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Monday, October 09, 2017

Monday, October 09, 2017 11:07 am by Cristina in , , ,    No comments
Bustle has selected '10 Of The Most Hated Characters In Literature, From Heathcliff To Umbridge':
Heathcliff
I'd say that Heathcliff and Cathy are just about neck-and-neck in the pantheon of Brontë characters who most people despise (with Mr. Rochester bringing up the rear). But since Cathy dips out of the plot halfway through, and we get a whole lot more of Heathcliff being an abusive ass to all of his family members, Heathcliff takes the title for most hated Brontë creation. Here's a pro tip, Heathcliff and Cathy: if you love each other, please stop actively trying to ruin each other's lives. (Charlotte Ahlin)
This columnist from News24 discusses Wuthering Heights too:
When I was at High School I disliked most of the English set works we were forced to read. None more so than Wuthering Heights. In my old age however I am beginning to think that there is a lot more to this book than I first realised. When we begin to read Wuthering Heights, we start to realise that the story is built around love. Heathcliff and Catherine's love was unsurpassed. They are soul mates in every sense of the word. When Hindley begins to abuse Heathcliff and Catherine marries Edgar Linton, Heathcliff vows revenge. In the process he does not care who he hurts while executing it. He wants nothing more than to gain control of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and to destroy everything Edgar Linton holds dear. In order to exact his revenge, Heathcliff waits seventeen long years. Finally, he forces Cathy to marry his son, Linton. By this time he has control of the Heights and with Edgar's death, he has control of the Grange.
Love does prevail in the novel however because no matter how revengeful Heatcliff is he  realises that what he does doesn't affect them because they have love. You see this when the young Catherine and the abused Hareton overcome all obstacles and fall in love. Through all of this, though, the ghost of Catherine haunts Heathcliff. What he truly desires more than anything else is to be reunited with his soul mate. At the end of the novel, Heathcliff and Catherine are united in death, and Hareton and Cathy are going to be united in marriage.
So it seems to me that maybe love and hate are not quite so different after all. This is probably best summed up by that old saying: “There’s a thin line between love and hate.” So what then is the opposite of love if it's not hate? Many would say indifference and they are probably right to say so. One of my favourite quotes is by John Berendt in The City of Falling Angels where he says: “Loneliness is not being alone, it's loving others to no avail.” (Colin Chaplin)
The Week (India) wonders about the lives of well-loved characters after their books have ended.
Was Phineas Fogg content with his routine lifestyle after his round-the-world trip? What was the subsequent life of Jane Eyre or Elizabeth Bennet like? What did the Count of Monte Cristo go on to do after his long and elaborate revenge? What other cases did Sam Spade take up after solving the Maltese Falcon matter? (Vikas Datta)
The Page 69 Test applies said test to Sarah Shoemaker's Mr Rochester. And more on Wuthering Heights on The Withering. A post on Branwell on AnneBrontë.org.

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