These characters are tearing one another apart: Wuthering Heights

The constant refrain in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" is how evil Heathcliff is - he's satanic, hellish, etc. Yet is he any more evil than any of the other nasty characters in the novel? Obviously not - it's a very dark novel, characters in a lonely and deprived environment, each competing with one another for a little more of the parents' diminished attention and, later, for a little more of a chance at mature, adult love and affection. Today, we'd look at Heathcliff as a product of his environment - he became "evil" because of the mistreatment by his stepbrother (half brother, I believe), Hindley - and Hindley was evil because of his own shortcomings and his jealousy of the newly arrived Heathcliff. In other words, we'd be tempted to analyze the family dynamics of WH, as I'm sure many have done. I'm not sure that's where Bronte was going, though: I don't know if she believed that characters could be formed; she seems to think that character is innate from birth - maybe. Will keep watching this as the novel progresses. She's also interested in creating a small and isolate society with all of its inherent tensions and jealousies and neuroses - the Brontes, of course, famously lived an isolated life on the moors and relied on their own fervid imaginations for pleasure and escape. The Bronte characters don't have those imaginative games - so they go at one another. Halfway through WH, after Heathcliff has a big blow-out scene with Catherine and her husband, Linton - seriously humiliating the much weaker and less dashing (but more socially acceptable) Linton, Heathcliff strikes a mortal blow by running off with Linton's sister, Isabella. This is devastating not only to Catherine - who obviously is in love with Heathcliff and married Linton because of diminished options - but also to Linton, who feels defeated and sexually humiliated by his stronger, sexier rival, Heathcliff. These characters are tearing one another apart - I had no idea that the novel was this dark or this tumultuous - not having read it for possibly 40 years.