Too Selfish

“It is impossible that a person should die for the love of a stranger.”

As soon as I read this quotation from chapter 22 of Wuthering Heights, I folded over the top corner of the page marking it in the moment as important. Most of the time when I look back at my highlights they don’t make sense or they no longer hold relevance as I’ve read further into the plot. This quotation, however, still stood out to me when I reread it. Although Nelly says it’s impossible that a person would die for a stranger, soldiers die for countries full of strangers everyday. Her words of disbelief to Catherine reflect the selfish and self-centered nature of the characters in this novel.

Firstly, Catherine makes the decision to marry Edgar Linton instead of Heathcliff. Instead of actually following her heart and marrying the man she actually loves, she selfishly marries the man with the most money. This decision causes all three characters unhappiness, as Catherine and Heathcliff cannot bear to be separate and Edgar Linton does not receive the love from his wife that a husband should.
Edgar Linton also acts selfishly by holding a grudge to Heathcliff and not allowing his daughter to converse or relate to his relatives at all. He is also so caught up in the memory of his wife that he refuses to celebrate his own daughter’s birthday. He also refuses to let Catherine see Linton even though she obviously loves him.
Heathcliff, on the other hand, encourages the union of Catherine and Linton. He does this out of greed and revenge, however; not because he truly cares about the pair’s feelings. Heathcliff also selfishly makes vengeful plans on the other characters because of his youth and lost love with Catherine.
I think throughout the rest of this novel, the idea of selfishness and self-made power will continue to be apparent, as Heathcliff’s plans successfully unravel and characters keep driving the plot by choosing their own self-interest over others.