Plenty of similarities can be found when comparing Heathcliff from Emily Bronte’s
Wuthering Heights to Macbeth from Shakespeare’s Macbeth in regards to the Byronic
Hero and its characteristics. Both of these main-characters can be described as a Byronic
Hero, and in their stories they even share similar situations where they display each trait.
Most of us every-day people cannot be called this type of hero because we do not express
these traits in short time spans, but throughout our whole lives. Macbeth and Heathcliff,
contrarily, express a majority of them in just a few days at a time.
One of the Byronic traits, gloomy, is displayed between both of the characters compared
when they lose their loved ones. At this point in Heathcliff’s life, he no longer cares
about anything… even getting revenge: “I take so little interest in my daily life, that I
hardly remember to eat and drink. Those two who have left the room are the only objects
which retain a distinct material appearance to me; and, that appearance causes me pain,
amounting to agony” (Page 306, Par. 5). This is very different from his normal attitude,
since he seemed to live solely for using Hareton and Catherine as revenge materials.
Macbeth, too, is careless about life, and portrays it as pointless. This is shown in his
speech from Act 5, Scene 5:
“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing” (5,5,26-30)
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This definitely displays gloominess, as an optimistic, completely happy person would
certainly not describe life this way. However, maybe it is common for people to come to
this conclusion after the loss of their companion. Some take on these feelings
immediately, like Macbeth, but for others it is a later stage of the grieving process, like
Heathcliff.
Byronic heroes such as Macbeth and Heathcliff also exhibit the trait calculated
recklessness. This often causes negative consequences, but as it suggests, the character
does not think of these because they are being reckless. When Macbeth marches out to
battle against Malcom and Siward’s army, alone but confident, he is undeniably showing
calculated recklessness. In his dialogue at this point in the play, you can tell how blindsighted he is being; he almost sounds insane for trying to take on a full army by himself.
“They have tied me to a stake. I cannot fly,
But bear-like, I must fight the course. What’s he
That was not born of woman? Such a one
Am I to fear, or none.” (5, 7, 1-4)
One small part of Wuthering Heights when Heathcliff displays calculated recklessness is
early in the book when the Linton family was visiting. Mr. Linton kept picking Heathcliff
out of the crowd, rudely pointing out his flaws. Finally Heathcliff got tired of this and
reacted by pouring hot applesauce all over him. “Heathcliff’s violent nature was not
prepared to endure the appearance of impertince from one whom he seemed to hate, even
then, as a rival” (Page 61, Par. 6). From the time Mr. Linton began teasing Heathcliff he
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was plotting a way to throw the humiliation back on him, which turned out to be by
acting recklessly.
Of course there are times in all of our lives when we are uneasy, on edge, or jittery; it is
just a fact of life that you are going to come into contact with situations that make you
anxious or nervous. When Macbeth is at the dinner party and sees King Duncan’s ghost,
he begins to act using this trait. He carries on very weirdly and becomes flustered, even
severely disoriented. Lady Macbeth is forced to act on the uncomfortableness of the
situation, and tells all the guests to leave the castle. Similarly, there is one part of
Wuthering Heights where Heathcliff really possessed this trait. This is the time before his
death, where he acted very strangely. Nelly described Heathcliff’s behavior by oddly
joyful, not eating or sleeping, leaving at night and not coming home, and maybe even
seeing things. We can only guess that this conduct is due to the fact that he has given up
on life and is allowing his body to shut down, which might also cause his brain to begin
to dysfunction.
Anytime Macbeth plans out murders and then goes through with them can be considered
calculated brutality, which is another trait the Byronic Hero acquires. They are obviously
calculated, because he thinks about the pros of each beforehand, and they are brutal
because he is taking the lives of innocent people. Some examples of Macbeth and
calculated brutality are in Act 2, Scene 1 when Macbeth decides to go through with his
plan to murder Duncan, Act 2, Scene 3: he kills the guards to make it seem like he is
angry at them for supposedly killing the King, Act 3, Scene 1: Macbeth convinces two
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murderers to kill Banquo and Fleance, and Act 4, Scene 1 where he plots to have
Macduff and his family killed.
There are many times where Heathcliff is brutal towards the other characters in
Wuthering Heights. He is rarely polite and respectful. For instance, when he devises a
plan to hold Nelly and Catherine hostage until she agrees to marry Linton. In the process,
he slaps Catherine many times on the head and knocks the wind out of Nelly. (Page 257258) These two physical encounters were not exactly calculated, but the point that he did
this to his old friend, Nelly, shows that from the start he was prepared to go to great
lengths to succeed in his plan.
Endless pursuit of an outcome without thinking of the consequences is the last trait we
studied about the Byronic Hero. An example of this from Heathcliff’s life would be when
Hindley locked him out of the house and he persistently tried to get in, ignoring Isabella’s
warnings. He did not take into account that his adopted brother was inside drunk and
armed. (Chapter 17, Page 171) Macbeth displays this trait throughout the whole play, as
he is constantly determined to keep his crimes a secret. To do this he continues to kill
those that threaten to expose him in any way, and does not realize that the truth always
comes out and that because of this he would pay for these his someday, in the highest
extreme: death.
We came to the conclusion long ago that Heathcliff and Macbeth are both Byronic
Heroes, but now we have compared some of their situations within each trait to one
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another. Using examples from the two texts I have shown how easily and often these men
displayed the necessary traits, which furthermore puts them at the top of the Byronic
Hero list of all time.
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