Shadows and sparks

A new scholar paper just published:

Shadows and sparks in Wuthering Heights. A damned lover of the Victorian era reminiscent of ancient tragedy
Maria Panagiotopoulou

Orbis Litterarum, Volume75, Issue5 October 2020, Pages 247-259

The aim of this study is to present Heathcliff, the damned lover and romantic villain of Wuthering Heights, through the light of ancient tragedy. The hero that Emily Brontë created is reminiscent of the spirit, feelings, and actions of heroes of Greek mythology such as Deianeira, Oedipus, Electra, Orestes, Medea, and Hippolytus, who were perfectly presented in Sophoclean and Euripidean dramas. Condemned love, unfulfilled, repelled, and undefined passion, the repressed emotions of a child without identity, along with the social conviction and marginalization that accompany lowly and unspecified origins, become motivations for his narcissism and his desire for vengeance. Wuthering Heights is a story about love and death, storm and night, and last but not least, about souls that cannot find peace because of their denial of each other. This is why one can either hate the repulsive personality of Heathcliff, or fall in love with his mystery and darkness, but no one can be indifferent to him. He is a tragic hero, a man that gave flesh and blood to odi et amo. While reading this article, I think that you will feel that Emily Brontë created her fictional villain–lover having captured in her mind echoes of the ancient figures mentioned above, figures who are haunted by deeply human feelings such as love, revenge, hatred, and suffering that determine their actions, identifying them with angels who eventually turn into demons.