Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is the only novel by the English author Emily Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell". It concerns two extensive upland estates and their landowning families on the West Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons; and their turbulent relationships with the Earnshaws' foster son, Heathcliff. Driven by themes of romance, possession, revenge, and reconciliation, the novel is influenced by Romanticism and Gothic fiction. It is considered a classic of English literature.

Wuthering Heights was accepted by publisher Thomas Newby along with Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey before the success of their sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, but they were published later. The first American edition was published in April 1848 by Harper & Brothers of New York. After Emily's death, Charlotte edited a second edition of Wuthering Heights, which was published in 1850.

Though contemporaneous reviews were polarised, Wuthering Heights has come to be considered one of the greatest novels written in English. It was controversial for its depictions of mental and physical cruelty, including domestic abuse, and for its challenges to Victorian morality, religion, and the class system. It has inspired an array of adaptations across several types of media.

Plot

Opening

In 1801, Mr Lockwood, the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire, visits his landlord, Heathcliff, at his remote moorland farmhouse, Wuthering Heights. There he meets a reserved young woman (later identified as Cathy Linton), Joseph, an ill-tempered servant, and Hareton, an uneducated young man who speaks like a servant. Everyone is sullen and inhospitable. Snowed in for the night, Lockwood reads diary entries of the former inhabitant of his room, Catherine Earnshaw, and has a nightmare in which a ghostly Catherine begs to enter through the window. Awakened by Lockwood's yells, Heathcliff is distraught.

Lockwood returns to Thrushcross Grange, and falls ill. While he recovers, Lockwood's housekeeper, Ellen "Nelly" Dean, tells the story of the strange family.

Nelly's tale

Thirty years earlier, the Earnshaws live at Wuthering Heights with their two children, Hindley aged fourteen and Catherine, six, and a servant—Nelly herself. Returning from a trip to Liverpool, Earnshaw brings home an orphan whom he names Heathcliff. Heathcliff's origins are unclear but he is described as "like a gipsy" and, possibly, a Lascar or an American or Spanish castaway. Earnshaw treats the boy as his favourite and neglects his own children, especially after his wife dies. Hindley beats Heathcliff, who gradually becomes close friends with Catherine.

Hindley departs for university, returning as the new master of Wuthering Heights on the death of his father three years later. He and his new wife Frances force Heathcliff to live as a servant.

Edgar Linton and his sister Isabella live nearby at Thrushcross Grange, and Heathcliff and Catherine spy on them. When Catherine is attacked by their dog, the Lintons take her in, but send Heathcliff home. When the Lintons visit, Hindley and Edgar make fun of Heathcliff and a fight ensues. Heathcliff, banished to an attic, swears that he will one day have his revenge.

Frances dies after giving birth to a son, Hareton. Two years later, Catherine accepts Edgar's marriage proposal. She confesses to Nelly that she really loves Heathcliff but cannot marry him due to his low social status. Nelly warns against associating with Heathcliff. Heathcliff overhears part of the conversation and, misunderstanding Catherine's feelings, flees the household. Distraught, Catherine falls ill.

Mr and Mrs Linton, the parents of Edgar and Isabella, both die of fever. By Mr Linton’s will, Thrushcross Grange is entailed to be inherited by Edgar’s male heirs; or otherwise by the heirs of Isabella.

Three years after his departure, with Edgar and Catherine now married, Heathcliff unexpectedly returns, mysteriously wealthy. He plays upon Isabella's infatuation as revenge on Edgar. Enraged by Heathcliff's presence at the Grange, Edgar banishes him. Distraught, Catherine locks herself in her room and refuses food for three days. At Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff exploits Hindley's gambling addiction, becoming mortgagee of the estate. Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, but the relationship fails and they soon return.

Heathcliff visits the gravely ill and pregnant Catherine in secret. She dies shortly after giving birth to a daughter, Cathy. Heathcliff rages, calling on Catherine's ghost to haunt him. Isabella, bitter over Heathcliff's obsession, flees south where she gives birth to Heathcliff's son, a sickly boy named Linton. Hindley dies six months later of alcoholism and Hareton inherits Wuthering Heights, although Heathcliff takes possession.

Twelve years later, after Isabella's death, the still-sickly Linton, prospective inheritor of Thrushcross Grange, is brought back to live there, but Heathcliff insists that his son must live with him. Cathy and Linton develop a relationship. Heathcliff schemes to have them marry, hoping to control Cathy's inheritance; and on Edgar's death the couple live at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff becomes increasingly wild; revealing that, possessed by Catherine, he had opened her grave both after her burial and at Edgar's. When Linton dies, Cathy, his widow, has no option but to remain at Wuthering Heights; locked in hostility to Heathcliff.

Having reached the present day, Nelly concludes.

Ending

Lockwood moves away, returning eight months later to pay his rent. Nelly, now the housekeeper at Wuthering Heights, updates him.

Cathy sought Hareton's forgiveness – their reconciliation leading to love – subsequently confronting Heathcliff with unlawfully taking both their properties. Overmastered, declining physically, and increasingly fixated by the dead Catherine, Heathcliff avoided the young couple, as he could not now bear seeing Catherine's eyes, which they both shared, looking at him. He eventually stopped eating, and some days later was found dead in Catherine's old room.

Hareton has reclaimed Wuthering Heights, and Cathy has been teaching him to read. They plan to marry and move to the Grange, of which she is now the undisputed owner, with Joseph left to take care of Wuthering Heights. Locals report having seen the ghosts of Catherine and Heathcliff together on the moors. Lockwood seeks out the graves of Catherine, Edgar, and Heathcliff, side-by-side, and is convinced that all three are finally at peace.