Wuthering Heights

Summary

Wuthering Heights is set at the turn of the 19th century among the wild moors of a remote Yorkshire district. The story’s structure is unusual and complex, but in general the novel’s events are recounted by two characters: Mr. Lockwood, a wealthy visitor from London, and Ellen Dean, a housekeeper. All of Mrs. Dean’s narratives concern the impact of the foundling Heathcliff on the Earnshaws and Lintons, two local landowning families. Embittered by abuse and the marriage of Catherine Earnshaw—who shares his stormy nature and whom he loves—to the gentle and prosperous Edgar Linton, Heathcliff plans revenge on both families, extending into the second generation. Catherine’s death in childbirth at about 18 years old fails to set him free from his obsession with her, which persists until his death almost 20 years later. The marriage of the surviving heirs of Earnshaw and Linton restores peace.

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Heathcliff and the Earnshaws

Within this tale of obsessive love is a ghost story. As the novel opens, Lockwood, who is renting Thrushcross Grange manor from Heathcliff, describes a harrowing visit to neighboring Wuthering Heights, where Heathcliff lives with his widowed daughter-in-law, Cathy Linton, and her cousin, Hareton Earnshaw. Though Lockwood finds the family inhospitable, he is forced to spend the night because of a snowstorm. That night he is wakened by the sound of a branch hitting the window. Desperate to stop the noise, he breaks the windowpane and reaches for the branch. Suddenly, an icy hand grabs his arm, and he hears a child’s voice call, “Let me in!” Lockwood then sees a girl’s face outside the window and hears the voice cry, “I’m come home: I’d lost my way on the moor!…I’ve been a waif for twenty years!”

Lockwood guesses this to be the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw. His encounter upsets Heathcliff, who rushes to the window and begs the ghost to come inside.

Later, at Thrushcross Grange, Mrs. Dean tells Lockwood about the Earnshaws, including their informal adoption of Heathcliff, who was brought into the family’s fold by Mr. Earnshaw after finding the “dirty, ragged, black-haired child” on the streets of Liverpool. Nothing is known about the child’s origins, and even his language is unidentifiable to the family. Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw name him Heathcliff for a son who died.

Heathcliff grows close with the Earnshaws’ six-year-old daughter, Catherine. He is guessed to be about her age, and they are much alike in personality. By contrast, the Earnshaws’ 14-year-old son, Hindley, often clashes with Heathcliff and abuses him.

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After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights and marries, and Heathcliff is reduced to a servant. Catherine and Heathcliff remain close, often running off together to the moors and spending hours there. As a result of one of their adventures, Catherine becomes acquainted with the children at Thrushcross Grange: Edgar and Isabella Linton. Although she loves Heathcliff, she marries Edgar because of his wealth, telling Mrs. Dean that it would “degrade” her to marry Heathcliff. She further confesses:

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. So don’t talk of our separation again: it is impracticable.

While eavesdropping, Heathcliff hears only the first part of her confession, and he leaves Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff’s revenge

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After three years Heathcliff returns to enact a long and insidious revenge on Edgar and Hindley. While away, he gained both money and an education, but it is unknown where or how he attained them. Exploiting Isabella Linton’s naive infatuation with him, Heathcliff elopes with her, forcing her brother, Edgar, to disown her. Heathcliff takes advantage of Hindley’s gambling habit to lure him into debt, and Wuthering Heights is subsequently mortgaged to Heathcliff. After Hindley’s death, Heathcliff takes possession of the estate and becomes guardian to Hindley’s son, Hareton, whom he treats like a servant.

Heathcliff also inveigles himself in Edgar and Catherine’s marriage, even after Catherine becomes pregnant. She dies after giving birth to a daughter, also named Catherine (or Cathy). Further, Heathcliff mistreats Isabella, who leaves him and gives birth to his son, Linton.

Heathcliff’s plan of vengeance continues. As the new generation of Earnshaws and Lintons grow up, Heathcliff remains at Wuthering Heights and Edgar at Thrushcross Grange, but their families have little interaction. When Isabella dies, Edgar brings her son, Linton, to Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff insists on raising the sickly Linton, even though Heathcliff despises him for his weakness. In time, Linton grows weaker.

When Edgar also becomes ill, Heathcliff conspires to have Linton and Cathy marry, expecting to inherit Thrushcross Grange when Edgar and Linton die. (The laws of entail and primogeniture ensure that Thrushcross Grange is passed down to male heirs, skipping over Cathy and defaulting to her father-in-law.) After all this comes to pass, Cathy is held captive at Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff leases Thrushcross Grange.

Catherine’s haunting

Throughout these events, Heathcliff is relentlessly haunted by Catherine. On more than one occasion, his obsession with her drives him to open her grave to see her face again, and he even considers climbing into it.

Disturbed by his landlord’s history, Mr. Lockwood leaves Thrushcross Grange. After nearly a year he returns to find that Heathcliff has died and Cathy and Hareton are engaged. Heathcliff’s final days are recounted by Mrs. Dean. Tormented to the end by his separation from Catherine and refusing to eat, he died beside the open window where Lockwood had been awakened by her ghost, as if he had been waiting for her. It is said that Heathcliff and Catherine’s ghosts are often seen wandering the moors.