Social convention plays a major antagonistic role in Wuthering Heights. Catherine Earnshaw is, by nature, a wild personality. She loves being outdoors, playing rough, and being rather nasty. However, once she starts approaching adulthood, social conventions play a bigger role in her life. She is tempted by high society, represented in the genteel character of Edgar Linton. She begins wearing fine clothes, putting on airs to appear more imperious and polite, and staying indoors, away from Heathcliff, a boy who is closer than a brother or even a lover to her.
Catherine's turning to high society is seen as a betrayal of Heathcliff and her own nature. It could be argued that her obeying social conventions eventually leads to her death. She makes herself ill, unable to commit to Heathcliff or Edgar fully. She wants social privilege, but she is far more drawn to the wild freedom of her girlhood, of which she mourns her loss to Nelly. These two opposing forces are never reconciled within her heart, and in the end, the conflict destroys her.
Heathcliff, by contrast, either disobeys social conventions or bends them to his whim. He comes back from his absence as a wealthy man. He appears to have tempered his bad moods with the behavior of a gentleman. However, deep down, he is still vengeful and uses social conventions to carry out his plans. He marries Isabella and forces Catherine the younger to marry his son in order to gain control of Thrushcross Grange. He wheedles control of Wuthering Heights away from Hindley by loaning him large amounts of money for his drinking and gambling addictions.
A common theme of Romantic literature is the defying of social convention. As a brooding, Byronic hero, Heathcliff presents a fundamental challenge to society and the values it embodies. He is all about emotion, passion, and following your heart. These are the very things that society demands must be kept in constant check for the sake of propriety, especially in the case of women. For a man to act according to the dictates of his heart is one thing, but for a woman it's a different matter entirely. Social convention regards female emotions as inherently dangerous, required at all times to be subjected to the restraining influence of a husband within the respectable bounds of marriage.
The tension between what the heart wants and what society demands runs right throughout the story. Catherine finds herself torn between the two imperatives, and it's never completely clear which one she will eventually choose to follow. That she finally plumps for social convention by marrying the wealthy and gentle Edgar may disappoint more than a few readers, but given the prevailing standards of the time, it's an entirely understandable choice.
Social convention dictates that Catherine Earnshaw make as advantageous a marriage as possible. She is expected to marry a man as wealthy and as far up the class ladder as she can. Therefore, when the wealthy and distinguished Edgar Linton falls in love with her and starts to pay suit, she is expected to respond. Her alcoholic brother Hindley cleans up his act when Linton comes to call, knowing the marriage would raise the family's status. Catherine herself is not in love with Linton, but she encourages him to propose because she wants the wealth and prestige that marriage to him would bring.
When he actually proposes, however, Catherine comes to Nelly Dean in a state of anguish. She knows convention says she must marry Linton—handsome, rich, and a gentleman—but in her heart she loves Heathcliff.
Nelly tells her she should not marry Linton if she does not love him. Catherine responds that she cannot marry Heathcliff, much as she would like to, because he has been too far "degraded" by Hindley. Again, social convention raises its head. Catherine simply can't envision herself married to an impoverished farm hand—which is what Heathcliff has become—no matter how much she loves him. As Heathcliff will tell Catherine as she is dying, she brought her death on herself by violating her own heart in marrying Linton.
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