Wuthering Heights Study Guide

Wuthering Heights was Emily Brontë's only novel, and it is considered the fullest
expression of her highly individual poetic vision. It contains many Romantic
influences: Heathcliff is a very Byronic character, though he lacks the self pity that mars many
Byronic characters, and he is deeply attached to the natural world. When the novel was written,
the peak of the Romantic age had passed: Emily Brontë lived a very isolated life, and was in
some sense behind the times. Wuthering Heights expresses criticisms of social conventions,
particularly those surrounding issues of gender: notice that the author distributes "feminine" and
"masculine" characteristics without regard to sex. Brontë had difficulties living in society while
remaining true to the things she considered important: the ideal of women as delicate beings who
avoid physical or mental activity and pursue fashions and flirtations was repugnant to her. Class
issues are also important: we are bound to respect Ellen, who is educated but of low class, more
than Lockwood.
Any reader of Wuthering Heights should recognize immediately that it is not the sort of
novel that a gently-bred Victorian lady would be expected to write. Emily Brontë sent it to
publishers under the masculine name of Ellis Bell, but even so it took many tries and many
months before it was finally accepted. Its reviews were almost entirely negative: reviewers
implied that the author of such a novel must be insane, obsessed with cruelty, barbaric. Emily's
sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre was much more successful. Emily was always eager to
maintain the secrecy under which the novel was published, understandably. She died soon after
the publication, and Charlotte felt obliged - now that secrecy was no longer necessary - to write a
preface for the novel defending her sister's character. The preface also made it clear that Currer,
Ellis, and Acton Bell were, in fact, different people: some readers had speculated that Wuthering
Heights was an early work by the author of Jane Eyre. It appears that Charlotte herself was
uncomfortable with the more disturbing aspects of her sister's masterpiece. She said that if Emily
had lived, "her mind would of itself have grown like a strong tree; loftier, straighter, wider-
spreading, and its matured fruits would have attained a mellower ripeness and sunnier bloom."
Her apology for Emily's work should be read with the realization that Charlotte's character was
quite different from Emily's: her interpretation of Wuthering Heights should not necessarily
be taken at face value.
Wuthering Heights does not belong to any obvious prose genre, nor did it begin an
important literary lineage. None of its imitations can approach its sincerity and poetic power.
However, it has still been an important influence on English literature. With the passing of time,
an immense amount of interest has grown up about the Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and
Anne, and they have achieved the status of the centers of a literary cult.
Wuthering Heights Summary
Wuthering Heights is related as a series of narratives which are themselves told to the
narrator, a gentleman named Lockwood. Lockwood rents a fine house and park called
Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire, and gradually learns more and more about the histories of two
local families. This is what he learns from a housekeeper, Ellen Dean, who had been with one
of the two families for all of her life:
In around 1760, a gentleman-farmer named Earnshaw went from his farm, Wuthering Heights, to
Liverpool on a business trip. He found there a little boy who looked like a gypsy who had
apparently been abandoned on the streets, and brought the child home with him, to join his own
family of his wife, his son Hindley, his daughter Catherine, a manservant named Joseph, and
Ellen, who was very young at the time and working as a maid. Earnshaw named the
boy Heathcliff after a son of his who had died. All the other members of the household were
opposed to the introduction of a strange boy, except for Catherine, who was a little younger than
Heathcliff and became fast friends with him. Hindley in particular felt as though Heathcliff had
supplanted him, although he was several years older and the true son and heir. Hindley bullied
Heathcliff when he could, and Heathcliff used his influence over Earnshaw to get his way.
Heathcliff was a strange, silent boy, who appeared not to mind the blows he received from
Hindley, although he was in fact very vindictive. Earnshaw's wife died. Hindley was sent away
to college in a last attempt to turn him into a worthy son, and to ease pressures at home.
After some years, Earnshaw's health declined and he grew increasingly alienated from his
family: in his peevish old age he worried that everyone disliked Heathcliff simply because
Earnshaw liked him. He did not like his daughter Catherine's charming and mischievous ways.
Finally he died, and Catherine and Heathcliff were very grieved, but consoled each other with
thoughts of heaven.

Hindley returned, now around twenty years old. Heathcliff was about twelve and Catherine was
eleven. Hindley was married to a young woman named Frances, to the surprise of everyone at
Wuthering Heights. Hindley used his new power as the head of the household to reduce
Heathcliff to the level of a servant, although Heathcliff and Catherine continued their intimacy.
Catherine taught Heathcliff her lessons and would join him in the fields, or they would run away
to the moors all day to play, never minding their punishments afterward.

One day they ran down to the Grange, a more civilized house where the Lintons lived with their
children Edgar, thirteen, and Isabella, eleven. Catherine and Heathcliff despised the spoiled,
delicate Linton children, and made faces and yelled at them through the window. The Lintons
called for help and the wilder children fled, but Catherine was caught by a bulldog and they were
brought inside. When the Lintons found out that the girl was Miss Earnshaw, they took good care
of her and threw Heathcliff out.
Catherine stayed at the Grange for five weeks, and came home dressed and acting like a proper
young lady, to the delight of Hindley and his wife, and to Heathcliff's sorrow––he felt as though
she had moved beyond him. Over the next few years, Catherine struggled to both maintain her
relationship with Heathcliff, and socialize with the elegant Linton children.

Frances gave birth to a son, Hareton, and died soon after of tuberculosis. Hindley gave in to wild
despair and alcoholism, and the household fell into chaos. Heathcliff was harshly treated, and
came to hate Hindley more and more. Edgar Linton fell in love with Catherine, who was
attracted by his wealth and genteel manners, although she loved Heathcliff much more seriously.
Edgar and Catherine became engaged, and Heathcliff ran away. Catherine fell ill after looking
for Heathcliff all night in a storm, and went to the Grange to get better. The Linton parents
caught her fever and died of it. Edgar and Catherine were married when she was 18 or 19.
They lived fairly harmoniously together for almost a year––then Heathcliff returned. He had
mysteriously acquired gentlemanly manners, education, and some money. Catherine was
overjoyed to see him, Edgar considerably less so. Heathcliff stayed at Wuthering Heights, where
he gradually gained financial control by paying Hindley's gambling debts. Heathcliff's
relationship with the Linton household became more and more strained as Edgar grew extremely
unhappy with Heathcliff's relationship with Catherine. Finally there was a violent quarrel:
Heathcliff left the Grange to avoid being thrown out by Edgar's servants, Catherine was angry at
both of the men, and Edgar was furious at Heathcliff and displeased by his wife's behavior.
Catherine shut herself in her room for several days. In the meantime, Heathcliff eloped with
Isabella (who was struck by his romantic appearance) by way of revenge on Edgar. Edgar could
not forgive Isabella's betrayal of him, and did not try to stop the marriage. Catherine became
extremely ill, feverish and delirious, and nearly died though she was carefully tended by Edgar
once he discovered her condition.

A few months later, Catherine was still very delicate and looked as though she would probably
die. She was pregnant. Heathcliff and Isabella returned to Wuthering Heights, and Isabella wrote
to Ellen describing how brutally she was mistreated by her savage husband, and how much she
regretted her marriage. Ellen went to visit them to see if she could improve Isabella's situation.
She told them about Catherine's condition, and Heathcliff asked to see her.

A few days later, Heathcliff came to the Grange while Edgar was at church. He had a passionate
reunion with Catherine, in which they forgave each other as much as possible for their mutual
betrayals. Catherine fainted, Edgar returned, and Heathcliff left. Catherine died that night after
giving birth to a daughter. Edgar was terribly grieved and Heathcliff wildly so––he begged
Catherine's ghost to haunt him. A few days later, Hindley tried to murder Heathcliff, but
Heathcliff almost murdered him instead. Isabella escaped from Wuthering Heights and went to
live close to London, where she gave birth to a son, Linton. Hindley died a few months after his
sister Catherine.
Catherine and Edgar's daughter, Cathy, grew to be a beloved and charming child. She was
brought up entirely within the confines of the Grange, and was entirely unaware of the existence
of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, or her cousin Hareton there. Once she found the farmhouse
while exploring the moors, and was upset to think that such an ignorant rustic as Hareton could
be related to her. Ellen ordered her not to return there and explained about Heathcliff's feud with
Cathy's father, Edgar.

Isabella died when Linton was about twelve years old, and Edgar went to fetch him to the
Grange. Linton was a peevish and effeminate boy, but Cathy was pleased to have a playmate.
That very day, however, Heathcliff sent Joseph to fetch his son to Wuthering Heights, and when
Cathy woke up the next morning her cousin was gone. Though sad at first, she soon got over it,
and continued her happy childhood.

On her sixteenth birthday, Cathy and Ellen strayed onto Heathcliff's lands, and he invited them
into Wuthering Heights to see Linton. Cathy was pleased to renew her acquaintance, and
Heathcliff was eager to promote a romance between the two cousins, so as to ensure himself of
Edgar's land when he died. When they returned home, Edgar forbade Cathy to continue visiting
there, and said that Heathcliff was an evil man. Cathy then began a secret correspondence with
Linton, which became an exchange of love letters. Ellen found out and put an end to it.

Edgar became ill. Heathcliff asked Cathy to return to Wuthering Heights because Linton was
breaking his heart for her. She did so, and found Linton to be a bullying invalid, but not without
charm. Ellen fell ill as well and was unable to prevent Cathy from visiting Wuthering Heights
every day. Cathy felt obliged to help Linton, and despised Hareton for being clumsy and
illiterate. Ellen told Edgar about the visits when she found out, and he forbade Cathy to go any
more.

Edgar was in poor health and didn't know about Linton's equally bad health and bad character, so
he thought it would be good for Cathy to marry him––since Linton and not Cathy would most
likely inherit the Grange. A system was fixed up in which Linton and Cathy met outside. Linton
was increasingly ill, and seemed to be terrified of something––as it turned out, his father was
forcing him to court Cathy. Heathcliff feared Linton would die before Edgar did, so eventually
he all but kidnapped Cathy and Ellen, and told them Cathy couldn't go home to see her dying
father until she married Linton. Cathy did marry Linton, and escaped in time to see Edgar before
he died.

After Edgar's funeral (he was buried next to his wife) Heathcliff fetched Cathy to Wuthering
Heights to take care of Linton, who was dying, and to free up the Grange so he could rent it out
(to Lockwood, in fact). Heathcliff told Ellen that he was still obsessed by his beloved Catherine,
and had gone to gaze at her long-dead body when her coffin was uncovered by the digging of
Edgar's grave.
Cathy had to care for Linton alone, and when he died, she maintained an unfriendly attitude to
the household: Heathcliff, Hareton (who was in love with her), Joseph, and Zillah, the
housekeeper. As time passed, however, she became lonely enough to seek Hareton's company,
and began teaching him to read.
This is around the time of Lockwood's time at the Grange. He leaves the area for several months,
and when he returns, he learns that while he was gone:

Heathcliff began to act more and more strangely, and became incapable of concentrating on the
world around him, as though Catherine's ghost wouldn't let him. He all but stopped eating and
sleeping, and Ellen found him dead one morning, with a savage smile on his face. He was buried
next to Catherine, as he had wished. Hareton grieved for him, but was too happy with the
younger Cathy to be inconsolable. When the novel ends, Hareton and Cathy plan to marry and
move to the Grange.

Wuthering Heights Character List

Catherine Earnshaw
Mr. Earnshaw's daughter and Hindley's sister. She is also Heathcliff's foster sister and love
interest. She marries Edgar Linton and has a daughter, also named Catherine. Catherine is
beautiful and charming, but she is never as civilized as she pretends to be. In her heart she is
always a wild girl playing on the moors with Heathcliff. She regards it as her right to be loved by
all, and has an unruly temper. Heathcliff usually calls her Cathy; Edgar usually calls her
Catherine.
Cathy Linton
The daughter of the older Catherine and Edgar Linton. She has all her mother's charm without
her wildness, although she is by no means submissive and spiritless. Edgar calls her Cathy. She
marries Linton Heathcliff to become Catherine Heathcliff, and then marries Hareton to be
Catherine Earnshaw.
Mr. Earnshaw
A plain, fairly well-off farmer with few pretensions but a kind heart. He is a stern father to
Catherine. He takes in Heathcliff despite his family's protests.
Edgar Linton
Isabella's older brother, who marries Catherine Earnshaw and fathers Catherine Linton. In
contrast to Heathcliff, he is a gently bred, refined man, a patient husband and a loving father. His
faults are a certain effeminacy, and a tendency to be cold and unforgiving when his dignity is
hurt.
Ellen Dean
One of the main narrators. She has been a servant with the Earnshaws and the Lintons for all her
life, and knows them better than anyone else. She is independent and high-spirited, and retains an
objective viewpoint on those she serves. She is called Nelly by those who are on the most
egalitarian terms with her: Mr. Earnshaw, the older Catherine, and Heathcliff.
Frances Earnshaw
Hindley's wife, a young woman of unknown background. She seems rather flighty and giddy to
Ellen, and displays an irrational fear of death, which is explained when she dies of tuberculosis.
Hareton Earnshaw
The son of Hindley and Frances; he marries the younger Catherine. For most of the novel, he is
rough, rustic, and uncultured, having been carefully kept from all civilizing influences by
Heathcliff. He grows up to be superficially like Heathcliff, but is really much more sweet-
tempered and forgiving. He never blames Heathcliff for having disinherited him, for example,
and remains his oppressor's staunchest ally.
Hindley Earnshaw
The only son of Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, and Catherine's older brother. He is a bullying,
discontented boy who grows up to be a violent alcoholic when his beloved wife, Frances, dies.
He hates Heathcliff because he felt supplanted in his father's affections by the other boy, and
Heathcliff hates him even more in return.
Heathcliff
A foundling taken in by Mr. Earnshaw and raised with his children. Of unknown descent, he
represents wild and natural forces which often seem amoral and dangerous for society. His
almost inhuman devotion to Catherine is the moving force in his life, seconded by his vindictive
hatred for all those who stand between him and his beloved. He is cruel but magnificent in his
consistency, and the reader can never forget that at the heart of the grown man lies the
abandoned, hungry child of the streets of Liverpool.
Isabella Linton
Edgar's younger sister, who marries Heathcliff to become Isabella Heathcliff. Her son is named
Linton Heathcliff. Before she marries Heathcliff, she is a rather shallow-minded young lady,
pretty and quick-witted but a little foolish (as can be seen by her choice of husbands). Her
unhappy marriage brings out an element of cruelty in her character: when her husband treats her
brutally, she rapidly grows to hate him with all her heart.
Joseph
A household servant at Wuthering Heights who outlives all his masters. His brand of religion is
unforgiving for others and self-serving for himself. His heavy Yorkshire accent gives flavor to
the novel.
Dr. Kenneth
The local doctor who appears when people are sick or dying. He is a sympathetic and intelligent
man, whose main concern is the health of his patients.
Mr. and Mrs. Linton
Edgar and Isabella's parents. They spoil their children and turn the older Catherine into a little
lady, being above all concerned about good manners and behavior. They are unsympathetic to
Heathcliff when he is a child.
Linton Heathcliff
The son of Heathcliff and Isabella. He combines the worst characteristics of both parents, and is
effeminate, weakly, and cruel. He uses his status as an invalid to manipulate the tender-hearted
younger Catherine. His father despises him. Linton marries Catherine and dies soon after.
Lockwood
The narrator of the novel. He is a gentleman from London, in distinct contrast to the other rural
characters. He is not particularly sympathetic and tends to patronize his subjects.
Zillah
The housekeeper at Wuthering Heights after Hindley's death and before Heathcliff's. She doesn't
particularly understand the people she lives with, and stands in marked contrast to Ellen, who is
deeply invested in them. She is an impatient but capable woman.
Juno
Heathcliff's dog.
Skulker
The Lintons' bulldog. Skulker attacks Cathy Earnshaw on her first visit to Thrushcross Grange.
Michael
The Lintons' stable boy.
Mr. Green
A lawyer in Gimmerton who briefly becomes involved with executing Edgar Linton's estate.

Wuthering Heights Glossary

actuate
To motivate or inspire someone to make a choice or act in a particular way
antipathy
Deep resentment or aversion
asseverate
To assert categorically, with great certainty
assiduity
Constant, meticulous attention
bairn
An infant
coxcomb
A vain, dandyish man
dunnock
A hedge-sparrow
equanimity
Mental calmness despite difficult external circumstances
hector
To harass or interfere with what someone is doing
imprecation
A spoken curse
lachrymose
Miserable or tragic
negus
A mixture of hot wine and water
orison
A prayer
palaver
Long, pointless discussion
penetralia
The innermost parts of a building, often secret or hidden
perdition
The state of damnation that a sinful person experiences after they die
sagacity
Wisdom
sententious
Prone to pompous, unnecessary moralizing
tureen
A deep covered dish used to serve soups, sauces, and other hot liquids
vociferate
To yell or speak loudly

Wuthering Heights Themes

Literacy
Throughout the novel, reading and literacy are shown to be sources of both power and
pleasure. Heathcliff purposely keeps Hareton uneducated as a way to control the young man
and to get revenge on Hareton's father, Hindley. Likewise, Cathy gives books to her
servant, Michael, to convince him to deliver her love letters to Linton. The graffiti
at Wuthering Heights at the beginning of the novel also serves as a kind of dominion; by
carving their names into the wall, Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter ensure that their
spirits will always preside over the crumbling house. However, the characters also derive
significant pleasure from reading; it is one of Cathy's few solaces during her miserable first
months at Wuthering Heights, and it eventually serves as a pretext for her to bond with Hareton.
Solitude
For a novel that draws its plot from the vicissitudes of interpersonal relationships, it is notable
how many of the characters seem to enjoy solitude. Heathcliff and Hindley both state their
preference for isolation early in the novel, and Lockwood explains that solitude is one of the
reasons he chose to move to the remote Thrushcross Grange. Each of these characters believes
that solitude will help them get over romantic disappointments: Heathcliff becomes increasingly
withdrawn after Catherine's death; Hindley becomes crueler than ever to others after he loses his
wife, Frances; and Lockwood's move to the Grange was precipitated by a briefly mentioned
romantic disappointment of his own. However, Brontë ultimately casts doubt on solitude's ability
to heal psychic wounds. Heathcliff's yearning for Catherine causes him to behave like a monster
to people around him; Hindley dies alone as an impoverished alcoholic; and Lockwood quickly
gives up on the Grange's restorative potential and moves to London.
Doubles
Given the symmetrical structure of Wuthering Heights, it follows naturally that Brontë
should thematize doubles and doubleness. Catherine Earnshaw notes her own "double character"
(66) when she tries to explain her attraction to both Edgar and Heathcliff, and their shared name
suggests that Cathy Linton is, in some ways, a double for her mother. There are also many
parallel pairings throughout the novel that suggests that certain characters are doubles of each
other: Heathcliff and Catherine, Edgar and Isabella, Hareton and Cathy, and even Hindley and
Ellen (consider the latter's deep grief when Hindley dies, and that they are 'milk siblings').
Catherine's famous insistence that "I am Heathcliff" (82) reinforces the concept that individuals
can share an identity.
Self-knowledge
Brontë frequently dissociates the self from the consciousness––that is, characters have to get to
know themselves just as they would another person. This becomes a major concern when
Catherine Earnshaw decides against her better judgment to marry Edgar Linton; she is self-
aware enough to acknowledge that she has a 'double character' and that Heathcliff may be a
better match for her, but she lacks the confidence to act on this intuition. Self-knowledge also
affects how characters get to know others; Isabella knows how violent Heathcliff is, but is unable
to acknowledge this because she believes herself capable of controlling him.
Disease and contagion
Disease and contagion––specifically consumption, or as it's known today, tuberculosis––are
inescapable presences in Wuthering Heights. Isabella becomes sick after meeting Heathcliff,
and Catherine Earnshaw indirectly kills Mr. and Mrs. Linton by giving them her fever.
Even emotional troubles are pathologized much like physical illnesses; consider how Catherine's
unhappy marriage and Heathcliff's return contribute to the 'brain fever' that leads to her death.
Perhaps most importantly, Lockwood falling ill is what motivates Ellen to tell the story in the
first place. The prominence of disease in the novel is a physical indicator of the outsize influence
that individuals have on each other in Brontë's world––getting too close to the wrong person can
literally lead to death.
Sibling relationships
Sibling relationships are unusually strong in the Earnshaw and Linton families. Indeed, the
novel's most prominent relationship––the love between Catherine and Heathcliff––begins when
the two are raised as siblings at Wuthering Heights. It is never entirely clear whether their love
for each other is romantic or the love of extremely close siblings; although Catherine expresses a
desire to marry Heathcliff, they are never shown having sex and their union seems more spiritual
than physical. After Catherine's death, Heathcliff gets revenge on Edgar for marrying Catherine
by encouraging Isabella to marry him and then mistreating her. Given that Emily Brontë is
thought to have had no friends outside of her own family (although she was very close to her
brother Branwell and her sisters Anne and Charlotte), it is perhaps unsurprising that close sibling
relationships are a driving force in her only novel.
Humanity versus nature
Brontë is preoccupied with the opposition between human civilization and nature. This is
represented figuratively in her descriptions of the moors, but she also ties this conflict to specific
characters. For example, Catherine and Heathcliff resolve to grow up "as rude as savages" (46) in
response to Hindley's abuse, and Ellen likens Hindley to a "wild-beast" (73). The natural world is
frequently associated with evil and reckless passion; when Brontë describes a character as 'wild,'
that character is usually cruel and inconsiderate––take for example Heathcliff, Catherine
Earnshaw, and Hindley. However, Brontë also expresses a certain appreciation for the natural
world; Linton and Cathy Linton's ideas of heaven both involve peaceful afternoons in the grass
and among the trees. Likewise, Hareton is actually a very noble and gentle spirit, despite his
outward lack of civilization and his description as a "rustic" (299).

Wuthering Heights Quotes and Analysis

“I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A
sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.”

Lockwood, Page 28
Although Lockwood is not a central character in the novel's main plot, his need to be alone
reflects Emily Brontë's preoccupation with solitude. Appreciation for solitude is what separates
the people who live at Wuthering Heights from the civilized, quiet world of the Lintons and
Thrushcross Grange. In fact, the characters who most like to be alone––Heathcliff, Catherine
Earnshaw, and Hindley––are also the characters who are most in touch with their own passionate
emotions, for better or for worse. Brontë seems to suggest that 'finding sufficient company in
[one]self' is the only way a person can truly know who they are and what they want.
“We don’t in general take to foreigners here, Mr. Lockwood, unless they take to
us first.”

Ellen Dean, Page 46

Ellen's early admonition evokes specific incidents in the novel––from Lockwood's disastrous
first encounter with Heathcliff, to his eventual decision to move to London because he can no
longer bear the unpleasant atmosphere of the moors. However, it also reflects the extreme
insularity of this society more generally. The novel focuses on two families, the Earnshaws and
the Lintons, and the people in these families only interact socially with their servants and with
each other. The introduction of Heathcliff––a "foreigner," both in the sense that he is not from
the moors, and in the sense that he is not ethnically English––proves to be a violent disruption to
this isolated society.
“I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed, and behaved as well,
and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!”

Heathcliff, Page 56
Heathcliff's outlook on life as a young boy contrasts sharply with the hardened, stoic worldview
he will adopt later in life. In a rare moment of emotional earnestness, Heathcliff admits that he
envies Edgar Linton. Some of the reasons for this envy are not surprising––like many characters
in Victorian novels, Heathcliff aspires to be improve his financial situation. However, his desire
for 'light hair and a fair skin' suggests a veiled critique of English attitudes toward foreigners.
Heathcliff's origins are uncertain, but people often call him a "gipsy," which suggests he has
Eastern European features. This would have prevented him from moving up in society at this
time, even if he did amass as much wealth as Edgar Linton (as indeed he does later in the novel).
Although Heathcliff descends into amorality as he gets older, Brontë suggests that this is not
entirely his fault––his rejection from society contributed to this outcome as much Heathcliff's
own choices.
“I perceive that people in these regions acquire over people in towns the value
that a spider in a dungeon does over a spider in a cottage, to their various
occupants; and yet the deepened attraction is not entirely owing to the situation
of the looker-on. They do live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in
surface, change, and frivolous external things.”

Lockwood, Page 61

The rugged, inspiring beauty of the Yorkshire moors is one of Wuthering Heights's central
motifs. Just as the countryside inspires wildness––but also intimacy––between Cathy and
Heathcliff, Lockwood suggests that the rural lifestyle encourages people to be more reflective
and in touch with their feelings. Many Victorian authors, including Thomas Hardy and George
Eliot, wrote novels with rustic settings. However, Emily Brontë is unique in her tendency to
associate the natural world with powerful, atavistic emotion. Although the countryside's ability
to bring out people's deepest selves can be frightening, Brontë suggests that spending time in the
country is necessary to have a full and passionate life.
“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m
well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the
eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I
am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more
than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.”

Catherine Earnshaw, Page 82

Cathy's oft-quoted declaration of love for Heathcliff incorporates many of the novel's important
themes and stylistic qualities. When she likens her relationships with Linton and Heathcliff to
different aspects of the natural world, Cathy reinforces the connection between nature and deep
emotion that Brontë introduced earlier in the novel. By having Cathy refer to herself and
Heathcliff as the same being, Brontë further develops some questions about the self that she
addresses elsewhere in Wuthering Heights. She raises the question of how far the bounds of
the self extend––can two people really be one person, as Cathy suggests? She also refers to the
question of how one gets to know oneself. When Cathy talks about herself, she is oddly
dissociated––she describes herself using the same terms and syntax she would use to describe
another person. This suggests that we can only understand our minds by spending time with
ourselves––the same way we would get to know any other person.
“I surveyed the weapon inquisitively. A hideous notion struck me: how
powerful I should be possessing such an instrument! I took it from his hand, and
touched the blade. He looked astonished at the expression my face assumed
during a brief second: it was not horror, it was covetousness.”

Isabella Linton, Page 140

Isabella's fascination with the knife illustrates Brontë's interest in the relationship between
gender and power. Up until now, Isabella has been a somewhat passive character; she rarely
thought for herself and was always under the influence of Edgar or Heathcliff. Her realization of
the power she would get from wielding a weapon foreshadows her violent argument with
Heathcliff later in the novel. Although Heathcliff wields the knife in that fight, Isabella's choice
to leave him is the first instance in which she truly thinks for herself. Isabella's shifting
relationship with power reflects Brontë's subversion of traditional gender roles––the knife is a
very violent, phallic object, and Isabella's choice to live alone and raise a son by herself would
have been highly unusual in the nineteenth century.
“No, no! Even if he had doted on me, the devilish nature would have revealed
its existence, somehow. Catherine had an awfully perverted taste to esteem him
so dearly, knowing him so well – Monster! would that he could be blotted out of
creation, and out of my memory!”

Isabella Linton, Page 172

The characters in Wuthering Heights repeatedly refer to Heathcliff's evil "nature." Most of
them seem to assume that people are born either good or bad, and that individuals have little
control over their personalities or their actions. This worldview helps explain the characters'
preoccupation with physical appearances. For example, Heathcliff isn't allowed to stay at
Thrushcross Grange as a child because of his dark coloration, and as an adult, Heathcliff scorns
his son Linton because of the boy's delicate, fair appearance. For Brontë, personality is just as
immutable as physical appearance, and there is usually a correlation between the two.
“And the best of it is, Hareton is damnably fond of me! You’ll own that I’ve
outmatched Hindley there. If the dead villain could rise from his grave to abuse
me for his offspring’s wrongs, I should have the fun of seeing the said offspring
fight him back again, indignant that he should dare to rail at the one friend he
has in the world!”

Heathcliff, Page 217

Here, Heathcliff's utter lack of empathy becomes clear, demonstrating how much he has changed
since Catherine Earnshaw's death. Not only does he take a contemptuous attitude toward Hareton
and his admiration, but he can only think of his relationship with Hareton in terms of how it
would affect the long-dead Hindley. This shows Heathcliff's morbid fixation with the past; he
continues to dwell on the cruel treatment he received from Hindley even after the older man has
died and Heathcliff exacted his revenge by becoming the owner of Wuthering Heights. This
personality trait will crop up again when Heathcliff continues to nurse his hatred for the Lintons
after Edgar has died.
“Let him dare to force you ... There’s law in the land, thank God! there is;
though we be in an out-of-the-way place. I’d inform if he were my own son:
and it’s felony without benefit of clergy!”
Ellen Dean, Page 274

This is one of the only times that a character in Wuthering Heights refers to the people and
customs of the world outside Wuthering Heights and the Grange. Besides passing references to
Gimmerton, the nearest town, the characters seem to live in complete isolation, which helps to
explain their passionate relationships and convoluted family trees. The fact that Ellen thinks of
seeking help from the outside world indicates both the direness of the situation when Heathcliff
imprisons her and Cathy at Wuthering Heights, as well as her common sense relative to the other
characters. This contrasts sharply with Cathy's personality; despite her liveliness, the young girl
cannot conceive of a life outside her own insular community, and her greatest ambition as a child
was only to see the other side of the hill on the edge of the Grange.
“Linton is all I have to love in the world, and though you have done what you
could to make him hateful to me, and me to him, you cannot make us hate each
other. And I defy you to hurt him when I am by, and I defy you to frighten me!”

Cathy Linton, Page 284

Cathy's defiant stand against Heathcliff's attempts to control her contrasts with the fear and
subservience he inspires in virtually everyone else in the novel: Hareton, Joseph, Linton, and
even Lockwood. Cathy Linton draws her strength and passion from love, unlike Heathcliff and
Catherine Earnshaw, who are driven by deep, animalistic urges and only seem to care about
themselves and each other. Because of this, she represents humanity and civilization in this
noticeably wild, cruel society. Her fierce determination to love someone––even if he may not
deserve it––speaks to the absolute necessity of love in the human psyche.

Biography of Emily Bronte

Emily Brontë was born on July 30th, 1818, the 5th child of the Reverend Patrick Brontë, a stern
Evangelical curate, and his wife Maria. When Emily was three years old, her mother died of
cancer, and her Aunt Branwell, a strict Calvinist, moved in to help raise the six children (another
daughter, Anne, was born soon after Emily). They lived in a parsonage in Haworth with the
bleak moors of Yorkshire on one side and the parish graveyard on the other. When Emily was 6
years old she went to a boarding school run by charity, the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan
Bridge, where her older sisters Maria, Elizabeth, and Charlotte were already enrolled. The school
was in no sense a material improvement over her home environment: it was run with the
intention of punishing the pupils' bodies that their souls might be saved. The students were kept
hungry, cold, tired, and often ill: Maria in particular, who at her young age did her best to mother
her sisters, was treated extremely harshly. In 1825 Maria and Elizabeth both died of tuberculosis,
the disease that was later to claim Emily's own life, and that of her younger sister Anne.
Following these new bereavements, the surviving sisters Charlotte and Emily were taken home,
but they would never forget the terrors and the hardship of their lives at school. Charlotte made it
the model for the charity school Lowood, which figures so prominently in her novel Jane Eyre.
Life at home was much better for Emily and her siblings: in their isolated childhood on the
moors, they developed an extremely close relationship partly based on their mutual participation
in a vibrant game of make-believe. In 1826 their father brought their brother Branwell a box of
wooden soldiers, and each child chose a soldier and gave him a name and character: these were
to be the foundation of the creation of a complicated fantasy world, which the Brontës actively
worked on for 16 years. They made tiny books containing stories, plays, histories, and poetry
written by their imagined heroes and heroines. Unfortunately, only the ones written by Charlotte
and Branwell survive: of Emily's work we only have her poetry, and indeed her most passionate
and lovely poetry is written from the perspectives of inhabitants of "Gondal." For Emily, it
seems that the fantastic adventures in imaginary Gondal coexisted on almost an equal level of
importance and reality with the lonely and mundane world of household chores and walks on the
moor. One would be mistaken, however, to conclude that the poetic beauty of Gondal was
essentially different from that which Emily saw in the world around her. This becomes clear in
her novel Wuthering Heights, in which her familiar Yorkshire surroundings become the setting
for a tragedy whose passion and beauty is equal to anything that could be imagined elsewhere.
Passion is in no way inconsistent with empty moors, cold winters, and brown hills.
As might be imagined from her intense emotional and artistic attachment to the country of her
childhood, Emily Brontë very rarely spent any time away from home: indeed she could hardly do
so at all. In 1835, at the age of seventeen she went to school at Roe Head where Charlotte was
teaching, but became so pale and thin that her sister was convinced she would die unless she
returned home. She left home again to be a governess in 1837 (a failure) and to study in Belgium
in 1842, but both times she found she was unable to bear being away from home and her
beloved, wild countryside. She could not adapt to playing the role of a genteel Victorian lady, or
deal with the intrusion of strangers into her life––she could never fit in. Emily never made any
close friends outside of her family circle.

In 1845 Charlotte came across Emily's Gondal poems and read them, which made Emily furious
when she found out. However, the discovery led to the publication of a volume of Charlotte,
Emily, and the youngest sister Anne's poetry under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.
They sold only two copies, but did not give up writing: Wuthering Heights was probably written
in 1845-6, while Charlotte was working on The Professor and Jane Eyre, and Anne wrote Agnes
Grey. Wuthering Heights (by Ellis Bell), was published in 1847, and attracted considerable
critical attention: many people were shocked and horrified by the sheer violence of Emily's
novel.
While his sisters were on their way to becoming famous authors, Branwell had failed as a painter
and lapsed into alcoholism and drug abuse. He died in September of 1848, and his death marked
the beginning of Emily's own illness. Tuberculosis killed her rapidly, perhaps because she
stoically refused to make any concession to her ill health, continuing to get up early every day to
feed her numerous animals even when she could barely walk. She died with heroic fortitude on
December 19th, 1848, at the age of 30, and did not have time to appreciate the last flowering
sprig of heather which Charlotte had found on the moors for her wild sister. Emily Brontë's stern
self-discipline and passionate creative vision have continued to entrance modern readers through
her poetry and especially her masterpiece, Wuthering Heights.
Themes
Main Ideas Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Destructiveness of a Love That Never Changes

Catherine and Heathcliff’s passion for one another seems to be the center of Wuthering
Heights, given that it is stronger and more lasting than any other emotion displayed in the novel,
and that it is the source of most of the major conflicts that structure the novel’s plot. As she tells
Catherine and Heathcliff’s story, Nelly criticizes both of them harshly, condemning their passion
as immoral, but this passion is obviously one of the most compelling and memorable aspects of
the book. It is not easy to decide whether Brontë intends the reader to condemn these lovers as
blameworthy or to idealize them as romantic heroes whose love transcends social norms and
conventional morality. The book is actually structured around two parallel love stories, the first
half of the novel centering on the love between Catherine and Heathcliff, while the less dramatic
second half features the developing love between young Catherine and Hareton. In contrast to
the first, the latter tale ends happily, restoring peace and order to Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange. The differences between the two love stories contribute to the reader’s
understanding of why each ends the way it does.
The most important feature of young Catherine and Hareton’s love story is that it involves
growth and change. Early in the novel Hareton seems irredeemably brutal, savage, and illiterate,
but over time he becomes a loyal friend to young Catherine and learns to read. When young
Catherine first meets Hareton he seems completely alien to her world, yet her attitude also
evolves from contempt to love. Catherine and Heathcliff’s love, on the other hand, is rooted in
their childhood and is marked by the refusal to change. In choosing to marry Edgar, Catherine
seeks a more genteel life, but she refuses to adapt to her role as wife, either by sacrificing
Heathcliff or embracing Edgar. In Chapter XII she suggests to Nelly that the years since she was
twelve years old and her father died have been like a blank to her, and she longs to return to the
moors of her childhood. Heathcliff, for his part, possesses a seemingly superhuman ability to
maintain the same attitude and to nurse the same grudges over many years.

Moreover, Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is based on their shared perception that they are
identical. Catherine declares, famously, “I am Heathcliff,” while Heathcliff, upon Catherine’s
death, wails that he cannot live without his “soul,” meaning Catherine. Their love denies
difference, and is strangely asexual. The two do not kiss in dark corners or arrange secret trysts,
as adulterers do. Given that Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is based upon their refusal to change
over time or embrace difference in others, it is fitting that the disastrous problems of their
generation are overcome not by some climactic reversal, but simply by the inexorable passage of
time, and the rise of a new and distinct generation. Ultimately, Wuthering Heights presents a
vision of life as a process of change, and celebrates this process over and against the romantic
intensity of its principal characters.
The Precariousness of Social Class
As members of the gentry, the Earnshaws and the Lintons occupy a somewhat precarious place
within the hierarchy of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British society. At the top of
British society was the royalty, followed by the aristocracy, then by the gentry, and then by the
lower classes, who made up the vast majority of the population. Although the gentry, or upper
middle class, possessed servants and often large estates, they held a nonetheless fragile social
position. The social status of aristocrats was a formal and settled matter, because aristocrats had
official titles. Members of the gentry, however, held no titles, and their status was thus subject to
change. A man might see himself as a gentleman but find, to his embarrassment, that his
neighbors did not share this view. A discussion of whether or not a man was really a gentleman
would consider such questions as how much land he owned, how many tenants and servants he
had, how he spoke, whether he kept horses and a carriage, and whether his money came from
land or “trade”—gentlemen scorned banking and commercial activities.

Considerations of class status often crucially inform the characters’ motivations in Wuthering
Heights. Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar so that she will be “the greatest woman of the
neighborhood” is only the most obvious example. The Lintons are relatively firm in their gentry
status but nonetheless take great pains to prove this status through their behaviors. The
Earnshaws, on the other hand, rest on much shakier ground socially. They do not have a carriage,
they have less land, and their house, as Lockwood remarks with great puzzlement, resembles that
of a “homely, northern farmer” and not that of a gentleman. The shifting nature of social status is
demonstrated most strikingly in Heathcliff’s trajectory from homeless waif to young gentleman-
by-adoption to common laborer to gentleman again (although the status-conscious Lockwood
remarks that Heathcliff is only a gentleman in “dress and manners”).
Motifs
Main Ideas Motifs

Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s
major themes.

Doubles
Brontë organizes her novel by arranging its elements—characters, places, and themes—into
pairs. Catherine and Heathcliff are closely matched in many ways, and see themselves as
identical. Catherine’s character is divided into two warring sides: the side that wants Edgar and
the side that wants Heathcliff. Catherine and young Catherine are both remarkably similar and
strikingly different. The two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, represent
opposing worlds and values. The novel has not one but two distinctly different narrators, Nelly
and Mr. Lockwood. The relation between such paired elements is usually quite complicated, with
the members of each pair being neither exactly alike nor diametrically opposed. For instance, the
Lintons and the Earnshaws may at first seem to represent opposing sets of values, but, by the end
of the novel, so many intermarriages have taken place that one can no longer distinguish between
the two families.

Repetition
Repetition is another tactic Brontë employs in organizing Wuthering Heights. It seems that
nothing ever ends in the world of this novel. Instead, time seems to run in cycles, and the horrors
of the past repeat themselves in the present. The way that the names of the characters are
recycled, so that the names of the characters of the younger generation seem only to be
rescramblings of the names of their parents, leads the reader to consider how plot elements also
repeat themselves. For instance, Heathcliff’s degradation of Hareton repeats Hindley’s
degradation of Heathcliff. Also, the young Catherine’s mockery of Joseph’s earnest evangelical
zealousness repeats her mother’s. Even Heathcliff’s second try at opening Catherine’s grave
repeats his first.
The Conflict Between Nature and Culture
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.
When, in Chapter VI, Catherine is bitten by the Lintons’ dog and brought into Thrushcross
Grange, the two sides are brought onto the collision course that structures the majority of the
novel’s plot. At the time of that first meeting between the Linton and Earnshaw households,
chaos has already begun to erupt at Wuthering Heights, where Hindley’s cruelty and injustice
reign, whereas all seems to be fine and peaceful at Thrushcross Grange. However, the influence
of Wuthering Heights soon proves overpowering, and the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange are
drawn into Catherine, Hindley, and Heathcliff’s drama. Thus the reader almost may interpret
Wuthering Heights’s impact on the Linton family as an allegory for the corruption of culture by
nature, creating a curious reversal of the more traditional story of the corruption of nature by
culture. However, Brontë tells her story in such a way as to prevent our interest and sympathy
from straying too far from the wilder characters, and often portrays the more civilized characters
as despicably weak and silly. This method of characterization prevents the novel from flattening
out into a simple privileging of culture over nature, or vice versa. Thus in the end the reader must
acknowledge that the novel is no mere allegory.

Symbols
Main Ideas Symbols

Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or concepts.

Moors
The constant emphasis on landscape within the text of Wuthering Heights endows the setting
with symbolic importance. This landscape is comprised primarily of moors: wide, wild expanses,
high but somewhat soggy, and thus infertile. Moorland cannot be cultivated, and its uniformity
makes navigation difficult. It features particularly waterlogged patches in which people could
potentially drown. (This possibility is mentioned several times in Wuthering Heights.) Thus, the
moors serve very well as symbols of the wild threat posed by nature. As the setting for the
beginnings of Catherine and Heathcliff’s bond (the two play on the moors during childhood), the
moorland transfers its symbolic associations onto the love affair.
Ghosts
Ghosts appear throughout Wuthering Heights, as they do in most other works of Gothic fiction,
yet Brontë always presents them in such a way that whether they really exist remains ambiguous.
Thus the world of the novel can always be interpreted as a realistic one. Certain ghosts—such as
Catherine’s spirit when it appears to Lockwood in Chapter III—may be explained as nightmares.
The villagers’ alleged sightings of Heathcliff’s ghost in Chapter XXXIV could be dismissed as
unverified superstition. Whether or not the ghosts are “real,” they symbolize the manifestation of
the past within the present, and the way memory stays with people, permeating their day-to-day
lives.
Key Facts
Main Ideas Key Facts

Full Title Wuthering Heights

Author Emily Brontë
Type Of Work Novel
Genre Gothic novel (designed to both horrify and fascinate readers with scenes of passion and
cruelty; supernatural elements; and a dark, foreboding atmosphere); also realist fiction
(incorporates vivid circumstantial detail into a consistently and minutely thought-out plot,
dealing mostly with the relationships of the characters to one another)
Language English (including bits of Yorkshire dialect)
Time And Place Written In 1846–1847, Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights in the
parsonage of the isolated village of Haworth, in Yorkshire.
Date Of First Publication 1847
Publisher Thomas C. Newby
Narrator Lockwood, a newcomer to the locale of Wuthering Heights, narrates the entire novel
as an entry in his diary. The story that Lockwood records is told to him by Nelly, a servant, and
Lockwood writes most of the narrative in her voice, describing how she told it to him. Some
parts of Nelly’s story are narrated by other characters, such as when Nelly receives a letter from
Isabella and recites its contents verbatim.
Point Of View Most of the events of the novel are narrated in Nelly’s voice, from Nelly’s point
of view, focusing only on what Nelly can see and hear, or what she can find out about indirectly.
Nelly frequently comments on what the other characters think and feel, and on what their
motivations are, but these comments are all based on her own interpretations of the other
characters—she is not an omniscient narrator.
Tone It is not easy to infer the author’s attitude toward the events of the novel. The
melodramatic quality of the first half of the novel suggests that Brontë views Catherine and
Heathcliff’s doomed love as a tragedy of lost potential and wasted passion. However, the
outcome of the second half of the novel suggests that Brontë is more interested in celebrating the
renewal and rebirth brought about by the passage of time, and the rise of a new generation, than
she is in mourning Heathcliff and Catherine.
Tense Both Lockwood’s and Nelly’s narrations are in the past tense.
Setting (Time) The action of Nelly’s story begins in the 1770s; Lockwood leaves Yorkshire in
1802.
Setting (Place) All the action of Wuthering Heights takes place in or around two neighboring
houses on the Yorkshire moors—Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Protagonists Heathcliff, Catherine
Major Conflicts Heathcliff’s great natural abilities, strength of character, and love for Catherine
Earnshaw all enable him to raise himself from humble beginnings to the status of a wealthy
gentleman, but his need to revenge himself for Hindley’s abuse and Catherine’s betrayal leads
him into a twisted life of cruelty and hatred; Catherine is torn between her love for Heathcliff
and her desire to be a gentlewoman, and her decision to marry the genteel Edgar Linton drags
almost all of the novel’s characters into conflict with Heathcliff.
Rising Action Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights, Hindley’s abusive treatment of
Heathcliff, and Catherine’s first visit to Thrushcross Grange set the major conflicts in motion;
once Heathcliff hears Catherine say it would “degrade” her to marry him, the conversation
between Nelly and Catherine, which he secretly overhears, drives him to run away and pursue
his vengeance.
Climax Catherine’s death is the culmination of the conflict between herself and Heathcliff and
removes any possibility that their conflict could be resolved positively; after Catherine’s death,
Heathcliff merely extends and deepens his drives toward revenge and cruelty.
Falling Action Heathcliff destroys Isabella and drives her away, takes possession of young
Linton, forces Catherine and Linton to marry, inherits Thrushcross Grange, then loses interest in
the whole project and dies; Hareton and young Catherine are to be engaged to be married,
promising an end to the cycle of revenge.
Themes The destructiveness of a love that never changes; the precariousness of social class
Motifs Doubles, repetition, the conflict between nature and culture
Symbols The moors, ghosts
Foreshadowing Lockwood’s initial visit to Wuthering Heights, in which the mysterious
relationships and lurking resentments between the characters create an air of mystery;
Lockwood’s ghostly nightmares, during the night he spends in Catherine’s old bed, prefigure
many of the events of the rest of the novel.
Context
Further Study Context

Wuthering Heights, which has long been one of the most popular and highly regarded novels in
English literature, seemed to hold little promise when it was published in 1847, selling very
poorly and receiving only a few mixed reviews. Victorian readers found the book shocking and
inappropriate in its depiction of passionate, ungoverned love and cruelty (despite the fact that the
novel portrays no sex or bloodshed), and the work was virtually ignored. Even Emily Brontë’s
sister Charlotte—an author whose works contained similar motifs of Gothic love and desolate
landscapes—remained ambivalent toward the unapologetic intensity of her sister’s novel. In a
preface to the book, which she wrote shortly after Emily Brontë’s death, Charlotte Brontë stated,
“Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know. I scarcely think it
is.”
Emily Brontë lived an eccentric, closely guarded life. She was born in 1818, two years after
Charlotte and a year and a half before her sister Anne, who also became an author. Her father
worked as a church rector, and her aunt, who raised the Brontë children after their mother died,
was deeply religious. Emily Brontë did not take to her aunt’s Christian fervor; the character of
Joseph, a caricature of an evangelical, may have been inspired by her aunt’s religiosity. The
Brontës lived in Haworth, a Yorkshire village in the midst of the moors. These wild, desolate
expanses—later the setting of Wuthering Heights—made up the Brontës’ daily environment, and
Emily lived among them her entire life. She died in 1848, at the age of thirty.
As witnessed by their extraordinary literary accomplishments, the Brontë children were a highly
creative group, writing stories, plays, and poems for their own amusement. Largely left to their
own devices, the children created imaginary worlds in which to play. Yet the sisters knew that
the outside world would not respond favorably to their creative expression; female authors were
often treated less seriously than their male counterparts in the nineteenth century. Thus the
Brontë sisters thought it best to publish their adult works under assumed names. Charlotte wrote
as Currer Bell, Emily as Ellis Bell, and Anne as Acton Bell. Their real identities remained secret
until after Emily and Anne had died, when Charlotte at last revealed the truth of their novels’
authorship.

Today, Wuthering Heights has a secure position in the canon of world literature, and Emily
Brontë is revered as one of the finest writers—male or female—of the nineteenth century. Like
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights is based partly on the Gothic tradition of the
late eighteenth century, a style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling
ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear.
But Wuthering Heights transcends its genre in its sophisticated observation and artistic subtlety.
The novel has been studied, analyzed, dissected, and discussed from every imaginable critical
perspective, yet it remains unexhausted. And while the novel’s symbolism, themes, structure,
and language may all spark fertile exploration, the bulk of its popularity may rest on its
unforgettable characters. As a shattering presentation of the doomed love affair between the
fiercely passionate Catherine and Heathcliff, it remains one of the most haunting love stories in
all of literature.

Wuthering Heights at a Glance

In Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, realism and gothic symbolism combine to form a romance
novel that's full of social relevance. Follow the self-destructive journey of Heathcliff as he seeks
revenge for losing his soul mate, Catherine, to Edgar Linton. Themes — such as good versus
evil, chaos and order, selfishness, betrayal, and obsession — intertwine as the story unfolds.
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is a symbolic and psychological study of the nature of love.

Written by: Emily Brontë

Type of Work: novel

Genres: gothic literature; Victorian; romance

First Published: 1847

Setting: the moors of Northern England

Main Characters: Heathcliff; Catherine Earnshaw; Edgar Linton; Cathy Linton; Hareton
Earnshaw; Ellen (Nelly) Dean

Major Thematic Topics: romantic love; brotherly love; love versus hate; revenge; crime and
punishment; nature and culture; class structure; good versus evil; chaos and order; selfishness;
betrayal; obsession
Motifs: obsession; revenge; rebellion

Major Symbols: the houses; keys; archetypical characters

The three most important aspects of Wuthering Heights:

 Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw are among the most famous fictional couples of all time. In
fact, they probably are second only to Romeo and Juliet in this regard. Unlike Shakespeare's
lovers, who are kept apart by the society in which they live, Catherine and Heathcliff are
themselves responsible for their failure to fulfill their love for one another. Their own passionate
natures make their union impossible.
 The novel contains a so-called framing device, which is a story that surrounds the primary
narrative and sets it up. Lockwood's visit to Wuthering Heights and the supernatural occurrence
he witnesses there frame Nelly's narration of the novel's main story.
 Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel. Gothic novels focus on the mysterious or supernatural, and
take place in dark, sometimes exotic, settings. The double is a frequent feature of the Gothic
novel, as well. In Wuthering Heights, the love of Hareton and Cathy doubles that of Heathcliff
and Catherine, and Linton doubles Edgar. The novel itself consists of two entire stories, each
consisting of seventeen chapters; the second half of Wuthering Heights doubles the first.