Heathcliff - why were ( & probably still are ) so many women in love with him?

I read Wuthering Heights once years ago and thought it one of the stupidist and almost unreadable books I had ever read. Full of the most uunbelievable and unlikeable characters i have ever read. It is a book that would have been long forgotten if it had not been written bya Bronte. Certainly, not the sort of book where youtake any of the characters seriously.

I was delighted that when my DD discovered Wuthering Heights, quite independently, she reached exactly the same conclusions about it that I did.

We did Wuthering Heights for A level, many years ago, and as a teenager I loved Heathcliff at the beginning. And we all loved Hareton! All wanting him to get together with the young Catherine. That story is rarely covered in the films and television productions. I know I'd see Heathcliff differently if I re-read it now, though.

I loved Wuthering Heights. A fantasy book about a fantasy man. Excitement every day with him i imagine!!

I've never gone in for all that soppy romance stuff, I won't get near such authors, Bronte and Mills & Boon etc., but especially Heathcliff and those like him.

Being a woman abuser is bad enough, but torturing and murdering animals is a billion % no from me, never an excuse for animal abuse.

I know some women love the dark, brooding types, James Dean, Sean Penn, etc., but there's a difference between rebellious and evil!

There are women writing to and even marrying those like Krays, Brady, Huntley, Bronson and so on! Urm...no!

butterandjam

Take a look at Mumsnet. It's stuffed with women who find abusive bastards irresistible.

Is it because, initially, they all think they will be the one to change them?

I also do wonder whether some people find danger attractive.
Less boring. Less predictable.

Me, I like a quiet peaceful life.

I didn't read WH until I was in my late 20s. I did manage to plough through to the end but it was hard going. An awful book about awful people; nothing remotely attractive about the Heathcliff character. It should have been pulped and forgotten years ago.

Agree. many women feel they’ll be the one to ‘tame’ them, Rarely happens.

Will never understand why women write / wrote to people like Ian Brady, Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Huntley. They must have mental health issues of their own.

fancythat

butterandjam

Take a look at Mumsnet. It's stuffed with women who find abusive bastards irresistible.

Is it because, initially, they all think they will be the one to change them?

I also do wonder whether some people find danger attractive.
Less boring. Less predictable.

Me, I like a quiet peaceful life.

Plenty of unboring and unpredictable men about without having to so desperate that anyone considers abusive bastards.

I am not for the quiet life, but I had plenty of choice without making my life a misery.

As a book I found it unutterably boring. I only watched one film version and I don't think I ever finished it.

I can understand the 'bad boy' thing from a distance - and I'm sure others are right that some women seem to think they will be the one to change them. Some women don't only right to prisoners, they marry them.

Psychologist Emma Kenny says: “Engaging in a relationship with a prisoner can give a woman a sense of importance and value, knowing they are a lifeline to someone in a dire situation. It provides them with a role as a confidante, supporter, and sometimes even a saviour.”

Emma says women can also see prisoners “not as they are, but as they could be with the right support and love.” She adds: “This idealisation process can be very compelling. It allows the woman to envision a future where their love has transformed a troubled individual into a better person. For these women, the crimes committed can also add an element of danger and excitement to the relationship.”

Plus I suppose they always know where they are.

I think it's partly, as said upthread, that you meet the character as a child. He's a mystery, and he soon develops a real affinity with Cathy.
Then they both get really unkindly treated & that brings them even closer.Then he hears Cathy tell her nurse that she loves him but could never marry him because he's "common" & rough. After that he hates everyone, especially the Lintons.
He actually is a "bad boy" that could've turned out OK if he'd got the girl.

I was only chatting to someone the other day that had recently read Wuthering Heights for the first time ( when he retired he decided to read all of the classics; after reading Wuthering Heights he took himself off the the moors). I told him that I’d had a big row with my then boyfriend. He stormed off but returned to overhear me telling my flatmate how much I hated him. He then went to Australia and made himself a fortune. My friend said he didn’t remember that part of the book so I googled it last night ( thanks to this thread, actually; I realised there were some characters in the book that I’d forgotten about).

I wonder how Emily Brontë was able to write it, given her sheltered life in such a remote place. Did she hear of such a character in the area? Was her brother the catalyst, given his proclivities? I guess I could ask AI but I’m more interested in what GNetters think!

SueDonim

I wonder how Emily Brontë was able to write it, given her sheltered life in such a remote place. Did she hear of such a character in the area? Was her brother the catalyst, given his proclivities? I guess I could ask AI but I’m more interested in what GNetters think!

The father Patrick educated the children and they were extremely well read. He had published books himself so they inherited the gift. It was the vogue to read ‘gothic’ novels and WH to a large extent carried on this theme.
Apart from that she was a genius!

Emily wrote this as 27, Anne wrote the Tennant of Wildfell Hall, another dark, gripping tale of the victim of domestic abuse who gets away
I suspect the Brontë sisters learned about domestic abuse of women by often drunken men by living in the vicarage. I read Wuthering Heights was in part based on the experience of a vicar’s wife who sought help from Mr Brontë because of violence and abuse from her drunken husbsnd, another vicar
I bet the Brontë sisters heard reality when they visited parishioners and listened to other women

Back to the OP I don’t understand why any woman could be attracted to Heathcliffe.

I hated Wuthering Heights (the book, not the song). I thought it was dreary and depressing.

I couldn't see the attraction of Heathcliffe at all.

I think her sister, Anne's experiences as a governess would have also fed into Emily's fevered imagination and sexual desires that had no outlet.

I much prefer Anen Bronte's books. Matter of fact books based on her experience as a working governance. No less shocking nevertheless. But Agnes Grey based n the life of a governess is the more horrific than Emily's silly book because she is writing in fictional form of what was happening in everyday wealthy families. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is more melodramatic, but again the reality of what she is writing about sheds daylight on what life in some households were like behind all the glamourous tv representations of life in the mid 19th century.

The Brontes were an intelligent, well-educated family with the run of an extensive library and the time to employ their vivid imaginations. I think some of their characters, particularly Heathcliff and Cathy, Mr. Rochester and Arthur Huntingdon, owe much to Greek and Roman myths and legends, displaying the self-centred entitlement of the gods and a complete lack of concern for others.

Thank you for all your thoughts regarding Emily’s ‘research’ that allowed her to write the book. It’s given me food for thought. My youngest dd can’t abide WH. Bizarrely, she now lives not that far from Haworth.

My youngest dd can’t abide WH.

Tell her to read it in 30 years time!
It works in reverse as well; I cannot read any Louisa M Alcott now.

Give me Anne's books any day, in preference to Charlotte's as well.

👍 Eazybee. My book group read Jane Eyre a few years ago. It seemed to be a totally different book from the one we all read as teenagers!

grumppa

Give me Anne's books any day, in preference to Charlotte's as well.

It’s a long time since I read it but I remember rather liking Villette.

eazybee

^My youngest dd can’t abide WH.^

Tell her to read it in 30 years time!
It works in reverse as well; I cannot read any Louisa M Alcott now.

Still cannot abide the book, neither can DD. We are aged 82 and 52. In fact the older I get the sillier I think it.

Monica - ‘silly’ is a withering assessment of the wuthering story. I enjoyed it, thank you