible, there's something more uniquely horrible about Heathcliff abusing his own mortally ill teenage son. It doesn't matter that Linton is an unpleasant person: he's still a dying teenager and he's still Heathcliff's own child. This more than anything else is why Heathcliff "stands unredeemed" to me.

#wuthering heights #heathcliff #linton heathcliff #tw: abuse #unpopular opinion #unpopular opinions meme

[burningvelvet]

wuthering heights in memes (p2)

wuthering heights and thrushcross grange:

heathcliff writing love letters to cathy 2.0 under his sons name:

linton heathcliff:

hindley when heathcliff knocks at the door:

aaaand heathcliff, right before reducing hindley to a bloody puddle:

everyone when heathcliff shows up after 3 years:

anything: happens

joseph:

[heathcliff talking to infant hareton after hindley's death] ". . . previous to following with Hareton, he lifted the unfortunate child on to the table and muttered, with peculiar gusto, 'Now, my bonny lad, you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!' The unsuspecting thing was pleased at this speech: he played with Heathcliff's whiskers, and stroked his cheek . . ."

heathcliff, 3 seconds after marrying isabella:

#wuthering heights #memes #heathcliff #heathcliff wuthering heights #emily brontë #the brontës #meme #funny #lit memes #literature memes #books #reading #novels #lit #literature #english literature #victorian #hindley earnshaw #linton heathcliff #catherine linton

[blond-jerk-tourney]

Honey Bracket: Round 1, Poll 2

Rose illustration by @wraith_ly on twitter

Propaganda from submitters Under Cut

Linton Heathcliff

Look I will defend my boy until the day I die but he does say some pretty heinous stuff at times. Is super rude to both his cousins (albeit in different ways) as well as any of the servants/house keepers. Basically anyone that isn’t his dad (and would probably be rude to him too if he wasn’t so terrified of his dad). I was the only one in my Victorian Lit class that liked him and didn’t think he was an irredeemable brat (i think he could’ve been redeemed if he didn’t die of tuberculosis).

Rose Thorburn Jr.

Submitted without propaganda

#honey bracket #honey bracket round 1 #tournament polls #polls #linton heathcliff #wuthering heights #pact #rose thorburn jr #pact web serial #blond jerk tournament

[amphibimations]

I really like Linton Heathcliff and so instead of finishing reading the book i drew him a bunch of times lol.

#wuthering heights #linton heathcliff #classic lit #gothic literature #classic literature #litblr #bookblr #english lit art #english lit #english literature #gothic lit art #gothic lit #character illustration #character concept #character design #illustration #artists on tumblr

[faintingheroine]

Everyone who speculates that Linton Heathcliff isn’t Heathcliff’s son hates storytelling, logic, dramatic irony, parallels and also me specifically.

#wuthering heights #linton heathcliff #heathcliff

[disco-tea]

“Hallo, Nelly!” said Mr. Heathcliff, when he saw me, “I feared I should have to come down and fetch my property myself. You’ve brought it, have you? Let us see what we can make of it.”

“I bid the trembling and bewildered child get down, and enter. He did not thoroughly comprehend the meaning of his father’s speech, or whether it were intended for him: indeed, he was not yet certain that the grim, sneering stranger was his father. But he clung to me with growing trepidation; and on Mr. Heathcliff’s taking a seat and bidding him “come hither,” he hid his face on my shoulder and wept. “Tut, tut!” said Heathcliff, stretching out a hand and dragging him roughly between his knees, and then holding up his head by the chin. “None of that nonsense! We’re not going to hurt thee, Linton—isn’t that thy name? Thou art thy mother’s child, entirely! Where is my share in thee, puling chicken?”

….“Do you know me?” asked Heathcliff, having satisfied himself that the limbs were all equally frail and feeble.

“No,” said Linton, with a gaze of vacant fear.

“You’ve heard of me, I dare say?”

“No,” he replied again.

“No! What a shame of your mother, never to waken your filial regard for me! You are my son, then, I’ll tell you; and your mother was a wicked slut to leave you in ignorance of the sort of father you possessed. Now, don’t wince, and colour up!”

From the bottom of my heart, I would beat Healthcliff to death with a shovel

#wuthering heights #linton heathcliff

[wuffgang-ameowdeus-moozart]

Wuthering Heights as Onion Headlines:

Heathcliff:

The entire household:

Linton whenever Heathcliff comes visit:

Everyone whenever Heathcliff does anything:

Hindley Earnshaw:

Heathcliff after he overhears Cathy's and Nelly's conversation:

Literally everyone tbh:

Heathcliff seeing Cathy (Jr.) and Linton (Jr.) getting along:

#wuthering heights #heathcliff #catherine earnshaw #catherine linton #edgar linton #linton heathcliff #nelly dean #hareton earnshaw #hindley earnshaw #i love this book so much #how can people say that this is boring

[caecilian-king]

im thinking about linton heathcliff some more. and i get why readers would dislike him as a character (cause he acts like a jerk!) but like honestly???????? If i was in his situation id be doing the exact same shit he was. Like hes so sick that he can barely move and at the age of 12 his only (actively parenting) parent dies and hes dropped into a situation where for the rest of his life at the best everyone hates him and intentionally ignores his needs as much as they can get away with, and at the worst he is getting actively physically and emotionally abused. and he could never possibly escape because again, he barely has the energy to do anything and he lives in the middle of nowhere now. Just completely powerless in every way. Like damn if some super nice girl started visiting me in that situation id start doing annoying shit for attention and complaining to her all the time too!!! And any manipulation he does on behalf of heathcliff is under intense coercion and threats of violence so… completely reasonable behavior imo. Like even throwing cathy under the bus to save his own skin. Like who wouldn’t do the same honestly?? He has like a few brief days of ‘yeah cathy deserves to be kidnapped because she abandoned me’ but 1- the abuser who has immense manipulative influence over his mind is telling him that and 2-ultimately he helps her escape!!! When he knows he’s going to get in trouble for it if he’s caught!! And he does get in punished for it!!! Heathcliff basically murders him via neglect!!!!! God just… very good character.

#wuthering heights #my post #my posts #linton heathcliff #my wh posts

[spookycathymorshaw]

#polls #wuthering heights #gothic lit #bronte sisters #emily bronte #hareton earnshaw #catherine earnshaw #catherine linton #cathy earnshaw #cathy linton #mr lockwood #heathcliff #edgar linton #linton heathcliff #isabella linton #nelly

[brontefanaticc]

#wuthering heights #emily bronte #heathcliff #linton heathcliff #the bronte sisters #classic literature #literature memes #literary memes #classic lit #classic lit memes

[princesssarisa]

For the record, I think this theory is completely bogus. Linton is born only a few months after Isabella leaves Heathcliff, so unless she was cheating on Heathcliff, or wasn't actually a virgin when they eloped, no one else could be the father. Except for Linton's coloring, the only reason why this theory seems to exist is to try to make Heathcliff more sympathetic, at Isabella's expense, which I have no patience for.

#wuthering heights #poll #heathcliff #isabella inton #linton heathcliff #fan theory #tw: rape

[burningvelvet]

My analysis on Heathcliff and his relationships, and some interesting excerpts from Juliet McMaster's "The Courtship and Honeymoon of Mr. and Mrs. Linton Heathcliff: Emily Brontë's Sexual Imagery" via JSTOR (TW: abuse, sa/sexual violence, generally graphic and potentially triggering content)

*note: I've had half of this in my drafts for a while. My last reblog, which discusses Heathcliff's lack of attraction to Cathy II, inspired me to finally expand on & post it. That reblog is here: https://www.tumblr.com/burningvelvet/738896230943522816

Cathy II is one of my favorite characters and I think her dynamic with Heathcliff is fascinating. I would say that while he may not be attracted to her (indeed, he sometimes seems repulsed by her) his behavior toward her IS explicitly predatory as it includes lying to her, manipulating her, physically abusing her, kidnapping her, and forcing her into a marriage in which he helped to seduce her with love letters under his son's name.

Combine this with his behavior toward his wife Isabella, in which sexual violence may be easily inferred as he says Isabella hated him a day into their marriage (and sure, some people conceive on the first try, but what are the odds? and the concept of marital rape didn't legally exist back then) — not to mention Heathcliff calling her a slut (sexually violent epithet* *editing this post to say that "slut" was a mainly gendered term, but in Brontë's time it didn't have today's more sexualized meaning; for most of history it primarily meant "slovenly" aka messy/careless), and both of them vaguely referring to heinous abuses she undergoes in private (and what could be worse than what we already know about his treatment of his subordinates). With how determined he was to get a male heir, and that being the whole reason why he married her, it is not much of a stretch to assume that he bedded her multiple times until she showed signs of pregnancy. It is a very easy thing to infer actually.

He was probably as insulting and as violent (or at the very least, cold) with her in bed as he always was in every other aspect from the very start of their relationship. As they both confirm that she receives his abuse openly (until her escape), and as she wishes to be a "good wife," she likely did not struggle to avoid her "marital duties," but again, she clearly hates him for most of her marriage, and we learn that she despises him immediately after their marriage when the veil finally fully drops. And with how upfront with her he initially was about his intentions, and how his own verbal admissions + outright verbal abuse failed to quell her desire for him initially, what more than physical and especially sexual violence could have led Isabella to despise him so soon after their consummation? Their sexual experiences couldn't have gone splendidly for her, and for him it was likely a mechanical chore he likely resented and was therefore probably not delicate with (he hates delicacy anyway).

Yet, while Heathcliff is violent and predatory (in the colloquial as well as the primal, animalistic sense, as he is always related to nature even in his very name), he also contains hints of a long-buried goodness, as we all know, and this is what makes him a fascinating protagonist. He has a capacity for strong feeling, a deliberate if not faulty moral code, and he sometimes shows kindness accidentally.

This is why Heathcliff catching baby Hareton is such a pivotal moment in the story, because it is only after he saves his life that he actually realizes what he's done and then muses that he should've let the child die. This scene shows that his natural subconscious instinct is actually good, and that his external situations are what have shaped his darker impulses on the conscious level. In other words, he causes us to examine the nature vs nurture debate.

Despite later abusing him, Heathcliff sees Hareton as a son-like figure in his own twisted way, and in the end as he loses his life forces, he gives Hareton and Cathy II his blessings like a father would — he essentially is Hareton's father, and he is legally Cathy II's father-in-law, first through his son Linton and then we could say through his unofficial adoption of Hareton, who he says he would have preferred as a son. So Cathy II has Heathcliff as a sort of double father figure, though of course she would never accept this.

At one point, Heathcliff notes that he takes good care not to do anything that could be proven to be criminal or illegal. In his usual exactness, he was pretty much right. He is always tip-toeing the line of immorality: in the gothic literary tradition, his relationship with Cathy I has incestuous undertones, but they are not legally or biologically related, and so he skates by.

He declares that he has no regrets and that he's done nothing wrong by technical standards. Manipulating, lying, mental and physical abuse of one's financial dependents, and marital rape (hypothetical or not) were all within legal bounds for the most part, and even the forced marriage of Linton H./Cathy II was done through the process of emotional blackmail (and physical evidence in the form of her love letters) so that in his mind, he wasn't actually responsible.

However, Heathcliff may have reasoned that sexually abusing one's daughter-in-law in revenge may be in violation of the law; that he would gain severe detraction from his "slaves" Nelly, Hareton, even Joseph; and that if such a huge scandal broke out, he would have a harder time finding tenants, etc. — also, I don't think Heathcliff would have felt like he "needed" to sexually abuse Cathy II to get revenge against her/her family, because as he says, at that point he already has his revenge and his victory; he already has her lands, and degrades her every day by forcing her to be a servant and a slave, and by abusing her in every other way. Sexually abusing her would be an extra effort on his part.

And I don't think he would gain anything out of it aside from revenge. I don't really think Heathcliff has much sexual interest in anyone at all, probably not due to inborn asexuality but due to his depression, trauma, emotional repression, and general issues. Although he and Cathy I have an extremely passionate spiritual relationship, I can't say that I believe he ever experienced fully actualized/conscious sexual feelings even for her. Considering their youth and rocky position when he leaves her for his hiatus, and the very brief period of their reunion, their relationship was likely never "consummated" — or at least I see no hard textual evidence to suggest that it was, although I'm sure many people could probably argue against this. And regardless of whether or not he and Cathy I ever had a physically sexual relationship, I don't think he could ever really be seriously attracted to anyone but her.

But in order to get his revenge, he did bed Isabella likely multiple times until her pregnancy. And as McMaster demonstrates below, by encouraging Cathy II to marry his son — and quite literally seducing her himself by writing love letters to her under his son's name — Heathcliff essentially beds her by proxy, if not in actuality. He wants her property, and he wants her, and because his son is the same age as her and dying, he decides to use him as the perfect pawn to access her by

If Linton H. died before he could be married to Cathy II, would Heathcliff have attempted to marry Cathy II on his own? I think this is a fascinating topic to theorize about, and I can only assume the answer would be yes, because Hareton wouldn't have worked as a pawn, though perhaps Heathcliff would have simply manipulated Hareton to sign over Cathy II's inheritance to him instead (as the laws of marital coverture meant husbands were entitled to 100% of their wives money/property/inheritance). But at that point Heathcliff was still looking for revenge (and therefore may not have been adverse to getting it like he did in his first marriage with Isabella), and he may not have wanted to be financially responsible for the newly weds and their potential offspring, or to suffer legal repercussions if Cathy II or someone else convinced Hareton to hire a lawyer lol. But I digress.

And as the last quote in the following list demonstrates, I think it was not only a touch of the gothic incest theme that Emily was going for by having Lockwood assume Cathy II is Heathcliff's wife, but that it was intentionally symbolic of how weird and difficult-to-define their relationship is: they don't act like father and daughter in-laws, but he is legally her provider and in-house patriarch, and she is the lady of the house, and she is the closest thing to her mother he has. I could write whole essays about that last point & the similarities of both Catherines, such as their fearlessness, particularly toward Heathcliff (and I believe this makes him uncomfortable and even scares him at times).

---

Excerpts from Juliet McMaster's "The Courtship and Honeymoon of Mr. and Mrs. Linton Heathcliff: Emily Brontë's Sexual Imagery" via JSTOR:

"Linton is called at one point 'only a feeble tool to his father' (205). In the sexual context he becomes a sort of human dildo, which his father uses to rape and degrade the second Catherine, the child bride whose birth caused the death of the Catherine whom Heathcliff loved."

"'Making love in play, eh?' says Heathcliff of the young couple, with grim jocularity (188). And that is the way in which Bronte develops this courtship of juveniles."

"Heathcliff even writes half of Linton's love letters for him, so that they turn out 'singularly odd compounds of ardour and flatness,' 'copious love letters, foolish as the age of the writer rendered natural, yet with touches, here and there, which I thought were borrowed from a more experienced source' (182), records Nelly. Catherine is being wooed by son and father together. And when the time comes, the marriage is consummated by the same team."

"[Linton] takes his pleasure, when Catherine pushes him off, in summoning his father and in witnessing the physical domination of his bride [..]"

"After Heathcliff abducts and incarcerates young Catherine and her attendant, he keeps our narrator, Nelly, imprisoned for 'five nights and four days' (220). Meanwhile the marriage ceremony is performed, but we have no one to describe it for us."

"'She's not to go; we won't let her' [..] Now more than ever Linton's life and opinions are ruled by his father: he can do little more than parrot what 'he says.' If Linton's satisfied mein suggests the happy bridegroom, his role as husband, lord and master is shared with his father."

"Heathcliff testifies, 'I heard him draw a pleasant picture to Zillah of what he would do [to Catherine], if he were as strong as I. The inclination is there' (228). Linton evidently has a conception of himself and his father as complementary in this sexual context, part of a team."

"Heathcliff's appropriation of the property and physical abuse of the bride leaves her in effect deflowered. His brutal blow that makes the blood flow recalls his symbolic defloration of Isabella, Linton's mother, when he hurls the knife."

"[Heathcliff] won't listen to Nelly's pleas that since he hates the young couple he may as well let them stay at the Grange. 'I want my children about me, to be sure,' he answers with chilling irony; '—besides, that lass owes me her services for her bread' (227). One wonders what sort of 'services' he has in mind. He apparently intends to prolong the honeymoon at which he has assisted. And as he takes her away, there is some doubt, as in Lockwood's mind at the beginning of the novel, whether Catherine is Heathcliff's daughter-in-law or his bride [..]"

Source: McMaster, Juliet. “The Courtship and Honeymoon of Mr. and Mrs. Linton Heathcliff: Emily Brontë's Sexual Imagery.” Victorian Review, vol. 18, no. 1, 1992, pp. 1–12. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/27794707.

#wuthering heights #emily brontë #catherine linton #linton heathcliff #heathcliff #jstor #quotes #literary criticism #literary analysis #bronte sisters #heathcliff wuthering heights #english literature #literature #tw rap3 #tw abuse #tw sa implied #tw sa mention #tw sa #academia #tw #tw graphic #excerpts #media analysis #Juliet McMaster #the brontës #cathy ii

[charl3ss]

I will never get over the fact that Isabella Linton named her and Heathcliff’s only child Linton. The absolute power that has

#legendary #wuthering heights #isabella linton #heathcliff #linton heathcliff

[amphibimations]

I think a fun idea is linton should have the same hair texture/hairstyles as heathcliff. Also i think edgar should get a mustache when hes a dad.

(also i know i skipped ahead a bit with this drawing. Im gonna do more comics of what i read earlier once i get home lol. But i was really in the mood to doodle these 2 real quick)

#wuthering heights #classic literature #litblr #gothic literature #linton heathcliff #edgar linton

[faintingheroine]

#wuthering heights #wh polls #polls #heathcliff #catherine earnshaw #edgar linton #isabella linton #hindley earnshaw #nelly dean #cathy linton #hareton earnshaw #linton heathcliff #mr. lockwood

[disco-tea]

…as I closed the door, I heard a cry, and a frantic repetition of the words:

“Don’t leave me! I’ll not stay here! I’ll not stay here!”

Then the latch was raised and fell: they did not suffer him to come forth.

3 SENTENCE HORROR STORY

#wuthering heights #linton heathcliff