Misanthropists' heaven or Gothic delight?

I recently finished reading Wuthering Heights. I've read it before, but it was when I was a lot younger and didn't have much of a background for understanding the deeper themes of the book.

From the opening pages, I fell in love with this book. I am a little ashamed to admit it, since I realize that there are not many redeeming aspects to such a dark and heavy story. None of the characters are likable. Many are simply evil.

For me the, biggest drawback was the written dialect. Good old Joseph. What the heck is he saying here?

"What is he abaht? girt eedle seeght!"

Emily Brontë's sister, Charlotte, wrote the introduction to the second printing of the book. She said that one had to wonder whether it was moral to create a character as monstrous as Heathcliff, and she had to say "No."

I know Heathcliff is a monster. It's pretty clear that his only intentions are to spread the evil and unhappiness he feels to all those around him. He is motivated by an infinite bitterness and malice.

Typical Heathcliff quotes:

"By hell! I hate them."

"His life is not worth a farthing, and I won't spend a farthing on him."

"The nuisance of her presence outweighs the gratification to be derived from tormenting her!"

But I'm determined to believe that he didn't begin as such. Catherine and Heathcliff were bound together, and when she married another, that was the beginning of Heathcliff's downfall.

"Two words would comprehend my future -- death and hell -- existence, after losing her, would be hell."

So why do I love this story so much? I love the passion. I love that love is powerful enough to be terrible as well as uplifting. I never stopped feeling sympathetic towards Heathcliff, though I can understand that for some, or even most, people, his destructive behavior doesn't balance out with whatever love he may have had for Catherine.

But it brings up a startling notion: What do you do, how do you go on -- and for what purpose -- when you have lost your true love, your soul's match?