Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff; Protagonist and Antagonist

Wuthering Heights: Heathcliff; Protagonist and Antagonist Heathcliff is the main character of the novel Wuthering Heights written by Emily Bronte. In the novel he has been presented as a heartless brute embodying dark power. Due to the course of events he becomes evil to the core - so savage that his lone purpose in life becomes to destroy and devastate others. Even after he has devastated his love, his wife, degraded the life of a potentially great man, turned the heir of Wuthering Heights into an uneducated ploughboy, and watched the death of his son with no concern, the reader finds himself feeling strangely sympathetic towards the character. Emily Bronte’s unique character representation thus creates a dilemma in readers mind about him being protagonist or antagonist of the novel. Though he is the main character of the novel, he is both protagonist and antagonist. In one hand he is the main character and readers sympathize with him, on the other hand on the path of revenge he destroys everyone including himself and becomes the villain.

In literary terms the protagonist is the main character in a story, novel, drama, or other literary work, the character that the reader or audience empathizes with. The antagonist opposes the protagonist. The antagonist in a work of fiction is the character who opposes the hero, or protagonist. The antagonist, when there is one, provides the story's conflict. Antagonist is also known as the villain and bad guy of the novel.

The moment Heathcliff arrives at the Earnshaw household, he was subjected to racism due to his dark skin color. Bronte describes the boy through Mr. Earnshaw as “dark, almost as if it came from the devil” (43; ch.4). This immediately spurs the reader to view the character as evil and immoral. Nelly describes him to be “dirty, ragged, black haired child” (43; ch.4). From