Summary Of ' Wuthering Heights '

In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Heathcliff’s strong love for Catherine guides his transformation as a character. While Heathcliff enters the story as an innocent child, the abuse he receives at a young age and his heartbreak at Catherine’s choice to marry Edgar Linton bring about a change within him. Heathcliff’s adulthood is consequently marked by jealousy and greed due to his separation from Catherine, along with manipulation and a deep desire to seek revenge on Edgar. Although Heathcliff uses deceit and manipulation to his advantage throughout the novel, he is never entirely content in his current situation. As Heathcliff attempts to revenge Edgar Linton, he does not gain true fulfillment. Throughout Wuthering Heights, Brontë uses Heathcliff’s vengeful actions to convey the message that manipulative and revenge-seeking behaviors will not bring a person satisfaction.

Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë does not idealize love; she presents it realistically, with all its faults and merits. She shows that love is a powerful force which can be destructive or redemptive. Heathcliff has an all-consuming passion for Catherine. When she chooses to marry Edgar, his spurned love turns into a

This cold treatment only progressed and became abusive when Mr. Earnshaw, one of the few people to ever care about Heathcliff, dies and his son who loathes the protagonist becomes the master of Wuthering Heights. “He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead; compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm” (Bronte 71).

In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses the setting of the English Moors, a setting she is familiar with, to place two manors, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The first symbolizes man's dark side while the latter symbolizes an artificial utopia. This 19th century setting allows the reader to see the destructive nature of love when one loves the wrong person.

This quote represents the first point of the book in which Lockwood realizes the Heights hold a secret no one wants him to know about. It stirs up his curiosity about the past affairs at Wuthering Heights and leads him to inquire about the story. He doesn’t know why this woman’s name is scratched into the wall so many times with such precision and curiosity. This leads him to investigate the woman and her past relationship with Heathcliff, who loved her enough to ask her to haunt him.

In society, appearance determines how people are treated and it is the base of prejudices and stereotypes. Lockwood’s first description of Heathcliff was: “He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman (…)” . It is important to stress that the word ‘gypsy’ has a negative connotation because it is linked with a stereotype. Gypsies were thought to be romantic characters, homeless that did not belong anywhere. People believed that they were uneducated, sinister, and had criminal tendencies. Characters judge Heathcliff on his dark skin, and attribute him negative aspects before Heathcliff can even show himself. As a result, he grew up to be a hateful character, full of rage and sorrow. The creature is also rejected at first sight in a more violent way. “I entered, but I had hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked, and one of the woman fainted. The whole village was roused: some fled, some attacked me, until, grievously bruised by stones and other kinds of missile weapons, I escaped to the country” . Due to his monster-like appearance, he is attacked and forced away. Villagers are afraid of him, think that he is a kind of evil beast, when in truth he is a gentle and sensitive soul who was led to become a killer. Heathcliff, as well as the creature, suffers from prejudices based on their physical appearance and their relationship with the rest

Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us. A capital fellow!” (Bronte 1). Lockwood quickly misjudges Heathcliff on their first encounter, as a reader we understand and know that Heathcliff is definitely not what a true “capital fellow” is supposed to represent. In the article, Allan R. Brink proposes that, “Lockwood rattles off one misinterpretation after another about the identity of the people in Wuthering Heights and their (the presumes) normal relations with each other” (Brick 81), Lockwood has a difficult time understanding the issues within Wuthering Heights, he is perplexed by the fact that the cannot comprehend the assumptions of Heathcliff as a character. Notwithstanding, It is understandable having the fact that he in fact isn't from around the area, and is just trying to meet this landowner, and happens to run into interesting events that lead him to want to know a little background

This quote is expressed by Mr. Lockwood whose point of view the reader follows in this novel. This quote is in regards to Heathcliff, his landlord, who presides over Wuthering Heights and is described to be a dark-skinned “gypsy” with an alluring and mysterious aura. This quote is emblematic of Heathcliff's character, and the many layers that will come to be revealed of his complex and confusing nature. The quote expresses that his reserve springs from an aversion or strong dislike to showy displays of feelings and that he’ll love and hate both equally but only behind closed doors, in public, he declares it lack of respect to be shown or regarded with any emotion. An oxymoron is used in this quote, “love and hate,” two contrasting and opposing

was to run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day."

Heathcliff is introduced in Nelly's narration as a seven-year-old Liverpool foundling (probably an Irish famine immigrant) brought back to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw. His presence in Wuthering Heights overthrows the prevailing habits of the Earnshaw family, members of the family soon become involved in turmoil and fighting and family relationships become spiteful and hateful. Even on his first night, he is the reason Mr. Earnshaw breaks the toys he had bought for his children. "From the very beginning he bred bad feelings in the house". Heathcliff usurps the affections of Mr. Earnshaw to the exclusion of young Hindley-: "The young master had learnt to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a

The Subconscious and Subhuman Temper In “Young Goodman Brown”, Wuthering Heights, and Hamlet, subconscious and subhuman tendencies indicate the detrimental tolls of obsession inflicted upon the main character. Dreams symbolize the onset of an obsession and imply that the seemingly harmless nightmares we experience may be more than merely a bad dream and instead serve as an indicator of the deterioration of our mental stability. Animalistic vocabulary dehumanizes and reduces characters to a more primitive form causing readers to question their understanding of what it truly means to be human. Ultimately, this corruption of the mind leads to undesirable thoughts and seemingly inhuman attributes, all out of the victim’s control.

“I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed, and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!” (Brontë, 56)

The novel of Wuthering Heights involves passion, romance, and turmoil but most significantly carries cruelty as an overarching theme. Cruelty is apparent throughout the work most importantly when dealing with relationships between Heathcliff and Hindley, Heathcliff and Hareton, and even the emotional cruelty between Heathcliff and Catherine.

The presentation of childhood is a theme that runs through two generations with the novel beginning to reveal the childhood of Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw, and with the arrival of the young Liverpudlian orphan, Heathcliff. In chapter four, Brontë presents Heathcliff’s bulling and abuse at the hands of Hindley as he grows increasingly jealous of Heathcliff for Mr. Earnshaw, his father, has favoured Heathcliff over his own son, “my arm, which is black to the shoulder” the pejorative modifier ‘black’ portrays dark and gothic associations but also shows the extent of the abuse that Heathcliff as a child suffered from his adopted brother. It is this abuse in childhood that shapes Heathcliff’s attitudes towards Hindley and his sadistic

“If wellness is this what in hell's name is sickness?” American singer Amanda Palmer captures what it means to reside in both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange in her hit song, “Runs in the Family”. Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights puts the ‘dysfunction’ in ‘dysfunctional families’ by using illness to demonstrate family dynamics. In the narrative, the affliction of mental illness is spread to almost all characters as they enter the household of Wuthering Heights, while residents at Thrushcross Grange are afflicted with physical illness, causing the ultimate upheaval of both households.