Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

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Chapter 1

1. What impression of Heathcliff is created in this chapter?

2. What impression of Lockwood is created in this chapter?
3. What is the effect of the way this chapter is narrated?
4. How is Wuthering Heights presented in this chapter?
5. Why do you think Brontë chose to set her novel in the past?

Chapter 2

1. What impression of Heathcliff is created in this chapter?

2. What impression of Lockwood is created in this chapter?
3. How are the key characters in this chapter related?
4. How is Wuthering Heights presented in this chapter?
5. How is the weather used in this chapter?

Chapter 3

1. How does your impression of Heathcliff change in this chapter?

2. How is the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine as children presented?
3. How is Wuthering Heights presented in this chapter?
4. How are dreams and dreaming used in this chapter?
5. How does setting mirror the narrative structure in this chapter?
6. How far are elements of the Gothic evident here?

Chapter 4

1. What is the effect of the narrative style in this chapter? How would you describe the
narrative? How reliable does our narrator seem?
2. How are Heathcliff and Catherine as children presented?
3. What is the significance of Heathcliff’s initial description and the way he enters the family?

Chapter 5

1. What links can you see between the characters and events in this chapter and those in the
other novels you have studied?
2. How is the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine presented in this chapter?

Chapter 6

1. How does the narrative change in this chapter? What effect does this have?
2. What is the effect of the description of Thrushcross Grange? How does it compare to
Wuthering Heights? And how does it compare to key locations in the other novel you have
studied?
3. How are the Lintons presented in this chapter?

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 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
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4. How is Heathcliff’s relationship with Catherine presented in this chapter?

Chapter 7

1. How does Brontë continue to create a sense of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange as
two different worlds in this chapter?
2. How does Brontë present masculinity in Heathcliff and Linton? Which version of masculinity
does she seem to favour?
3. How are boundaries and barriers important in this chapter?
4. How are class differences presented in this chapter?

Chapter 8

1. How is violence presented and used in this chapter?

2. How does this chapter influence our ideas about Heathcliff, Catherine and Linton?
3. What links can you see between this chapter and the other novel you have studied?

Chapter 9

1. Do you think Nelly is a reliable narrator? Was she really unaware that Heathcliff was listening
to their conversation? Do you think she gives an accurate representation of Catherine’s
character, or is her account too influenced by her personal feeling?
2. How are dreams important in this chapter? How do they compare with dreams in the other
novel you have studied?
3. Why is Nelly’s attitude to dreams interesting here?
4. How does Brontë present the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff here?
5. Why does Catherine decide to marry Linton? How is context important in helping us to
understand her reasons?
6. How is religion presented in this chapter?
7. In what ways does this chapter present us with a turning point in the novel?
8. How is love presented in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole?
9. What is the significance of the ballad that Nelly sings to Hareton in this chapter?

Chapter 10

1. Look at the section just before Nelly passes on Heathcliff’s message to Catherine. How does
Brontë use setting here? Think about her use of symbolism.
2. How does Brontë present Heathcliff in this chapter? In what ways has he changed? How has
he stayed the same?
3. Who, if anyone, does Brontë encourage you to sympathise with in this section? Why, and
how?
4. How many animal references are there in this chapter? What effect do these have?

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 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
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Chapter 11

1. To what extent can Nelly be considered responsible for the events of this chapter?
2. How does Brontë contrast the characters of Heathcliff and Linton in this character?
3. How are the settings of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange contrasted in this
chapter?

Chapter 12

1. What is the significance of the visions Catherine sees when she is ill? Think especially about
her reaction to her own face in the mirror.
2. How are women presented in this chapter? Are they powerful, or ultimately powerless?

Chapter 13

1. How is the weather significant in this chapter?

2. Gilbert and Gubar see Catherine’s madness as a result of her imprisonment - in her room, her
marriage, and her femininity, which is ultimately restrictive. Do you agree?
3. How is food used symbolically in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole? What is the
symbolic significance of Isabella’s inability to eat the food she is served at Wuthering
Heights?
4. What is the symbolic significance of Isabella’s desire for the gun? What does this show about
her character?

Chapter 14

1. How are setting and location used in this chapter?

2. What Gothic elements are present in this chapter? How does Brontë use these?

Chapter 15

1. How is the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff presented in this chapter?
2. In what way are Heathcliff and Catherine presented as doubles? What is the significance of
this?

Chapter 16

1. What is the significance of the place Catherine is buried?

2. How does Brontë present religion here? Think particularly about Linton and Heathcliff’s
reactions to Catherine’s death. Consider context too - would their reactions have been
considered shocking in Brontë’s time?
3. Why is it significant that Edgar and Catherine’s child is a girl? (Hint: think about inheritance
laws.)
4. How does Brontë present love in this chapter? Think about both Edgar and Heathcliff.

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 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
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Chapter 17

1. In this chapter Brontë uses Nelly to draw attention to the parallel experiences of Linton and
Hindley. What effect does this have? What other parallel stories or characters exist in
Wuthering Heights?
2. Think about the way the story is told here. What is the effect of this narrative structure?
3. Do you think this is a novel in which violence is specifically directed towards women? Or does
Brontë present a world which is simply violent towards every inhabitant?
4. What is the importance of names and naming in this chapter, and the novel as a whole? Why
does Linton name his daughter Catherine? Why does he actually call her Cathy? Why did
Heathcliff call Catherine Cathy?

Chapter 18

1. In the previous chapter, you considered the importance of names and naming. How are
names important again in this chapter? Why does Brontë choose to call Isabella and
Heathcliff’s son Linton Heathcliff?
2. How are dogs important in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole?
3. Why do you think Brontë chooses to move the story forward 13 years? What effect does this
have?
4. How is Hareton presented in this chapter?
5. How is class important in this chapter?
6. In what ways are characters imprisoned in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole?

Chapter 19

1. How is Linton presented in this chapter?

2. How is Edgar presented in this chapter? How has his character changed since his first
appearance?
3. How does Brontë adapt her writing style when representing the speech of each of her
characters? What effect does this have?

Chapter 20

1. How is setting important in this chapter?

Chapter 21

1. What is the significance of fire in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole?
2. Is it possible to sympathise with Heathcliff? How and why?
3. What is the significance of letters in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole?
4. ‘Brontë presents education both as a liberator and as a form of social control.’ Do you agree?
5. What is the significance of Hareton’s inability to read the sign above the door at Wuthering
Heights?

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Chapter 22

1. How does Brontë present love in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole? Think about the
different types of love, and the consequences of love.

Chapter 23

1. What is the effect of the retrospective narrative style which Brontë employs?
2. How is the relationship between Linton and Cathy presented in this chapter?

Chapter 24

1. What is the significance of the contrast between Cathy’s idea of paradise and young Linton’s?
2. What is the significance of Cathy and young Linton playing with toys belonging to Catherine
and Heathcliff?
3. Critics have suggested that the illnesses suffered by Edgar and young Linton ‘feminise’ them.
Do you agree?

Chapter 25

1. Why does Brontë construct the narrative so that Nelly repeatedly interrupts the story she is
telling to speak to Lockwood? What effect does this have?
2. What is the role of letters in this chapter? How does Brontë use them to move the story on?
3. In this chapter, Lockwood denies being interested in, or attracted to, Cathy. How would you
describe Lockwood’s attitude towards women? How does his talk about women contrast with
his actions towards them?

Chapter 26

1. What is the significance of the description of the weather in this chapter, and in the novel as
a whole?
2. What is the significance of Linton’s dream and his response to it?

Chapter 27

1. To what extent do you think Nelly is to blame for the events in Wuthering Heights?
2. Consider the reliability of Nelly’s narration in this chapter. Does she seem to be a reliable
narrator?
3. In what ways does Cathy resemble her parents? What do you think Brontë is saying about the
nature/nurture debate?
4. What is the symbolic significance of imprisonment in this chapter? (Hint: think about the fact
that Cathy is getting married.)
5. In what ways could this chapter be read as a subversion of a romantic fairy tale? What effect
does this have?

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 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
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Chapter 28

1. How is death presented in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole?

2. How is Cathy presented in this chapter? Does she remind you of another character? What
similarities are there between her and the characters in the other novel you have studied?
3. How is young Linton presented in this chapter? Think particularly about the description of
him ‘sucking a stick of sugar-candy’. What symbolic value does this image hold?
4. How does Brontë present the law and authority figures in this chapter, and in the novel as a
whole? Use quotations to support your answer.
5. ‘The female characters in Wuthering Heights are all disempowered by the social structures
of marriage, motherhood, and inheritance.’ Do you agree? Why, or why not?

Chapter 29

1. What is the role of the Gothic and the supernatural in this chapter, and in the novel as a
whole?
2. What is the effect of Heathcliff’s description of Catherine’s ghost? What does it show you
about his character?
3. How is setting important in this chapter? Think particularly about the snow that Heathcliff
digs through, and about the fact that he finds Nelly and Cathy in the room he entered as a
guest 18 years ago.
4. How is death presented in this chapter? Why would this have been particularly shocking to
the original audience of Wuthering Heights?

Chapter 30

1. How is Cathy presented in this chapter? Do you sympathise with her? Why, or why not?
2. How does Brontë present marriage in this chapter, and in the novel as a whole?

Chapter 31

1. How does Brontë present education in this chapter? How does this compare to the
presentation of education in the other novel you have studied?
2. How is Lockwood presented in this chapter? Has he changed at all since his visit to Wuthering
Heights at the start of the novel?

Chapter 32

1. Look at the description of Wuthering Heights in this chapter. How does it differ from the way
in which the house was described in earlier parts of the novel? Support your answer with
quotations.
2. Like the first chapter of the novel, Chapter 32 begins with a date. What effect does this
have?
3. What part does education play in the relationship between Hareton and Cathy?
4. Look at the descriptions of light in this chapter. How are these used symbolically?

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Chapter 33

1. In this chapter, Cathy and Hareton plan to move some plants from the Grange to the Heights.
What is the significance of this?
2. In what ways does Nelly function as a surrogate mother figure in this chapter and the rest of
the novel? What other mother figures are present in Wuthering Heights? How do they
compare with mother figures in the other novel you have studied? Support your answer with
quotations.

Chapter 34

1. How does Brontë present heaven and religion in this chapter?

2. How is Heathcliff presented in this chapter? Is it possible to sympathise with him, or does
Brontë intend us to condemn him completely?
3. What is the significance of Lockwood’s meeting with the small child, who claims to have seen
Heathcliff’s ghost? Are we supposed to believe him?
4. Throughout the novel, Lockwood has misinterpreted the events he has seen, and shown
himself to be incapable of understanding the world of Wuthering Heights. What is the effect
of the end of the novel, in which he wonders how anyone ‘could ever imagine unquiet
slumbers, for the sleepers in that quiet earth?’ Are we, as readers, supposed to believe that
Heathcliff, Cathy and Linton are at peace?
5. Who do you think are the most powerful characters in this novel? Why? Support your answer
with quotations.
6. Pauline Nester has suggested that in this novel, Brontë ‘investigates rather than exemplifies
the romantic cliché of perfect love.’ Do you agree? To what extent do you think Wuthering
Heights can be described as a ‘love story’? Again, support your ideas with quotations.
7. When Wuthering Heights was published, an early reviewer claimed that: ‘In Wuthering
Heights the reader is shocked, disgusted, almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity,
and the most diabolical hate and vengeance ... The women in the book are of a strange
fiendish-angelic nature, tantalizing, and terrible, and the men are indescribable out of the
book itself.’ Why is this contextually interesting? How could you use this quotation in your
essay?

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 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
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Example exam questions (designed for the Edexcel A-level specification)

1. Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present women’s
experiences of love. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.

2. Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present the effects of social
divisions on women. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.

3. Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts make use of significant
locations. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.

4. Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present mothers and
motherhood. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.

5. Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present power and
authority.

You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.

6. Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present childhood and
growing up. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.

7. Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present masculinity. You
must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.

8. Compare the ways in which the writers of your two chosen texts present the importance of
education. You must relate your discussion to relevant contextual factors.

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