Character of the Month! (#1)

Character of the Month is one of the new features I'm starting on my blog! I will feature a character I think is a great character! This does not exclude villains or "bad guys" or characters where there is no clear good or bad (often my favorite kind of character). "Good" characters and "bad" characters are welcome to be featured. So let's get right into it! This month's character of the month is. . .

 

Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte!

Yes, that is right. I chose Heathcliff. Like I said these characters don't have to be "good" people. I also said that characters who are not necessarily "good" and not necessarily "bad" are often my favorite kind. And Heathcliff absolutely fits that description. 

Wuthering Heights is one of my absolute favorite books in the world. And one of the things I love most about it is that almost no character is clearly "good" or clearly "bad". I don't know about you, but I find that fascinating in books. Largely because, it is a lot like real life - people are not just "good" or "bad", things are not always black and white. 

Heathcliff is awful. He really is. He does awful things all throughout this book. But of course the part of me fascinated with psychology has to ask myself "Why does he do these things?" And I don't want to spoil anything for anyone so I will jut say that there is something you find out near the beginning of the book which could help explain why Heathcliff is, well, kind of messed up. 

Also, most of the things he did through the book I really think that he thought he was doing for love (for those of you who watch The Vampire Diaries this is not unlike Damon in the first season, huh? Or even Damon in the early Vampire Diaries books.) Some of them he was doing because he was hurt. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying Heathcliff was hopelessly in love with Catherine (just like Damon was hopelessly in love with a character named... Katherine! Another parallel! Ha!) So when Catherine hurt him he would lash out. Yes, he would do it in awful ways. (Again, Psychology - if we looked at Heathcliff today would we find something really wrong with him?) But Catherine had a tendency to treat him horribly (Catherine often acted like a spoiled brat.) So I can't help but feel bad for Heathcliff. Especially towards the end of the book - where a scene took place that made me burst into tears for him. 

I think Heathcliff absolutely deserves to be character of the month. I think the man deserves a little more understanding. He is not "good" but he is not "bad" either. I will admit it, I love Heathcliff. He's a wonderful character!

P. S. I have not yet done a review of Wuthering Heights but if you would like me to I will absolutely do it sooner than I'd planned.

<3 Amanda Leigh