Wuthering Heights: Linton Family vs. the Earnshaw Family

The Two families serve as foils to one another. The Linton family represents civility, while the Earnshaw family represents nature. But while nature is normally corrupted by culture, culture becomes corrupted by nature just as much as nature is corrupted by culture. When Catherine is bitten by the Linton family dog, she must stay at their home until she recovers. During this time the Linton children become fascinated with her so that when she recovers and returns to the Earnshaw home the Linton children still come to visit her. Also during the time she was recovering the Linton household began to influence Catherine as well. During the time she was there she was taught manners and her wild nature was subdued somewhat and as a result when she returns home she begins acting differently towards Heathcliff. This is what causes her to decide to marry Edgar Linton, because his culture had corrupted her nature. It was also the reason Edgar wanted to marry Catherine, because her nature had also corrupted his culture. Because of this first contact, eventually both families became so intertwined by marriage that it becomes difficult to ascertain between nature and culture anymore. Characters in both families also serve as foils for each other. Heathcliff and Edgar are foils of each other, because Heathcliff is cruel and willing to emotionally or physically harm someone else to get revenge, while Edgar is more noble, forgoing his selfish needs and hatred of Heathcliff to care for Catherine. Catherine is also Heathcliff's wife Isabella's foil. Isabella was extremely timid and submissive. She was made witness to the violence and chaos that took place in Wuthering Heights. When she  wrote a letter to Nelly explaining how fearful she was in her new living situation, she described Heathcliff as a devil. "Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil?" (Bronte 143). Now if Catherine had been placed in the same situation as Isabella, she would not be afraid, she would be a huge part of the chaos. Just as the characters from each home are foils of each other, the homes they come from are foils as well.