Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë
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Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's classic novel about passionate, destructive love set on the Yorkshire moors, following the complex relationships between Cathy, Heathcliff and Edgar Linton across generations.
- 1Cathy and Heathcliff are passionate lovers separated by class and circumstance.
- 2Heathcliff's rejection leads him to seek revenge on the next generation.
- 3Edgar Linton represents a more socially acceptable but less passionate alternative.
- 4The novel spans two generations as the consequences of the first generation's choices affect the second.
- 5The setting of the Yorkshire moors is integral to the novel's atmosphere.
- 6The novel portrays passion as both beautiful and destructive.
Key ideas
Love and passion
Brontë portrays love as overwhelming and all-consuming, transcending social boundaries.
Class and social barriers
Class differences prevent Cathy and Heathcliff from being together despite their love.
Revenge and its costs
Heathcliff's desire for revenge damages everyone around him, including himself.
The nature of the self
Cathy and Heathcliff are portrayed as extensions of each other, unable to exist fully apart.
Generational consequences
The sins and passions of the first generation devastate the second.
Redemption and transformation
The novel ends with possibility of redemption through the younger generation.
Who is it for?
Readers interested in classic literature and in passionate, complex relationships will find this essential. It suits anyone interested in how literature portrays love, class and the consequences of passion.
Full summary
The novel opens with Lockwood, an outsider to Wuthering Heights, renting Thrushcote Grange.
Through Nelly Dean, he learns the history of the passion between Cathy and Heathcliff.
Cathy and Heathcliff grow up together but are separated when Cathy marries Edgar Linton for security.
Heathcliff, enraged by betrayal, abandons the region but returns years later seeking revenge.
Heathcliff's revenge unfolds through his treatment of the next generation.
The novel traces the destructive consequences of the first generation's choices.
The younger generation, including Cathy's daughter Catherine, becomes entangled in Heathcliff's vengeance.
Brontë ends with suggestion of redemption through the younger generation and through Heathcliff's death.
