Summary of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Description

Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights features one of the most contentious literary figures of all time. Her character Heathcliff is a man whom it seems love and hate drive in equal parts. Shunned and despised as a foundling child, the adult Heathcliff returns to his childhood home to wreak havoc on all those who harmed him – and to win back the love of his life. Brontë’s contemporaries took offense at her main character’s merciless, cold-blooded crusade and the depiction of human nature as violent and depraved. This meant that Brontë never lived to see the success of her work – the novel only entered the ranks of the best in literature decades after Brontë’s death. Wuthering Heights remained Brontë’s only novel, but its popularity has continued unabated, inspiring numerous film versions and providing material for two international pop music hits.

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Sujets

• Classics
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: GetAbstract AG
• Date de parution: 23 septembre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798887271125
• Langue: English

Extrait

Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë•First edition: London 1847

Novel
Victorian literature

Take-Aways Wuthering Heights is a story of love, passion and revenge. Heathcliff comes to the farm Wuthering Heights as a foundling. There, he finds a home and love but also suffers terrible abuse from his adoptive brother. When Catherine, whom he grows up with and falls in love with, marries another man, he leaves, only to return to take revenge on all who have harmed him. Heathcliff’s behavior and actions come across as diabolical and fundamentally evil. The story is narrated by Nelly, the house servant who was party to all that took place over the years. Wuthering Heights  is Emily Brontë’s only novel. The first edition of the novel didn’t sell well. Brontë’s contemporaries thought its depiction of human nature was too violent and depraved. The Victorian novel builds on the literary traditions of Romanticism, Gothic fiction and Realism. Wuthering Heights explores the powerful effect a person’s upbringing can have on his or her character and behavior – both positive and negative. Emily Brontë died shortly after the publication of Wuthering Heights . She was only 30 years old when she passed. “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be…. Nelly, I am Heathcliff.” (Catherine)

What It’s About
A Crusade of Revenge and Passion
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights features one of the most contentious literary figures of all time. Her character Heathcliff is a man whom it seems love and hate drive in equal parts. Shunned and despised as a foundling child, the adult Heathcliff returns to his childhood home to wreak havoc on all those who harmed him – and to win back the love of his life. Brontë’s contemporaries took offense at her main character’s merciless, cold-blooded crusade and the depiction of human nature as violent and depraved. This meant that Brontë never lived to see the success of her work – the novel only entered the ranks of the best in literature decades after Brontë’s death. Wuthering Heights remained Brontë’s only novel, but its popularity has continued unabated, inspiring numerous film versions and providing material for two international pop music hits.

Summary
First Visit to Wuthering Heights
The year is 1801. Mr. Lockwood is the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange, a house in a remote part of North Yorkshire. He decides to visit his landlord, Heathcliff , who lives on the nearby farm, Wuthering Heights. Neither its outward appearance nor the attitude and behavior of its inhabitants are particularly inviting: The house and its outbuildings look dilapidated and neglected. Heathcliff would clearly prefer it if Lockwood left and only begrudgingly invites him in. A servant,  Joseph , who is called to take Lockwood’s horse to the stable, looks equally displeased. The animosity comes to a head when Heathcliff’s dog attacks Lockwood. Despite the frosty reception, Lockwood decides to visit again the next day. As he arrives, it begins to snow. A young and rough-looking man, Hareton Earnshaw , wanders across the court and signals Lockwood to follow him. He takes him into the house, where Lockwood meets the beautiful Cathy Heathcliff , whom he takes to be Heathcliff’s wife. She is as disagreeable as the rest of the people at Wuthering Heights. When Heathcliff arrives, he isn’t happy to see Lockwood – even less so when it becomes clear that Lockwood will have to stay the night because a snowstorm has set in. Lockwood is surprised and shocked when he sees the way Heathcliff orders Cathy around and by the defiance and hate she shows. He also soon learns that she isn’t Heathcliff’s wife, but his daughter-in-law. When he stumbles into his next assumption that Earnshaw is Heathcliff’s son, Earnshaw quickly and decisively puts him right. What ensues is a very uncomfortable evening meal. That evening, Zillah , the maid, shows Lockwood to an unused room where he can sleep for the night. It is full of books, and on the windowsill Lockwood finds engravings of three names: Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Linton and Catherine Heathcliff.