When I heard the title Wuthering Hieghts, I dont' think Communism and I was glad the paper didn't lead us too deeply down that idea. Definitely an interesting essay and not an idea I would have easily pulled from the book on my own reading, but after reading the marxist critic I can easily see how the idea was cultivated.
The part of the critic that caught my interest is on page 404 toards the end where the aurthor Terry Eagleton is discussing the differing viewpoints on who actually wins out in the end of the book. Eagleton asserts, (through the help of T. K. Meier,) that , "the victory [is] of tradition over innovation." (404). Of course that makes perfect sense. Despite all of Heathcliff's planning and manipulating Haerton and young Cathrine will rightfully inheirt Wurthering Hieghts and Thrushcross Grange after his death. The legal sense of tradition has pervailed!
However, Eagleton doesn't stop there but brings to light another opinion that maybe, "the old world has yeilded to the new," (404). There is the assertion that Hareton and young Catherine are now inheriting a new world that through his own sheer will power of normal deviation Heathcliff has created for them.
I think it is easy to see Heathcliff's struggle throughout the text as the struggle of the proletarian. Despite his evil nature at times he is still a under dog fighting the powers that be in a struggle for revenge...or perhaps justice depending on how you look at things.
In the end the man thing I gathered from this critic is that it is all rather ambiguious.
I agree that I was thrown with the combination of Communism and Wuthering Heights. I would not have seen anything in common if not for these essays. After I read them I saw connections between the two. Like you said "Heathcliff... is still an underdog fighting the powers that be in a struggle for revenge." Looking at the essays and the explanation of Communism of wanting to see the "working class man as the hero," shows up within Heathcliff. He is the working class. Even if by force but he turns around and comes back to take everything under his own control.
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