Wuthering Heights
Emily Bronte
In the late winter months of
1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the
isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff,
a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles
away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his
housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange
denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his
recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the
main part of Wuthering Heights.
Nelly remembers her childhood. As
a young girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the
manor, Mr. Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool
and returns home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children.
At first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister
Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly comes to
love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the
moors. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his
own son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw
sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.
Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw
dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife, Frances,
and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered
and favored son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common laborer,
forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with
Catherine, however. One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to
tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live
there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to
recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs. Linton works to make her a
proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become infatuated
with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated.
When Frances dies after giving
birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of
alcoholism, and behaves even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff.
Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement prompts her to become
engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love for Heathcliff.
Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and
returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.
When Heathcliff returns, he
immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have wronged him. Having come
into a vast and mysterious wealth, he deviously lends money to the drunken
Hindley, knowing that Hindley will increase his debts and fall into deeper
despondency. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places
himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom
he treats very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and
dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form
she will, she may haunt him, drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave
him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to
Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her
there.
Thirteen years pass, during which
Nelly Dean serves as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange.
Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her
temperament is modified by her father’s gentler influence. Young Catherine
grows up at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day,
however, wandering through the moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton,
and plays together with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies, and Linton comes
to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly, whining son even more
cruelly than he treated the boy’s mother.
Three years later, Catherine
meets Heathcliff on the moors, and makes a visit to Wuthering Heights to meet
Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through
letters. When Nelly destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl begins
sneaking out at night to spend time with her frail young lover, who asks her to
come back and nurse him back to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent
that Linton is pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to;
Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon
Thrushcross Grange—and his revenge upon Edgar Linton—will be complete. One day,
as Edgar Linton grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine
back to Wuthering Heights, and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries
Linton. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed
by the death of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering
Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering
Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to
Lockwood.
Nelly’s story ends as she reaches
the present. Lockwood, appalled, ends his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and
returns to London. However, six months later, he pays a visit to Nelly, and
learns of further developments in the story. Although Catherine originally
mocked Hareton’s ignorance and illiteracy (in an act of retribution, Heathcliff
ended Hareton’s education after Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton
as they live together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff becomes more and more
obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent that he begins
speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a
night spent walking on the moors, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and young Catherine
inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they plan to be married
on the next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes
to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.
CRITICISM
CRITICISM
This is a book
that speaks to the death of romantic notions; even the relatively happy ending
doesn't seem to come from a grand love or fiery romance, but from quiet
acceptance. The only (presumably) successful relationship doesn't start in
secret and it is never dramatic; it is a quiet acclimatization of two people
towards one another, a co-evolution. To me, in many ways, Wuthering Heights was
an anti-romance, exactly the opposite of what I had been expecting.Even as I was
wrapped up in the story, I struggled with how unsympathetic all of the
characters were. They were foolish, naive, vindictive, whiny, and
self-absorbed. They were, I suppose, very human, though in some cases it was
hard to see anything redeemable about them at all. Take Catherine, the beloved
whose rejection of Heathcliff spurs the book's events. She had a singularly
high sense of self-worth.
In Wuthering
Heights, Brontë constantly plays nature and culture against each other. Nature
is represented by the Earnshaw family, and by Catherine and Heathcliff in
particular. These characters are governed by their passions, not by reflection
or ideals of civility. Correspondingly, the house where they live—Wuthering
Heights—comes to symbolize a similar wildness. On the other hand, Thrushcross
Grange and the Linton family represent culture, refinement, convention, and
cultivation.
Finally, a word
or two about madness: It is interesting the way the book conflates madness and
illness while at the same time casting a moral judgment on the sufferers of
both. Sickliness is a shorthand character trait in this book and madness a
character flaw. Again, this attitude is likely a product of the book's era, but
it's one that I found intriguing because of the inherent contradictions I see
in the way it was handled.
It is a novel about
what happens when the guy doesn't get the girl and how the universe can be set
right again. In between, there is melodrama, tragedy, madness and, possibly,
ghosts. It's a quick read, a fun one, and the kind of book that gives you a
little bit of insight into the stew of popular culture. Plus, it'll make you
feel good about yourself, since you're almost certainly wiser, more humble, and
less shallow than any of Bronte's classic characters.
HEY told me you had been to her,
