Wuthering Heights

by

Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë

1818 - 1848

Wuthering HeightsA song originally performed by Kate Bush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WChywYrwHBY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEWIUtEDq5o

Out on the wiley, windy moors We'd roll and fall in green

You had a temper, like my jealousy Too hot, too greedy

How could you leave me? When I needed to possess you

I hated you, I loved you too

Bad dreams in the night They told me I was going to lose the fight

Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff, it's me, Cathy come home I'm so cold, let me in-a-your window

Oh it gets dark, it gets lonely On the other side from you

I pine a lot, I find the lot Falls through without you

I'm coming back love, cruel Heathcliff My only one dream, my only master

Too long I roam in the night I'm coming back to his side to put it right I'm coming home to wuthering, wuthering

Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff, it's me, Cathy come home I'm so cold, let me in-a-your window

Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away

You know it's me, Cathy

Heathcliff, it's me, Cathy come home I'm so cold, let me in-a-your window

Heathcliff, it's me, Cathy come home I'm so cold, let me in-a-your window

Northern England is reputed to be very cold and harsh; it is Viking territory. Like the older Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, it is unwelcoming to strangers.

Northern Yorkshire. In the foreground heaths.

Plot Structure: Frame Tale

To tell her story, Brontë uses two narrators, Mr. Lockwood and Ellen Dean, called Nelly. Lockwood, who rents Thrushcross Grange, begins the narrative; Nelly takes it over after he asks her to tell him the story of Heathcliff. Lockwood and Nelly thus combine to form a picture, Lockwood acting as the "outer narrator" who frames the picture and Nelly acting as the "inner narrator" who paints the picture.   

Heathcliff

Catherine

Character Map

of Wuthering

Heights

Main Characters

Heathcliff The main character. Orphaned as a child, he is constantly on the outside, constantly losing people. Catherine Earnshaw’s decision to marry Edgar Linton almost destroys their relationship. He spends most of his life contemplating and acting out revenge. He is abusive, brutal, and cruel.

Catherine Earnshaw The love of Heathcliff’s life. Wild, impetuous (heftig, oppfarende, snarsint), and arrogant as a child, she grows up getting everything she wants. When two men fall in love with her, she torments both of them. Ultimately, Catherine’s selfishness ends up hurting everyone she loves, including herself.

Genealogy

Characters… http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html

Mr. Earnshaw: Owner of Wuthering Heights and father of two children, Hindley and Cathy. He adopts a street waif, Heathcliff, and dotes on the child, arousing jealousy in Hindley. After Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights and makes Heathcliff a common stable boy and field laborer.

Hindley: Earnshaw’s son, who torments Heathcliff when the latter is a small child many years younger than Hindley. After Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights, he continues to mistreat Heathcliff.

Frances Earnshaw: Hindley’s wife. Like Hindley, she maltreats Heathcliff. She dies after the birth of Hareton.

Edgar Linton: Elegant aristocrat at Thrushcross Grange whom Cathy marries to gain social position and the finer things of life.

Isabella Linton: Edgar’s naive sister. Heathcliff marries her to spite Edgar and Cathy, then treats Isabella cruelly.

Young Catherine: The daughter of Edgar Linton and Cathy.Hareton: The son of Hindley Earnshaw and his wife, Frances.Linton: Sickly child of Heathcliff and Isabella.Joseph: A crabby old servant.Zillah: A housekeeper. 

Type of Work http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html

• Wuthering Heights is a novel of romance, revenge, and tragedy.

• It exhibits many characteristics of the so-called Gothic novel, which focuses on dark, mysterious events.

• The typical Gothic novel unfolds at one or more creepy sites, such as a dimly lit castle, an old mansion on a hilltop, a misty cemetery, a forlorn countryside, or the laboratory of a scientist conducting frightful experiments.

• In some Gothic novels, characters imagine that they see ghosts and monsters. In others, the ghosts and monsters are real.

• The weather in a Gothic novel is often dreary or foul: There may be high winds that rattle windowpanes, electrical storms with lightning strikes, and gray skies that brood over landscapes. (The word wuthering refers to violent wind.)

Themes http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html

Theme 1: Love gone wrong. Relationships in Wuthering Heights are like the moors: dark, stormy, twisted. Cathy loves Heathcliff but marries Edgar Linton. Heathcliff loves Cathy but marries Isabella Linton. Mr. Earnshaw loves his adopted son, Heathcliff, better than his biological son, Hindley, causing Hindley to despise Heathcliff. Linton and young Cathy are forced to marry.  Theme 2: Cruelty begets cruelty. Hindley’s maltreatment of Heathcliff helps turn the latter into a vengeful monster. In developing this theme, Emily Bronte is ahead of her time, demonstrating that suffering abuse as a child can lead to inflicting abuse as an adult.  Theme 3: Revenge. Heathcliff’s desire to get even against all who wronged him is at times so strong that it subverts his other emotions, including love.  Theme 4: Lure of Success and Social Standing. Cathy marries Edgar after becoming infatuated with his image as a cultured gentleman with wealth enough to meet her every need. Isabella marries Heathcliff after becoming infatuated with an idealized, romantic image of him. 

Themes http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html

Theme 5: Class distinctions. Heathcliff’s fury erupts after Cathy decides to marry “up” into the world of the Lintons, and not down into the world of Heathcliff.  Theme 6: Fate. The entire novel depends on the forces unleashed when Mr. Earnshaw happens upon an orphan child, Heathcliff, on a street in Liverpool and returns with him to Wuthering Heights.  Theme 7: Prejudice. The upper crust, the Lintons, look down upon the lower crust, Heathcliff and his kind.  Theme 8: The moors as a reflection of life around them (or vice versa) and life beyond. The dark, stormy moors–where only low-growing plants such as heather thrive–symbolize the passionate and sometimes perverted emotional lives of the residents of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. In the gloomy wasteland, the Yorkshire folk, including Heathcliff himself, sometimes report seeing ghosts of people buried in the moors.  

Climax http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html

Most analysts of Wuthering Heights maintain that the climax of the novel occurs when Cathy dies, unarguably a decisive turning point. However, one may fairly conclude that the climax comes earlier–in particular when Heathcliff overhears Cathy say she intends to marry Edgar Linton. This event deeply wounds Heathcliff, causes him to abandon Wuthering Heights, and triggers the dreadful events that follow.