This 5 page paper outlines some of the themes and elements relative to characterizations in Victorian literautre. Throughout Victorian literature, the view of the other, of a character who is an outcast or outsider in Victorian society, has been played an important role in creating conflict and contrast. Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights, Little Dorrit’s Rigaud and Fosco in The Woman in White are all examples of the Other, and all of these characters have a significant power or a supernatural sensibility that separates them from other characters. Bibliography lists 10 sources.
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attempted to take care of their children even when they were born out of wedlock, through the convention of adoption. Heathcliff, one of the central characters in Emily Brontes
Wuthering Heights, is a man who struggles with his identification, which is linked to his adoption and his personal conflicts over self-discovery because of his origins.
The background of the story of Heathcliff and his love, Catherine, extends from the fact that Heathcliff desired social inclusion, even though he was
in many ways rejected because of his status. Heathcliff is destined to become a brooding, troubled and angry man who has lost control of his own life due in
large part to the abusive treatment he receives as a child, and his difficulties in understanding his social separation. One might argue that the most interesting aspect of Heathcliffs
character is the manner by which he perpetually transfers his deep-seated anger and frustration upon all who enter his life, even to the point of emotionally poisoning his own offspring.
In spite of the manner by which he ineffectively works through his life of physical and emotional torment, as well as the loss of his one true love, Heathcliff
comes to represent the underdog of lifes unrelenting disappointments, forever struggling with issues of control. "The subsidiary themes of possession, social status incest, adultery, child abuse and treachery and
violence have been curiously intertwined with the main theme of revenge to foreground it. The central motif in this exquisitely crafted arabesque is Heathcliff and his unquenchable thirst for revenge"
(Moses). The "dirty, ragged, black-haired child" (Bronte 77) from Liverpool who finds his way back to Wuthering Heights under the protective arm