Go For the Bad Boy

            Time and time again there are complaints about most girls going for the bad boy, mysterious types. It is never understood what makes bad look so good. Heathcliff is the epitome of brooding and resentment. Female readers are drawn to his dark personality because they want to fix him and say that they were the ones to do so. That age-old adage that love conquers all needs to be proven.

            Many women stereotypically are obsessed with finding the perfect man; but there is a catch – they have to make him that way. Finding a man who will share his feelings, watch chick flicks, and willingly go shoe shopping is no fun. It is much better to train him to be that way. Catherine certainly never trains Heathcliff to be what she wants him to be; she takes the easy way out because high society boys are usually bred with those fancy manners and deep pockets that she was looking for. Her loss.

            “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him…” (Bronte 90). Catherine hides from him her love because she does not understand that love surpasses all of that. Readers empathize more with Heathcliff because it is better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all but it is much worse to have loved and never shared the feeling with the one it is aimed towards. In keeping her deep emotion to herself, Catherine keeps Heathcliff’s very happiness out of his reach. She rejects him and it makes him take a turn for the worse.

            Heathcliff was not necessarily in need of fixing in the beginning of it all; he just needed to be shown love, that he was more than a servant, and Catherine refused him that. Their love was pushed away when Catherine chose Edgar over Heathcliff and both male and female readers alike can only feel sorry for the man. A deep mutual attraction was recognized but shunned for something as silly as status. That is a fear for anyone, to be turned down because some trite thing is more important than that greatest of all feelings. So the reader empathizes, feels sorry, wants to draw Heathcliff in, roots for him to win out in the end even if they know that this story is more reality than fiction and the boy does not get the girl.

            Heathcliff is sought after despite his ‘evil’ persona because he does not go after what he can’t handle. Both Heathcliff and Catherine loved each other but Catherine could not get over her search for a higher social grace. There was a need of something more but the want of something greater. Heathcliff is redeemed because he is not searching for that something greater. He did not ask to be adopted by Mr. Earnshaw, he just was. All he really wanted out of life was Catherine and to not be treated as a servant by his adopted brother. He was seen as dark because he saw Catherine as a possession to own but was redeemed because he never wanted to use her for social gain.

            There are lonely souls out there, the ones that watch Nicholas Sparks movies, that want to believe that there is a force out there that is stronger than evil, can overpower that dark that likes to linger on through both day and night on this earth. Most turn to love, saying it is the most powerful thing out there, that it can conquer all. Readers hope that the darkness Heathcliff exudes can be tamed by his love for Catherine if only she will return it openly. And even if she does not allow herself to feel the same, that his love will be enough to overcome any lingering broodiness he might have.

            This love, however, as it is not openly returned works to make the man darker and more hateful. Heathcliff uses his wife Isabella to get back at Catherine, showing that he can turn his back on them also. This move is neutral on the whole: good because it shows he is a strong individual but bad because he, again, treats a woman as an object he owns and can do what he likes with.

            Heathcliff greatly harms Isabella both physically and mentally. She believes that he marries her for love but it is only a play at Catherine in a petty attempt to make the score even in their silly game of emotions. He sees no point in keeping Isabella happy because she is ultimately not what he is looking for. He uses and abuses and goes on his merry way.

            Then the reader comes to the point of making excuses for poor old Heathcliff. “He was scorned by his one true love.” “He only acts this way because that is how he was treated by most of his adopted family.” “This is his way at lashing back at Catherine and she deserves it for refusing him.” This is the same as many women in abusive relationships think; that this is not him, this is his circumstances. Heathcliff is redeemable because he himself is not evil; he is only acting in a not-so-good way.

            The devotion that Heathcliff shows to Catherine, even after her death, is also very endearing though a tad creepy. He can’t keep his mind off her and that is something most women crave from a man: his undivided attention. “…for what is not connected with her to me? And what does not recall her?” (Bronte 286) He sees her everywhere; he is so consumed by Catherine that readers realize that his love runs deep and will do so forever. “The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist and that I have lost her!” (Bronte 286) Heathcliff is sorry for his actions and only wishes to have Catherine with him. His redemption comes from the wishing that he could take it all back and find a way for Catherine to love him openly.

            Heathcliff might be bad but that only makes him mysterious which in turn makes him wanted, desired. There must be a recall, a turn around, a concession of his bad side. Everyone is redeemable. No one is truly evil. Heathcliff could be cruel but he loved Catherine to the end. That is what makes him worthy of people’s attention; he was hurt but he still cared for that one girl, his dear Catherine. There was a light in the darkness and that is all a person can hope for.

 

Works Cited

Bronte, Emily; Wuthering Heights; 1847