title: Wuthering Heights
author: Emily Brontë
published: 1847
pages: 415
genre: gothic romance/classic
first line: I have just returned from a visit to my landlord - the solitary neighbour that I shall be troubled with.
source: personal copy/re-read
rated: 5 out of 5 stars
"It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands..."
Ahhhhh.....Wuthering Heights. I really enjoyed re-visiting this old favorite cuddled up on my couch during these past cold winter evenings. It was a perfect time for me to re-read this book.
This book has always been a favorite classic of mine and I am glad I re-read it. The ironic thing about it is that I don't particularly like any of these characters except for Heathcliff. I like his passion, he is a great anti-hero. Selfish, brooding, manipulative, vengeful, spiteful; yet despite all these character flaws his fierce love for Cathy lasts a lifetime.
Actually, I do like Linton. His love for Cathy is pure and he doesn't have ulterior motives like most of the other characters in the story.
It's the depth of love that I really like in the book, that timeless love that Heathcliff and Catherine possess. The woman is dead for God's sake, and Heathcliff continues to love her and she haunts the Heights unwilling to leave her soulmate behind. That's what I call true, enduring love.
Catherine and Heathcliff's love affair affects everyone they come in contact with. There's no escaping it.
About the story:
The book is mainly narrated by Mr. Lockwood and Ellen Dean.
Mr. Lockwood is renting Thrushcross Grange near Wuthering Heights. A man named Heathcliff is his mysterious and rude landlord. Lockwood asks the housekeeper, Ellen Dean, to tell him the story of Wuthering Heights and its inhabitants.
She goes on to tell him the story of Heathcliff and Catherine and Wuthering Heights.
The first part of her story is of how Heathcliff came to live at the Heights, the seond half of the story is about how Heathcliff takes his revenge as an adult.
Heathcliff was brought to Wuthering Heights as a child by Mr. Earnshaw. He was raised by the family and Earnshaw treated him as a son.
There is an air of mystery to Heathcliff since no one really knows where he came from.
Catherine Earnshaw is the spoiled daughter of the house, yet she and Heathcliff become inseparable from a young age, eventually falling in love.
Hindley Earnshaw is Catherine's older brother. Hindley has a deep hatred and resentment for Healthcliff as soon as he meets him.
Years pass and when Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley is left as head of household and he has even more power to humiliate Heathcliff as he pleases.
The Linton's live at nearby Thrushgrove Range and the wealthy Edgar Linton proposes to Catherine. When Heathcliff overhears Cathy talking to the housekeeper Ellen about Edgars proposal and her intention of accepting, he disappears that very night. Catherine is heartbroken. She marries Edgar Linton and three years pass when one day a completely transformed Heathcliff appears at her doorstep.
Heathcliff's hell bent on revenge and he doesn't care what he has to do or who he has to hurt in order to get it. His cold heartedness affects all he comes in contact with, including his own son.
Heathcliff loves Catherine from the start, the two are bound to each other. He is jealous of Edgar's wealth and class, and his hatred and anger drive him to go away and come back a rich man himself. His quest for revenge is what fuels him.
After Catherine's death, he begins to manipulate those around him for his own gain and vengeance.
And lets not forget the paranormal elements to the story. Catherine haunting the moors. The mystery surrounding Heathcliff's death. His admitting to digging up her grave to see her once more.
Heathcliff becomes nasty and cold hearted with age, it is hard to believe he could love anyone at at all, but he does, until the day he dies.
Here's one of his meaner moments:
"Put your trash away, and find something to do. You shall pay me for the plague of having you eternally in my sight - do you hear, damnable jade?"
-Heathcliff to Catherine's daughter
He has a lot of anger inside him, and there is no hope of his ever letting that go. Heathcliff begins to use his son, Cathy's daughter and Hindley's son like pawns in a chess game. You would think he would love Cathy's daughter, since she is her flesh and blood, but he hates her.
I'll finish my review off with a few favorite scenes:
When Heathcliff comes back to Thrushcross Grange and appears at Cathy's front steps, a different man than when he left three years ago. It's so dramatic.
Now, fully revealed by the fire and candlelight, I was amazed, more than ever, to behold the transformation of Heathcliff. He had grown a tall, athletic, well-formed man; beside whom my master seemed quite slender and youth-like. His upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been in the army. His countenance was much older in expression and decision of feature than Mr. Linton's; it looked intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation. A half- civilised ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued; and his manner was even dignified: quite divested of roughness, though stern for grace.
When Catherine dies and Heathcliff dares her spirit to haunt him for the rest of his life.
'May she wake in torment!' he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. 'Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not THERE - not in heaven - not perished - where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer - I repeat it till my tongue stiffens - Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you - haunt me, then! The murdered DO haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts HAVE wandered on earth. Be with me always - take any form - drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I CANNOT live without my life! I CANNOT live without my soul!'
Catherine speaking about Heathcliff and Linton:
My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary.
Brontë creates these imperfect and passionate characters, some of whom are borderline evil. I love the drama within the story, the setting of the dark and stormy Yorkshire moors sets the mood just right. This is a story about love, revenge, family and grief. It's a classic gothic love story that is not soon forgotten. Thank you Emily Brontë for creating one of my favorite anti-heroes in literature.
You can read Wuthering Heights free online here.
