Catherine

2
Character Profile

CHARACTER TRAITS
Curious and mischievous
Demanding and wild
She has a tendency towards headstrong behaviour, impetuousness and
occasional arrogance
She can be peevish and snobbish
However, she is described as a gentler and more compassionate creature
than her mother.
She is generous and kind, particularly towards Hareton

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Catherine had reached her full height; her figure was both plump and
slender, elastic as steel, and her whole aspect sparkling with health and
spirits (Nelly)
Small features, very fair; flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on
her delicate neck; and eyes - had they been agreeable in expression, they
would have been irresistible (Lockwood)
Perhaps you never have remarked that their eyes are precisely similar, and
they are those of Catherine Earnshaw. The present Catherine has no
other likeness to her, except for the breadth of forehead and a certain
arch of the nostril that makes her appear rather haughty, whether she will
or not. (Nelly)

ACTIONS THEY TAKE

She seeks out Wuthering Heights, despite not being allowed to travel there
due to Heathcliff residing there - Edgars enemy
She grows close to Linton despite Nelly trying to keep her away
Cathy is forbidden by Nelly to visit Wuthering Heights and so she begins
writing love letters to Linton
After Linton dies, Cathy and Hareton form an unlikely romance
Cathy aids Hareton in his education

BEHAVIOUR
Catherine Linton is a kinder, gentler version of her mother, thanks in part to her relationship with
Edgar, an extremely dedicated father. Though she can be peevish and snobbish, Catherine's
generosity and kindness toward Hareton, not to mention her love of the simpering Linton
Heathcliff, demonstrate a kind of compassion and selflessness that her mother never had.
At first, Catherine is gentle and kind, but a bit snobbish because of her guarded and wealthy
upbringing at the Grange; however, when reduced to a life of misery at the Heights, she grows
cold, distant and dismissive of everyone around her. It is her romance with Hareton that reestablishes her bubbly personality.
When Cathy talks about herself, she is oddly dissociatedshe describes herself using the same
terms and syntax she would use to describe another person. This suggests that we can only
understand our minds by spending time with ourselvesthe same way we would get to know
any other person.

IMAGES THEY ARE

ASSOCIATED WITH
Theme of Doubles: Due to the symmetrical structure of Wuthering Heights, it follows naturally that
Bront should include doubles in the novel. Catherine Earnshaw notes her own "double
character" when she tries to explain her attraction to both Edgar and Heathcliff, and their
shared name suggests that Cathy Linton is, in some ways, a double for her mother.

WHAT THEY SAY

They are not mine more repellingly than Heathcliff himself could have
replied
A strange choice of favourites she observed scornfully
Bitter when at Wuthering Heights

WHAT OTHER PEOPLE SAY

ABOUT THEM
Nelly
About eleven o'clock that night was born the Catherine you saw at Wuthering Heights: a puny,
seven-months' child; and two hours after the mother died, having never recovered sufficient
consciousness to miss Heathcliff, or know Edgar (to Lockwood)
"capacity for intense attachment, reminding me of her mother, and still she did not resemble
her: for she could be soft and mild as a dove". Nelly also suggested that "her anger was never
furious, her love never fierce".