c_c_
11-14-2006, 02:48 AM
Wuthering Heights
By Emily Brontë
[there will be references to the plot - minimal, but they're there - outside of the summary, so you are warned]
Yes, Wuthering Heights is a classic, but it definitely is NOT your stereotypical classic novel. For one, it is exciting, the twists and turns of passion and hate intertwining into one story that weaves itself through the pages and from cover to cover. Wuthering Heights is also powerful and speaking to the modern day audience. Unlike Charles Dickens’ novels or Thoreau’s writings, Emily Brontë’s intense novel does not become obsolete with time. Instead, it becomes truer, more filled with vérité as the years flow by. Girls today can still identify with the sense of torment Cathy suffers under as she leaves Heathcliff, the man she loves, for Edgar, the man who can give her a future. It calls back to mind the same decision made in “If Love” where Sun Na leaves her fiancé for the man who will make her a star. Perhaps not all girls (and guys too!) will have to make this heart-rending decision, but think about when we choose which career path we will travel down, which major to take in college. There is always the split between what one wants to do and what will pay. Cathy made her decision and two generations will have to live with the consequences of it.
Genre-wise, Wuthering Heights is a Gothic novel like the ones written by Edgar Allan Poe and other 19th century Transcendentalists. It uses a mysterious, eerie setting – the dilapidated old manse atop the wild moor in which the wind “wuthers” to weave a plot in which unorthodox happenings occur – the ghost child the narrator dreams of during his first night there. This dark ambience will be a major factor later into the story.
Emily Brontë is one of three talented sisters: Charlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, and Emily Brontë who come from a family of literary intellects. Perhaps you are familiar with Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Of all her novels, Wuthering Heights is her most celebrated, perhaps because of the deep insight it shows into human nature.
*plot summary – be forewarned*
Lockwood, the narrator, rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the moor country of England from a reticent landlord called Heathcliff who lives in the ancient manor called Wuthering Heights. Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the odd residents of Wuthering Heights. She consents and Lockwood writes down those recollections in his diary.
The story begins in Nelly’s childhood. As a girl, she worked at Wuthering Heights for Mr. Earnshaw, who was then owner of Wuthering Heights, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw returns home with an orphan boy called Heathcliff. In the beginning, Mr. Earnshaw’s children – a boy named Hindley and his younger sister, Catherine – dislike Heathcliff. But as time passes, Catherine (Cathy) and Heathcliff become inseparable. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, resulting in Hindley becoming increasingly jealous and bitter towards Heathcliff.
Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns from college with his wife, Frances, and now exacts revenge on Heathcliff. He treats Heathcliff as a common laborer and forces him to work in the fields. However, Heathcliff and Cathy continue their close friendship. One night, they sneak into Thrushcross Grange, wanting to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the children who live there. As a result, Cathy is bitten by a dog and stays at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks. During this time, Mrs. Linton turns her from a wild tomboy into a proper young lady. By her return, Cathy can no longer accept Heathcliff and begins to look down upon him.
Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton and Hindley, due to excess of grief, descends into the depths of alcoholism. He also becomes more abusive towards Heathcliff. Over the course of this time, Cathy’s desire for social advancement causes her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, although she knows that she really loves Heathcliff. Unable to bear the torment any longer, Heathcliff runs away for three years, returning only after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.
Upon his return, Heathcliff sets about seeking revenge on those who have wronged him. He has come into a vast and mysterious wealth and deviously lends money to the weak Hindley. When Hindley dies, his debts result in Heathcliff’s inheritance of the manor. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by seducing Isabella Linton. Under the influence of Heathcliff’s return and her own mental torment, Cathy becomes very ill after giving birth to her daughter, and dies. Shortly after, Isabella runs away from Heathcliff, goes to London, and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton. She keeps the boy with her.
Thirteen years pass, and young Catherine is as beautiful and headstrong as her mother, but her temperament is modified by her father, Edgar’s, gentler influence. Meanwhile, Isabella has died and Linton comes to live with his father, Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly son even more cruelly than he treated Isabella.
Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors and is introduced to her cousin Linton. They develop a naïve romance through letters. Catherine also begins sneaking out of Thrushcross Grange to meet with her frail lover. One day, as Edgar Linton becomes increasingly ill and near death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine into Wuthering Heights and holds them captive there until Catherine marries Linton. After Edgar dies, and then Linton dies, Heathcliff forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.
At this point, Nelly’s story ends and Lockwood, appalled by what he’s heard, ends his tenancy and returns to London. Six months later, he pays a visit to Nelly and finds significant differences in the two manses. Heathcliff has died from insanity (he believes that the older Cathy’s ghost is still there on the moors waiting for him) and Catherine and Hareton have inherited Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Over their long imprisonment by Heathcliff, Catherine and Hareton have grown to care for each other and plan to marry the next New Year’s. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes and visits the graves of Catherine and her two lovers.
*end summary*
Throughout Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë is consistent in the excellent quality of her writing as she shows us the world of Heathcliff and Cathy through the eyes of Lockwood and Ellen and demonstrates her mastery of the love triangle.
It is amazing to behold how the characters develop in the story and how different characters in similar positions react completely differently. While Edgar Linton was a sniveling, weak boy, his marriage to Catherine seems to have brought out the better aspects of his personality. In addition, when he loses his beloved wife, he transfers all that love onto their child and cherishes little Cathy with the same tenderness as with which he loved her mother. On the other hand, Hindley also loses his much-loved wife, but instead, he resorts to violence and drunkenness to alleviate his pain. In fact, he doesn’t even show the most cursory care for his son, Hareton.
Emily Brontë and her dynamic, true to life characters help to tell a story of love, loss, and the insatiable thirst for revenge that sets in motion a cycle of pain and suffering that can be ended by only death.
Like Lockwood, we can “linger … round them [the tombstones], under that benign sky: watch … the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listen … to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wonder … how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”
By Emily Brontë
[there will be references to the plot - minimal, but they're there - outside of the summary, so you are warned]
Yes, Wuthering Heights is a classic, but it definitely is NOT your stereotypical classic novel. For one, it is exciting, the twists and turns of passion and hate intertwining into one story that weaves itself through the pages and from cover to cover. Wuthering Heights is also powerful and speaking to the modern day audience. Unlike Charles Dickens’ novels or Thoreau’s writings, Emily Brontë’s intense novel does not become obsolete with time. Instead, it becomes truer, more filled with vérité as the years flow by. Girls today can still identify with the sense of torment Cathy suffers under as she leaves Heathcliff, the man she loves, for Edgar, the man who can give her a future. It calls back to mind the same decision made in “If Love” where Sun Na leaves her fiancé for the man who will make her a star. Perhaps not all girls (and guys too!) will have to make this heart-rending decision, but think about when we choose which career path we will travel down, which major to take in college. There is always the split between what one wants to do and what will pay. Cathy made her decision and two generations will have to live with the consequences of it.
Genre-wise, Wuthering Heights is a Gothic novel like the ones written by Edgar Allan Poe and other 19th century Transcendentalists. It uses a mysterious, eerie setting – the dilapidated old manse atop the wild moor in which the wind “wuthers” to weave a plot in which unorthodox happenings occur – the ghost child the narrator dreams of during his first night there. This dark ambience will be a major factor later into the story.
Emily Brontë is one of three talented sisters: Charlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, and Emily Brontë who come from a family of literary intellects. Perhaps you are familiar with Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. Of all her novels, Wuthering Heights is her most celebrated, perhaps because of the deep insight it shows into human nature.
*plot summary – be forewarned*
Lockwood, the narrator, rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the moor country of England from a reticent landlord called Heathcliff who lives in the ancient manor called Wuthering Heights. Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the odd residents of Wuthering Heights. She consents and Lockwood writes down those recollections in his diary.
The story begins in Nelly’s childhood. As a girl, she worked at Wuthering Heights for Mr. Earnshaw, who was then owner of Wuthering Heights, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw returns home with an orphan boy called Heathcliff. In the beginning, Mr. Earnshaw’s children – a boy named Hindley and his younger sister, Catherine – dislike Heathcliff. But as time passes, Catherine (Cathy) and Heathcliff become inseparable. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, resulting in Hindley becoming increasingly jealous and bitter towards Heathcliff.
Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns from college with his wife, Frances, and now exacts revenge on Heathcliff. He treats Heathcliff as a common laborer and forces him to work in the fields. However, Heathcliff and Cathy continue their close friendship. One night, they sneak into Thrushcross Grange, wanting to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the children who live there. As a result, Cathy is bitten by a dog and stays at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks. During this time, Mrs. Linton turns her from a wild tomboy into a proper young lady. By her return, Cathy can no longer accept Heathcliff and begins to look down upon him.
Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton and Hindley, due to excess of grief, descends into the depths of alcoholism. He also becomes more abusive towards Heathcliff. Over the course of this time, Cathy’s desire for social advancement causes her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, although she knows that she really loves Heathcliff. Unable to bear the torment any longer, Heathcliff runs away for three years, returning only after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.
Upon his return, Heathcliff sets about seeking revenge on those who have wronged him. He has come into a vast and mysterious wealth and deviously lends money to the weak Hindley. When Hindley dies, his debts result in Heathcliff’s inheritance of the manor. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by seducing Isabella Linton. Under the influence of Heathcliff’s return and her own mental torment, Cathy becomes very ill after giving birth to her daughter, and dies. Shortly after, Isabella runs away from Heathcliff, goes to London, and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton. She keeps the boy with her.
Thirteen years pass, and young Catherine is as beautiful and headstrong as her mother, but her temperament is modified by her father, Edgar’s, gentler influence. Meanwhile, Isabella has died and Linton comes to live with his father, Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly son even more cruelly than he treated Isabella.
Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors and is introduced to her cousin Linton. They develop a naïve romance through letters. Catherine also begins sneaking out of Thrushcross Grange to meet with her frail lover. One day, as Edgar Linton becomes increasingly ill and near death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine into Wuthering Heights and holds them captive there until Catherine marries Linton. After Edgar dies, and then Linton dies, Heathcliff forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.
At this point, Nelly’s story ends and Lockwood, appalled by what he’s heard, ends his tenancy and returns to London. Six months later, he pays a visit to Nelly and finds significant differences in the two manses. Heathcliff has died from insanity (he believes that the older Cathy’s ghost is still there on the moors waiting for him) and Catherine and Hareton have inherited Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Over their long imprisonment by Heathcliff, Catherine and Hareton have grown to care for each other and plan to marry the next New Year’s. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes and visits the graves of Catherine and her two lovers.
*end summary*
Throughout Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë is consistent in the excellent quality of her writing as she shows us the world of Heathcliff and Cathy through the eyes of Lockwood and Ellen and demonstrates her mastery of the love triangle.
It is amazing to behold how the characters develop in the story and how different characters in similar positions react completely differently. While Edgar Linton was a sniveling, weak boy, his marriage to Catherine seems to have brought out the better aspects of his personality. In addition, when he loses his beloved wife, he transfers all that love onto their child and cherishes little Cathy with the same tenderness as with which he loved her mother. On the other hand, Hindley also loses his much-loved wife, but instead, he resorts to violence and drunkenness to alleviate his pain. In fact, he doesn’t even show the most cursory care for his son, Hareton.
Emily Brontë and her dynamic, true to life characters help to tell a story of love, loss, and the insatiable thirst for revenge that sets in motion a cycle of pain and suffering that can be ended by only death.
Like Lockwood, we can “linger … round them [the tombstones], under that benign sky: watch … the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listen … to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wonder … how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.”