# Why does Heathcliff marry Isabella Linton?

> Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

## Answer

Heathcliff marries Isabella to wound Edgar and to claim a foothold inside the Grange world — not because he loves her. Isabella misreads his intensity as romance; Heathcliff treats her as a tool in the revenge cycle already aimed at Hindley and the Lintons. The marriage is predation dressed as passion.

Brontë makes the cruelty unmistakable through Isabella’s own narrative of the Heights. Understanding Heathcliff’s motive as strategic does not soften it; it clarifies that “destructive love” for Cathy coexists with instrumental cruelty toward everyone else. Pair this with the revenge-cycles concept and with Cathy’s earlier choice of Edgar — both houses keep turning marriage into a weapon.

## Evidence

- [x](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se/chapters/x.md): Heathcliff returns and begins to draw Isabella’s fascination.
- [xiv](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se/chapters/xiv.md): The elopement and marriage are reported; Edgar’s household is struck.
- [xvii](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se/chapters/xvii.md): Isabella’s escape letter exposes the domestic violence of the marriage.

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