Wuthering Heights - Summary, Character Sketches, Plot Structure, Themes

Wuthering Heights

Brief SUMMARY of the Novel

In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights.

Nelly remembers her childhood. As a young girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the manor, Mr. Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and returns home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly comes to love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the moors. 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, however. 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 weeks, 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 despondency. 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, wandering through the moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays together 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 the boy’s mother.

Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors, 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 back

to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Linton is pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange—and his revenge upon Edgar Linton—will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton 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, appalled, 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 extent that he begins speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking on the moors, 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.

Character Sketches

1. Heathcliff

Heathcliff is the central character of the novel Wuthering Heights although due to his monstrous and inhumanly revengeful nature, we cannot call him the hero. He is the only major character who rules the action from the beginning to the end. The story virtually begins with his arrival at the Wuthering Heights and ends with his death. Throughout the story, he remains the main driving force behind what happens. If we take him out, the whole edifice of the novel would collapse.

Heathcliff is a tall and robust man having the strength of a giant. In comparison with him, Hindley is weakling who dares not lift a finger against him for fear that he would crush him to pulp if he did.

At the beginning of the story he is the object of our sympathy. He is a homeless waif (orphan) brought to Wuthering Heights by the elder Mr. Earnshaw from Liverpool during one of his visits to the city. In course of time, Mr. Earnshaw comes to love this adopted son even more than his real son. This preference generates a feeling of jealousy and enmity in the heart of Hindley, the real son. He is pampered by Mr. Earnshaw who, seeing Hindley’s dislike for him, even sends him to the university for three years.

On his return to Wuthering Heights after the death of his father, Hindley deprives him of all the facilities and reduces him to the status of a servant.  This deprivation is the first seed of monstrosity in him. Catherine’s words to Nelly that she does not want to degrade herself by marrying him, which he happens to overhear, are the second blow. He loves Catherine and the two have kindred spirits. Without waiting to hear the later part of her speech, he leaves Wuthering Heights. He could never expect such words from her and they cut him to the quick. They had been playing together on the moor and had fallen deeply in love with each other. Catherine’s marriage to Linton is another severe blow. These developments fill him with an insatiable desire for revenge. He vows to ruin everyone responsible for his material and emotional deprivation. We might have excused him if his revenge had been confined to Hindley and Edgar. But his bitterness transforms him into a fiend whose revenge engulfs even Catherine, the object his love, Edgar’s sister Isabella whom he manages to marry and the next generation which includes Edgar and Catherine’s daughter Catherine, Hindley’s son Hareton,  and even his own son Linton.

After overhearing Catherine, he silently leaves Wuthering Heights and returns a fabulously rich man after three years. Hindley, who has become an alcoholic after the death of his wife, is further driven into this quagmire by him. He keeps lending him money knowing that he would never be able to return it. The debt not being repaid, he becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights after his death. He marries Edgar’s sister, Isabella and subjects her to torture who is ultimately forced to leave him and start living alone in a distant town. There is a touch of sadistic pleasure in his abuse of Isabella as he himself admits. After her death, he takes possession of his son and subjects him to his brutality. He forces Linton to marry the younger Catherine just to manage to become the legal inheritor of the property of the Lintons as well.

The only redeeming feature in him is his love for Catherine. His passionate love for her has no parallel. He completely identifies himself with her. She is his soul without whom he cannot live. He keeps visiting her grave again and again and talks to her ghost. This love makes him a riddle hard to understand. Each reader therefore sees in him what he or she wants to see. To some, he appears to be something different from what he apparently is. His vengefulness appears to be the expression of his frustrated love for Catherine. But he takes it to such an extreme that it makes him a devil in human form.

On the symbolic level, he represents primeval energy untouched by civilisation which weakens it as it has done in the case of the Lintons. In a way, he is like the heroes of romance novels. The only difference is that those heroes reform in the end whereas he does not. Whatever little change we find in him comes too late – only a few days before his death. He lives and dies an unredeemed soul. Our reaction towards him is a mixture of pity, sympathy and abhorrence.

2. Catherine

Catherine is the female protagonist of the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. She is the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw who owns Wuthering Heights and the sister of Hindley. She dies even before the end of the first part of the novel. But her spirit continues to rule the course of events right up to the end of even the second part when she is no more there.

Catherine has a wild uncontrollable nature which is akin to Heathcliff’s. It is this temperamental affinity which brings them close to each other and forms the basis of their love. So great is the similarity in their nature that they can completely identify themselves with each other.

Catherine loves Heathcliff from the core of her heart. She cannot think of parting from him. True she decides to marry Edgar Linton. But to her at least, it does not mean that she has deserted Heathcliff. Social considerations lead her to decide to marry Edgar. She does not want to degrade herself socially by marrying Heathcliff. But as she tells Nelly, she intends to use Edgar’s money and status to improve Heathcliff’s position. We may disapprove of her intention on moral grounds but it shows her genuine attachment to Heathcliff.    

But her deep love for Heathcliff does not mean that she does not love Edgar and wants to use him only as a cat’s paw. She is intensely attached to him too although at a different level. We can call her a social rebel who thinks that it is possible to marry one man and continue to love another. She duly performs all her duties towards Edgar and his family. She is genuinely worried about Isabella’s welfare. Knowing Heathcliff well, she warns her against falling into his trap although the latter misunderstands her intentions. If Edgar falls ill, she nurses him with the greatest care. What she cannot understand is why Edgar should have any objection to her relations with Heathcliff.

Another thing we need to understand is that her love for Heathcliff has no physical side to it. They never steal into corners to establish physical relations. There is not the slightest hint in the novel that their love has any sexual side to it.  Theirs is a union of the souls totally independent of the so called man-woman relationship.

Catherine is the only person in the novel with the exception of Nelly who understands the diabolical designs of Heathcliff with relation to Isabella. The reason may be that she knows that Heathcliff loves her and therefore he cannot love anyone else.

Catherine is a divided soul. Even the location of her coffin symbolises the conflict that tears apart her soul. She is buried neither among the Lintons nor among the Earnshaws but in a corner of the kirkyard where the wall is so low that the heath and bilberry plants from the moor climb over it. Moreover, she is buried with Edgar on one side and Heathcliff on the other which shows her divided and conflicting loyalties. Her actions are driven by her social ambitions which are awakened after her first stay at the Lintons’. These ambitions make her decide eventually to marry Edgar. But she is driven by her wild inner nature to violate social conventions – to keep loving Heathcliff, to throw temper tantrums and to run around on the moor.

In spite of the fact that we disapprove of her decision to marry Edgar in preference to Heathcliff, we continue to sympathise with her and feel pained at her sufferings. This is all the more so as, given the animosity that existed between Hindley and Heathcliff, we doubt whether Hindley would have allowed her to marry Heathcliff even if she had chosen him. Her ghost keeps haunting us as it haunted Heathcliff even after we have finished reading the novel.

Like Heathcliff, Catherine symbolizes primeval energy but hers is weakened to the extent that itis touched by civilisation as a result of her coming into contact with the Lintons whereas Heathcliff’s continues to be pure and robust as it is not touched by civilisation at all. She is also a complete foil to Isabella who is the child of civilisation and to that extent physically, intellectually and emotionally weaker than her.

3. Edgar

Edgar Linton is the third major character in the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. He is a foil to Heathcliff just as Catherine is a foil to Isabella. He is the only son of Mr. Linton who owns Thrushcross Grange and a brother to Isabella whom Heathcliff marries. He is a foil to Heathcliff just as Isabella is a foil to Catherine. He belongs to a socially well placed, rich, cultured and respectable family. Born and brought up as a gentleman, he is graceful and well-mannered and possesses all civilised virtues. It is because of these qualities that Catherine chooses him in preference to Heathcliff which proves to be the starting point of the conflict between the two. However, these qualities prove to be of no use to him in his rivalry with Heathcliff.

Edgar has too weak a physical constitution in comparison with Heathcliff. That is why he is afraid of having a physical encounter with him. He pockets extreme humiliation when he is physically confronted with Heathcliff in the novel. So great is the difference between the physical strength of the two that even Catherine remarks after watching this scene, “Heathcliff would as soon lift a finger at you as a king would march his army against a colony of mice.” In fact, the description we have of Edgar as a spoilt child gives us the impression that his refinement is the result of his helplessness and impotence.

Because of the complete contrast in their nature and bringing up, Edgar holds Heathcliff in scorn and avoids coming into contact with him as far as possible. Even when Edgar and Isabella were invited to visit Wuthering Heights after Catherine’s stay at Thrushcross Grange following a dog bite , their parents had put the condition that their children would not be allowed to come in to contact with Heathcliff. One of the reasons of his mental stress is the return of Heathcliff to the neighbourhood, his insistence on visiting Catherine and Catherine’s insistence on being allowed to see him.

Edgar is, however, affectionate towards everybody else. He loves his parents and never does anything to hurt them. He loves his sister so long before she marries Heathcliff. Above all, he loves his wife Catherine and their daughter intensely. He never hurts Catherine and tends her carefully during her illness. It is only after Isabella marries Heathcliff against the wishes of everybody that he refuses to see her. Even in her case, he softens after some time when she leaves him and goes away to live in a distant city. He would have kept her son at Thrushcross Grange and brought him up if Heathcliff had not taken him away. His only fault is his weakness and helplessness against Heathcliff. Along with the rest of the Lintons, he symbolises the degenerating effect of civilisation on the primeval energy of man

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Structure of Wuthering Heights

The structure of Wuthering Heights is quite simple and straightforward. The novel tells the story of Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights, the wrongs he suffers at the hands of Hindley Earnshaw, the frustration of his love for Catherine and his revenge. There is no sub-plot in the novel. The entire focus is on the successful telling of one story which is not complicated.

The story is, however, made complex by the narrative technique used by the author. Emily Bronte has used multiple narrators and the narration is non-chronological. The events have not been described in the same temporal order as they happen. The story is not narrated by one omniscient narrator. There are two major narrators whose narration is further supplemented by the contribution of several minor narrators.

Multiple Narrators

There are two narrative frames – the outer frame where Lockwood tells the story and the inner frame where Nelly Dean is the narrator. Lockwood’s narration is contemporary and Nelly tells the story from her memory using the flashback technique. The two Catherines, Isabella, Heathcliff, Zillah and Joseph also chip in to fill the gaps. The narrative has many layers. We peal one layer and discover another beneath it giving us a peep into more details and closer personal experience. The technique maintains a sense of mystery. No one knows everything and the reader has to wait to find answers to his questions.

Nelly as narrator

Nelly Dean is the main story teller. She has a very good memory which is a common convention in novel writing. She is both an observer and an actor in the story. So she speaks with authority although she is not free from some degree of bias. We never doubt her accuracy, even though, here and there, she herself admits that she made a mistake. Her down-to-earth attitude makes us accept even the extreme traits and actions of the characters because she sets them in a believable context. As she has a clear purpose in telling the story, she sometimes just skims over some periods and gives greater details of others.

Lockwood as narrator

Lockwood cannot be treated as a reliable narrator. What he tells us cannot always be accepted as the truth. Of course, he does not try to deliberately mislead through mischief. But he jumps to conclusions and often misinterprets situations due to three reasons.

1. He is slightly arrogant about his social position.

2. He is not good at understanding people.

3. He finds himself in a society which he does not understand.

The reader therefore feels that he knows better than Lockwood does. This helps him to accept the more extreme and less credible events in the novel. His mistakes alert the reader to keep his wits about him so that he should not make the same kind of mistakes as he does. This makes the reader look deeply into the characters as he concentrates on their behaviour.

Many gaps in the narrative are filled by other minor narrators through their first person descriptions or letters.

Non-chronological Narration

The story is not told in a chronological order. Changing the chronology of events also creates a sense of mystery. It makes the reader wait for answers to his questions just as Lockwood waits for the next part of Nelly’s story.

The story begins close to the end with Lockwood’s visit to Wuthering Heights. Questions are raised as to who people are and how they are related. There are dramatic moments in the opening chapters. Lockwood dreams and is shouted at by Heathcliff. If the author had started the story with Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights, it would have been less dramatic. Meeting the angry, violent Heathcliff first is more effective from the point of view of story-telling than meeting him as a victimised helpless child would have been.

The author then toys with our feelings and reactions as she makes us meet the different characters at different points of time in their lives. We hardly know who to sympathise with and who to despise. This is really a major source of the powerful effect of the novel and maintains the reader’s interest from the beginning to the end. It also makes the characters more multi-layered as people are in real life.

Themes in Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte has dealt with several themes in her novel Wuthering Heights. The most important of them are the theme of love, of revenge and violence, of virtue (good) and vice (evil), of the precariousness of social status and of knowledge and power. In addition to these, we also find some minor themes.

The most important theme in the novel is the theme of love. The nature of love presented in the novel is romantic but oddly enough, it is not erotic. Catherine and Heathcliff love each other but their love is not erotic. They never commit adultery, nor do they steal into corners or have any secret meetings. The nature of their love is hard to understand. It seems to go beyond this world. It is above anything on this earth and belongs to the spiritual plane. They claim to be identical. Catherine says that she is Heathcliff and he too declares that she is his soul without which he cannot live. Their love seems to be born out of their common rebellion against conventional values. But they themselves do not seem to understand its nature. That is why, constancy and betrayal go hand in hand in their case. They continue to be in love till the end but they also betray each other in a sense. Catherine marries Edgar and Heathcliff marries Isabella. And the strangest thing is that both of them marry a person whom they know they do not love. Catherine marries Edgar out of her desire for social advancement and Heathcliff marries Isabella out of his desire for revenge.

Again, towards the end of the novel, Cathy and Hareton are seen falling in love. Their attitude towards each other begins to change. Hareton sheds his indifference and becomes responsive to Cathy’s efforts to teach him. Cathy also shows clearly that she has started liking him. She takes a keen interest in Hareton’s education even though Heathcliff resents it. Although the novel ends before their love blooms fully, we can foresee that it will in course of time and will be different from that between Catherine and Heathcliff.

The love as depicted in the novel is realistic, not ideal. Every relationship in the novel gets strained at one point or the other.

Another theme presented in the novel is that of good and evil which takes the form of love and hatred. Although the contrast between good and evil can be seen clearly, it is not possible to classify the characters as good and evil. Intertwined with the theme of good and evil is also the theme of revenge and violence. Heathcliff hates with a vengeance. His hatred is directed first towards Hindley and then towards Edgar. To a certain extent, he hates even Catherine although he would not admit it. His hatred leads him to revenge. Out of revenge, he destroys Hindley and grabs his estate. Even Hareton, who has not injured him in any way, falls a victim to his revenge only because he happens to be the son of Hindley. To avenge himself on Edgar, he marries Isabella and tortures her like a sadist. His revenge does not spare even Linton who is his own son. By forcing Linton to marry Cathy, he manages to inherit even the estate of Edgar. Combined with hatred and revenge, selfishness drives people to do things which are neither nice nor rational.

These emotions make the characters in the novel rounded instead stereotypes of good or evil. They represent real people with real emotions which oftentimes are not so nice. Every character has at least one trait with which the reader can empathise. The mixture of good and evil gives them a complex colouring.

Precariousness of social position is another theme in the novel. The social status of the gentry is not safe. It depends on the land they own and the number of servants they employ. The social status of Hindley changes with the loss of his money. Heathcliff’s status also goes through several changes. From a homeless orphan, he becomes a young gentleman by adoption. Then he is reduced to the status of a labourer. And he again becomes a gentleman when he acquires Wuthering Heights and then Thrushcross Grange too.

Another important theme in the novel seems to be the relationship between civilisation and primeval energy. The author seems to make out the case that civilisation may make man cultured but it destroys the primeval energy in him. Heathcliff has this energy intact because he has not been touched by civilisation and the Earnshaws and the Lintons have lost it to the extent that they have been touched by civilisation.

Solitude, dominance of patriarchy and the relationship between knowledge and power are some other themes presented in the novel although they are not its focus.

So we see that from the point of view of theme, Wuthering Heights is a multi-layered novel. A careful reader can discern a number of themes in it.