With Halloween having just passed, it provided me with the optimal opportunity to curl up in bed with a good book... In this case, it was the classic Gothic novel known as Wuthering Heights by Emily Bront毛. It is quite a popular novel, but given that my first attempt at reading it was in high school, and I found it extremely boring, the language too outdated, and endless run-on sentences, I could not finish it 馃槄 However, I wanted to give it a second chance--and actually ended up finishing it this time!
Without further ado--let's begin!
Our story takes place in the year 1801.
We meet Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant of the manor known as Wuthering Heights, and he has just met his landlord, Master Heathcliff. Heathcliff is portrayed as
"a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman."
It should be noted that, to have a master described as a dark-skinned man is extremely bizarre, especially given that there were very few people of color in England during the Victorian period. Therefore Heathcliff's physical appearance will be mentioned quite a few times.
Already the reader is provided quite a dreary description of the residence, for the Heights is
"a perfect misanthropist's Heaven."
"'Wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather."
We are also given a bit of insight into its history, for
"before passing the threshold... I detected the date '1500' and the name 'Hareton Earnshaw.'"
We can infer that the manor is very old, and its lineage is that of the Earnshaw family.
As the story progresses, we are then introduced to a woman of the manor, whose name is Catherine.
Although Lockwood infers that she is Heathcliff's daughter-in-law, due to their age difference, he cannot help but notice that Heathcliff appears to detest her:
"The tone in which his words were said revealed a genuine bad nature. I no longer felt inclined to call Heathcliff a capital fellow."
Although young and beautiful, Catherine seems to be quite hostile and miserable. Already we are witnessing Heathcliff's true nature is coming into play...
The reader also meets Hareton Earnshaw (Junior, not the Earnshaw from 1500 馃槄):
"His dress and speech were both rude... His thick, brown curls were rough and uncultivated, his whiskers encroached bearishly over his cheeks, and his hands were embrowned like those of a common labourer."
Although Hareton is closer to Catherine's age, Heathcliff informs Mr. Lockwood that he is not her husband; Hareton is his "adopted" son, though he lives more like that of a servant than a son...
Lockwood begins to explore Wuthering Heights.
He enters one room and
"the ledge where I placed a candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in one corner; and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint... Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton."
Despite bearing the same name, as Mr. Lockwood reads on, he discovers it is not the Catherine that resides at the Heights, but perhaps her mother. As he reads, he also discovers that this Catherine and Heathcliff were playmates, if not very good friends, as children. She recalls memories of being punished with him for being naughty, yet it did not matter because they found comfort and laughter in one another's company...
Lockwood finishes reading, but suddenly encounters something quite odd...:
"My fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand!"... "Catherine Linton... It's twenty years I've been a waif!" (Waif means abandoned, or neglected).
The ghost of Catherine Earnshaw is haunting the manor!
Terrified, he leaves the room (and Catherine's ghost), and instead meets Nelly Dean, the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights, who has lived with the Earnshaw family for 18 years.
Dean's mistress was Catherine Linton, who has passed, and her daughter, the Catherine Mr. Lockwood met downstairs, married Heathcliff's son.
Mrs. Dean also recalls how Heathcliff first joined the Earnshaw family. Master Earnshaw had left for Liverpool one day. On the third day, just after 11 o'clock at night, he returned, only he was not alone...
Already one can imagine that this is a recipe for disaster. If you have ever felt the need to pine for your parents affection and approval, then one can relate to this. Now imagine you need to constantly compete with someone else for that approval, only to have your parents side with them, no matter what you did. That child would feel extremely betrayed.
Heathcliff was not a daft boy either; he continuously used his "father's" affections to his advantage, threatening to tattle on Hindley if he did not get his way. In fact, the housekeeper remarks:
"Heathcliff complained so seldom, indeed, of such stirs as these, that I really thought him not vindictive--I was deceived, completely, as you will hear."
In time, Master Earnshaw's health begins to fail, and during this period, he decides to send Hindley off to college.
Again, his own father makes a senseless comment:
"Hindley was naught (nothing), and would never thrive as where he wandered."
And again, one cannot help but ask themselves how a father, of all people, could hold his own son with such little integrity? The pot continues to boil...
Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship only deepens and becomes more rebellious, especially now that young Hindley is not there to reprimand them:
"How Heathcliff would do Catherine's bidding in anything, and his only when it suited his own inclination."
Finally, one October evening, Master Earnshaw eventually passes away, soundlessly in his sleep, while his daughter Catherine sang to him. The entire family is devastated...
Hindley returns home for his father's funeral, only similar to his father's travels, he does not return alone; Hindley has married, and he has brought his wife, Frances, with him.
Yet, despite this wonderful occasion, Hindley has returned a different man, and it doesn't seem for the better...
"Young Earnshaw was altered considerably in the three years of his absence. He had grown sparer, and lost his color, and spoke and dressed quite differently."
Since the passing of Master Earnshaw, Hindley became the new master, and as such, took it upon himself to punish young Catherine and Heathcliff when they were naughty. Afterwards, they would run away to the moors, and spend hours there.
One day, they decide to pay their neighbors, the Lintons, a visit...:
"Don't be afraid, it is but a boy--yet, the villain scowls so plainly in his face, would it not be a kindness to the country to hang him at once, before he shows his nature in acts, as well as features?"
"A little Lascar (Indian sailor), or an American, or Spanish castaway."
The family sends Heathcliff back to the Heights, but Catherine remains in order to let her foot heal.
In the end, Catherine stayed with the Lintons, at Thrushcross Grange, for nearly 5 weeks; Christmastime.
At the same time, Hindley had employed Heathcliff as a servant on his property at Wuthering Heights. His difference in appearance causes Catherine to laugh, which unintentionally hurts Heathcliff's feelings... He implores the help of Mrs. Dean, who remarks:
"Who knows, but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen... And you were kidnapped by wicked sailors, and brought to England."
However, just as Heathcliff is about to make his proper appearance, Mr. Linton teases him...
"To the garret where Heathcliff was confined, and called him. He stubbornly declined answering for a while--she persevered, and finally persuaded him to hold communion with her through the boards."
The reader can picture such a beautiful sight, of two children holding hands through the floorboards. The two truly care for one another.
Heathcliff is eventually released, and he confides to Mrs. Dean his true nature once again:
"I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it, at last."
In June of that year, Frances (Hindley's wife) gives birth to the last of the Earnshaws: Hareton (the man we met in the very beginning).
However, she quickly falls ill afterwards, and the doctor warns that she will not make it past winter... This makes Nelly Dean quite upset,
"for Hindley's sake; he had room in his heart only for two idols--his wife and himself--he doted on both, and adored one, and I couldn't conceive how he would bear the loss."
He turns to alcohol... It is agreed that, given Hindley's dismal state, Hareton will be looked after by the housekeeper, Mrs. Dean.
Despite everyone's high hopes, Frances takes yet another turn for the worse... And Heathcliff appears to be doing the same:
It would seem that the ingratitude that Heathcliff exhibited during childhood, and was not reprimanded for during his youth, is starting to bear its fruits.
Catherine attempts to form a friendship with the Linton siblings, Edgar and Isabella, but Heathcliff is growing tired of constantly having to fight for her attention. He confesses his feelings for her:
"The crosses are for the evenings you have spent with the Lintons, the dots for those spent with me... To show that I do notice."
Edgar Linton eventually does stop by the Heights to visit. An altercation arises between him and Catherine, and she strikes him across the ear. He attempts to leave, but gives into Catherine's crying:
"He possessed the power to depart, as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed, or a bird half eaten. Ah, I thought, there will be no saving him--He's doomed, and flies to his fate!"
Again, we witness more foreshadowing. Although Edgar Linton knows better, he cannot seem to bear the thought of hurting Catherine. He desperately craves her affection, and he graciously puts her needs before his own.
Surprisingly enough, the quarrel has only strengthened their relationship, for Nelly hears them beginning to confess their love for one another!
Master Hindley continues to deteriorate with time.
After Frances' death, he convinces himself that he no longer has anything to live for, and continues to give into the drink... One evening, after coming home from a walk (and drinking), Master Hindley seeks his son, Hareton. However, Hindley has an incident of his own:
Hareton is nearly thrown over the banister, with Heathcliff being his survivor. From this point on, an unspoken bond forms between the two, wherein Hareton begins to see Heathcliff as a father-figure. Hareton has always been terrified of Hindley, due to his erratic behavior, so the switch is unnoticeable.
Later that night, Catherine confides to Mrs. Dean that Edgar Linton has asked her to marry him. Yet, despite already having given him an answer, she asks Nelly if she has made the right choice. When Nelly asks her why she should feel troubled to begin with, Catherine answers:
Here and here! In whichever place the soul lives--in my soul, and in my heart, I'm convinced I'm wrong!"
Catherine recognizes her true feelings are for Heathcliff, but since Hindley took his turn as the new master, and employing Heathcliff as a common servant, it would now "degrade" Catherine to marry him. In Victorian times, marrying someone of a different social status, let alone a different skin color, was extremely frowned upon. Family image was of top priority.
Catherine also goes on to confide in Nelly some bothersome dreams she has been having: how she went to Heaven, but was thrown out for being so unhappy, and it was not until they placed her at Wuthering Heights that she felt joy. Again, this shows that her heart truly belongs to Heathcliff.
Catherine reveals that her greatest reason for marrying Edgar, is to aid Heathcliff in escaping Hindley's control.
"My great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger."
Unfortunately, Heathcliff is only able to hear up until the part where Catherine could not marry him, before taking off. A storm rages outside, yet despite the bone-chilling weather, Catherine waits in the rain for him. Soon, however, everyone accepts that Heathcliff has run off and may not return... She does fall ill, but miraculously manages to recover, and eventually she and Edgar Linton are married.
After Heathcliff's departure, for 3 years
"Catherine had seasons of gloom and silence, now and then... She was never subject to depression of spirits before."
Obviously, despite marrying Edgar, Catherine still pines for Heathcliff.
However, one day he suddenly returns to the Linton manor, at Thrushcross Grange! Catherine tries to tell her husband, Edgar, that now that Heathcliff has returned, the two must get along, for her sake. Mrs. Dean takes notice of Heathcliff's change in appearance:
"He had grown a tall, athletic, well-formed man. ... His upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been in the army. ... A half-civilized ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows, and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued."
Heathcliff informs Catherine that, similar to her, he has hidden motives of his own: he plans on enacting revenge upon her brother, Hindley. In fact, upon calling him, Hindley had invited Heathcliff to stay at Wuthering Heights with him. Surely this can only predict more heinous things to come...
Isabella, Edgar's sister (Catherine's sister-in-law now), also lives at the Linton manor. While there, she begins to develop an infatuation with Heathcliff. This causes a quarrel between the two women, and Catherine tells Isabella:
"Heathcliff is a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man... and he'd crush you, like a sparrow's egg, if he found you a troublesome charge."
Upon discovering Isabella's infatuation, Heathcliff merely replies:
"And I like her too ill to attempt to seize and devour her up, except in a very ghoulish fashion."
One day, while preparing to journey to town, Mrs. Dean comes across the Earnshaw residence and sees an apparition of a young Hindley.
She takes this as a sign that something must be wrong, and ventures down to Wuthering Heights. She encounters a little Hareton (now about 4 or 5), who picks up a rock and throws it at her!
It does not stop there. Upon her return back to the Grange, Mrs. Dean spots Heathcliff hiding in the gardens, secretly embracing Isabella! It is not done out of love, as we soon learn, for Heathcliff tells Catherine:
"And if you fancy I'll suffer unrevenged, I'll convince you of the contrary, in a very little while! Meantime, thank you for telling me your sister-in-law's secret--I swear I'll make the most of it, and stand you aside!"
Master Linton recognizes that Heathcliff wishes to cause nothing but havoc and ruin. He attempts to banish Heathcliff from their manor, but when an altercation ensues,
"my master quickly sprang erect, and struck Heathcliff full on the throat a blow that would have levelled a slighter man."
After Heathcliff's banishment, Catherine cries that the stress from the event has made her seriously ill.
"Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend--if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I'll try to break their hearts by breaking my own!"
It has now been three days, and Catherine continues to remain ill, continues to refuse meals. She is quite certain that she may be dying, and in fact, she does seem to be in a delusion. Her delirium only grows as she begins to hallucinate, saying strange things...
While this is occurring, Nelly Dean learns of the rumor that Heathcliff is persuading Isabella to run away and elope with him. Indeed, the rumor does end up being true, for the couple was spotted at a blacksmith's before leaving town. Upon hearing the news, Edgar Linton announces:
"Hereafter she is only my sister in name; not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me."
Two months pass, and in that time, Catherine overcomes the worst of what was presumed a "brain fever."
Edgar also receives a letter from his sister, Isabella, in which she informs him that she and Heathcliff are now married and have returned home to Wuthering Heights. She
"asserts that she could not help it then, and being done, she had now no power to repel it."
It would seem that Isabella regrets her decision as she recalls her time spent at Wuthering Heights. She recollects meeting young Hareton, whose manners have not seemed to improve. She also meets Master Hindley, who has reached the point of no return, and plans on killing Heathcliff.
Isabella ends her letter to Edgar with,
"I sometimes wonder at Heathcliff with an intensity that deadens my fear... He told me of Catherine's illness, and accused my brother of causing it; promising that I should be Edgar's proxy in suffering, till he could get ahold of him."
After receiving Isabella's letter, Mrs. Dean visits the Heights in person, only to remark that it is
"a dreary, dismal scene as the formerly cheerful house presented!"
She encounters Isabella, who informs Nelly that
"Heathcliff says he has married me on purpose, to obtain power over him; and he shan't obtain it." More and more hints of Heathcliff's diabolical plan are appearing faster than we can keep up...
Mrs. Dean also encounters Heathcliff, who implores her help for one last reunion with Catherine. Nelly tells him:
"Mrs. Linton is now recovering. She'll never be like she was, but her life is spared, and if you really have a regard for her, you'll shun crossing her way again. ... Another encounter between you and her would kill her altogether!"
However, Heathcliff remains persistent, insisting that he only wishes to see how Catherine is doing. And so, Mrs. Dean reluctantly agrees to return to the Linton manor with a note from Heathcliff, while he awaits Catherine's response...
Thus concludes the end of Volume One. You can probably see why Wuthering Heights is considered a tragedy. Nearly no one takes accountablity for themselves, or their actions, and it shows in the way that the characters both live and die.
There will be a Part 2 for Volume II, but for now, that was exhausting! 馃槶 But, if you made it this far, I hope it has been enjoyable thus far!