"And who the devil gave you leave to touch a stick about the place?" (pg 277).In this post, I want to delve deeper into this relationship between Hareton and Heathcliff because I think that it is a semi-interesting and not completely terrible relationship. When I say this, I mean that it is not terrible to follow and not that I would want to experience a relationship like theirs. I wouldn't.
In 2007, an evil AP test maker decided to curse the AP test takers to write an essay for eternity displaying how one character's past haunts them in the present and contributes to the overall meaning of the work. I have two words for the AP graders: Meet Heathcliff.
Raised an orphan, Heathcliff was exiled by Hindley out of sheer jealousy at his new brother. Heathcliff was not allowed to do much in the family and I don't think that he was ever able to recover from this torment. Case and point would be his relationship with Hareton.
Side note: Emily Bronte hates my guts and decided to use alliteration in the names of the novel.
Heathcliff became Hareton's master, so obviously that gave him free reign to torture Hareton just as Heathcliff had been tortured by Hindley, who may very well have been tortured by Harold who could have been tortured by Henry... and the list goes on to infinity.
For example, Heathcliff would not allow Hareton any opportunities to become educated and sent him to work in the field to ensure no academic growth would undergo within Hareton. Seriously, Hareton struggled to read his own name over the gate, but he could not read the date afterwards. Poor guy.