Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a paragon of the effects of excessive love on one’s actions. Heathcliff especially uses his love for Catherine as the main excuse to justify his wrongdoings. He believes his wrongs are righted by both his love and his need to be loved. Similarly, another character experiences such fickleness with the battle between what she wants and what is right—Catherine. She is simultaneously pulled by the luxurious of society that Edgar provides and Heathcliff's dark passion which causes her to make decisions that are clouded by indecisiveness. In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte utilizes Catherine’s moral ambiguity concerning her indecisiveness with her suitors to espouse her overall message that obsessive love can…show more content… Despite her mischievous tendencies, Neely remarks that “she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile, and lightest foot in the parish. I believe she meant no harm; for when once she made you cry in good earnest, it seldom happened that she would not keep you company” (34). For most of her childhood Catherine was a compassionate person who truly cared about the well-being of others. The reader gets a better glimpse of this nature when Heathcliff is brought to Wuthering Heights. While most of the inhabitants besides Earnshaw treats, Heathcliff like a vicious intruder, Catherine grows very attached to him. Nelly even notes that “she was much too fond of Heathcliff. The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him” (38). Catherine would even defend Heathcliff in arguments with Hindley because she recognized the injustice he received. The reader recognizes from the start that young Catherine is blind to the prejudice that inflicts Heathcliff and decides to play with him because his company is enjoyable. By being friends with him, the reader affirms that Catherine was born with a morally upright compass that forces her to be amiable to those that deserve it, even despite their background. Altogether, during her childhood, Catherine displayed multiple signs that showed her character as being sympathetic and caring, which leads the…show more content… Prior to her stay, Catherine saw the people around her as her equal and treated them, for the most part, equally. However, as she is given a taste of what high society is like, she is inevitably allured by its attractions and soon absorbs the characteristics that accompany people of this class. Catherine’s transformation is evident after her return to the Heights. Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights having been taught to look and act like a lady and to recognizes the differences in social standing at Thrushcross Grange. She acts aloof from Heathcliff who briefly tries to smarten himself up to impress her but fails, throwing apple sauce over Edgar in the process. When Heathcliff is being reprimanded by Hindley, Nelly comments on “how lightly she[Catherine] dismisses her old playmate's troubles. I could not have imagined her to be so selfish” (87). While Catherine did show emotion later, her decision to remain unfeeling due to the presence of the Lintons shows how she has been transformed by her new love of being a part of high society. It is her love for this new life that starts a permanent shift in her moral compass and allows her to forgo immediately taking care of her old friend and instead accompany her new ones. Later, she justifies her actions by going to Heathcliff to soothe him. Catherine’s contrasting attitudes
