Plot Summary of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Wuthering Heights is a story of two characters, Catherine and Heathcliff. It’s a complicated story of love and passion, with moments of revenge and the supernatural. It begins with a man named Lockwood who is in search of renting a home in Thrushcross Grange. He takes a visit to see his landlord, whose home is a perfect representation of Heathcliff. Not having his opinions swayed by what he sees he still goes through with renting the home.
Later on in the story in a harsh winter, Lockwood becomes ill, by time he asks the housekeeper Nelly to tell him about Heathcliff’s house and his strange behaviors. While she speaks, Lockwood keeps tab inside of his diary. Nelly started speaking about her childhood where she was a servant at the house. At the time, the Earnshaw family lived there, Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw as well as their children.
One day Mr. Earnshaw left and came back with a boy named Heathcliff. Though she hated him at first, Catherine and Heathcliff later became best of friends. Hindley is still very cruel to Heathcliff who is not bothered by it because he’s Mr. Earnshaw’s favorite. Mr. Earnshaw later sent Hindley away to college. Mr. Earnshaw died three years later and Hindley inherited Wuthering Heights. After the death of Mr. Earnshaw’s death Hindley’s anger begins to worsen over time. He comes back with a wife, Frances and proceeds to get revenge against Heathcliff. Once a privileged son, Heathcliff is now a common worker, forced to work in the fields. Though his relationship with Catherine is as strong as it can be. Women weren’t allowed to own any sort of property and this allowed Heathcliff to gain ownership of Thrushcross Grange when he married Isabella, also controlling it completely when he forced Cathy to marry Linton. There was also the mindset that women were helpless creatures who always needed protection. This was shown when Edgar prohibited Isabella to meet Heathcliff. He clearly thought he was protecting her, but he was really stealing her sense of speech and self-freedom.
The most important Gothic element of the novel is its setting. An old house set at the top a single hill, with no other houses around it. It has “grotesque carvings” and rough inhabitants. The inside was just as unwelcoming with rough designs, little light, and cold temperatures. The weather and elements around the house are similar. Strong wind and heavy storms were common. This is the complete opposite to Thrushcross Grange, which is described as “opulent”, “carpeted with crimson”, “beautiful”. The owners of the two houses are complete opposites too.
At the Heights, everyone is tougher while the owners of the Grange are softened and more civilized by luxury. It is a parallel that runs through the whole novel – the passionate Earnshaws versus the civilized Lintons. The Yorkshire moors that the novel is set in are also very Gothic. They are wild; almost with a life of their own and the role they play is crucial in the story. They are a metaphor for all that Catherine and Heathcliff represent; passion, violence and a love that transcends even death. She also hears him mumbling throughout the day speaking to someone who isn’t there. Because he is close to death he feels that her haunting spirit is as close as ever before. The next morning, Nelly was with Heathcliff for breakfast and he asked Nelly if they were alone, as his eyes fix on a person Nelly couldn’t see. He then looks outside the house, and becomes scared from what the ghost told him. Nelly saw nothing and tried again to get him to eat. He later starts addressing Catherine, and speaking to her as though she were alive and present. The closer Heathcliff grows to death, the more contact he seems to have with Catherine’s ghost. Heathcliff gives another clue of Catherine’s haunting when he tells Cathy that even if everyone else hated him, there was still one who would want his company, chasing him always. Nelly enters Heathcliff’s room, his eyes intense at her, and his lips smiling. But he’s dead, and the window to the moors is wide open. His face looks so happy that Nelly tries to close his eyes, but they will not. His expression of joy frozen for eternity.
In the last chapter, we have the final incident of supernatural. Many people believe Heathcliff is a ghost, and some claim to have met him along the moors, by the church, or in Wuthering Heights. Joseph also believes he has seen Heathcliff and Catherine looking out her window on nights. One day Nelly met a shepherd, who was only a young boy. He claimed to have seen Heathcliff and a woman, who would not let him pass on the road. Nelly tries not to believe, but still continues to not go out alone at nights.
