This question is based on Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I will wait, if I can o...

This statement is made by Heathcliff. In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff harbours a deep, consuming desire for revenge against Hindley Earnshaw. After old Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights and degrades Heathcliff from a favoured member of the household to a common labourer, subjecting him to years of humiliation, abuse, and deprivation of education.

The vengeful tone of the statement - "I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back" - and the chilling patience expressed in "I don't care how long I will wait, if I can only do it at last" are unmistakably Heathcliff's. His obsession with outliving Hindley so he can exact full retribution ("I hope he will not die before I do!") is a central element of his characterisation in the novel. This burning desire for revenge against Hindley, alongside his passionate love for Catherine, drives much of the plot.

None of the other characters speak this way about Hindley. Edgar Linton has little direct conflict with Hindley; Lockwood is an outsider narrator who arrives at Wuthering Heights long after these events; and Isabella, though she suffers at Heathcliff's hands, does not speak of revenge against Hindley.