‘heathcliff’s Destructive Nature Is the Result of His Upbringing" - Do You Agree with This Statement?’

‘Heathcliff’s destructive nature is the result of his upbringing. To what extent do you agree with this statement?’

From what we have read so far it is hard to say what has caused Heathcliff to be the way he is as we never learn too much about him before he gets to Wuthering Heights. We see him as a mysterious and almost ominous however he is multi-layered, much of what he says can be taken in multiple ways based on interpretation, these qualities that make him separate and forcing us to think of him in several different lights may contribute towards his destructive nature and destruction of others.  

Heathcliff comes to the Heights without even a name; we are told that he is given the name Heathcliff from Mr. Earnshaw, naming him after a late older son that the Earnshaw’s lost. We don’t know much about him other than his appearance, and that he was found “starving, and house-less, and as good as dumb in the streets of Liverpool”. He is described as “dirty”, “ragged” and a “gypsy brat” from this alone we know that before he came to the Earnshaw’s he did not have a great life, he was alone and most probably an orphan, this could mean that he feels as though he has been mistreated and the world owes him. He is very reserved, when he arrives he is merely “repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand”, from then on as a child he rarely has an opinion and doesn’t say much. From the outset the Earnshaw’s don’t think of Heathcliff as his own being, they use the term “it” most regularly for him, and even Mr. Earnshaw, the man who saved him, and at the beginning the only one appearing to be on this team, dehumanises him, whether knowingly or not. Hindley goes as far as to say Heathcliff is an “imp od Satan” it is this dark imagery, and negative connotations and the regular beatings that Nelly “persuaded him easily to let [her] lay the blame of his bruises on the horse” coupled with Heathcliff’s being thrown into a completely different culture so quickly that will contribute into the level of destruction that Heathcliff brings and creates for other characters in later chapters as adults.