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= Wuthering_Heights =
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Introduction
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'Wuthering Heights' is the only novel by the English author Emily
Brontë, initially published in 1847 under her pen name "Ellis Bell".
It concerns two families of the landed gentry living on the West
Yorkshire moors, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, and their turbulent
relationships with the Earnshaws' foster son, Heathcliff. The novel,
influenced by Romanticism and Gothic fiction, is considered a classic
of English literature.
'Wuthering Heights' was accepted by publisher Thomas Newby along with
Anne Brontë's 'Agnes Grey' before the success of their sister
Charlotte Brontë's novel 'Jane Eyre', but they were published later.
The first American edition was published in April 1848 by Harper &
Brothers of New York. After Emily's death, Charlotte edited a second
edition of 'Wuthering Heights', which was published in 1850.
'Wuthering Heights' is now widely considered to be one of the greatest
novels ever written in English, but contemporaneous reviews were
polarised. It was controversial for its depictions of mental and
physical cruelty, including domestic abuse, and for its challenges to
Victorian morality, religion, and the class system. It has inspired an
array of adaptations across several media, including English
singer-songwriter Kate Bush's song of the same name.
Opening
=========
In 1801, Mr Lockwood, the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange in
Yorkshire, pays a visit to his landlord, Heathcliff, at his remote
moorland farmhouse, Wuthering Heights. There he meets a reserved young
woman (later identified as Cathy Linton), Joseph, a cantankerous
servant, and Hareton, an uneducated young man who speaks like a
servant. Everyone is sullen and inhospitable. Snowed in for the night,
Lockwood reads the diary of the former inhabitant of his room,
Catherine Earnshaw, and has a nightmare in which a ghostly Catherine
begs to enter through the window. Awakened by Lockwood's fearful
yells, Heathcliff is troubled.
Lockwood later returns to Thrushcross Grange in heavy snow, falls ill
from the cold and becomes bedridden. While he recovers, Lockwood's
housekeeper Ellen "Nelly" Dean tells him the story of the strange
family.
Nelly's tale
==============
Thirty years earlier, the Earnshaws live at Wuthering Heights with
their two children, Hindley and Catherine, and a servant--Nelly
herself. Returning from a trip to Liverpool, Earnshaw brings home an
orphan whom he names Heathcliff. Heathcliff's origins are unclear but
he is described as "like a gipsy" and possibly, a Lascar or an
American or Spanish castaway. Earnshaw treats the boy as his
favourite. His own children he neglects, especially after his wife
dies. Hindley beats Heathcliff, who gradually becomes close friends
with Catherine.
Hindley departs for university, returning as the new master of
Wuthering Heights on the death of his father three years later. He and
his new wife Frances force Heathcliff to live as one of their servants
and subject him to much verbal and emotional abuse.
Edgar Linton and his sister Isabella live nearby at Thrushcross
Grange. Heathcliff and Catherine spy on them out of curiosity. When
Catherine is attacked by their dog, the Lintons take her in, but send
Heathcliff home. The Lintons visit, and Hindley and Edgar make fun of
Heathcliff; a fight ensues. Heathcliff is then made to live in the
manor's unheated, dusty attic and swears that he will one day have his
revenge.
Frances dies after giving birth to a son, Hareton. Two years later,
Catherine becomes engaged to Edgar. She confesses to Nelly that she
loves Heathcliff, and will try to help him, but feels she cannot marry
him because of his low social status. Nelly warns her against
associating with a man like Heathcliff. Heathcliff overhears part of
the conversation and, misunderstanding Catherine's heart, flees the
household. Distraught, Catherine falls ill.
Three years after his departure, with Edgar and Catherine now wed and
expecting children, Heathcliff unexpectedly returns, now a wealthy
gentleman. He encourages Isabella's infatuation with him as a means of
revenge on Catherine. Enraged by Heathcliff's constant presence at
Thrushcross Grange, Edgar banishes him. Catherine responds by locking
herself in her room and refusing food; she never fully recovers. At
Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff exploits Hindley's gambling addiction
and compels him to mortgage the estate to cover his losses. Heathcliff
elopes with Isabella, but the relationship fails and they soon return.
When Heathcliff discovers that Catherine is dying, he visits her in
secret. She dies shortly after giving birth to a daughter, Cathy, and
Heathcliff rages, calling on her ghost to haunt him for as long as he
lives. Isabella, bitter over Heathcliff's devotion to a dead woman,
flees south where she gives birth to Heathcliff's son, a sickly boy
named Linton. Hindley dies six months later of alcoholism, and
Heathcliff then takes possession of Wuthering Heights as its new
master.
Twelve years later, after Isabella's death, the still-sickly Linton is
brought back to live with his uncle Edgar at the Grange, but
Heathcliff insists that his son must instead live with him. Cathy and
Linton (respectively at the Grange and Wuthering Heights) gradually
develop a relationship. Heathcliff schemes to ensure that they marry
in order to ensure his claim to Thrushcross Grange, and on Edgar's
death demands that the couple move in with him. He becomes
increasingly wild and reveals that on the night Catherine died he dug
up her grave, and ever since has been plagued by her ghost. When
Linton unexpectedly dies, Cathy has no option but to remain at
Wuthering Heights.
Having reached the present day, Nelly's tale concludes.
Ending
========
Lockwood grows tired of the moors and moves away. Eight months later
he returns for a visit, and Nelly, now the housekeeper at Wuthering
Heights, tells him what has happened since he left.
Heathcliff gave up his opposition to Cathy and Hareton's union. He
declined physically and started seeing visions of the dead Catherine;
he avoided the young couple, saying that he could not bear to see
Catherine's eyes, which they both shared, looking at him. He
eventually stopped eating, and some days later was found dead in
Catherine's old room.
Cathy has been teaching the still-uneducated Hareton to read. They
plan to marry and move to the Grange, accompanied by Nelly, with
Joseph being left to take care of Wuthering Heights. Nelly reports
that the locals have seen the ghosts of Catherine and Heathcliff
wandering abroad together. Lockwood seeks out the graves of Catherine,
Edgar, and Heathcliff, and is convinced that all three are finally at
peace.
Characters
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* Heathcliff: A foundling from Liverpool, who is taken by Earnshaw to
Wuthering Heights, where he is reluctantly cared for by the family and
spoiled by his adoptive father. He and Mr. Earnshaw's daughter,
Catherine, grow close, and their love is the central theme of the
first volume. His revenge against the man she chooses to marry and its
consequences are the central theme of the second volume. Heathcliff
has been considered a Byronic hero, but critics have pointed out that
he reinvents himself at various points, making his character hard to
fit into any single type. He has an ambiguous position in society, and
his lack of status is underlined by the fact that "Heathcliff" is both
his given name and his surname. The character of Heathcliff may have
been inspired by Branwell Brontë. An alcoholic and an opium addict, he
would have indeed terrorised Emily and her sister Charlotte during
frequent crises of 'delirium tremens' that affected him a few years
before his death. Even though Heathcliff has no alcohol or drug
problems, the influence of Branwell's character is likely; although
the same could be said, perhaps more appropriately, of Hindley
Earnshaw and Linton Heathcliff.
* Catherine Earnshaw: First introduced to the reader after her death,
through Lockwood's discovery of her diary and carvings. The
description of her life is confined almost entirely to the first
volume. She seems unsure whether she is, or wants to become, more like
Heathcliff, or aspires to be more like Edgar. Some critics have argued
that her decision to marry Edgar Linton is allegorically a rejection
of nature and a surrender to culture, a choice with unfortunate,
fateful consequences for all the other characters. She dies hours
after giving birth to her daughter.
* Edgar Linton: Introduced as a child in the Linton family, he resides
at Thrushcross Grange. Edgar's style and manners are in sharp contrast
to those of Heathcliff, who instantly dislikes him, and of Catherine,
who is drawn to him. Catherine marries him instead of Heathcliff
because of his higher social status, with disastrous results to all
characters in the story. He dotes on his wife and later his daughter.
* Ellen (Nelly) Dean: The main narrator of the novel, Nelly is a
servant to three generations of the Earnshaws and two of the Linton
family. Humbly born, she regards herself nevertheless as Hindley's
foster-sister (they are the same age and her mother is his nurse). She
lives and works among the rough inhabitants of Wuthering Heights but
is well-read, and she also experiences the more genteel manners of
Thrushcross Grange. She is referred to as Ellen, her given name, to
show respect, and as Nelly among those close to her. Critics have
discussed how far her actions as an apparent bystander affect the
other characters and how much her narrative can be relied on. In "The
Villain in 'Wuthering Heights'" (1958) James Hafley argues that Nelly
seems to be the moral centre of the novel only because of the
instability and violence of the world she describes. In his view, she
is the true villain of the novel, as she drives the majority of the
conflicts, and Lockwood's faith in her story is a sign of his
innocence.
* Isabella Linton: Edgar's sister. She views Heathcliff romantically,
despite Catherine's warnings, and becomes an unwitting participant in
his plot for revenge against Edgar. Heathcliff marries her but treats
her abusively. While pregnant, she escapes to London and gives birth
to a son, Linton. She entrusts her son to her brother Edgar when she
dies.
* Hindley Earnshaw: Catherine's elder brother, Hindley, despises
Heathcliff immediately and bullies him throughout their childhood
before his father sends him away to college. Hindley returns with his
wife, Frances, after Mr Earnshaw dies. He is more mature, but his
hatred of Heathcliff remains the same. After Frances's death, Hindley
reverts to destructive behaviour, neglects his son, and ruins the
Earnshaw family by drinking and gambling to excess. Heathcliff beats
Hindley up at one point after Hindley fails in his attempt to kill
Heathcliff with a pistol. He dies less than a year after Catherine and
leaves his son with nothing.
* Hareton Earnshaw: The son of Hindley and Frances, raised at first by
Nelly but soon by Heathcliff. Joseph works to instill a sense of pride
in the Earnshaw heritage (even though Hareton will not inherit
Earnshaw's property, because Hindley has mortgaged it to Heathcliff).
Heathcliff, in contrast, teaches him vulgarities as a way of avenging
himself on Hindley. Hareton speaks with an accent similar to Joseph's,
and occupies a position similar to that of a servant at Wuthering
Heights, unaware that he has been done out of his inheritance. He can
only read his name. In appearance, he reminds Heathcliff of his aunt,
Catherine.
* Catherine "Cathy" Linton: The daughter of Catherine and Edgar
Linton, a spirited and strong-willed girl unaware of her parents'
history. Edgar is very protective of her and as a result, she is eager
to discover what lies beyond the confines of the Grange. Although one
of the more sympathetic characters of the novel, she is also somewhat
snobbish towards Hareton and his lack of education. She is forced to
marry Linton Heathcliff, but after he dies she falls in love with
Hareton and they marry.
* Linton Heathcliff: The son of Heathcliff and Isabella. A weak child,
his early years are spent with his mother in the south of England. He
learns of his father's identity and existence only after his mother
dies when he is twelve. In his selfishness and capacity for cruelty he
resembles Heathcliff; physically, he resembles his mother. He marries
Cathy Linton because his father, who terrifies him, directs him to do
so, and soon after he dies from a wasting illness associated with
tuberculosis.
* Joseph: A servant at Wuthering Heights for 60 years who is a rigid,
self-righteous Christian but lacks any trace of genuine kindness or
humanity. He hates nearly everyone in the novel. The Yorkshire dialect
that Joseph speaks was the subject of a 1970 book by the linguist K.M.
Petyt, who argued that Emily Brontë recorded the dialect of Haworth
accurately.
* Mr Lockwood: The first narrator, he rents Thrushcross Grange to
escape society, but in the end, decides society is preferable. He
narrates the book until Chapter 4, when the main narrator, Nelly,
picks up the tale.
* Frances: Hindley's ailing wife and mother of Hareton Earnshaw. She
is described as somewhat silly and is obviously from a humble family.
Frances dies not long after the birth of her son.
* Mr and Mrs Earnshaw: Catherine's and Hindley's father, Mr Earnshaw
is the master of Wuthering Heights at the beginning of Nelly's story
and is described as an irascible but loving and kind-hearted man. He
favours his adopted son, Heathcliff, which causes trouble in the
family. In contrast, his wife mistrusts Heathcliff from their first
encounter.
* Mr and Mrs Linton: Edgar's and Isabella's parents, they bring up
their children to be well-behaved and sophisticated. Mr Linton also
serves as the magistrate of Gimmerton, as his son does in later years.
* Dr Kenneth: The longtime doctor of Gimmerton and a friend of
Hindley's who is present at the cases of illness during the novel.
Although not much of his character is known, he seems to be a rough
but honest person.
* Zillah: A servant to Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights during the
period following Catherine's death. Although she is kind to Lockwood,
she doesn't like or help Cathy at Wuthering Heights because of Cathy's
arrogance and Heathcliff's instructions.
* Mr Green: Edgar's corruptible lawyer who should have changed Edgar's
will to prevent Heathcliff from gaining Thrushcross Grange. Instead,
Green changes sides and helps Heathcliff to inherit the Grange as his
property.
1847 edition
==============
The original text as published by Thomas Cautley Newby in 1847 is
available online in two parts. The novel was first published together
with Anne Brontë's 'Agnes Grey' in a three-volume format: 'Wuthering
Heights' filled the first two volumes and 'Agnes Grey' made up the
third.
1850 edition
==============
In 1850 Charlotte Brontë edited the original text for the second
edition of 'Wuthering Heights' and also provided it with her foreword.
She addressed the faulty punctuation and orthography but also diluted
Joseph's thick Yorkshire dialect. Writing to her publisher, W. S.
Williams, she said that Irene Wiltshire, in an essay on dialect and
speech, examines some of the changes Charlotte made.
Contemporary reviews
======================
Early reviews of 'Wuthering Heights' were mixed. Most critics
recognised the power and imagination of the novel, but were baffled by
the storyline, and objected to the savagery and selfishness of the
characters. In 1847, when the background of an author was given great
importance in literary criticism, many critics were intrigued by the
authorship of the Bell novels.
The 'Atlas' review called it a "strange, inartistic story", but
commented that every chapter seems to contain a "sort of rugged
power."
'Graham's Lady Magazine' wrote: "How a human being could have
attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before
he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of
vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors".
'The American Whig Review' wrote:
'Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper' wrote:
'The Examiner' wrote:
'The Literary World' wrote:
The English poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti admired the book,
writing in 1854 that it was "the first novel I've read for an age, and
the best (as regards power and sound style) for two ages, except
'Sidonia'", but, in the same letter, he also referred to it as "a
fiend of a book - an incredible monster ... The action is laid in
hell, - only it seems places and people have English names there".
Rossetti's friend, the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne was another
early admirer of the novel, and in conclusion for an essay on Emily
Brontë, published in 'The Athenaeum' in 1883, writes: "As was the
author's life, so is her book in all things: troubled and taintless,
with little of rest in it, and nothing of reproach. It may be true
that not many will ever take it to their hearts; it is certain that
those who do like it will like nothing very much better in the whole
world of poetry or prose."
Twentieth century
===================
Until late in the 19th century "'Jane Eyre' was regarded as the best
of the Brontë sisters' novels". This view began to change in the 1880s
with the publication of A. Mary F. Robinson's biography of Emily in
1883.
Modernist novelist Virginia Woolf affirmed the greatness of 'Wuthering
Heights' in 1925:
Similarly, Woolf's contemporary John Cowper Powys referred in 1916 to
Emily Brontë's "tremendous vision".
In 1926 Charles Percy Sanger's work on the chronology of 'Wuthering
Heights' "affirmed Emily's literary craft and meticulous planning of
the novel and disproved Charlotte's presentation of her sister as an
unconscious artist who 'did not know what she had done'." However, for
a later critic, Albert J. Guerard, "it is a splendid, imperfect novel
which Brontë loses control over occasionally".
Still, in 1934, Lord David Cecil, writing in 'Early Victorian
Novelists', commented "that Emily Brontë was not properly appreciated;
even her admirers saw her as an 'unequal genius'," and in 1948 F. R.
Leavis excluded 'Wuthering Heights' from the great tradition of the
English novel because it was "a 'kind of sport'--an anomaly with 'some
influence of an essentially undetectable kind.'"
The novelist Daphne du Maurier argued the status of 'Wuthering
Heights' as a "supreme romantic novel" in 1971:
Twenty-first century
======================
Writing in 'The Guardian' in 2003 writer and editor Robert McCrum
placed 'Wuthering Heights' in his list of 100 greatest novels of all
time. And in 2015 he placed it in his list of 100 best novels written
in English. He said that
Writing for BBC Culture in 2015 author and book reviewer Jane
Ciabattari polled 82 book critics from outside the UK and presented
'Wuthering Heights' as number 7 in the resulting list of 100 greatest
British novels.
In 2018 Penguin presented a list of 100 must-read classic books and
placed 'Wuthering Heights' at number 71, saying: "Widely considered a
staple of Gothic fiction and the English literary canon, this book has
gone on to inspire many generations of writersand will continue to do
so".
Writing in 'The Independent' journalist and author Ceri Radford and
news presenter, journalist, and TV producer Chris Harvey included
'Wuthering Heights' in a list of the 40 best books to read during
lockdown. Harvey said that "It's impossible to imagine this novel ever
provoking quiet slumbers; Emily Brontë's vision of nature blazes with
poetry".
Setting
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Novelist John Cowper Powys notes the importance of the setting:
Likewise Virginia Woolf suggests the importance of the Yorkshire
landscape of Haworth to the poetic vision of both Emily and Charlotte
Brontë:
Wuthering Heights is an old house high on the Pennine moorland of West
Yorkshire. The first description is provided by Lockwood, the new
tenant of the nearby Thrushcross Grange:
Lord David Cecil in 'Early Victorian Novelists' (1934) drew attention
to the contrast between the two main settings in 'Wuthering Heights':
Walter Allen, in 'The English Novel' (1954), likewise "spoke of the
two houses in the novel as symbolising 'two opposed principles
which... ultimately compose a harmony'". However, David Daiches, "in
the 1965 Penguin English Library edition referred to Cecil's
interpretation as being 'persuasively argued' though not fully
acceptable". The entry on 'Wuthering Heights' in the 2002 'Oxford
Companion to English Literature', states that "the ending of the novel
points to a union of 'the two contrasting worlds and moral orders
represented by the Heights and the Grange'".
Inspiration for locations
===========================
There is no evidence that either Thrushcross Grange or Wuthering
Heights is based on an actual building, but various locations have
been speculated as inspirations. Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse in an
isolated area near the Haworth Parsonage, was suggested as the model
for Wuthering Heights by Ellen Nussey, a friend of Charlotte Brontë.
However, its structure does not match that of the farmhouse described
in the novel. High Sunderland Hall, near Law Hill, Halifax where Emily
worked briefly as a governess in 1838, now demolished, has also been
suggested as a model for Wuthering Heights. However, it is too grand
for a farmhouse.
Ponden Hall is famous for reputedly being the inspiration for
Thrushcross Grange, since Brontë was a frequent visitor. However, it
does not match the description given in the novel and is closer in
size and appearance to the farmhouse of Wuthering Heights. The Brontë
biographer Winifred Gerin believed that Ponden Hall was the original
of Wildfell Hall, the old mansion in Anne Brontë's 'The Tenant of
Wildfell Hall'. Helen Smart, while noting that Thrushcross Grange has
"traditionally been associated with... Ponden Hall, Stanbury, near
Haworth", sees Shibden Hall, Northowram, in Halifax parish, as more
likely, referring to Hilda Marsden's article "The Scenic Background of
Wuthering Heights".
Point of view
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Most of the novel is the story told by housekeeper Nelly Dean to
Lockwood, though the novel uses several narrators (in fact, five or
six) to place the story in perspective, or in a variety of
perspectives. Emily Brontë uses this frame story technique to narrate
most of the story. Thus, for example, Lockwood, the first narrator of
the story, tells the story of Nelly, who herself tells the story of
another character. The use of a character like Nelly Dean is a
literary device, a well-known convention taken from the Gothic novel,
the function of which is to portray the events in a more mysterious
and exciting manner.
Thus, the point of view comes from:
Critics have questioned the reliability of the two main narrators. The
author has been described as sarcastic toward Lockwood, who fancies
himself a world-weary romantic but comes across as an effete snob, and
there are subtler hints that Nelly's perspective is influenced by her
own biases.
The narrative in addition includes an excerpt from Catherine
Earnshaw's old diary, and short sections narrated by Heathcliff,
Isabella, and another servant.
Influences
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Brontë possessed an exceptional education of classical culture for a
woman of the time. She was familiar with Greek tragedies and was a
good Latinist. In addition she was especially influenced by the poets
John Milton and William Shakespeare. There are echoes of and allusions
to Shakespeare's tragedies, 'King Lear', 'Romeo and Juliet', 'Macbeth'
and 'Hamlet' in 'Wuthering Heights'.
Another major source of information for the Brontës was the
periodicals that their father read, the 'Leeds Intelligencer' and
'Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine'. 'Blackwood's Magazine' provided
knowledge of world affairs and was a source of material for the
Brontës' early writing. Emily Brontë was probably aware of the debate
on evolution. This debate had been launched in 1844 by Robert
Chambers. It raised questions of divine providence and the violence
which underlies the universe and relationships between living things.
Romanticism was also a major influence, which included the Gothic
novel, the novels of Walter Scott and the poetry of Byron. The
Brontës' fiction is seen by some feminist critics as prime examples of
Female Gothic. It explores the domestic entrapment and subjection of
women to patriarchal authority, and the attempts to subvert and escape
such restriction. Emily Brontë's Cathy Earnshaw and Charlotte Brontë's
Jane Eyre are both examples of female protagonists in such a role.
According to Juliet Barker, Walter Scott's novel 'Rob Roy' (1817) had
a significant influence on 'Wuthering Heights', which, though
"regarded as the archetypal Yorkshire novel... owed as much, if not
more, to Walter Scott's Border country". 'Rob Roy' is set "in the
wilds of Northumberland, among the uncouth and quarrelsome
squirearchical Osbaldistones", while Cathy Earnshaw "has strong
similarities with Diana Vernon, who is equally out of place among her
boorish relations".
From 1833 Charlotte and Branwell's Angrian tales began to feature
Byronic heroes. Such heroes had a strong sexual magnetism and
passionate spirit, and demonstrated arrogance and black-heartedness.
The Brontës had discovered Byron in an article in 'Blackwood's
Magazine' from August 1825. Byron had died the previous year. Byron
became synonymous with the prohibited and audacious.
Romance tradition
===================
Emily Brontë wrote in the romance tradition of the novel. Walter Scott
defined this as "a fictitious narrative in prose or verse; the
interest of which turns upon marvellous and uncommon incidents". Scott
distinguished the 'romance' from the 'novel', where (as he saw it)
"events are accommodated to the ordinary train of human events and the
modern state of society". Scott describes romance as a "kindred term"
to novel. However, romances such as 'Wuthering Heights' and Scott's
own historical romances and Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' are often
referred to as novels. Other European languages do not distinguish
between romance and novel: "a novel is , , , ". This sort of romance
is different from the genre fiction love romance or romance novel,
with its "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending". Emily
Brontë's approach to the novel form was influenced by the gothic
novel.
Gothic novel
==============
Horace Walpole's 'The Castle of Otranto' (1764) is usually considered
the first gothic novel. Walpole's declared aim was to combine elements
of the medieval romance, which he deemed too fanciful, and the modern
novel, which he considered to be too confined to strict realism.
More recently Ellen Moers, in 'Literary Women', developed a feminist
theory that connects female writers such as Emily Brontë with gothic
fiction. Catherine Earnshaw has been identified by some critics as a
type of gothic demon because she "shape-shifts" in order to marry
Edgar Linton, assuming a domesticity that is contrary to her true
nature. It has also been suggested that Catherine's relationship with
Heathcliff conforms to the "dynamics of the Gothic romance, in that
the woman falls prey to the more or less demonic instincts of her
lover, suffers from the violence of his feelings, and at the end is
entangled by his thwarted passion". See also the discussion of the
daemonic below, under "Religion".
At one point in the novel Heathcliff is thought a vampire. It has been
suggested that both he and Catherine are in fact meant to be seen as
vampire-like personalities.
Morality
==========
Some early Victorian reviewers complained about how 'Wuthering
Heights' dealt with violence and immorality. One called it "a compound
of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors".
Brontë was supposedly unaware of "the limits on polite expression"
expected of Victorian novelists. Her characters use vulgar language,
"cursing and swearing". Though the daughter of a curate, Brontë shows
little respect for religion in the novel; the only strongly religious
character in 'Wuthering Heights' is Joseph, who is usually seen as
satirizing "the joyless version of Methodism that the Brontë children
were exposed to through their Aunt Branwell". A major influence on how
Brontë depicts amoral characters was the stories her father Patrick
Brontë told, about "the doings" of people around Haworth that his
parishioners told him, "stories which 'made one shiver and shrink from
hearing' (Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey reported)", which were "full
of grim humour" and violence, stories Emily Brontë took "as a truth".
Shortly after Emily Brontë's death G.H. Lewes wrote in 'Leader
Magazine':
Religion
==========
Emily Brontë attended church regularly and came from a religious
family. Emily "never as far as we know, wrote anything which overtly
criticised conventional religion. But she also has the reputation of
being a rebel and iconoclast, driven by a spirit more pagan than
orthodox Christian." Derek Traversi, for example, sees in 'Wuthering
Heights' "a thirst for religious experience, 'which is not Christian'.
It is this spirit which moves Catherine to exclaim, 'surely you and
everybody have a notion that there is, or should be, an existence of
yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation if I were entirely
contained here? (Ch. IX).
Thomas John Winnifrith, author of 'The Brontes and Their Background:
Romance and Reality' (Macmillan, 1977), argues that the allusions to
Heaven and Hell are more than metaphors, and have a religious
significance, because "for Heathcliff, the loss of Catherine is
literally Hell... 'existence after losing her would be Hell' (Ch. xiv,
p. 117)." Likewise, in the final scene between them, Heathcliff
writhes "in the torments of Hell (XV)".
Daemonic
==========
The eminent German Lutheran theologian and philosopher Rudolph Otto,
author of 'The Idea of the Holy', saw in 'Wuthering Heights' "a
supreme example of 'the daemonic' in literature". Otto links the
"daemonic" with "a genuine religious experience". Lisa Wang argues
that in both 'Wuthering Heights', and in her poetry, Emily Brontë
concentrates on "the non-conceptual", or what Rudolf Otto has called
'the non-rational' aspect of religion... the primal nature of
religious experience over and above its doctrinal formulations". This
corresponds with the dictionary meaning: "of or relating to an inner
or attendant spirit, esp. as a source of creative inspiration or
genius". This meaning was important to the Romantic movement.
However, the word 'daemon' can also mean "a demon or devil", and that
is equally relevant to Heathcliff, whom Peter McInerney describes as
"a Satanic Don Juan". Heathcliff is also "dark-skinned", "as dark
almost as if it came from the devil". Likewise Charlotte Brontë
described him "'a man's shape animated by demon life - a Ghoul - an
Afreet'". In Arabian mythology an "afreet", or ifrit, is a powerful
jinn or demon. However, John Bowen believes that "this is too simple a
view", because the novel presents an alternative explanation of
Heathcliff's cruel and sadistic behaviour; that is, that he has
suffered terribly: "is an orphan;... is brutalised by Hindley;...
relegated to the status of a servant; Catherine marries Edgar".
Love
======
One 2007 British poll presented 'Wuthering Heights' as the greatest
love story of all time. However, "some of the novel's admirers
consider it not a love story at all but an exploration of evil and
abuse". Helen Small sees 'Wuthering Heights' as being both "one of the
greatest love stories in the English language" and at the same time
one of the "most brutal revenge narratives". Some critics suggest that
reading 'Wuthering Heights' as a love story not only "romanticizes
abusive men and toxic relationships but goes against Brontë's clear
intent". Moreover, while a "passionate, doomed, death-transcending
relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw Linton forms
the core of the novel", 'Wuthering Heights':
"I am Heathcliff" is a frequently quoted phrase from the novel, and
"the idea of... perfect unity between the self and the other is
age-old", so that Catherine says that she loves Heathcliff "because
he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and
mine are the same" (Chapter IX). Likewise Lord David Cecil suggests
that "the deepest attachments are based on characters' similarity or
affinity", However Simone de Beauvoir, in her famous feminist work
'The Second Sex' (1949), suggests that when Catherine says "I am
Heathcliff": "her own world collapse(s) in contingence, for she really
lives in his." Beauvoir sees this as "the fatal mirage of the ideal of
romantic love... transcendence... in the superior male who is
perceived as free".
Despite all the passion between Catherine and Heathcliff, critics have
from early on drawn attention to the absence of sex. In 1850 the poet
and critic Sydney Dobell suggests that "we dare not doubt
[Catherine's] purity", and the Victorian poet Swinburne concurs,
referring to their "passionate and ardent chastity". More recently
Terry Eagleton suggests their relationship is sexless, "because the
two, unknown to themselves, are half-siblings, with an unconscious
fear of incest".
Childhood
===========
Childhood is a central theme of 'Wuthering Heights'. Emily Brontë
"understands that 'The Child is 'Father of the Man' (Wordsworth, 'My
heart leaps up', 1. 7)". Wordsworth, following philosophers of
education, such as Rousseau, explored ideas about the way childhood
shaped personality. One outcome of this was the German , or "novel of
education", such as Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre' (1847), Eliot's
'The Mill on the Floss' (1860), and Dickens's 'Great Expectations'
(1861). Bronte's characters "are heavily influenced by their childhood
experiences", though she is less optimistic than her contemporaries
that suffering can lead to "change and renewal".
Class and money
=================
Lockwood arrives at Thrushcross Grange in 1801, a time when, according
to Q.D. Leavis, "the old rough farming culture, based on a naturally
patriarchal family life, was to be challenged, tamed and routed by
social and cultural changes". At this date the Industrial Revolution
was well under way, and was by 1847 a dominant force in much of
England, and especially in West Yorkshire. This caused a disruption in
"the traditional relationship of social classes" with an expanding
upwardly mobile middle-class, which created "a new standard for
defining a gentleman", and challenged the traditional criteria of
breeding and family and the more recent criterion of character.
Marxist critic Arnold Kettle sees 'Wuthering Heights' "as a symbolic
representation of the class system of 19th-century England", with its
concerns "with property-ownership, the attraction of social comforts",
marriage, education, religion, and social status. Driven by a
pathological hatred Heathcliff uses against his enemies "their own
weapons of money and arranged marriages", as well as "the classic
methods of the ruling class, expropriation and property deals".
Later, another Marxist, Terry Eagleton, in 'Myths of Power: A Marxist
Study of the Brontës' (London: McMillan, 1975), further explores the
power relationships between "the landed gentry and aristocracy, the
traditional power-holders, and the capitalist, industrial middle
classes". Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire was especially
affected by changes to society and its class structure "because of the
concentration of large estates and industrial centers" there.
Race
======
There has been debate about Heathcliff's race or ethnicity. In the
novel Heathcliff is first described as a "dark-skinned gipsy" in
appearance with "black eyes", as well as later being said to be "as
white as the wall behind him" and "pale...with an
expression of mortal hate.". Mr Linton, the Earnshaws' neighbour,
suggests that he might be "a little Lascar (a 19th-century term for
Indian sailors;), or an American or Spanish castaway". Mr Earnshaw
calls him "as dark almost as if it came from the devil", and Nelly
Dean speculates fancifully regarding his origins thus: "Who knows but
your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen?"
Novelist Caryl Phillips suggests that Heathcliff may have been an
escaped slave, noting the similarities between the way Heathcliff is
treated and the way slaves were treated at the time: he is referred to
as "it", his name "served him" as both his "Christian and surname",
and Mr Earnshaw is referred to as "his owner". Maja-Lisa von Sneidern
states that "Heathcliff's racial otherness cannot be a matter of
dispute; Brontë makes that explicit", further noting that "by 1804
Liverpool merchants were responsible for more than eighty-four percent
of the British transatlantic slave trade." Michael Stewart sees
Heathcliff's race as "ambiguous" and argues that Emily Brontë
"deliberately gives us this missing hole in the narrative".
Storm and calm
================
Various critics have explored the various contrast between Thrushcross
Grange and the Wuthering Heights farmhouse and their inhabitants. Lord
David Cecil argued for "cosmic forces as the central impetus and
controlling force in the novel" and suggested that there is a unifying
structure underlying 'Wuthering Heights': "two spiritual principles:
the principle of the storm,... and the principle of calm", which he
further argued were not, "in spite of their apparent opposition", in
conflict. Dorothy van Ghent, however, refers to "a tension between two
kinds of reality" in the novel: "civilized manners" and "natural
energies".
Film and TV
=============
The earliest known film adaptation of 'Wuthering Heights' was filmed
in England in 1920 and was directed by A. V. Bramble. It is unknown if
any prints still exist. The most famous is 1939's 'Wuthering Heights',
starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon and directed by William
Wyler. This acclaimed adaptation, like many others, eliminated the
second generation's story (young Cathy, Linton and Hareton) and is
rather inaccurate as a literary adaptation. It won the 1939 New York
Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film and was nominated for the 1939
Academy Award for Best Picture.
Nigel Kneale's script was produced for BBC Television twice, firstly
in 1953, starring Richard Todd as Heathcliff and Yvonne Mitchell as
Cathy. Broadcast live, no recordings of the production are known to
exist. The second adaptation using Kneale's script was in 1962,
starring Claire Bloom as Catherine and Keith Michell as Heathcliff.
This production does exist with the BFI, but has been withheld from
public viewing. Kneale's script was also adapted for Australian
television in 1959 during a time when original drama productions in
the country were rare. Broadcast live from Sydney, the performance was
telerecorded, although it is unknown if this kinescope still exists.
In 1958, an adaptation aired on CBS television as part of the series
'DuPont Show of the Month' starring Rosemary Harris as Cathy and
Richard Burton as Heathcliff. The BBC produced a four-part television
dramatisation in 1967 starring Ian McShane and Angela Scoular.
'Les Hauts de Hurlevent' is a French mini-series in six 26-minute
episodes, in black and white, created and directed by Jean-Paul
Carrère based on the novel, and broadcast between 1964 and 1968 on the
first ORTF channel.
The 1970 film with Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff is the first colour
version of the novel. It has gained acceptance over the years although
it was initially poorly received. The character of Hindley is
portrayed much more sympathetically, and his story-arc is altered. It
also subtly suggests that Heathcliff may be Cathy's illegitimate
half-brother.
In 1978, the BBC produced a five-part TV serialisation of the book
starring Ken Hutchinson, Kay Adshead and John Duttine, with music by
Carl Davis; it is considered one of the most faithful adaptations of
Emily Brontë's story.
There is also a 1985 French film adaptation, 'Hurlevent' by Jacques
Rivette, and a 1988 Japanese film adaptation by Yoshishige Yoshida.
The 1992 film 'Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights' starring Ralph
Fiennes and Juliette Binoche is notable for including the oft-omitted
second generation story of the children of Cathy, Hindley and
Heathcliff.
More recent film or TV adaptations include ITV's 2009 two-part drama
series starring Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Sarah Lancashire, and
Andrew Lincoln, and the 2011 film starring Kaya Scodelario and James
Howson and directed by Andrea Arnold.
Adaptations which place the story in a new setting include the 1954
adaptation, retitled 'Abismos de pasión,' directed by Spanish
filmmaker Luis Buñuel and set in Catholic Mexico, with Heathcliff and
Cathy renamed Alejandro and Catalina. In Buñuel's version
Heathcliff/Alejandro claims to have become rich by making a deal with
Satan. The 'New York Times' reviewed a re-release of this film as "an
almost magical example of how an artist of genius can take someone
else's classic work and shape it to fit his own temperament without
really violating it," noting that the film was thoroughly Spanish and
Catholic in its tone while still highly faithful to Brontë. Yoshishige
Yoshida's 1988 adaptation also has a transposed setting, this time to
medieval Japan. In Yoshida's version, the Heathcliff character,
Onimaru, is raised in a nearby community of priests who worship a
local fire god. Filipino director Carlos Siguion-Reyna made a film
adaptation titled 'Hihintayin Kita sa Langit' (1991). The screenplay
was written by Raquel Villavicencio and produced by Armida
Siguion-Reyna. It starred Richard Gomez as Gabriel (Heathcliff) and
Dawn Zulueta as Carmina (Catherine). It became a Filipino film
classic.
In 2003, MTV produced a poorly reviewed version set in a modern
California high school.
Wuthering High, a 2015 TV Movie shown on Lifetime, is set in Malibu,
California.
The 1966 Hindi film 'Dil Diya Dard Liya' is based upon this novel. The
film is directed by Abdul Rashid Kardar and Dilip Kumar. The film
stars Dilip Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, Pran, Rehman, Shyama and Johnny
Walker. The music is by Naushad. Although it did not fare as well as
other movies of Dilip Kumar, it was well received by critics.
The 2000 Hindi film Dhadkan is also based upon this novel. Directed by
Dharmesh Darshan and produced by Ratan Jain, it stars Akshay Kumar,
Shilpa Shetty, Sunil Shetty and Mahima Chaudhry.
In 2022, Emma Mackey starred in a biopic of Emily Brontë in 'Emily'.
The film charts the life of Brontë and the inspiration she gained for
writing Wuthering Heights living in the Yorkshire countryside.
In July 2024, it was announced that Emerald Fennell was set to direct
and write a new film adaptation of the novel for Warner Bros..
Starring Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw, and Jacob Elordi as
Heathcliffe, it is set to be released in theatres on 13 February 2026.
Theatre
=========
The novel has been adapted as operas composed by Bernard Herrmann,
Carlisle Floyd, and Frédéric Chaslin (most cover only the first half
of the book) and a musical by Bernard J. Taylor.
In 2021, Emma Rice directed a theatrical version which was shown
online and at the Bristol Old Vic. This production was then put on at
the National Theatre in 2022.
Literature
============
Mizumura Minae's 'A True Novel' () (2002) is inspired by 'Wuthering
Heights' and might be called an adaptation of the story in a
post-World War II Japanese setting.
In Jane Urquhart's 'Changing Heaven', the novel 'Wuthering Heights',
as well as the ghost of Emily Brontë, feature as prominent roles in
the narrative.
In her 2019 novel, 'The West Indian', Valerie Browne Lester imagines
an origin story for Heathcliff in 1760s Jamaica.
K-Ming Chang's 2021 chapbook 'Bone House' was released by Bull City
Press as part of their 'Inch' series. The collection functions as a
queer Taiwanese-American retelling of 'Wuthering Heights', in which an
unnamed narrator moves into a butcher's mansion "with a life of its
own."
Canadian author Hilary Scharper's ecogothic novel 'Perdita' (2013) was
deeply influenced by 'Wuthering Heights,' namely in terms of the
narrative role of powerful, cruel and desolate landscapes.
The poem "Wuthering" (2017) by Tanya Grae uses 'Wuthering Heights' as
an allegory.
Maryse Condé's 'Windward Heights' () (1995) is a reworking of
'Wuthering Heights' set in Cuba and Guadeloupe at the turn of the 20th
century, which Condé stated she intended as an homage to Brontë.
In 2011, a graphic novel version was published by Classical Comics. It
was adapted by Scottish writer Sean Michael Wilson and hand painted by
comic book veteran artist John M. Burns. This version, which stays
close to the original novel, was shortlisted for the Stan Lee
Excelsior Awards.
Music
=======
Kate Bush's 1978 song "Wuthering Heights" is most likely the
best-known creative work inspired by Brontë's story that is not
properly an "adaptation". Bush wrote the song when she was 18 and
chose it as the lead single from her debut album. It was primarily
inspired by her viewing of the 1967 BBC adaptation. The song is sung
from Catherine's point of view as she pleads at Heathcliff's window to
be admitted. It uses quotations from Catherine, both in the chorus
("Let me in! I'm so cold!") and the verses, with Catherine admitting
she had "bad dreams in the night". Critic Sheila Whiteley wrote that
the ethereal quality of the vocal resonates with Cathy's dementia, and
that Bush's high register has both "childlike qualities in its purity
of tone" and an "underlying eroticism in its sinuous erotic contours".
Singer Pat Benatar covered the song in 1980 on her 'Crimes of Passion'
album. Brazilian heavy metal band Angra released a version of Bush's
song on its debut album 'Angels Cry' in 1993. A 2018 cover of Bush's
"Wuthering Heights" by Jimmy Urine adds electropunk elements.
'Wind & Wuthering' (1976) by English rock band Genesis alludes to
the Brontë novel not only in the album's title but also in the titles
of two of its tracks, "Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers..." and
"...In That Quiet Earth". Both titles refer to the closing lines of
the novel.
Songwriter Jim Steinman said that he wrote the 1989 song "It's All
Coming Back to Me Now" "while under the influence of 'Wuthering
Heights'". He said that the song was "about being enslaved and
obsessed by love" and compared it to "Heathcliff digging up Cathy's
corpse and dancing with it in the cold moonlight".
The 2008 song "Cath..." by indie rock band Death Cab for Cutie was
inspired by 'Wuthering Heights'.
Wuthering Heights is also the name of a Danish-Swedish power metal
band.
In 2024 an indie band "Mili" released a single "Through Patches of
Violet". The song features some themes that Wuthering Heights carries,
mainly - poorly communicated love. Two voices, sung by Cassie Wei, are
Heathcliff and Catherine. Originally made for a game "Limbus Company",
which features Wuthering Heights's other characters and story
elements.
Editions
==========
*
* Introduction and notes by Ian Jack, Hilda Marsden, and Inga-Stina
Ewbank.
Journal articles
==================
* Maynard, John.
[
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-companion-to-the-brontes/brontes-and-religion/F9E7414439A69468ABD98CF4B7D12970
"The Brontës and Religion"], in 'The Cambridge Companion to the
Brontës', edited by Glen, Heather. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2002, pp. 192-213.
* McInerney, Peter (1980), "Satanic conceits in 'Frankenstein' and
'Wuthering Heights'", 'Nineteenth Century Contexts', 4:1, 1-15.
* Rahman, Tahmina S.
[[
https://web.archive.org/web/20040908000033/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/laws/jurisprudence/jurisprudence-review/content/jr_rahman_2000.pdf
Wayback Machine] "The Law of the Moors - A legal analysis of
'Wuthering Heights'". 'UCL Jurisprudence Review'. 2000
*
* Tytler, Graeme, "The Role of Religion in 'Wuthering Heights'".
'Brontë Studies', 32:1, (2007) pp. 41-45.
External links
======================================================================
*
* .
*
* [
https://wuthering-heights.co.uk Reader's Guide to 'Wuthering
Heights']
* - including 110 records of editions of 'Wuthering Heights'
License
=========
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License URL:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Original Article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights
