Wuthering Heights
Review
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is one
of the most revered classic novels of the 18th century. It is taught
in high schools and colleges, and viewed as one of the most beautiful love
stories of all time. With hype like that, it is needless to say that I was
expecting to fall in love with this novel the way I fell in love with Jane
Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Sadly,
however, that didn’t happen with this novel. The following few paragraphs will
contain spoilers, so if you haven’t read the novel, you can skip ahead to the
opinion section.
In
1801, a man named Lockwood rents a house called Thrushcross Grange in the
countryside of England. He meets his landlord, Heathcliff, who is a very
wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, approximately
four miles away from the Grange. Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to
tell him the story of Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights. Nelly agrees, and
Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary. The diary
entries form the main part of the novel.
Nelly
worked at Wuthering Heights as a young girl for a man named Mr. Earnshaw, who
was the owner of Wuthering Heights. One day Mr. Earnshaw went to Liverpool and
returned with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first
the Earnshaw children, a boy named Hindley and a younger girl named Catherine,
hate Heathcliff, hating the affection their father shows him. However,
Catherine quickly comes to love him, and the two become inseparable. After his
wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, and when
Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley away to
college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.
Three
years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He
returns with a wife, Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once
an orphan, later a pampered and favored son, Heathcliff now finds himself
treated as a common laborer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues
his close relationship with Catherine. One night they wander to Thrushcross
Grange, hoping to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish
children who live there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at
the Grange to recuperate for five week, during which time Mrs. Linton works to
make her a proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become
infatuated with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more
complicated.
When
Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends
into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves even more cruelly and abusively
toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement
prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love
for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for
three years, and returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.
When
Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have
wronged him. Having come into a vast and mysterious wealth, he deviously lends
money to the drunken Hindley, knowing that Hindley will increase his debts and
fall into deeper depression. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor.
He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying
Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives
birth to a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth,
she “may take whatever form she will, she may haunt him, drive him mad,” just
as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to
London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She
keeps the boy with her there.
Thirteen
years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid
at Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her
mother, but her temperament is modified by her father’s gentler influence.
Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights.
One day, however, she discovers the manor while exploring, and meet Hareton and
plays with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies and Linton comes to live with
Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly, whining son even more cruelly than he
treated Isabella.
Three
years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff and makes a visit to Wuthering Heights
to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely
through letters. When Nelly destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the
girl begins sneaking out at night to spend time with her frail young lover, who
asks her to come back and nurse him to health. However, it quickly becomes
apparent that Linton is pursuing Catherine because Heathcliff is forcing him
to. Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon
Thrushcross Grange, and his revenge on Edgar Linton, will be complete. One day,
as Edgar grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine back
to Wuthering Heights and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries Linton.
Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death
of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange. He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as
a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.
Nelly’s
story ends as she reaches the present. Lockwood is appalled and ends his
tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and returns to London. However, six months later,
he pays a visit to Nelly, and learns of further developments in the story.
Although Catherine originally mocked Hareton’s ignorance and illiteracy (in an
act of retribution, Heathcliff ended Hareton’s education after Hindley died),
Catherine grows to love Hareton as they live together at Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff becomes more and more obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine,
to the point that he begins speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds
him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and
young Catherine inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they plan
to be married on the next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story,
Lockwood goes to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.
You
may be wondering why the summary of this book was so long. The answer is
simply: that is all the most important parts of the story. It is an incredibly
long book, and there is so much more in the novel that I could have put in this
summary. Now, onto my evaluation of the story itself.
It
occurred to me about halfway through reading this novel (which I had to
supplement half with sparknotes and half with an audio version of the novel)
that maybe the reason everyone hates Heathcliff is because he’s a giant asshole
to everyone. It seems to me that he purposely tried to get under Hindley’s skin
to the point that Hindley wanted to get revenge on him by making him a servant.
And then, after Hindley dies, Heathcliff won’t give up. He has to continue to antagonize Hindley and
everyone in his life. He won’t even educate Hindley’s poor kid.
Heathcliff
is also a giant douche (pardon the language) to his wife. Granted, I am very
well aware that there weren’t too many joyous marriages in the 18th
century, but Heathcliff really went out of his way to be horrible to Isabella.
He was even worse to his own son. Sometimes the father’s were at least less
douches to their kids, but not in Heathcliff’s case. It seems to me that
Heathcliff worked really hard to push people away or keep them at an arm’s
distance, probably because the death of the elder Catherine hurt him so much.
Which
brings us to Catherine Sr. Possibly the most annoying character in the whole
book, including Heathcliff’s pessimistic wife, Isabella. Catherine was a
spoiled child who grew up to expect life to be a certain way and would throw
tantrums as a grown woman when she didn’t get her way. She wanted to marry
Edgar while still keeping Heathcliff in her life as an emotional bond, and when
Heathcliff gave her an ultimatum and she had to pick between the two, she threw
a hissy fit, complaining to Nelly over and over again how unfair the world is.
Maybe the world would be better if she would just stick to one freaking guy,
then maybe she wouldn’t be on an emotional roller coaster all the time.
The
poor spouses of this novel are the people to feel really sorry for. Edgar and
Isabella really picked the wrong people to marry, in my opinion. Edgar picked a
selfish, impulsive woman who was in love with two men at once. Isabella picked
a cruel, heartless bastard whose main interest was revenge and didn’t care who
he hurt in his attempt to settle a score.
The
story line of this novel is engaging and very interesting, but the characters
detract from the romance of the novel. If even one of the characters had had a
redeeming quality about them, it may have made the novel more enjoyable, but as
for my opinion, this novel scores low on my scale. I give it 2 out o
