That is to say, both characters come from different social classes. Heathcliff is an orphan that Catherine's father picks up from the street; while Catherine has to comply with the societal expectations and to marry a man who supports her. In fact, we can appreciate an evolution of this character, since she becomes transformed from an independent girl into a delicate young lady of the cultured Linton world from the moment she is married. .
Nevertheless, though the female character usually plays an important role in the patriarchal society of Victorian novels, it is difficult to know who the real hero is in this one, given that Brontë emphasizes on both male and female protagonist growth to find their own identities in the progress from childhood to adulthood. Besides, all what we know about Catherine is filtered through Nelly Dean: the housekeeper. So we do not really know this character, since she died long before the story begins. Through the course of the novel, we come to know two different sides to Catherine: Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Linton. These two Catherines are very different from each other, since the first one reflects the personality of an adventurous and rebel child; while the second one becomes the Edgar Linton's wife: a civilized young married lady. .
The most interesting thing in the evolution of this character is that once she becomes the Linton's wife starts a progressive mental disorder and physical disability that ends with numerous instances of confinement until she dies. A few critics consider the imprisonment in terms of gender. For instance, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar affirm in The Madwoman in the Attic that "the predominance of confinement is a recurring phenomenon in the works of nineteenth-century women writers that indicates their feelings of confinement in a literary world ruled by men"1. In that way, we understand the Emily Brontë's work as a prison in which Catherine cannot escape.
