Setting The story is actually told twice; by Nelly Dean to a tennant called Lockwood, and Lockwood tells the story to the reader. It takes place both at ‘Wuthering Heights’ and at ‘Thuscross Grange’. Wuthering Heights is a house that is owned by Mr. Heathcliff. Mr. Heathcliff had lend the other house, Thuscross Grange (down in the valley), to Mr. Lockwood. Summary One day Mr. Lockwood comes to visit Mr. Heathcliff and is forced to spend the night at his house, due to a snowstorm. That night Lockwood has a terrible nightmare, about a young girl, named Catherine Linton, trying to enter his room through the window. When he returnes to Thuscross Grange the next morning, he tells the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, about his dream. She then tells him the story of Mr. Heathcliff’s adoption by Mr. Earnshaw. How he was loved by his ‘sister’ Catherine and hated by his ‘brother’ Hindley. How Hindley tried to ruin Heathcliff’s life when the old Mr. Earnshaw died. How he fell in love with Catherine and how hurt he had been when he overheard her telling Nelly that marrying him would degrade her. And how, after that last comment, Heathcliff disappeard. After three years, Heathcliff had returned to Wuthering Heights a wealthy man. His beloved Catherine had married a man named Edgar Linton and therefore Heathcliff decided to destroy the Earnshaw’s, aswell as the Linton’s. He married Edgar’s sister Isabella and made her life a living hell. After a few years she died, leaving behind a son named Linton. Catherine became very ill (partly because of Heathcliff’s horrible behaviour), and eventually she also died, leaving behind a daughter, Catherine Linton. When Catherine grew older, Heathcliff forced her to marry his (extremely annoying!) son, Linton, so that he could posses all the Linton properties. But Linton had always been a boy of poor health and not long after the wedding, he died. Heathcliff then forced Catherine to marry his ‘charity case’, Hareton. Heathcliff had ment for this last wedding to be a punnishment, but Catherine and Hareton slowly learned to love each other, while Heathcliff grew more and more tired of life. And as Heathcliff deliberately starved himself to death, peace, love and harmony returned to Wuthering Heights. Characters The main characters in this story are Heathcliff and Catherine. Heathcliff is an adopted gypsy-boy, with dark skin and a handsome but stern appearance. He is a very passionate romantic hero, but manages to express his feelings in the most fiendisch ways. The frustrations of his love for Catherine compell him to destroy everything he finds in his path, including the woman he loves. Catherine is a very daring and independent person with great strenghth of character. She could have been Heathcliff’s perfect soulmate, if they could only have stopped (unintendedly) agravating each other all the time. They wanted to love each other, but somehow they only managed to drive themselves apart.
Theme I think there are several theme’s in this book. For instance; Heatcliff’s passionate love for Catherine, but also his craving for revenge and the drastic relationships between the different characters can all be seen as seperate theme’s. My opinion While reading the book, I thought it was boring and longwinded. It just couldn’t keep me interrested. But now, looking back on the story, I find I really liked it. It wasn’t quite the romantic story I had hoped it would be, but nevertheless I (afterwards) enjoyed it more than I had anticipated. I picked this book, because I love the song ‘Wuthering Heights’ from Kate Bush, and I was wondering what the book would be like. Now that I know the story, I understand the lyrics to the song a lot better.