WAEC Literature in English 2025 Theory — Question 7

Model answer

The novel's themes range from class conflict to vengeance, love and inheritance. Heathcliff is a rival to Edgar Linton for Catherine Earnshaw; Edgar, son of Mr Linton, is rich and expects Catherine (of a poorer background) to love him rather than Heathcliff. Heathcliff's dramatic return to Wuthering Heights, now transformed into a wealthy, brooding gentleman, profoundly and irrevocably shatters the fragile equilibrium of Catherine and Edgar Linton's marriage, exposing its inherent weaknesses. His reappearance reawakens Catherine's dormant passion, fuels jealousy and resentment, and forces her to confront the impossible choice between Edgar's stability/refinement and the raw, untamed love she shares with Heathcliff. His presence fuels Edgar's deep-seated jealousy and insecurity, as he views Heathcliff as a crude, dangerous intruder and a threat to his domestic tranquility and possession of Catherine. Heathcliff's return exposes the fundamental incompatibility between Catherine's true self and the identity she adopted as Mrs Linton, and Catherine's mental and physical health deteriorates rapidly under the strain of trying to exist in two irreconcilable worlds, culminating in her famous declaration, 'I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free'.