Do you consider Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights a favorite romantic hero?

[MsAmerica]

It's a startling idea for me. But I ran across this remark from Anne Tyler:

Q: What book did you feel you were supposed to like, and didn’t? Do you remember the last book you put down without finishing?

AT: I somehow made it to adulthood without ever reading “Wuthering Heights,” but then I found out that several of my women friends considered Heathcliff their all-time favorite romantic hero. So I read about three-quarters of it as a grown-up, and immediately developed some serious concerns about the mental health of my friends.

www.nytimes.com/2015/02/08/books/review/anne-tyler-by-the-book.html?_r=0

I don't see how anyone who has actually read the book can see him that way, if you mean "romantic hero" in the having-a-crush sense rather than the literary sense.

Isobel (or was it Isabel) certainly can't have thought so.

I was only about 16 when I read it. It's a long time ago. I think I thought he was a creepy grumpy hard to be around pain in the arse. But then I also concede that at that age I might have completely missed the point of the entire book...

I was wrong both times. Isabella

That's Isabella Linton, obviously.

The unrequited, tragic, inevitably doomed love story always has a hint of romance to it (I think). But Heathcliff himself the romantic hero, well that;s just a bit twisted.

He is so obviously one to avoid.

Horrible bloke. Cathy was a ghastly specimen too. In fact, I can't think of any character in that book who was worth the Endurance of having to read it. I was an adult by the time I got round to it though.

I loathed Heathcliff. Cathy too. Just horrible people.

No! Heathcliff is vile. I think maybe Anne Tyler's friends saw the film version with Laurence Olivier at an impressionable age and are just pretending to have read the book.

I skipped to the end, I have to say.

I did. I was 17.

I thought I was Cathy. I said to my BF. "You are more myself than I am".

He was a mild mannered fella. He said, "er, yeah, Ok."

Oh good heavens no. I had massive concerns about Mr Rochester at the same time. I was only a teen when I read both, but they both struck me as terribly flawed and not at all romantic.

Not a conventional romantic hero but I think it very much depends on how you approach the book, your age, and your interpretation from experience. I studied it in great depth for A level, taught by a teacher who was very sympathetic to Heathcliff. We read the character as an abused child becoming the abuser. Through his neglect and abuse as a child, he struggled to hold his relationships and was tormented by the jealousy and neglect from Cathy when she chose Linton.

Also, we studied Nelly as a narrator - she was such a cow really. She is portrayed in films as this lovely person, but when you study scenes she was very bitchy and told her version.

I think Heathcliff very much reflects the landscape, the harsh treatment, and his abuse. He is a far more complex character than merely a romantic hero.

Also, the second part which tends to be forgotten shows the opposite as Hareton (also neglected and abused and brought up to be rough) is influenced by the good character of Catherine and he becomes the man Heathcliff could not. In fact, they show the alternative ending of what COULD have been Heathcliff and Cathy.

Sorry, I went into long term hidden literature student mode there!!! Just realising this book still means a lot to me. I didn't mean to sound patronising. That is my essay mode!

Yes, think most of us studied it in depth at school . Cathy was ghastly too, yes, also agree that people who think of him as 'romantic' in the traditional sense, probably haven't read the book properly.

Also, I don't think he's fond of pets, especially dogs.

I thought I was Cathy. I said to my BF. "You are more myself than I am".

He was a mild mannered fella. He said, "er, yeah, Ok."

Priceless

JohnFarleys

Galaxymum That has always been my take on it.

Totally agree with you about Nelly Dean, too.

JohnFarleys

I'm not convinced about Rochester either. And that St John person.

None of them are, really, are they. No matter how great they seem on the books, take them out of context, bring them into modern society and they'd all be shunned

I have always read him to be a rapist and partner abuser. I did have an argument with a friend about this - she asked me to identify where it is made clear that he rapes his wife. But I think it is implicit in the entire description of his relationship with her, really.

I don't think that marital rape occurred in those days, did it? That's taking it completely out of context. If you do that, they're all absolutely awful.

It occurred, it just wasn't legally defined as such.
I can't think of many other Victorian novels (some) where it seems as obvious that a husband is viciously raping his wife. As I recall (unfortunately don't have my copy to hand) he repeatedly makes sinister references to some different ways he has of making her suffer, without explicitly stating what they are. I always assumed he was referring to sexual violence.
Maybe this is a mis-reading though, as lots of readers seem to think he's ok, and some quite like him!
I have to say I always forget how absolutely disgusting he is between readings, and am shocked anew when I re-read the text. And the thing as a whole is so savage. Great novel, but astonishing given it's context, I think. I'm not surprised she struggled to find a publisher.

Its, not it's.

Yes, I didn't mean 'occurred' at all, of course it occurred

I blame Kate Bush for making them seem all romanticy.

JohnFarleys brilliant!

I always thought Heathcliff was the mixed race result of an African slave working as a prostitute on the Liverpool docks and a white sailor.

It's hardly surprising he turned out as he did!