Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte
First published in 1847, Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heightsis one of the most widely read and admired novels of English literature. The novel is admired not only for its thrilling tale of passion and vengeance but also for its power of imagery, its complex structure, and its ambiguity – the very elements that confounded its first critics. Emily Bronte lived her short life mostly at home, capturing her inspiration from the local landscape of the surrounding moorlands and the regional architecture of Yorkshire, as well as her personal experience of religion, folklore, illness and death, apart from her own fertile imagination. Dealing with the important themes of nature, cruelty, social status, and indestructibility of spirit, Wuthering Heights has surpassed Charlotte Bronte’s more successful Jane Eyre in academic and popular circles.
Wuthering Heights Plot Summary
Part I-Childhood
Set on the moors of Yorkshire in England, Wuthering Heights opens with remarks from Mr Lockwood, the recently arrived Thrushcross Grange tenant. He tells of his visit to Wuthering Heights, where he meets his landlord and friend, Mr Heathcliff; Joseph, the devout and surly old servant of Heathcliff; Earnshaw, an ignorant and poor young man; and the lovely Catherine Heathcliff, the widow of Heathcliff’s dead son.
The harsh weather is forcing Lockwood to spend the night. He finds several old books, the margins of which were used as a childhood diary by Catherine Earnshaw, the mother of the current Catherine. Looking at these pages, Lockwood learns about the childhood adventures of Heathcliff and the first Catherine, and about their oppression of Catherine ‘s brother, Hindley. Lockwood falls into a restless sleep, punctuated by nightmares in which the first Catherine Earnshaw enters the bedroom window and begs to be let in. He wakes up crying, and in doing so he wakes up to Heathcliff, who opens the window and begs Catherine to come back. On sunrise, Heathcliff escorts Lockwood back to Thrushcross Grange.
The next day, Lockwood, finding himself ill, persuades the servant, Nelly Dean, to sit down and speak to him. She tells how she grew up in Wuthering Heights, and how one night Mr Earnshaw brought home the enigmatic boy, Heathcliff, whom he had found hungry in Liverpool. Mr Earnshaw favours Heathcliff, making his son Hindley hate the interloper, but Heathcliff and the first Catherine are fast friends. Hindley is sent to college, but after Mr Eamshaw ‘s death, he returns with his wife and becomes the master of Wuthering Heights. Under Hindley’s tyranny, Catherine and Heathcliff are becoming more and more mischievous, their favourite pastime being to walk across the moors.
On one such excursion, they were caught looking at the windows of the Thrushcross Grange, and Catherine was attacked by a bulldog and had to stay at the Grange for five weeks. In the meantime, Hindley prohibits Heathcliff from having any contact with Catherine.
Catherine’s returns much changed. Now she’s dressing and acting like a lady, and she’s been a friend to Edgar and Isabella Linton, the sisters who live at the Grange. Heathcliff feels her neglect sharply, and Catherine feels torn between the loyalty of her old friend and the attraction of her new companions. The new wife of Hindley, Frances, gives birth to a son, Hareton, and dies of intoxication, and Hindley starts to drink and becomes ever more tyrannical. Heathcliff is stripped of any schooling and is forced to serve as one of the servants of the Heights. As Edgar proposes to Catherine, she accepts but assures Nelly that she would never have done so if her brother hadn’t made Heathcliff into someone who would dishonour her from marrying. Heathcliff overhears this remark and flees Wuthering Heights before she goes on to explain to Nelly the extent of her feeling for Heathcliff.
“I cannot express it, but surely ………… do not talk of our separation again.”
Part II-Marriage and Death
Catherine and Edgar are married and seem happy until Heathcliff comes back, mysteriously wealthy and educated. He takes up residence at Wuthering Heights, where out of all his possessions he gambles Hindley. Heathcliff resumes his acquaintance with Catherine quickly, to her delight and to the annoyance of Edgar. Edgar ‘s sister Isabella continues to love Heathcliff, despite repeated warnings about his character. Heathcliff, desiring the inheritance of Isabella, continues to promote the attraction and he is irritated when Nelly tells Edgar of this courtship. There is a fight between Edgar and Heathcliff, and Heathcliff is banished from the Grange. Catherine refuses to feed three days to punish Edgar and forces herself into a feverish delirium. Edgar is nursing her back to a fragile state of health, while elope is Isabella and Heathcliff. Soon Isabella laments her marriage to the Heathcliff cruel. She writes to Nelly about her miserable life at Wuthering Heights and begs her to come.
Heathcliff takes advantage of Nelly ‘s visit to ask for a meeting with Catherine who is pregnant. Nelly agrees reluctantly, and a few days later, while Edgar is at the church, Heathcliff enters the barn and sees Catherine for the last time. Edgar enters and finds that Heathcliff embraces Catherine, who’s fainted. Catherine died without ever fully regaining her senses, even though she gave birth to a daughter two hours before her death. Edgar and Heathcliff are both distracted by Catherine ‘s death, and Heathcliff begs her ghost to haunt her.
