1

Running head: Wuthering Heights: An Analysis

Wuthering Heights: An Analysis

(Name of Student)

(University)

(Name of Professor)

(Subject)

(Date)
 2

Plot

Basically, this is how the story of Wuthering Heights goes: The story begins with

Lockwood, the narrator, arriving at Wuthering Heights to become a tenant at Thrushcross

Grange, owned by Heathcliff. Lockwood revealed that he once had a romance at the seaside that

failed. That was everything we ever found about him, because he was a lot more interested in the

events happening at the two houses. He was forced to spend one night at the Heights, where he

was haunted by a ghost named Catherine Linton. Afterward, he finally arrives at the Grange,

where the housekeeper, Nelly Dean tells him the story of the Lintons and the Earnshaws, to

which he eagerly listens to. The story is basically the private notes of Lockwood as he recorded

everything he learned about the two houses in his diary. The following were the things he

learned:

Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights, arrives home with a child named

Heathcliff to live with him and his family (a wife and two children). According to him, he found

Heathcliff on the Liverpool streets, but there is a possibility that Heathcliff is his son with

another woman. His wife and his children, Catherine and Hindley, do not like Heathcliff. As a

matter of fact, no one does. He was called an “imp of Satan”, a “gypsy”, and many other harsh

names. At long last, Catherine warms up to him and even fall in love with each other. They also

comfort each other after Mr. Earnshaw’s death and Hindley becomes a violent jerk.

Even though Heathcliff has always been treated like an outcast, at least he had Catherine.

However, when one day they decided to go down to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the children

of the Lintons and their intrusion was discovered, they welcomed Catherine but rejected

Heathcliff. Catherine becomes socially ambitious upon meeting them, and wanted to become a

lady of the Thrushcross Grange, which she knew would be impossible if she married Heathcliff.
 3

Therefore, despite being genuinely in love with him, she decided to marry Edgar. Broken-

hearted, Heathcliff goes away and is gone for three years, and it was never completely clear

where he went.

Heathcliff returns, still in love with Catherine, but decides to marry Isabella, the sister of

Edgar, in order to obtain their property. Due to the reality that she is not with the man she truly

loves and to the stress resulting from the constant arguing of Heathcliff and Edgar, Catherine

develops “brain fever”. Catherine then gives birth to a baby girl named Cathy Linton after a

wrenching reunion with Heathcliff, and dies shortly afterward. Heathcliff begs her ghost to

torment him for the remainder of his life.

Now that Catherine is dead, Heathcliff spent all of his time and strength on vengeance,

most especially on Hindley, his stepbrother who made his childhood a living hell and constantly

reminded him that he was nothing but a trespasser and an outcast. Included in his plan for

revenge is getting his sickly son married to Cathy Linton, in order to obtain Thrushcross Grange

as well.

After spending all of his strength on driving Hindley into the grave and becoming the

master of not just Wuthering Heights, but of Thrushcross Grange as well (losing his family in the

process), two housemates are left with Heathcliff—Cathy Heathcliff, his daughter-in-law, and

Hareton Earnshaw, his nephew. He admits to the housekeeper Nelly that all the revenge has

weakened and drained him out, and after some seriously odd behavior, he dies in the bed of

Catherine.

In the end, the houses were returned to their proper owners; Hareton Earnshaw gets

Wuthering Heights, and Cathy Heathcliff gets Thrushcross Grange, who will be married to each

other.
 4

Analysis

Setting

Set in the isolated and austere Yorkshire moors in Northern England, approximately

between 1750 and 1802, Wuthering Heights virtually creates a character out of its geographic

features. The nearest town is Gimmerton, and gives the location for characters like the lawyer,

Mr. Green, and the doctor, Mr. Kenneth. A distant port city, Liverpool, is related with Heathcliff,

the foreign, dark, gypsy child claimed to have been found by Mr. Earnshaw on the streets. Most

importantly, provided in the story are the regional markers of the cities such as mile of moor and

winding roads, moonlit scenery, bilberry bushes, bleak hilltops, black hollows, and the “golden

rocks” of Penistone Crags. Getting lost in this stark landscape is not surprising, particularly in

the snow. The feelings of confusion and desolation triggered by the setting contribute strongly to

the tone of the story.

Approximately fifty years is the span of the story (the last half of the 18th century),

although it was in 1801 when Lockwood began narrating.

Weather is also a huge factor in reflecting some of the characters’ gloomy attitudes. The

landscape can be a Garden of Eden-like escape from the autocracies and oppression of the home

—as with the strolls of the young Heathcliff and Catherine to keep away from the cruelty of

Hindley—or sinister and harsh—as with the snowbound night of Lockwood spent at Wuthering

Heights.

The two primary locations of action—Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange—are

opposing in several ways: Thrushcross Grange, situation on the valley below, is brighter and

more welcoming, while Wuthering Heights is cold, dark, and sinister, situated on a hill high
 5

above the Grange. Even though the distance between the two houses is only four miles, the

characters in the story are always getting lost while traveling between them.

The obtainment of a certain social status is symbolized by the access to the Thrushcross

Grange. Although there is no such social scene, Catherine is still gratifies by the welcome she

received from the Lintons. Meanwhile, Heathcliff is not welcome in any of the houses. Thus,

issues of mobility, access, and setting indicate several of the themes of the story, such as

estrangement, family, property, and social status.

Metaphors

The hair in the locket. This symbol appears only once throughout the story. It symbolizes

the intertwined lives and fates of Heathcliff and Edgar because they love the same woman. When

Heathcliff comes in to see Catherine in her casket, he removes the lock of Edgar’s hair in

Catherine’s locket, throws it to the ground, and replaces it with his own lock of hair. Ellen takes

both locks of hair, coils the black locks and yellow locks together, and puts them both inside the

locket.

Windows and doors. There are occurrences of open or locked windows and doors

throughout the story denoting freedom or captivity. In the very beginning, Lockwood faces gates

and doors at Wuthering Heights that are locked, and sees the ghost of Catherine trying to get

inside through a window. Upon the death of Catherine, Ellen leaves a window open to enable

Heathcliff to get in and see Catherine in her casket. Majority of the instances come later in the

story when Heathcliff has both Isabella and Catherine locked up in Wuthering Heights. Due to

locked doors, Catherine cannot leave her room or the house. Ellen cannot leave as well because

she has also been locked in. She is only able to leave when Zillah lets her out of her room. Only
 6

when Linton unlocks the door can Catherine be able to leave her room, and she escapes through

the window of the old room of her mother in order to leave the house. By the story’s end when

the characters is free of vengeance, Lockwood goes to Wuthering Heights and finds the gates and

doors unlocked.

Wind. The name of house of the Earnshaws which was later owned by Heathcliff is

“Wuthering Heights” and Lockwood says in the first chapter that ‘wuthering’ is an important

adjective as it is

“…descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy

weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed; one may

guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted

firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as

if craving alms of the sun.” (6)

Undeniably, in the story, the wind is a vital symbol that represents change. Wind is

present during several of the important happenings in the characters’ lives. There was a “high

wind” and the weather was described as “stormy and wild” during the death of Mr. Earnshaw.

There was also a great storm with rains and wind during the night that Heathcliff left Wuthering

Heights. Furthermore, on the morning that Heathcliff was found dead in his room by Ellen, the

wind and rain was coming in through his room window and were hitting his lattice back and

forth.
 7

References

Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights. Ed. David Daiches. London: Penguin, 1985