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Description edit
There are few more convincing, less sentimental accounts of love than Wuthering Heights. This is the story of a tormented foundling who falls in love with the daughter of his benefactor, and of the violence and misery that result from their thwarted longing for each other.
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
Heathcliff was picked up off the side of the street by Catherine and Hindley's father. He was a genius of sorts. Everyone hated him when he was first brought into their family. But then he grew on everyone but Hindley who decided to make life miserable for Heathcliff. Heathcliff and Cathy... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- Catherine Earnshaw: The love of Heathcliff's life. Wild, impetuous, and arrogant as a child, she grows up getting everything she wants.
- Edgar Linton: Child of the Linton family; love interest to Catherine and Heathcliff's rival
- Catherine Linton: Daughter of Catherine Earnshaw. A mild form of her mother, she serves as a reminder of her mother's strengths and weaknesses... Catherine serves as the only source of hope for me in this novel. I do not believe that her character was depicted correctly (considering Nelly was the one describing her and seemed to have a maternal connection to her). Maybe she was more like her mother?
- Linton Heathcliff: Son of Heathcliff. Weak and whiny (both physically and emotionally), he serves as a pawn in Heathcliff's game of revenge
- Isabella Linton: Edgar's younger sister.
- Mrs. Nelly Dean: Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw's foster sister. She is the housekeeper and nursemaid at Wuthering Heights and later at Thrushcross Grange.
- Mr. Lockwood: The tenant who rents Thrushcross Grange and is the narrator of the story.
- Mr. Kenneth: The doctor in the area.
- Hareton Earnshaw: Catherine's nephew, son of Hindley. Although uneducated and unrefined, Hareton has a staunch sense of pride. He is attracted to Cathy but put off by her attitude.
- Mr. Earnshaw: Catherine and Hindley's father. He finds Heathcliff abandoned in the streets and him home to live with his family.
- Mrs. Earnshaw: Catherine and Hindley's mother. Not much is known about her, except that she favors her own son to Heathcliff.
- Hindley Earnshaw: Catherine's older brother and Hareton's father
- Frances Earnshaw: Hindley's wife.
- Joseph: Servant at Wuthering Heights. A hypocritical zealot who possesses a religious fanaticism that most find wearisome. His speech is filled with cockney-esque verbage.
- Mr. & Mrs. Linton: Edgar's parents.
- Isabella Linton: Edgar's sister.
- Zillah: Heathcliff's housekeeper and Nelly's source of information at Wuthering Heights.
- Jabez Branderham: A preacher whom Joseph quotes and the first narrator, Mr. Lockwood, dreams about
- Mr. Hindley: Catherine Earnshaw's older brother.
- Heathcliff: Orphaned as a child but adopted by Mr. Earnshaw. Very complex person and is portrayed as a villain. He possesses lack of pity and any trace of kind judgement or apathy is marred by his love for Catherine.
Quotes edit
-
“He's more myself that I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Catherine Earnshaw -
“I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.”
Catherine Earnshaw -
“Let me hope my constitution is almost peculiar: my dear mother used to say I should never have a comfortable home; and only last summer I proved myself perfectly unworthy of one.”
Mr. Lockwood -
“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.”
Mr. Lockwood -
“There you are, at your idle tricks again! The rest of them do earn their bread - you live on my charity! Put your trash away, and find something to do. You shall pay me for the plague of having you eternally in my sight—do you hear, damnable jade?”
Heathcliff -
“Yes: you had the reason of going to bed with a proud heart and an empty stomach. Proud people breed bad sorrows for themselves.”
Nelly -
“A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o'clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone.”
Ellen Dean -
“It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.”
Catherine -
“I wonder where he is—I wonder where he might be? What did I say, Nelly? I've forgotten. Was he vexed at my bad humour this afternoon? Dear! tell me what I've said to grieve him? I do wish he'd come. I do wish he would!”
Catherine -
“Should the meanest thing alive slap me on the cheek, I'd not only turn the other, but, I'd ask pardon for provoking it; and, as a proof, I'll go make my peace with Edgar instantly. Good-night! I'm an angel!”
Catherine -
“Honest people don't hide their deeds.”
Ellen Dean -
“The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him; they crush those beneath them. You are welcome to torture me to death for your amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style, and refrain fromm insult as much as you are able.”
Heathcliff -
“How strange! I thought, though everybody hated and despised each other, they could not avoid loving me.”
Catherine Earnshaw Linton -
“So much had circumstances altered their positions, that he would certainly have struck a stranger as a born and bred gentleman; and his wife as a thorough little slattern!”
Ellen Dean -
“I wish you has sincerity enough to tell me whether Catherine would suffer greatly from his loss: the fear that she would restrains me. And there you see the distinctions between our feelings: had he been in my place, and I in his, though I hated him with a hatred that turned my life to gall, I never would have raised a hand against him. You may look incredulous, if you please! I never would have banished him from her society as long as she desired his. The moment her regard ceased, I would have torn his heart out, and drunk his blood! But till then—if you don't believe me, you don't know me—till then, I would have died by inches before I touched a single hair of his head!”
Mr. Heathcliff -
“If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day. And Catherine has a heart as deep as I have; the sea could be as readily contained in that horse-trough, as her whole affection could be monopolized by him! Tush! He is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her horse. It is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him what he has not?”
Mr. Heathcliff -
“Kiss me again; and don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer—but yours! How can I?”
Mr. Heathcliff -
“I'm weary of enduring now, and I'd be glad of a retaliation that wouldn't recoil on myself; but treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends: they wound those who resort to them, worse than their enemies.”
Mrs. Heathcliff -
“Now, my bonny lad, you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!”
Mr. Heathcliff -
“I love him better than myself, Ellen; and I know it by this: I pray every night that I may live after him; because I would rather be miserable than that he should be: that proves I love him better than myself.”
Cathy -
“He's a pretty little darling when he's good. I'd make such a pet of him, if he were mine.”
Cathy -
“He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk. I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish.”
Cathy -
“They are afraid of nothing," I grumbled, watching their approach through the window. "Together they would brave Satan and all his legions.”
Mr. Lockwood -
“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 -
“Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.”
Ellen Dean -
“You teach me now how cruel you've been - cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why id you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears: they'll blight you - they'll damn you. You love me - then what right had you to leave me? What right answer me - for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. So much the worse for me, that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you - oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?”
Heathcliff -
“I have not broken your heart - you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”
Heathcliff -
“Heathcliff, if I were you, I'd go stretch myself over her grave and die like a faithful dog. The world is surely not worth living in now, is it? You had distinctly impressed on me the idea that Catherine was the whole joy of your life: I can't imagine how you think of surviving her loss.”
Isabella Linton Heathcliff -
“I'm weary of enduring now, and I'd be glad of a retaliation that wouldn't recoil on myself; but treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends: they wound those who resort to them worse than their enemies.”
Isabella Linton Heathcliff -
“I know he has a bad nature, he's your son. But I'm glad I've a better, to forgive it; and I know he loves me, and for that reason I love him. Mr. Heathcliff you have nobody to love you; and, however miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty arises from your greater misery. You are miserable, are you not? Lonely, like the devil, and envious like him? Nobody loves you—nobody will cry for you when you die! I wouldn’t be you!’”
Catherine Linton Heathcliff -
“I can afford to suffer anything hereafter! Should the meanest thing alive slap me on the cheek, I’d not only turn the other, but I’d ask pardon for provoking it”
Cathy -
““You have a heart and nerves the same as your brother men! Why should you be so anxious to conceal them? Your pride cannot blind God! You tempt him to wring them, till he forces a cry of humiliation.””
Nelly Dean -
““I gave him my heart, and he took and pinched it to death; and flung it back to me.””
Isabella Linton Heathcliff -
“If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day.”
Heathcliff -
“I have to remind myself to breathe -- almost to remind my heart to beat!”
Heathcliff
Setting & Locations edit
- Thrushcross Grange: Another property owned by Heathcliff that he is renting to Mr. Lockwood. Used to belong to the Lintons.
- Wuthering Heights: Current Home of Heathcliff and former home of the Ernshaw family
- England
- Liverpool
First Sentence edit
I have just returned from a visit to my landlord—the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.
Table of Contents edit
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Chapter XV
Chapter XVI
Chapter XVII
Chapter XVIII
Chapter XIX
Chapter XX
Chapter XXI
Chapter XXII
Chapter XXIII
Chapter XXIV
Chapter XXV
Chapter XXVI
Chapter XXVII
Chapter XXVIII
Chapter XXIX
Chapter XXX
Chapter XXXI
Chapter XXXII
Chapter XXXIII
Chapter XXXIV
Glossary edit
- Chevy Chase: An old English ballad dealing with the Battle of Otterburn.
- Chit: An immature or childish girl.
- Delf-case: A cabinet for tableware named for popular glazed earthenware, usually blue and white, originating in the city of Delft.
- Offald ways: Used to characterize Catherine's and Heathcliff's behavior as disreputable.
Themes & Symbolism edit
- 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.
- Books: The books in Wuthering Heights symbolizes a struggle for power as well as a need for escape.
- Doors, Gates: The doors and gates symbolize (not only in physical form but psychologically) barriers.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 43 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2011). (authoritative list)
This is book 39 of 194 in Shelfari Most Popular (December 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 37 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2010). (authoritative list)
This is book 40 of 195 in Shelfari Most Popular (June 2011). (authoritative list)
This book is in The Rory Gilmore Reading Challenge. (community list)
This is book 30 of 101 in Penguin English Library. (publisher series)
This is book 12 of 82 in BBC "Big Read" Top 100 Novels. (authoritative list)
This book is in Barnes and Noble Leatherbound Classics. (publisher series)
This book is in Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read. (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin Classic Deluxe Edition Book Covers. (community list)
This is book 73 of 37 in 100 Books Every Child Should Read - Part 03: Early Teens (The Telegraph). (authoritative list)
This book is in 100 Fantabulous Book Challenge. (community list)
This book is in Best Books of All Time. (community list)
This book is in Popular Classics. (community list)
This is book 1 of 5 in Bella Swan's reading list. (community list)
This book is in Ghosts. (community list)
This is book 38 of 91 in The Novel 100: A Ranking of the Greatest Novels of All Time, 2004. (authoritative list)
This is book 7 of 95 in Telegraph Top 100 Books, 2008. (authoritative list)
This is book 12 of 200 in BBC 'Big Read' Top 200 Novels, 2003. (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin's Top 100 Classics. (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin Classics. (publisher edition list)
This book is in Random Synapses: 100 Book Reading Challenge (2011). (community list)
This is book 10 of 19 in Livros de Bolso Europa-América. (publisher edition list)
This book is in Barnes & Noble Classics. (standard series)
This is book 53 of 145 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2011). (authoritative list)
This book is in Penguin Readers, Level 5. (publisher series)
This is book 29 of 121 in Whitcoulls Top 100 (2012). (authoritative list)
This is book 902 of 1286 in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. (authoritative list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Emily Brontë (Author)
Other Contributors:
- Henriette Yvonne Stahl (Translator)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Country: UK
Publication Date: 1847
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Country: UK
Publication Date: 1847
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 336
Awards edit
- BBC's Big Read (April 2003, #12)
Classification edit
- Copyright Status: Public Domain
- Library of Congress: PR4172 .W7
- Dewey: 828'.8
Subjects edit
Popular Tags
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Links to Supplemental Material edit
- Wikipedia: Learn more about this book and more at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- Project Gutenberg: Free e-book, full text
- Librivox: Free audio book read by Ruth Golding (Total running time: 14:48:42)
- Book and Film Review: In Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, two of the main characters travel into Wuthering Heights for a rage counseling session. They interact with the characters in much the same way that people have been interacting with them for 150 years. They can’t understand a damn word that Joseph is saying, they must put up with the beastly way that Heathcliff treats everyone, deal with the fact that just about everyone in the novel would just as soon see Heathcliff dead and the fact that Catherine is loony in love for him in spite of all sense and reason.
Movie Connections edit
- Wuthering Heights (IMDb): 1939 - Film starring Merle Oberon, Laurence Olivier and David Niven
- Wuthering Heights (IMDb): 1992 - Film starring Juliette Binoche, Ralph Fiennes and Janet McTeer
- Wuthering Heights (IMDb): 1998 - Film starring Robert Cavanah, Peter Davison and Orla Brady
- Wutherinh Heights (IMDb): 2009 - Film starring Tom Hardy and Charlotte Riley and Andrew Lincoln
- Wuthering Heights (IMDb): 2011 - Film starring Kaya Scodelario, Nichola Burley and James Howson
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