Who Is The Male Love Interest In The Novel Wuthering Heights?

Heathcliff, the principal character of Wuthering Heights, is an orphan made part of the Earnshaw family who is mistreated due to his origin and forced to act upon this mistreatment. His love, Catherine, believes money and social class should be chosen over love. Catherine recognizes that she cannot marry Heathcliff because that would lower her social stance. Therefore, she decides that she must marry Edgar, not because she is in love with him, but because she feels the need to follow the social norms of the Victorian Era. While Catherine understands that she needs to marry Edgar, she knows that deep down she is truly in love with Heathcliff. Her and Edgar do not share any sort of passion in their relationship the way that Heathcliff’s relationship does. She knows that she will never feel for Edgar the way that she loves Heathcliff because her and Linton are complete opposites while her and Heathcliff are the same.
Catherine has finally died in this scene and Heathcliff is begging for Catherine to stay with him. At the moment of her death, Heathcliff realizes how important and necessary Catherine is to his life, and he does not want to have to live without her by his side. The theme of the supernatural comes in to play when Heathcliff begs for Catherine to haunt him in her afterlife so that she can forever be with him. Catherine’s death marked a significant point in the life of Heathcliff because it marked the beginning of his obsession with holding onto the past, specifically his past with Catherine.
Heathcliff believes that a life without Catherine by his side would be unbearable and completely dreadful. As he acknowledges the “hell” that he would experience without her, he also recognizes and indulges in the fact the Catherine could never love, or even remotely care, for Edgar the way that she cares about Heathcliff.