This study will examine Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights, focusing on how evil is related to love. The study will explore the main relationship in the book, the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine. That relationship is full of both love and evil and will show us what happens when evil and love become tied to one another.
The first thing we need to do is define evil. It is perhaps impossible to define love in a way which will satisfy all of us. We will probably all agree that love is usually an attraction between two people which makes them feel good about themselves and the other person and about life in general. On the other hand, the love that is powerful and romantic goes way beyond such a feel-good experience. For the sake of this study, we must agree that Catherine and Heathcliff love one another, but the question is whether that love is healthy. Just because it is unhealthy does not mean that it is not love.
However, if it is so unhealthy that it becomes destructive to both of them, then we can start to see it as evil. To this reader, their love is tied up with evil because their love has become more important than anything else in their lives and because it is destroying both of them. It is evil to expect another human being to do for you what it is impossible for another human being to do. Heathcliff and Catherine see each other as gods, or as God, and expect to be saved by the other as one would be saved by God. They see love as something which they can throw themselves into and disappear, and at that point love becomes destructive and evil.
The love which Catherine and Heathcliff share is a love which many people would like to have, but only because they see the passion and the thrill of such a powerful love. They forget that that passion can get out of control and begin to destroy the lovers, as well as those near and dear to them. That is what Bronte's novel shows us and reminds us about this...