Essay about Abuse Cycle

Each person has a different personality. Some people are influential, impulsive, perfectionist, and/or strong-willed. One of the components that influence someone’s personalities is their environment. Just like in “Wuthering Heights” Heathcliff’s abusive environment at such a young age leads him to have an aggressive abusive behavior towards others. When most people think of the word environment they usually just think about their home they live in. But this word actually mean way more than that.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary an environment can be described as “the circumstances, objects, or conditions by which one is surrounded.

” (Merriam Webster) This includes the people you are raised by, people you spend most of your time with and even the way you live. Someone’s environment has a huge impact on their character and their personality and the way they treat other people. The book “Wuthering Heights” follows one of the main characters, Heathcliff throughout his life.

This Byronic Hero is a poor orphan who was discovered on the streets of Liverpool and later enters the home of Mr. Earnshaw. Mr. Earnshaw has two biological kids of his own. A girl named Catherine and a son named Hindley. Heathcliff is described “as dark almost as if it came from the devil” (Emily Bronte, 4.45) and is described as a “gipsy.” When Heathcliff first arrives at the home he receives racial, verbal, and emotional bullying by his stepbrother. He is called “wicked boy”, “villain,” and even “imp of satan.” (Wuthering Heights)

Heathcliff’s new home is nothing better than the poor living conditions at his old home. (Emily Bronte) This type of verbal abuse leads to many negative effects in a victim’s mental status. Any type of abuse can negatively affect someone’s mental status, especially on young victims. According to childwelfare.gov, an abusive environment can lead to many negative effects in a child’s social and emotional development.

Social and emotional development is the “ability to understand the feelings of others, control his/her own feelings, and get along with other children...” The early stages of life are the most important in a person’s life because during this phase the child is like a sponge and soaks up everything around him. An abuser’s words and tone of voice shapes the way the victim will act for the rest of his/her life. (my.vanderbilt.edu) When Heathcliff was verbally and emotionally abused by Hindley, he felt hopeless, powerless, controlled, and unwanted.

Because of the abuse inflicted on Heathcliff at such a young age, he later had deficiencies in self-esteem and trust as he developed as an adult. The effects of the verbal and social abuse can be seen later in “Wuthering Heights” in the way Heathcliff treats Hareton Earnshaw (his abuser’s son) and his own son Linton Heathcliff. (Emily Bronte) W. Clement Stones’ quote “You are a product of your environment…” seem to be right because Heathcliff turned from the victim into the abuser as the story progressed.

This is called the Victim to offender cycle. This means that the victims of abuse will later turn out to abuse others in the future in a never-ending cycle. This might be because of the victim’s desire to feel in control. In Heathcliff’s case he verbally and emotionally abuses on vulnerable victims just as Hindley did to him.

Adult who were abused when they were younger have a higher chance to develop mental health issues. (healthline.com, Ann Pietrangelo) The victim has the desire to feel powerful and in control due to the dominance they were under during the time of abuse. This desire usually leads to the victim wanting revenge because of the anger they have toward the abuser. In “Wuthering Heights”, Heathcliff get revenge on his depressing and infortune childhood abuse by abusing his own son Linton and Hindley’s son Hareton. Heathcliff’s mindset of revenge allows him to deny Hareton education and treat the two young innocent boys like trash without feeling any sympathy towards them.

The abuse also leads Heathcliff to become selfish in order to improve the way he feels about himself. Throughout the book Emily Bronte give so many examples where Heathcliff makes self-seeking action without any consideration towards the well being of others. For example, Heathcliff decides to marry Isabella (which he has no good feeling toward) just to get under Edgar Linton’s skin. He doesn’t think for a second on how Isabella will feel living with a violent husband who is constantly verbally and emotionally tearing her down every single day.

Also, towards the end of the book Emily Bronte gives the reader a clear example of how ruthless and self-centered Heathcliff really is by providing Heathcliff spiteful plans involving Cathy and his son Linton. One day Heathcliff lock Cathy up in order to make her and Linton get married. He is doing this all for him to become richer and to inherit both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.

His plan is all motivated by revenge in order to control the two fortunes owned by his enemies, Edgar Linton and Hindley Earnshaw. (Emily Bronte) Not only does the abuse he receives affect him but also those around him creating a vicious cycle of victims and offenders. A lot of people believe that the connection between someone’s environment and their personality trait can be broken, but this may be an impossible cycle to break. Many of these abusers go to therapy groups to get help, unfortunately that is unlikely to happen.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline states that even if the abuser attends a certified batterer intervention program it is almost impossible for them to completely change. The abuser should be willing to “want to change and be committed to all aspects of change to start the process” .

In conclusion the environment surrounding a person can foreshadow who the person becomes in the future. Just like Heathcliff in the book “Wuthering Heights” he is a perfect example of being a product of your environment and the victim to offender cycle. He first gets influenced by his abusive environment, get affected socially emotionally and mentally and last but not least he turns the tables and starts abusing vulnerable kids for revenge.

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