Wuthering Height : Please explain what heathcliff is essentially saying in this paragraph?!?

''With your aid that may be avoided,' he continued; 'and should there be danger of such an event - should he be the cause of adding a single trouble more to her existence - why, I think I shall be justified in going to extremes! I wish you had sincerity enough to tell me whether Catherine would suffer greatly from his loss: the fear that she would restrains me. And there you see the distinction between our feelings: had he been in my place, and I in his, though I hated him with a hatred that turned my life to gall, I never would have raised a hand against him. You may look incredulous, if you please! I never would have banished him from her society as long as she desired his. The moment her regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out, and drunk his blood! But, till then - if you don't believe me, you don't know me - till then, I would have died by inches before I touched a single hair of his head!'





'And yet,' I interrupted, 'you have no scruples in completely ruining all hopes of her perfect restoration, by thrusting yourself into her remembrance now, when she has nearly forgotten you, and involving her in a new tumult of discord and distress.'





'You suppose she has nearly forgotten me?' he said. 'Oh, Nelly! you know she has not! You know as well as I do, that for every thought she spends on Linton she spends a thousand on me! At a most miserable period of my life, I had a notion of the kind: it haunted me on my return to the neighbourhood last summer; but only her own assurance could make me admit the horrible idea again. And then, Linton would be nothing, nor Hindley, nor all the dreams that ever I dreamt. Two words would comprehend my future - death and hell: existence, after losing her, would be hell. Yet I was a fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton's attachment more than mine. If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day. And Catherine has a heart as deep as I have: the sea could be as readily contained in that horse-trough as her whole affection be monopolised by him. Tush! He is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her horse. It is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him what he has not?'





Thank you :)


my interpretation of the paragraph is that heathcliff is saying he loves Catherine more than Edgar possibly could, but at some bits he looses me and I am abit confused. And I dont get what point he is saying about not hitting edgar?!


Sorry, i'm only 14, please help :)Wuthering Height : Please explain what heathcliff is essentially saying in this paragraph?!?
The basic idea, I'm fairly sure is that Heathcliff thinks not only that he loves her more but that he's a better man.





He's saying that if they had switched places then as long as Catherine wanted to be around Edgar, he wouldn't have done anything to stop them seeing each other because he wants her to be happy and he thinks that's what would have made her happy.





He doesn't mean physically not hitting him I think, he means not hurting him emotionally, because he thinks that this would hurt her as well, as long as she wanted to be around him.





hope this clears that up a little bit? i hope that's what you were asking...?