As a part of Characters' Profile Project, students analysed characters' motives behind their demeanor.

1. WUTHERING HEIGHTS
Catherine Linton Earnshaw
Ayesha Nasir
Sidra Suhail Maniar
Ayesha Siraj
Ayesha Jamal
Reja Tahir

2. Parameter 1
SELF
• 1. the younger Catherine is shown as the character
whose inner conflicts veer her towards danger.
• textual evidence:
• However, it must be acknowledged, she had faults to foil
her gifts. A propensity to be saucy was one; and a
perverse will, that indulged children invariably acquire,
whether they be good tempered or cross.
• 2.she is raised up in a protective environment provided
to her by her father to save her from the viciousness of
the residents of Wuthering heights, mainly Heathcliff.
This over protectiveness is what lead to Catherine
fleeing from Thrushcross Grange to Wuthering heights,
rebelling against the rules. This shows her inner conflict
between obeying her father and being free.

3. • 3.She is also highy spirited and an inquisitive person but when
redeemed to a life of misery at wuthering heights,she becomes
distant and bitter.
• textual evidence:
• "I’ll put my trash away, because you can make me if I refuse,"
answered Cathy, closing her book, and throwing it on a chair.
"But I'll not do anything, though you should swear your tongue
out, except what I please!"
• 4. Being raised without a mother, her father is the most
important person for her.
• textual evidence:
• 'I fret about nothing on earth except papa's illness,' answered
my companion. 'I care for nothing in comparison with papa. And
I'll never - never - oh, never, while I have my senses, do an act
or say a word to vex him. I love him better than myself, Ellen;
and I know it by this: I pray every night that I may live after him;
because I would rather be miserable than that he should be:
that proves I love him better than myself.'

4. • 5.Cathy can also be cruel at times,ridiculing Hareton's inability to read
or write.
• textual evidence:
• 'And he wants me to sink into a dunce, meantime,' answered Catherine.
'Yes, I hear him trying to spell and read to himself, and pretty blunders
he makes! I wish you would repeat Chevy Chase as you did yesterday:
it was extremely funny. I heard you; and I heard you turning over the
dictionary to seek out the hard words, and then cursing because you
couldn't read their explanations!'
• 6.having no one in the world except for her father,she craved human
company and had a capacity for intense attachments. This is what drew
her to Linton.
• textual evidence:
• she rose in high glee, eager to join her cousin, and such passionate tears
and lamentations followed the news of his departure that Edgar himself
was obliged to soothe her, by affirming he should come back soon
• 7.Another inner conflict of Cathy's were her feelings for Linton,she
took care of him and loved him yet his whiny behaviour made her
impatient. She is also cnofused about the mode of their relationship.
• textual evidence:
• "I wish you were my brother"

5. OTHERS
• 1. Heathcliff: Cathy and Heathcliff‟s relations basically
consisted of hate and contempt and their relationship is seen as
a rivalry. In order to harass Edgar,Heathcliff traps Cathy and
forces her to marry Linton.
• Textual evidence:
• Mr. Heathcliff YOU have NOBODY to love you; and,
however miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge
of thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery.
You ARE miserable, are you not? Lonely, like the devil, and
envious like him? NOBODY loves you - NOBODY will cry
for you when you die! I wouldn't be you!'

6. • Linton: Cathy and Linton‟s relationship is one of the
more complicated ones in the novel. Cathy genuinely
cares for Linton yet his whiny behaviour makes her
impatient at times. Their relationship can be seen as
love or friendship.
• Textual evidence:
• 'Nonsense!' cried Catherine in a passion. 'Foolish, silly boy! And
there! he trembles: as if I were really going to touch him! You
needn't bespeak contempt, Linton: anybody will have it
spontaneously at your service. Get off! I shall return home: it is
folly dragging you from the hearth-stone, and pretending - what
do we pretend? Let go my frock! If I pitied you for crying and
looking so very frightened, you should spurn such pity. Ellen,
tell him how disgraceful this conduct is. Rise, and don't degrade
yourself into an abject reptile - DON'T!'
• 'I know he has a bad nature,' said Catherine: 'he's your
son. But I'm glad I've a better, to forgive it; and I know
he loves me, and for that reason I love him.

7. Nelly: Nelly‟s relationship with Cathy is one filled with
affection and love. Being without a mother, Nelly was
the one who raised Cathy. Nelly was also the one who
admonished Cathy on her reckless behavior.
Textual evidence:
She was the most winning thing that ever brought
sunshine into a desolate house

8. Hareton: Hareton and Cathy‟s relationship was
firstly based on anger and ridicule but on slowly
knowing each other,it turned into frienndship and
blossomed into love.
Textual evidence:Earnshaw was not to be civilized
with a wish, and my young lady was no philosopher,
and no paragon of patience; but both their minds
tending to the same point - one loving and desiring
to esteem, and the other loving and desiring to be
esteemed - they contrived in the end to reach it

9. Lockwood: Lockwood and Cathy‟s relationship‟s highlights were
Lockwood‟s obvious admiration for Cathy and her cold replies
which made it clear that she had no wish to be acquainted with
Lockwood.
Textual evidence:
She was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable
form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the
pleasure of beholding; small features, very fair; flaxen ringlets, or
rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck; and eyes, had
they been agreeable in expression, that would have been irresistible:
fortunately for my susceptible heart, the only sentiment they evinced
hovered between scorn and a kind of desperation, singularly
unnatural to be detected there.

10. ENVIRONMENT
• Cathy lives on the bright moors in Thrushcross Grange. She
well relates to her setting. Thrushcross Grange is open,
spacious and bright. When Cathy was born the place was
filled with misery and gloom because of her mother‟s death
but as she grew up she re-instated sunshine in the Grange as
suggested by “She was the most winning thing that ever
brought sunshine into a desolate house”
• The moors usually experience an extreme climate. Usually
there are violent storms continuing for days and fiendish
snow storms. Cathy comes in conflict with these forces of
nature as her personality contradicts these natural
phenomena. She is not extreme in her behavior and she was
„mild as a dove‟ and „her anger was never furious; her love
never fierce…‟
• Cathy is the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw who was fiercely
passionate, extreme in behavior, wayward and obstinate.
Cathy had none of these traits, she was moderate, cheerful
and sensitive as suggested by „her spirit was high, but not
rough, and qualified by a heart sensitive and lively…‟

11. DESTINY
• Destiny came in conflict with Cathy‟s aspirations and
aims. Cathy was overjoyed when her cousin Linton
came to reside with them but her happiness was short
lived as Linton‟s father, Heathcliff orders Linton to be
sent to him. Then Cathy forgets all about Linton but is
forced to be reminded of the past when she
encounters Heathcliff and meets Linton. She gradually
falls in love with Linton who is an invalid and can
never prove to be a capable companion for Cathy.
Edgar falls ill and Cathy is left to ponder on the
possibility that she may be left alone. Then the most
unfortunate incident of her life takes place when
Heathcliff locks her up and forces her to marry
Linton. Her father dies and all her property is
usurped. She is thrown into the worst of conditions
and she turns bitter against life. Finally her destiny
helps her come out of the shallows by lightening up a
relationship with Hareton

12. Parameter 2
• Change:
• Catherine grows up under her father’s life. Her life is
limited to the grounds of Thrushcross grange and so as
expected she is curious of the world outside especially
Peniston Cragg when she says to Nelly:
• “Oh you have been on them!” and “Then I can go, too,
when I am a woman”
• Nelly is an integral part of her life, her mother being
dead. Nelly is made in charge of her and develops
motherly affection yet it often does not end in her being
given the same amount of respect.
• Change comes in her life with the entrance of her two
cousins Hareton and Linton and also Heathcliff.

13. Events and reactions:
When Edgar goes to fetch her cousin Linton she escapes
Thrushcross grange and mistakenly goes to Wuthering heights. There
she meets Hareton and assumes him as owner. After developing
friendly ties she discovers his status as not more than a servant treats
him differently from then on:
„”now get my horse,” she said addressing her unknown kinsman as
she would one of the stable boys‟
To which Hareton ends his kind ways by calling her a “saucy witch”
Soon after Linton enters her life as a cherished cousin whom she
starts loving before even meeting as she saves the lock of hair Aunt
Isabella sends her:
“I have carefully preserved it in a glass box”

14. Yet after his coming Heathcliff demands him under his keep and so
their first meeting is very short.
A few years later Linton re-enters her life once again as she
adventures out and discovers him so close by, is tempted to meet
him yet under Nelly‟s vigilant eye she drops meeting him but there
exchange of books and letters continue. Soon they turn to love
letters:
“A fine bundle of trash you study in your leisure hours,”
Nelly‟s discoverence of them creates a rebellious mood on her side
but on threat by Nelly to inform her father, she agrees.
There correspondence takes another turn when Heathcliff makes
her feel guilty of breaking Linton‟s heart and she wishes to see him
once again out of care.
And so the visits continue. Her loving nature is not burdened by
Heathcliff‟s views and falls in love with Linton again.
This time Edgar is informed of their meetings and is ill so he wishes
to hand Catherine in caring hands and so sought to establish contact
with Linton.

15. A change comes Cathy‟s way when Edgar is about to die and she sits by him but
later on a visit to Linton is imprisoned at Wuthering heights and forced to marry
Linton. She agrees in order to see Edgar before he closes his eyes. Her response
to Linton turns bitter here as her father is more important to her.
Her life with Linton turns her bitter and even more after his death.
Nelly‟s re-entrance in her life makes her pleasant and so Hareton whom she
mocked easily wins her heart as Nelly says:
“You see, Mr. Lockwood, it was easy enough to win Mrs. Heathcliff's heart”
Conclusion:
Catherine is a strong soul who is oblivious to others‟ hatred yet the events of her
life, her forceful marriage to Linton and constant degradation after his death at
Wuthering heights she turns bitter. In this event she contradicts her prior beliefs
when she accepts Hareton and falls in love with him without thought to him
being uneducated.
On the hand it is evident too that her love and care for Linton was sisterly or
cousinly when says: “I love you like a brother” also she falls in love with him on
his suggestions when referring to the letters she tells Nelly” I hadn‟t even thought
that way”. Her marriage too with Linton is a failure and ends in somehow
bitterness. Hence she contradicts her very beliefs.

16. PARAMETER 3
• Cathy is extremely rude and hostile to Lockwood. She returns all his
attempts at help and conversation with scorn and rudeness. When
Lockwood tries to help her reach the canisters in chapter II she
snaps at him and says, “ I don’t want your help, I can get them for
myself.” Despite all this rudeness Lockwood really likes Cathy and
portrays her as a lovely beautiful creature.
• Nelly’s attitude and Cathy’s perception of herself is more or less the
same.
• Lockwood is positive towards Cathy.
• Nelly is positive towards Cathy.
• Lockwood is not reliable as he seems infatuated by Cathy so his
ideas are biased.
• Nelly is reliable as all her accounts are accurate and she does not
seem biased