A whirlwind of death, abuse and twisted romance, the circumstances in Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights are anything but ordinary. Although poor choices and complex love stories play a role in the unfolding of the plot, a closer analysis shows that the lack of proper parenting is one of the root causes of the turmoil, as it severely affects the child and even generations subsequent ones. While parents are obligated to love and care for their children with equal wealth, conflicts arise when parents resort to favoritism, ultimately influencing the child's adulthood. At the beginning of the book, Heathcliff upsets the balance once maintained in the Earnshaw family, "...Heathcliff as a usurper of his parents' affections and privileges..." (48). Since Mr. Earnshaw openly preferred Heathcliff to his own biological son, Hindley Earnshaw not only felt resentment and jealousy towards Heathcliff, but also a sense of remorse since he could never find favor in his father's eyes as he desired. When Heathcliff came between Mr. Earnshaw and his son, Hindley seemingly lost the father figure in his life. As Hindley aged to become a father, his low self-esteem and distorted view of the world came with it. Since Hindley is a victim of favoritism, this has turned him into a very vulnerable character. This ultimately led to Hindley being the drunken, corrupt, abusive parent he is towards his son, Hareton. Hindley didn't just hate his son, but rather repeated the past by carrying out the same actions his father had taken on him. Hindley, a gambler and drunkard, dissociated himself from his son, neglecting him just as Mr. Earnshaw had done to him years before. It is true that there were other possible factors that… middle of paper… …enough of that, continued to allow the mistreatment to persist. This ultimately leads Heathcliff to take out the same feelings he once had on his son and other people around him. In all the anarchy of the novel, the main source of poignancy comes from the lack of proper parenting that is implicit in the children. . When children seek guidance from their parents, they absorb, learn, and reproduce exactly what they observe from their elders; therefore, a child's behavior ultimately reflects his experiences at home and his parents' attitudes towards him. The children of Wuthering Heights must deal with their parents' mistakes and failures leading to an emotionally torn child laced with self-victimization. The corrupt ways they learned from their parents lead to similar actions and emotions portrayed in the subsequent generation.