Wuthering Heights follows the life of Heathcliff from a young child to death. Found in Liverpool by Mr Earnshaw, he insists on bringing him home and treating him as his son to the dismay of his wife. Throughout their childhood Hindley is jealous of Heathcliff and tries to make his life as unbearable as possible while Catherine unexpectantly takes a shine to Heathcliff. The story evolves with Catherine and Heathcliff falling in love but not having the support of the Earnshaws. Catherine ends up marrying Edgar and Heathcliff becomes more desolate and bitter as he and Catherine are torn apart. He despises Edgar for taking away his soul mate and becomes sourer as the story progresses. Although Catherine is content in her marriage she knows that the bond she shared with Heathcliff was more passionate and spiritual.
When Catherine died giving birth to her and Edgar’s daughter Cathy, Heathcliff immediately loathed her too, as in his view she killed her, and should have been his child. Years later, he forces her to marry his son Linton. Although they get on initially, Heathcliff imprisons her in Wuthering Heights and makes her life a misery. As with what normally happens in novels, we expected Heathcliff to change his cruel and angry traits into a nice man but it’s not until the very end when Heathcliff begins to die and finds happiness within himself and the apparition of Catherine that we see him as a vulnerable and human person for the very first time. He begins to stop eating and wanders around hallucinating Catherine’s ghost. He seems, for the first time in the novel at peace as he realises he will be with his soul mate for eternity.
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is a Gothic novel set in 19th century Yorkshire. It deals with the "supernatural" such as ghosts and dark villainous characters. It is also fiction as it deals with the likes of relationships and class.
The dialogue in Wuthering Heights differs. It is used to create scenes between Heathcliff and someone else. We can see from Heathcliff’s dialogue that he is an angry and bitter character. It helps to portray his traits rather than someone else describing him. Wuthering Heights elderly servant Joseph speaks in a thick Yorkshire accent making hiss dialogue almost impossible to decipher, but again it sets the scene and makes the setting more convincing.
Wuthering Heights is a narrative story. Bronte cleverly uses two completely different people to tell Catherine and Heathcliff's story. A young man from London, an outsider called Lockwood narrates for the beginning and end of the story and Ellen “Nelly” Dean, Thrushcross Grange’s trusted housekeeper tells the rest of the story. By using two points of views, it involves human nature to the story as it tells us the story through different people’s opinions and social class. The story’s not told in chronological order as it’s told like an actual story so it includes various flashbacks.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is set in the Yorkshire moors in the 19th century. Social class is really evident through her use of setting as the vast differences between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange really show the vast contrast in classes. Thrushcross Grange is a haven of respect, civility and order. As the middle class, the Earnshaws and Lintons lived comfortably with servants, a big estate and plenty of land. Catherine’s decides to marry Edgar so she will be “the greatest woman of the neighbourhood” We see the luxurious life education provides whilst Wuthering Heights is a centre of chaos, ignorance and neglect.
The Yorkshire moors helps to develop the theme of setting as you get the impression as the characters walk over the hill they enter a parallel world. On one side is the calm, educated Thrushcross Grange where everyone gets along and is generally happy. When you step over the hill to Wuthering Heights, it’s like you step into a different world of neglect, anger and commotion where the likes of Heathcliff, Zillah and Joseph are neither welcoming nor happy. It also symbolises Heathcliff and Catherine’s love as this is where they played together as children, and also the dips and hills in the moors represent their relationship; there’s the good, happy memories and then the sad times of being forced apart.
The use of ghosts in Wuthering Heights is a way of bringing the living and dead together and showing that Catherine and Heathcliff were actually destined for each other as towards the end of Heath cliff’s life he becomes blissfully happy as he begins to connect with Catherine in another world. They portray the way that the past never really leaves the present and that memories help to determine outcomes and reminiscences are forever.
There are many themes in Wuthering Heights such as revenge, social class, love, rebellion and conflict between good and bad.
We see revenge throughout the novel with Heathcliff. After Catherine marries Edgar instead of him, Heathcliff becomes withdrawn and angry and points his hatred towards her nearest. He despises their daughter Catherine for two primary reasons, for one she is not his child with Catherine and secondly his soul mate died giving birth to her. Just before his death Heathcliff says “My old enemies have beaten me; now would be the precise time to revenge myself on their representatives: I could do it; and none could hinder me. But where is the use? I don't care for striking. I can't take the trouble to raise my hand! That sounds as if I had been labouring the whole time, only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity. It is far from being the case – I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing.” This shows his peace on reflection of his brutal treating of Catherine’s family throughout his life.
In Wuthering Heights, there’s two types of love. For example, with Edgar and Catherine there is a restrained devotion but with Heathcliff and Catherine it is more adoring and soulful. Although content with being married to Edgar, Catherine’s real soul mate is Heathcliff, they have a real connection and they really understand each other, she makes him a better, more considerate person. We see Catherine’s understanding of the two men in chapter 9 when she says “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. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable.” Her daughter Catherine’s marriage to Linton becomes miserable even though they were happy in each other’s company at the start, because he began to pick up his father’s traits.
