Plot Overview
In the late winter months of 1801, a man named
Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor
country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man
who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the
Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly
Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering
Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale
in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights.
Nelly remembers her childhood. As a young
girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the manor,
Mr. Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and
returns home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At
first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister
Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly comes to
love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the
moors. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his
own son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw
sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.
Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and
Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife, Frances, and
immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered and
favored son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common laborer, forced
to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with
Catherine, however. One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to
tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live
there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to recuperate
for five weeks, during which time Mrs. Linton works to make her a proper young
lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become infatuated with Edgar, and
her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated.
When Frances dies after giving birth to a baby
boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves
even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s
desire for social advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton,
despite her overpowering love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from
Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returning shortly after
Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.
When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets
about seeking revenge on all who have wronged him. Having come into a vast and
mysterious wealth, he deviously lends money to the drunken Hindley, knowing
that Hindley will increase his debts and fall into deeper despondency. When
Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places himself in line to
inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treats very
cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff
begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form she will, she may
haunt him, drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly
thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named
Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her there.
Thirteen years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves
as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is
beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her temperament is modified by
her father’s gentler influence. Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no
knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day, however, wandering through the moors,
she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays together with him. Soon
afterwards, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff
treats his sickly, whining son even more cruelly than he treated the boy’s
mother.
Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff
on the moors, and makes a visit to Wuthering Heights to meet Linton. She and
Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through letters. When Nelly
destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl begins sneaking out at
night to spend time with her frail young lover, who asks her to come back and
nurse him back to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Linton is
pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff hopes
that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange—and
his revenge upon Edgar Linton—will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton grows
ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering
Heights, and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries Linton. Soon after the
marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the
sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant,
while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.
Nelly’s story ends as she reaches the present.
Lockwood, appalled, ends his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and returns to London.
However, six months later, he pays a visit to Nelly, and learns of further
developments in the story. Although Catherine originally mocked Hareton’s
ignorance and illiteracy (in an act of retribution, Heathcliff ended Hareton’s
education after Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton as they live
together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff becomes more and more obsessed with
the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent that he begins speaking to her
ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent
walking on the moors, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and young Catherine inherit
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they plan to be married on the
next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes to visit
the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.
Chronology
The story of Wuthering Heights is
told through flashbacks recorded in diary entries, and events are often
presented out of chronological order—Lockwood’s narrative takes place after
Nelly’s narrative, for instance, but is interspersed with Nelly’s story in his
journal. Nevertheless, the novel contains enough clues to enable an approximate
reconstruction of its chronology, which was elaborately designed by Emily
Brontë. For instance, Lockwood’s diary entries are recorded in the late months
of 1801 and in September 1802; in 1801, Nelly tells Lockwood that she has lived
at Thrushcross Grange for eighteen years, since Catherine’s marriage to Edgar,
which must then have occurred in 1783. We know that Catherine was engaged to
Edgar for three years, and that Nelly was twenty-two when they were engaged, so
the engagement must have taken place in 1780, and Nelly must have been born in
1758. Since Nelly is a few years older than Catherine, and since Lockwood comments
that Heathcliff is about forty years old in 1801, it stands to reason that
Heathcliff and Catherine were born around 1761, three years after Nelly. There
are several other clues like this in the novel (such as Hareton’s birth, which
occurs in June, 1778). The following chronology is based on those clues, and
should closely approximate the timing of the novel’s important events. A “~”
before a date indicates that it cannot be precisely determined from the
evidence in the novel, but only closely estimated.
1500 - The stone
above the front door of Wuthering Heights, bearing the name of Hareton
Earnshaw, is inscribed, possibly to mark the completion of the house.
1777 - Mr.
Earnshaw dies; Hindley and Frances take possession of Wuthering Heights;
Catherine first visits Thrushcross Grange around Christmastime.
1784 - Heathcliff
and Isabella elope in the early part of the year; Catherine becomes ill with
brain fever; young Catherine is born late in the year; Catherine dies.
~1797 - Young
Catherine meets Hareton and visits Wuthering Heights for the first time; Linton
comes from London after Isabella dies (in late 1797 or early 1798).
1801 - Early in
the year, young Catherine is imprisoned by Heathcliff and forced to marry
Linton; Edgar Linton dies; Linton dies; Heathcliff assumes control of
Thrushcross Grange. Late in the year, Lockwood rents the Grange from Heathcliff
and begins his tenancy. In a winter storm, Lockwood takes ill and begins
conversing with Nelly Dean.
1802 - In spring,
Lockwood returns to London; Catherine and Hareton fall in love; Heathcliff
dies; Lockwood returns in September and hears the end of the story from Nelly.
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