Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Summary

This novel tells of a story within a story. It starts in 1801, when a man named Lockwood rented a
manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he met
Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lived in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away
from the Grange.

Lockwood asked his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff of Wuthering
Heights. Nelly recalled the events, and Lockwood wrote down her tale in his diary.

According to Nelly, she used to work as a servant girl at Wuthering Heights for Mr. Earnshaw,
the owner of the estate. One day, Mr. Earnshaw went to Liverpool and returned home with an
orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children, Hindley
and Catherine, detested the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly came to love him and
they became very close to each other. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw began to prefer
Heathcliff to his own son. Mr. Earnshaw even sent Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff
nearby.

Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw died, and Hindley inherited Wuthering Heights. He returned
with a wife, Frances, and immediately sought revenge on Heathcliff. He was treated as a
common laborer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continued his close relationship with
Catherine. One night they wandered to Thrushcross Grange and Catherine got bitten by a dog.
She had to stay at the Grange to recover for five weeks. By the time Catherine returned, she was
already infatuated with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grew more complicated.

Frances died after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton. Hindley became an alcoholic, and
behaved even more cruelly toward Heathcliff. Catherine, on the other hand, got engaged to
Edgar Linton, despite her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff ran away from Wuthering Heights,
staying away for three years, and returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.

When Heathcliff returned, he sought revenge on all who had wronged him. Having come into a
vast and mysterious wealth, he lent money to the drunken Hindley, knowing that he will increase
his debts. When Hindley died, Heathcliff took the manor. He also placed himself in line to
inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treated very cruelly. Catherine
became ill, gave birth to a daughter, and died. Heathcliff begged 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 fled to London and gave birth to
Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She kept the boy with her there.

Thirteen years passed, 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 discovered the manor, met Hareton, and played together with him. Soon afterwards,
Isabella died, and Linton lived with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treated his sickly son even more
cruelly than he treated the boy’s mother.

Three years later, Catherine met Heathcliff on the moors, and visited Wuthering Heights to meet
Linton. She and Linton began a secret romance conducted entirely through letters. When Nelly
destroyed Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl began sneaking out at night to spend time with
her frail young lover, who asked her to come back and nurse him back to health. However, it
quickly became apparent that Linton was only pursuing Catherine because Heathcliff forced him
to. Heathcliff was hoping that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross
Grange—and his revenge upon Edgar Linton—will be complete. When was nearing death,
Heathcliff lured Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, and held them prisoner until
Catherine married Linton. Soon after the marriage, Edgar died, and his death is quickly followed
by the death of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controlled both Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange. He forced Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and acted as a common
servant, while he rented Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.

Nelly’s story ended as she reached the present. Lockwood, appalled, ended his tenancy at
Thrushcross Grange and returned to London. However, six months later, he visited Nelly, and
learned 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 grew to love Hareton as they live together at Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff became more and more obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent
that he began speaking to her ghost. Everything he saw reminded him of her. Shortly after a
night spent walking on the moors, Heathcliff died. Hareton and young Catherine inherited
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they planned to be married on the next New
Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood went to visit the graves of Catherine
and Heathcliff.

Favorite Scene

My favorite scene is found at the end of Chapter 16 when Heathcliff learned of Catherine’s dead.
He attempted to conceal his anguish. But then, he just couldn’t. Heathcliff cursed Catherine and
begged her to haunt him so he would not be left in "this abyss, where I cannot find you!... I
cannot live without my soul!" He dashed his head against the tree and howled "like a savage
beast getting goaded to death with knives and spears." Ellen was appalled.

Here are the exact words from Chapter 16:

'May she wake in torment!' he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning
in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. 'Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not
THERE - not in heaven - not perished - where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my
sufferings! And I pray one prayer - I repeat it till my tongue stiffens - Catherine Earnshaw, may
you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you – haunt me, then! The murdered DO
haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth.

Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I
cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live
without my soul!'

He dashed his head against the knotted trunk; and, lifting up his eyes, howled, not like a man,
but like a savage beast being goaded to death with knives and spears. I observed several
splashes of blood about the bark of the tree, and his hand and forehead were both stained;
probably the scene I witnessed was a repetition of others acted during the night. It hardly moved
my compassion - it appalled me: still, I felt reluctant to quit him so. But the moment he
recollected himself enough to notice me watching, he thundered a command for me to go, and I
obeyed. He was beyond my skill to quiet or console!

I think that Emily Bronte had so successfully painted a picture of passionate grief in this scene.

Analysis

Wuthering Heights explores different kinds of love. Loves on display in the novel include
Heathcliff and Catherine's all-consuming passion for each other, which while noble in its purity
is also terribly destructive. In contract, the love between Catherine and Edgar is proper and
civilized rather than passionate. Theirs is a love of peace and comfort, a socially acceptable love,
but it can't stand in the way of Heathcliff and Catherine's more profound (and more violent)
connection.

The love between Cathy and Linton is a grotesque exaggeration of that between Catherine and
Edgar. While Catherine always seems just a bit too strong for Edgar, Cathy and Linton's love is
founded on Linton's weakness—Linton gets Cathy to love him by playing on her desire to
protect and mother him. Finally, there's the love between Cathy and Hareton, which seems to
balance the traits of the other loves on display. They have the passion of Catherine and
Heathcliff without the destructiveness, and the gentleness shared by Edgar and Catherine without
the dullness or inequality in power.