There can be no doubt that Heathcliff is fiendish in his actions in Wuthering Heights. The question is whether or not Heathcliff was inherently demonic, before even having been found on the streets of Liverpool, or whether this is due to social prejudices he fell victim to. To consider this question, the meaning of fiend must be considered: is Heathcliff the fiend literally a supernatural being born from hell, or someone who is evil and causes havoc. Also, the potential bias in descriptions of Heathcliff from other characters may cloud a readers judgement of him.
Emily Brontes description of Heathcliff, from the opening of the book, is immediately negative. He is wincing when he first addresses Lockwood and his speech is growled. Bronte introduces Heathcliffs bestial nature here, comparing his speech to that of a dog shortly before Lockwood is attacked by his dogs, instilling an early dislike in the reader for Heathcliff.
Heathcliffs true fiendishness, however, is only revealed in Nellys narrative of the story. Other than what Isabella writes in her letter, the reader has no basis for the character of Heathcliff than Nelly. Nellys impartiality as a narrator is, however, questionable. For instance, early in Wuthering Heights when Hindley has returned home, drunk, and drops Hareton down the stairs, who is fortunately caught by Heathcliff, Nelly claims that a miser who had sold a winning lottery ticketcould not show a blanker countenance than he did beholding the figure of Mr Earnshaw. Heathcliff at this point is still very young, and one does not catch a falling object by accident, so Nelly is being unduly harsh on Heathcliffs motives. This brings in to question her reliability throughout the book. Conversely, Nelly does also describe Heathcliff kindly. Noticeably, she attempts to reassure Isabella that Hes a human being and that there are worse men than him. So, while at times Nelly may exaggerate about Heathcliff, the reader can assume that she tells the basic truth.
Heathcliff is extremely bestial. In mourning Catherines passing he dashes his head against the knotted trunk, lifting up his eyes, howled, not like a man, but like a savage beast. Bronte says that Heathcliff howled to continue his association with dogs, introduced upon Lockwoods arrival, and to illustrate the savagery of nature. This serves as part of the general contrast between Heathcliff and Edgar. Edgar mourns traditionally and is very much a man of the times. For a reader of the time, Edgar does all of the correct, Christian things: laying his head on [Catherines] pillow and mourning sombrely. On the other hand, Heathcliff has to embody his emotion physically, his burning passion is inappropriate and resembles that of a physical affair not a marriage. Additionally, this can be seen as Heathcliff being an upper class stereotype of the lower class: he is an animal, and therefore has no consciousness, and he can not act in the proper way, even after having become a gentleman. Heathcliff is an embodiment of the general status of the working class of the time. An upper class reader of the time would fear Heathcliffs achievement of rising from nothing to having expanses of land and high status. Particularly frightening for such a reader is the thought that Heathcliff has used the social conventions that he so hates, such as his marriage to Isabella, in order to exact his own revenge.
Though Heathcliff is undoubtedly demonic in his actions and exacting his vengeance, the reader must take sympathy in the fact that Hindley treats him unjustly as he is a vulgar young ruffian and a gipsy. Even when Heathcliff proclaims that he is going to be good, Hindley delivers a rough remedy to his provoked misbehaviour. It is the denial of his education that sets Heathcliff on the path to complete demonism as it is this that makes Catherine feel it would degrade [her] to marry Heathcliff. All of Heathcliffs worst rage originates from this moment, as Catherine is his soul and he feels that she is so immeasurably superior to everyone on earth.
Heathcliff and Catherines love breaks all traditional boundaries of society. Heathcliff even crosses the barrier of death, demanding that he will have heragain. If she be cold it is this north windand if she be motionless, it is sleep. Their love is something constant, as shown by their repeated comparisons to nature. Nature exists before birth and continues after death, so, seemingly, does Heathcliffs love for Catherine. Catherine represents the pastoral aspects of nature, the moors, while Heathcliff is its unpredictability. In spite of this ability to seemingly dismiss all social convention for their love, it is social snobbery that induces their separation.
While it seems that Heathcliffs treatment as a child was the cause of much of his demonism, if the reader looks at his life before old Mr Earnshaw died, he can be seen to have been demonic before this abuse began. He is a usurper of [Hindleys] fathers attentions and does not flinch when Hindley threatens him with a brick and in fact encourages him to throw it. At this point, Heathcliff has been treated only favourably by Old Mr Earnshaw and has no reason, it would seem, to be a fiend. It could consequently be argued that his resulting abuse from Hindley is, while not justifiable, certainly understandable and that all the consequences that followed may root back to this inherent fiendishness.
A helpful comparison in considering the effect of Heathcliffs abuse from Hindley is that which Hareton received from Heathcliff in trying to see if one tree wont grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!. Bronte is again linking Heathcliff with nature, yet also portraying him as the wind twisting the other characters crooked. She is portraying Heathcliff as an overarching power on the other characters who are helpless to resist his will. The tragedy of Wuthering Heights is seen here in Haretons helplessness. Haretons great abuse, from both Heathcliff and to some extent verbally from Cathy, reduces him to a fool and then, when attempting to better himself, makes him burn his books with anguish. However, he does not vow an un-Godly revenge on all inhabitants of Wuthering Heights, he is taught to read by Cathy and eventually goes on to marry her. It is surely indicative of Heathcliffs own inherent fiendishness that, under extremely similar circumstances, he chose to ruin all who had hurt him rather than do the moral thing and recover. Conversely, there is a marked difference in the education of the two unfairly deprived characters, Hareton and Heathcliff. Where Heathcliff is never educated in childhood and eventually commits such dreadful acts, Hareton is given his chance at life. Bronte chooses to make this difference so as to show that education is the casting factor in the destiny of the two characters. Heathcliffs denial of education supplies some reason for the path the rest of his life follows.
There is a great element of the supernatural to Heathcliff. His origins are totally mysterious: not a soul knew to whom he belonged. Similarly, in death his tombstone reads only Heathcliff. The tombstone is supposed to surmise ones entire life, and though Heathcliff achieved much in taking possession of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, he still has no ancestry and has returned to his status on being found by Mr Earnshaw. As well as showing him to be supernatural, this serves to illustrate the cyclical nature of the characters in Wuthering Heights, in that Heathcliff has returned to the state he began in. By using characters of the same name; such as the two Catherines, Edgar Linton and Linton; Bronte instils in the reader the sense that the story of the Earnshaws and Lintons will continue long after the close of Wuthering Heights. Once he has seemingly found peace with Catherine, Heathcliff shunsmeals and becomes increasingly sickly, as if he doesnt need sustenance once at rest, implying he is beyond the natural. When Heathcliff does die, he bears a sarcastic, savage face and locals claim they have seen Heathcliff and Catherine walking on the Moors. This all serves to add to the ambiguity between whether Heathcliff is human, or genuinely supernatural.
It is my opinion that Heathcliff is not literally a fiend from hell, but nor is he solely a victim of social prejudices. I think he is a naturally evil man, who had the misfortune to be put in a situation where his social origins meant he was abused, which revealed the full extent of his potential evil. Had Heathcliff and Hareton been amicable from Heathcliffs first introduction, he would still have had the element of the fiend within him, but would never have performed such atrocious acts without the stimuli that were unfortunately forced upon him.
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