Wuthering Heights

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Wuthering Heights

Title page of the first edition
Author Emily Brontë
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Novel
Publisher Thomas Cautley Newby
Publication date 1847
Media type Print (Hardback)
ISBN NA

Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's only novel. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte. The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective, wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys both themselves and many around them.

Now considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights' innovative structure, which has been likened to a series of Matryoshka dolls,[citation needed] met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared, with many horrified by the stark depictions of mental and physical cruelty.[1][2] Though Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was originally considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works, many subsequent critics of Wuthering Heights argued that its originality and achievement made it superior.[3] Wuthering Heights has also given rise to many adaptations and inspired works, including films, radio, television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor and songs (notably the hit Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush), ballet and opera.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The narrative is non-linear, involving several flashbacks, and involves two narrators - Mr. Lockwood and Ellen "Nelly" Dean. The novel opens in 1801, with Lockwood arriving at Thrushcross Grange, a grand house on the Yorkshire moors he is renting from the surly Heathcliff, who lives at nearby Wuthering Heights. Lockwood spends the night at Wuthering Heights and has a terrifying dream: the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw, pleading to be admitted to the house from outside. Intrigued, Lockwood asks the housekeeper Nelly Dean to tell the story of Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights while he is staying at the Grange recovering from a cold.

Nelly takes over the narration and begins her story thirty years earlier, when Heathcliff, a foundling living on the streets of Liverpool, is brought to Wuthering Heights by the then-owner, Mr. Earnshaw, and raised as his own. Ellen comments casually that Heathcliff might have been descended from Indian or Chinese origins[4]. He is often described as "dark" or "gypsy". Earnshaw's daughter Catherine becomes Heathcliff's inseparable friend. Her brother Hindley, however, resents Heathcliff, seeing him as an interloper and rival. Mr. Earnshaw dies three years later, and Hindley (who has married a woman named Frances) takes over the estate. He brutalises Heathcliff, forcing him to work as a hired hand. Catherine becomes friends with a neighbour family, the Lintons of Thrushcross Grange, who mellow her initially wild personality. She is especially attached to the refined and mild young Edgar Linton, whom Heathcliff instantaneously dislikes.

A year later, Hindley's wife dies, apparently of consumption, shortly after giving birth to a son, Hareton; Hindley takes to drink. Some two years after that, Catherine agrees to marry Edgar. Nelly knows that this will crush Heathcliff, and Heathcliff overhears Catherine's explanation that it would be "degrading" to marry him. Heathcliff storms out and leaves Wuthering Heights, not hearing Catherine's continuing declarations that Heathcliff is as much a part of her as the rocks are to the earth beneath. Catherine marries Edgar, and is initially very happy. Some time later, Heathcliff returns, intent on destroying those who prevent him from being with Catherine. He has, mysteriously, become very wealthy. Through loans he has made to the drunken and dissipated Hindley that Hindley cannot repay, he takes ownership of Wuthering Heights upon Hindley's death. Intent on ruining Edgar, Heathcliff elopes with Edgar's sister Isabella, which places him in a position to inherit Thrushcross Grange upon Edgar's death.

Catherine becomes very ill after Heathcliff's return and dies a few hours after giving birth to a daughter also named Catherine, or Cathy. Heathcliff becomes only more bitter and vengeful. Isabella flees her abusive marriage a month later, and subsequently gives birth to a boy, Linton. At around the same time, Hindley dies. Heathcliff takes ownership of Wuthering Heights, and vows to raise Hindley's son Hareton with as much neglect as he had suffered at Hindley's hands years earlier.

Twelve years later, the dying Isabella asks Edgar to raise her and Heathcliff's son, Linton. However, Heathcliff finds out about this and takes the sickly, spoiled child to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff has nothing but contempt for his son, but delights in the idea of him ruling the property of his enemies. To that end, a few years later, Heathcliff attempts to persuade young Cathy to marry Linton. Cathy refuses, so Heathcliff kidnaps her and forces the two to marry. Soon after, Edgar Linton dies, followed shortly by Linton Heathcliff. This leaves Cathy a widow and a virtual prisoner at Wuthering Heights, as Heathcliff has gained complete control of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. It is at this point in the narrative that Lockwood arrives, taking possession of Thrushcross Grange, and hearing Nelly Dean's story. Shocked, Lockwood leaves for London.

During his absence from the area, however, events reach a climax that Nelly describes when he returns a year later. Cathy gradually softens toward her rough, uneducated cousin Hareton, just as her mother was tender towards Heathcliff. When Heathcliff realizes that Cathy and Hareton are in love, he abandons his life-long vendetta. He dies broken and tormented, but glad to be rejoining Catherine, whose ghost had haunted him since she died. Cathy and Hareton marry. Heathcliff is buried next to Catherine (the elder), and the story concludes with Lockwood visiting the grave, unsure of what to feel.

[edit] Characters

Heathcliff is the central male character of the novel. An orphaned foundling raised by the Earnshaw family, he forms an early bond with his foster sister Catherine Earnshaw, and they both fall passionately in love with each other as they grow. Meanwhile he nurses a bitter rivalry with his cruel foster brother Hindley, who resents the attention their father shows Heathcliff. A brooding, vindictive man, his anger and bitterness at Catherine's later marriage to their neighbour Edgar Linton sees him engage in a ruthless vendetta to destroy not only his enemies but their heirs, a crusade that only intensifies upon Catherine's death.

Catherine Earnshaw is Heathcliff's adopted sister. A free-spirited and somewhat spoiled young woman, she returns Heathcliff's love utterly, but considers him too far beneath her for marriage into poverty from both not having any money; instead choosing another childhood friend, Edgar Linton, through which marriage she hopes to advance Heathcliff. Later, after Heathcliff's return, she acknowledges to both men that Heathcliff is her true love. However her physical and mental health is destroyed by the stress of regretting her marriage to Edgar and the feud between them, and she descends into prophetic madness before dying during childbirth.

Edgar Linton is a childhood friend of Catherine Earnshaw's, who later marries her. A mild and gentle man, if slightly cold, cowardly and distant, he loves Catherine deeply but is unable to reconcile his love for her with her feelings for her childhood friend. This leads to a bitter antagonism with Heathcliff, and it is partly this which leads to Catherine's mental breakdown and death. Linton is incapable of competing with Heathcliff's guile and ruthless determination across the decades, and his health fails him while still a relatively young man.

Isabella Linton is the younger sister of Edgar who becomes infatuated with Heathcliff. She fundamentally mistakes his true nature and elopes with him despite his apparent dislike of her. Her love for him turns to hatred almost immediately, as she is ill treated both physically and emotionally and held captive against her will. Eventually she escapes, leaves for London and gives birth to their son Linton Heathcliff, whom she attempts to raise away from Heathcliff's corrupting influence.

Hindley Earnshaw is Catherine's brother and Heathcliff's other rival. Having loathed Heathcliff since childhood, Hindley delights in turning him into a downtrodden servant upon inheriting Wuthering Heights. However, his wife's death in childbirth destroys him; he becomes a self-destructive alcoholic and gambler and it is this that allows Heathcliff, upon returning to Wuthering Heights, to turn the tables and to manoeuvre the family property away from him.

Northern Yorkshire. In the foreground heaths.
Northern Yorkshire. In the foreground heaths.

Ellen (Nelly) Dean is, at various points, the housekeeper of both Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, and is one of the two narrators of the novel. She recognizes early on that Heathcliff is Catherine's true love and tries to dissuade her from the disastrous marriage to Edgar. Having been a disapproving witness and unwilling participant to many of the events between Heathcliff and both the Earnshaw and Linton families for much of her life, she narrates the story to Lockwood during his illness.

Linton Heathcliff is the son of Isabella and Heathcliff. He bears no resemblance to Heathcliff and takes after his mother. He is a sickly child who grows up ignorant of his father until his mother's death, when he is thirteen years old. He is forced to live at Wuthering Heights and grows into a bullied, trembling shadow of his father. Heathcliff arranges for him to marry his cousin Catherine Linton so that he may inherit both the estates of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He dies shortly after entering into the forced marriage.

Catherine Linton is the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton. She inherits both her mother's free-spiritedness and dark eyes and her father's gentle nature, facial features and fair hair. Heathcliff takes advantage of her fundamentally pure nature and manipulates her into marrying his own son, Linton. Once she has become another captive of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff resorts to the same torture he applies to everyone against whom he bears a grudge. As a result, she regards him with contempt and disgust and becomes silent and morose. She later falls in love with her cousin, Hareton Earnshaw.

Hareton Earnshaw is the son of Hindley Earnshaw, who is adopted by Heathcliff upon Hindley's death. Even before this, he has waged a campaign of torment against the young man while living together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff spitefully turns Hareton into a downtrodden, illiterate servant, much as Hindley once did to him, but does not further mistreat him as Hindley had done. Despite this, Hareton remains strangely loyal to him, even adopting a superficially similar personality. Quick tempered and easily embarrassed, he falls in love with Catherine at an early point, and despite her contempt for him is thus inspired to improve himself. He bears a strong likeness to his aunt and is the only person who mourns Heathcliff upon his death.

Joseph is a servant of the Earnshaws and later Heathcliff. A bullying, lazy and snide man, he hates Heathcliff but is somehow bound to be his servant. Intensely religious, he is sanctimonious, self-righteous and largely held in contempt by those around him. He speaks in the traditional West Yorkshire dialect. This dialect was still used in the Haworth area up until the late 1970s, but there are now only portions of it still in common use.[5]

Lockwood is the narrator of the novel. A recently-arrived tenant at Thrushcross Grange at the beginning of the novel, he is intrigued by the curious goings-on at Wuthering Heights, and persuades Nelly Dean to tell him the story of what happened during a bout of sickness. Lockwood is apparently a wealthy, relatively young man who comes to regret not approaching the younger Catherine Linton himself. Despite displaying many self-centred attributes, he is also a sensitive and romantic soul who is deeply affected by the saga of Heathcliff and Catherine.

Frances Earnshaw is the wife that Hindley married while away at college. The fact that he did not tell his father suggests that Frances is not of high social standing. From her introduction she proves to be a kind woman to Nelly and Cathy but dislikes Heathcliff. She dies after childbirth, a death brought about by consumption, or tuberculosis, a fate shared by most of the Brontë sisters.

Mr. Kenneth, the local doctor and drinking partner of Hindley. Kenneth often sees to the ill or dead characters: Cathy in her madnesses, Frances during childbirth and TB, Heathcliff and his early illness, Edgar's final hours, and Hindley's death. Nelly tells Heathcliff that he should send for Kenneth to tend to his ill son, but does not tell him that Heathcliff's death is suicide by starvation. He also reports to Nelly that he saw Isabella leaving with Heathcliff.

[edit] Timeline

1757 Hindley born (Summer); Nelly born
1762 Edgar Linton born
1764 Heathcliff born
1765 Catherine Earnshaw born (Summer); Isabella Linton born (late 1765)
1771 Heathcliff is brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw (late summer)
1773 Mrs Earnshaw dies (Spring)
1774 Hindley is sent off to college
1777 Hindley marries Frances; Mr Earnshaw dies (October); Hindley comes back (October); Heathcliff and Catherine visit Thrushcross Grange, Catherine remains behind (November), then returns to Wuthering Heights (Christmas Eve).
1778 Hareton is born (June); Frances dies
1780 Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights; Mr and Mrs Linton both die
1783 Catherine marries Edgar (March); Heathcliff comes back (September)
1784 Heathcliff marries Isabella (February); Catherine dies and Cathy is born (20 March); Hindley dies; Linton is born (September)
1797 Isabella dies; Cathy visits Wuthering Heights and meets Hareton; Linton is brought to Thrushcross Grange and is then taken to Wuthering Heights
1800 Cathy meets Heathcliff and sees Linton again (20 March)
1801 Cathy and Linton are married (August); Edgar dies (August); Linton dies (September); Mr Lockwood goes to Thrushcross Grange and visits Wuthering Heights, beginning his narrative
1802 Mr Lockwood goes back to London (January); Heathcliff dies (April); Mr Lockwood comes back to Thrushcross Grange (September)
1803 Cathy plans to marry Hareton (1 January)

[edit] Local background

Though tourists are often told that Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse, near the Haworth Parsonage (Bronte Parsonage Museum), is the model for Wuthering Heights, it seems more likely that the now demolished High Sunderland Hall, near Halifax was the partial model for the building. This Gothic edifice, near Law Hill, where Emily worked briefly as a schoolmistress in 1838, had grotesque embellishments of griffins and misshapen nude men similar to those described by Lockwood of Wuthering Heights in chapter one of the novel:

"Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principal door, above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date "1500"".

The originals of Thrushcross Grange have been traditionally connected to Ponden Hall near Haworth (although it is far too small) and, more likely, Shibden Hall, near Halifax.[6][7] A feud centred around Walterclough Hall is also said to have been one inspiration for the story along with the story of Emily's grandfather, Hugh Brunty.

[edit] Literary allusions

Traditionally, this novel has been seen as a unique piece of work conceived in solitude by a genius confined to the lonesome heath, detached from the literary movements of the time. However, Emily Brontë received literary training at the Pensionnat Héger in Brussels by imitating and analysing the styles of classic writers. She also learned German, and was able to read the German Romantics in the original. The work of Lord Byron was also admired by all three Brontë sisters. The brother-sister relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy is reminiscent of the brother-sister couples in Byron's epics. The character of Heathcliff is reminiscent of the Byronic hero.

[edit] Gothic and supernatural elements

The novel contains many Gothic and supernatural elements, although the true nature of the latter is always ambiguous. The mystery of Heathcliff's parentage is never solved. He is described by Hindley as an 'imp of Satan' in chapter four, and by the end of the novel Nelly Dean is entertaining notions that Heathcliff may be some hideous ghoul or vampire. The awesome but unseen presence of Satan is also alluded to at several points in the novel, and it is noted in chapter three that 'no clergyman will undertake the duties of pastor' at the local chapel, which has fallen into dereliction.

Ghosts also play a role in the novel. Lockwood has a horrible vision of Catherine (the elder) as a child, appearing at the window of her old chamber at Wuthering Heights and begging to be allowed in. Heathcliff believes this story of Catherine's ghostly return, and late in the novel behaves as though he has seen her ghost himself. When Heathcliff dies, he is found in the bedroom with the window open, raising the possibility that Catherine's ghost entered Wuthering Heights just as Lockwood saw in his dream. At the end of the novel, Nelly Dean reports that various superstitious locals have claimed to see Catherine and Heathcliff's ghosts roaming the moors. Lockwood, however, discounts the idea of "unquiet slumbers for those sleepers in that quiet earth."

[edit] Allusions/references in literature

  • In Albert Camus' essay "The Rebel", Heathcliff is compared to a leader of the rebel forces. Both are driven by a sort of madness: one by misguided love, the other by oppression. Camus juxtaposes the concept of Heathcliff's reaction to Cathy with the reaction of a disenchanted rebel to the ideal he once held.
  • Ann Carson wrote a poem titled "The Glass Essay" in which are woven multiple references to Wuthering Heights and the life of Emily Brontë.
  • James Stoddard's novel The False House contains numerous references to Wuthering Heights.
  • Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels often mention Heathcliff as the most tragic romantic hero. In Fforde's book The Well of Lost Plots, it is revealed that all the characters of Wuthering Heights are required to attend group anger management sessions.
  • In the preface of his novel Le bleu du ciel, the French writer Georges Bataille states that, in his view, Wuthering Heights belongs to those rare works in literature written from an inner necessity.
  • The novel Glennkill by German writer Leonie Swann, published in 2005, is in some way centred around Emily Brontë's novel, and is perhaps the main reason why said novel is set in Ireland.[citation needed] The book, as is revealed in the last pages, is being read to the sheep by the shepherd's daughter, and in a strange and dreamy way helps the main character of the novel, a sheep-detective called Miss Maple, to guess the identity of the murderer.
  • In Diane Setterfield's novel, The Thirteenth Tale (novel), Wuthering Heights is also frequently mentioned. The relationship between Charlie and Isabelle Angelfield parallels that of Heathcliff and Catherine in many ways.
  • Michel Houellebecq's debut novel Extension du domaine de la lutte briefly mentions Wuthering Heights - "We're a long way from Wuthering Heights." -, arguing that as human relations are progressively fading away, then such tales of stormy passion are no longer possible.[8]
  • Cara Lockwood's Wuthering High, is centered around a boarding school that is haunted by dead classic writers, Emily Brontë being one of them. Her novel is mentioned several times, and even her characters make some special appearances.
  • Nomura Miduki's second book in the Bungakushoujo series, "Bungakushoujo" to Uekawaku Ghost (published in 2006) refers to and draws from Wuthering Heights heavily.
  • The Japanese novelist Minae Mizumura's third and most recent work, A Real Novel, 2002, is a retelling of Wuthering Heights in post war Japan, featuring a half-Chinese, half-Japanese Heathcliff and an even more problematic Nelly. It re-enacts the history of modern Japanese literature by absorbing and transforming the Western classic into the Japanese literary context.

[edit] Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

[edit] New versions

In 2006 it was reported that a new film adaptation was in development, with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp attached to star, however, no further developments appear to have been forthcoming. M. Night Shyamalan was once offered the project to direct, but he turned it down to work on The Village, which he later revealed to be inspired partly by the novel.[12]

ITV has commissioned a new adaptation, to be written by Blackpool writer Peter Bowker. The three-hour Brontë is expected to be broadcast in early 2008.[13] It will star Charlotte Riley and Tom Hardy.

In early 2008, a highly publicized fight for the role of Catherine made headlines across the UK with both Keira Knightley and Lindsay Lohan vying for the role. John Maybury is slated to direct the latest adaptation.[14]. In April 2008, Natalie Portman was cast as in the role[15] although she had to leave the project soon after.

[edit] Musical allusions and adaptations

[edit] Opera

[edit] Other

  • "Wuthering Heights" is a song by Kate Bush, which appears on her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside, and was also released as her debut single. It has been repeatedly covered by other artists, including Pat Benatar, on her 1980 album Crimes of Passion, the Brazilian power metal band Angra, on their 1993 album Angels Cry, and Hayley Westenra, on her 2003 album Pure. Josh Pyke has also done a cover for No Man's Woman. The Puppini Sisters have released a swing version of the Kate Bush song, as have the Ukulele Orchestra Of Great Britain.
  • The title and cover art of the second 1976 album Wind & Wuthering by the British progressive rock group Genesis were inspired by the novel. It also includes two instrumental pieces titled "Unquiet Slumbers For The Sleepers..." and "...In That Quiet Earth", respectively, which are the last words in the novel.
  • Wuthering Heights is a Danish heavy metal band.
  • Song writer Michael Penn makes reference to Heathcliff in his song "No Myth".
  • Song Cycle version of the novel using Emily Brontë poems as libretto.
  • Wuthering Heights is produced as a play in the Japanese manga "Garasu no Kamen" by Suzue Miuchi, in which the young Cathy is played by fictional actress Maya Kitajima.
  • In 2003, Japanese singer-songwriter Chihiro Onitsuka penned and released a b-side track on her maxi-single "Beautiful Fighter", which was entitled "Arashigaoka" (嵐ヶ丘), the Japanese translation of the title Wuthering Heights.
  • In 2005, Japanese violinist Ikuko Kawai composed an instrumental piece of the same name. Its slightly more elaborate variation includes the subtitle, "Dear Heathcliff."
  • Korean pop artist Eugene has a song entitled "Wuthering Heights" released in 2004.
  • Songwriter Jim Steinman has stated that the ballad It's All Coming Back To Me Now is influenced by Wuthering Heights, he compared the song to "Heathcliffe digging up Cathy's corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight."[18]
  • A theatre marquee in the 2004 film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow advertises the 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights starring Laurence Olivier.
  • A goth rock band Diva Destruction also made a reference on Heathcliff and Catherine on a song called Heathcliff on their album Exposing the Sickness (2002).
  • The fancy Victorian house a player can buy in "The Game of Life," a board game, is from "Blithering Heights Realty."
  • In the indie rock band The Hush Sound's song "A Dark Congregation", the final words of the novel are referenced in the line, "we are surrounded by all of the quiet sleepers inside the quiet earth".
  • Artist Jer Ber Jones covered Kate Bush's "Wuthering Heights".
  • Paris Opera Ballet's Danseur Etoile Kader Belarbi created a ballet based on "Wuthering Heights". Its name in French is actually "Les Hauts de Hurlevent" but Belarbi decided to call it quite simply "Hurlevent", given that it aims to draw a line between the novel and the nature of French Romantic ballet showing mostly scenes of the story and not, in fact, telling it.
  • In 2008, a song Wuthering Heights with the theme of Heathcliff's dream was made by Swedish musician Mikael Gökinan with Ludde Wennström (bass and backing vocals) and a rising star Helena Josefsson (vokals).

[edit] References

  1. ^ Excerpts from Contemporary Reviews
  2. ^ Wuthering Heights: Publication & Contemporary Critical Reception
  3. ^ Later Critical Response to Wutheirng Heights
  4. ^ "Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, each of them able to buy up, with one week's income, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange together?" (Chapter 7)
  5. ^ E.M. Petyt, Emily Bronte and the Haworth Dialect, Hudson History, Settle, 2001
  6. ^ Robert Barnard (2000) Emily Brontë
  7. ^ Ian Jack (1995) Explanatory Notes in Oxford World's Classics edition of Wuthering Heights
  8. ^ Romney, Jonathan (15 June 2000). The passion killer. The Guardian. Retrieved on December 21, 2007.
  9. ^ Wuthering Heights (1920) at the Internet Movie Database
  10. ^ Murray, Andy (2006). Into the Unknown: The Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale (paperback), London: Headpress, p. 34. ISBN 1-900486-50-4. 
  11. ^ Wake, Oliver. Wuthering Heights (1962). Screenonline. Retrieved on 2007-02-25.
  12. ^ Bellamy, Alison (20 January 2006). Depp and Jolie to play Heathcliff and Cathy in Yorkshire. Leedstoday. Retrieved on January 27, 2006.
  13. ^ Oatts, Joanne (November 13, 2006). Mammoth brings Cathy home to ITV. DigitalSpy. Retrieved on November 24, 2006.
  14. ^ Lindsay Lohan's Wuthering fight
  15. ^ Portman to star in new Wuthering Heights | News | guardian.co.uk Film
  16. ^ http://www.wkms.org/programming/roulston.htm
  17. ^ Wuthering Heights by Bernard J. Taylor
  18. ^ The Artist's Mind

[edit] External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Bronte Society Website