Wuthering Heights- Emily Brontë

Details Of The Book

Title: Wuthering Heights
Author: Emily Brontë
Publication: First published in 1847 (with her pen name Ellis Bell)

About The Author

Emily Bronte, one of the Brontë sisters. She has always been considered a mysterious figure, and information about her is quite scarce because of her solitary and withdrawn nature. Emily did not make any friends outside of her family, and her closest friend was her sister Anne.

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights was first published in London in 1847 in two volumes, the first and second, and Anne Brontë’s Agnes Grey, with the author’s name under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, published together in three volumes. Until 1850, Emily’s real name was publicly printed on the universal edition of Wuthering Heights.

About The Story

Main Characters

• Heathcliff: At the beginning of the novel, it is assumed that Heathcliff was an orphan on the streets of Liverpool who was later taken back to Wuthering Heights by Grandfather Earnshaw to be adopted. Heathcliff is not treated well in the Wuthering Heights after his death, though. He and Catherine have a long-standing affair that leads her to retaliate against Catherine’s choice of husband and the results he receives.
• Catherine Earnshaw: The first mention of Catherine in the novel comes after her death, when Mr. Lockwood finds the contents of her diary and engravings. In the author’s written account of Catherine, it seems unclear to herself whether she preferred Heathcliff or went after Edgar, whom she eventually chose to marry. She later died a few hours after giving birth to her daughter.
• Edgar Linton: The eldest son of the Linton, who lived in Thrushcross Grange. As an adult, Catherine chooses to marry Edgar because of his high social status, but the marriage ends up having devastating consequences.
• Ellen (Nellie) Dean: The main narrator of the novel’s plot, Nellie has been a servant in the Earnshaw family for three generations; in the Linton family for two. The book mentions that Nellie’s official name is Ellen, but in order to give respect and show affection, Nellie is also used as a nickname for other characters close to her.
• Isabella Linton: The youngest sister of Edgar in the Linton family, she ignores Catherine’s warnings and has romantic fantasies about Heathcliff. Heathcliff marries her, but treats her brutally and often badly. When she became pregnant, she fled to London and gave birth to her son, Linton.
• Hindley Earnshaw: Katharine’s brother, who marries a woman of unknown origin, Frances, and does not make the marriage public until after his father, Earnshaw, dies. After her death and the collapse of the Earnshaw family, he became a brutal, alcoholic and gambling addict.
• Hareton Earnshaw: The son of Hindley and Frances, initially raised by Nellie and later practically raised by Joseph and Heathcliff. Hareton works as a servant at Wuthering Heights and is unaware of his origins. His presence often reminds Heathcliff of Catherine.
• Katherine Linton: The daughter of Katharine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton, she is a cheerful girl who is unaware of her parents’ past.
• Lyndon Heathcliff: The son of Heathcliff and Isabella Lyndon. Linton began to understand his father as a teenager and married his cousin Katharine Jr. under his father’s arrangement.
• Lockwood: The narrator of the book, who comes to the Thrushcross Grange to escape the world, hoping to rent the Wuthering Heights from Heathcliff, but eventually finds himself in the same situation as Heathcliff and prefers to return to secular life.

Plot Summary

Set in Yorkshire in northern England in the eighteenth century, Lockwood, a young man from the city, rents a boggy farmhouse and, during a visit to the landlord Heathcliff, discovers a past hidden in the Wuthering Heights.

Earnshaw, the former owner of Wuthering Heights, went to Liverpool on business and brought back an unidentified gypsy boy, naming him Heathcliff. The young boy takes away his old master’s affection for his eldest son Hindley and his daughter Catherine, who grows to resent him, but grows to love Catherine. After the death of the elder Ensign, Hindley and his wife Frances inherited the mountain, and in revenge, he reduced Heathcliff to a slave and persecuted him. Although Catherine still loves Heathcliff, she marries Edgar Linton, the wealthy and handsome man, in order to be admired by the public, and Heathcliff leaves on a stormy night.

Three years later, Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights, a wealthy gentleman determined to take revenge on Hindley, who persecuted him, and Edgar, who took his love away. He first gambled his way to seize Hindley’s property and Wuthering Heights, raising Hindley’s son, Hareton , to be a crude, ignorant servant. Later, he also lured Edgar’s sister Isabella to run away with him, causing a rift between the Linton siblings. The growing conflict between Edgar and Heathcliff causes Catherine to struggle internally, and she eventually dies in childbirth, leaving behind a daughter, Catherine Jr. Isabella, on the other hand, fled to the city after the marriage and gave birth to her son, Linden.

Not satisfied, Heathcliff forces Edgar to give up Isabella’s son, Linton, and then tries to force his daughter, little Catherine, to marry the weak and sickly Linton. Edgar soon falls ill and dies, leaving his estate and  the property of his nephew, Linton, who dies soon afterwards, leaving the property in the hands of Heathcliff and little Catherine imprisoned forever in the Wuthering Heights. He even dug up Catherine’s coffin, hoping to be with her for a long time, and finally died without eating or drinking, in love. Before he died, he tried to stop young Catherine and Harrington from falling in love. Heathcliff saw a reflection of himself and Kathleen in them. After Heathcliff’s death, young Catherine and Harrington inherit the estate of the hill and the field, and the unfulfilled love of the previous generation is made up for in the next