Ellie

I’ve been pondering over why Brontë would make the names of these characters so confusing. i.e. Heathcliff is Heathcliff’s first name and Linton’s last name, while Linton is Linton’s first name and Cathy’s last name, and Cathy is named after her mother, Catherine, who was also called Cathy. So we have Catherine (Cathy) Linton, Cathy Linton, Linton Heathcliff, and Heathcliff. While this type of naming may have been common back in that day, I think serves a purpose in this story. That being that Catherine and Heathcliff were so utterly obsessed with each other, so inextricably intertwined that even when Catherine has died, their bond lives on. Their families are so melded together that they all are passing around the same names over and over again. They will never be rid of each other, for better or worse.