Catherine Earnshaw
| Cathy Earnshaw | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Emily Brontë |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Cathy |
| Family |
Hindley (brother) Hareton (nephew) |
| Spouse(s) | Edgar Linton |
| Children | Catherine Linton (daughter) |
| Nationality | British |
Cathy Earnshaw is a fictional character and the female protagonist of the novel Wuthering Heights written by Emily Brontë.
Cathy Earnshaw is the younger sibling of Hindley, and is born and raised at Wuthering Heights. She becomes the foster sister of the orphan Heathcliff at the age of six, and the two become close companions. They are separated when Hindley becomes jealous of his father's affection towards Heathcliff and reduces him to servant-boy status after the death of Mr Earnshaw, who took Heathcliff in as a Liverpool foundling. Cathy and Heathcliff's strong characters do not part them; rather, they get into a great deal of mischief together, most notably while spying at Thrushcross Grange, the fancy home of the wealthy Linton family. When a dog from the Grange attacks Cathy at her intrusion, the Lintons aid her by keeping her at the Grange for five weeks. This visit allows Cathy to turn into a lady quite unlike the rude, wild, childish girl she has been with Heathcliff, and allows her to form intimate relationships with Edgar and Isabella Linton, the two children residing at the Grange, although her (and Heathcliff's) initial impression of them was contemptuous. Cathy's change is visible on her return to the Heights at Christmas time. Heathcliff, although hurt by this, remains devoted to her, forming one part of a love triangle that includes Edgar Linton, who quickly becomes a despised rival.
Cathy's most famous scene in the novel sees a memorable declaration of her feelings for Heathcliff and Linton to Nelly Dean, the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights and the novel's main narrator:
Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy.
That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there, had not brought Heathcliff so low I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.
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Wikipedia