Heathcliff The Byronic Hero in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte When one starts reading Wuthering Heights I'm sure he will think to himself that the book will be just another romantic novel. They wait for Heathcliff to figure out the whole story and for him and Catherine to end up together, but that doesn't happen. This causes Heathcliff to become progressively, increasingly alienated from the people around him. He only wants what he cannot have and that is why he is called the Byronic Hero. It is my intention to demonstrate that Heathcliff is a Byronic hero by classifying him under the six attributes of the archetype. The first major sign of a Byronic hero is that he is often alienated from humanity. At the beginning of the story Heathcliff is adopted by Earnshaw. Earnshaw ultimately ends up loving Heathcliff more than his own blood, Hindley. Hindley feels alienated from his father and eventually begins to resent Heathcliff. Earnshaw sends Hindley to college to get Hindley off Heathcliff's back; soon after Earnshaw's death. This is when Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights and turns the tables on Heathcliff. Heathcliff begins to feel the alienation Hindley feels and is assigned all the terrible jobs around Wuthering Heights. This fills him with anger and hatred towards everyone except his obsessive love towards Catherine. Heathcliff feels very alienated from Catherine when she says “……in the middle of the paper……that he will be the one to punish her instead. At the end of the story he continues to see signs of Catherine everywhere. This eventually wears off on Heathcliff. He began to eat much less food. Every day he ate less and then talked about how he was done seeking revenge. From then on he stopped eating completely. This was the biggest case of self-destruction in the book. He ultimately died shortly after because he couldn't wait to be reunited with Catherine. As you can see, Heathcliff fulfills all the different attributes of a Byronic hero. Heathcliff fits the romance archetype perfectly. He loves Catherine and has based his entire life on her and her actions. His impractical romantic thoughts about himself and Catherine ultimately led to his own death.