Heathcliff and Catherine have long been identified as inhuman, as a much quoted comment by Dante Gabriel Rossetti shows: “The action is laid in Hell – only it seems places and people have English names there” (qtd. in Krishnan 4). If one is willing to accept that Catherine's ghost haunts Heathcliff after her death, defining this ghost as a vampiric entity is anything but absurd, as long as one does not equal 'vampire' with Dracula as described in the first chapter. An impartial reading reveals a great number of similarities between the depiction of Catherine and Heathcliff and common vampire tropes.
Wuthering Heights shares a type of anti-hero with the first vampire narrative, an archetype which was later imitated by the most influential vampire novels in history. The sustenance from a victim required by the definition introduced in the first chapter is depicted in the form of emotion, energy and health, as well as material goods and wealth. Additionally, folkloric markers for vampirism can be observed in Heathcliff and Catherine and to a lesser extent in characters 'infected' by Heathcliff, e.g. Isabella Linton.
Both Wuthering Heights and The Vampyre use the same technique to inspire horror which is inherent in the vampire: apparent humans are revealed as monsters. Nina
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Catherine undergoes a major transformation when she is invited to stay with the Linton's after her injury, returning as lady. Heathcliff does essentially the same thing when he vanishes for three years after overhearing Catherine say that it would degrade her to marry him (86). Especially the latter has been characterized as a “distinctly vampiric move” (10) by Krishnan. Transformations can be observed in other characters as well, especially under the influence of Heathcliff. Hareton is the only one of them who permanently changes for the better by the end of the