The Wuthering Heights character brought from Liverpool as a foundling is Heathcliff.
Mr Earnshaw encounters the homeless boy during a journey to Liverpool and brings him back to the Earnshaw household in Yorkshire. The boy’s origins are never explained, which makes his identity and ancestry a lasting mystery within the novel.
Heathcliff is raised alongside Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw. Mr Earnshaw favours him, but Hindley resents the newcomer and later reduces him to the status of a servant. Heathcliff’s intense bond with Catherine becomes the emotional centre of the story.
A common mix-up is to confuse Heathcliff with Linton Heathcliff. Linton is Heathcliff’s son by Isabella Linton; he belongs to the next generation and is not the Liverpool foundling. The name “Heathcliff” is both the foundling’s given name and surname.