Title:                   Wuthering Heights

Author:             Emily Brontë

Author’s website:

ISBN:                   978-1-912714-07-0 / Original publication date: December 1847

Points:                5 (according to the Literature List)

TITLE-EXPLANATION:

The title, Wuthering Heights, refers to the most important location in the book: the estate that has this name. The characters experience their most important moments of their life, if not even their whole life, in this place.

SETTING & TIME:

The story takes place around the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. In the first chapter the year 1801 is giving as the ‘present day’. But the story of misses Dean goes back 30 years. Everything takes place in rural Northern-England. The setting changes between two estates: Wuthering Heights, where the Earnshaw family lives, and Thrushcross Grange, where the Lintons live.

MAIN CHARACTER(S):

Catherin Earnshaw: She is the daughter of the wealthy and friendly mister Earnshaw of Wuthering Heights. She enjoys her happy youth with her brother Hindley, but things start to change when her father brings an orphan boy home, who is named Heathcliff. Catherine gets fond of him. A strange kind of love develops between them. It swings between familial friendship and true love. When she grows up she becomes cold and stiff. She becomes cruel and even violent towards others. When she doesn’t het what she wants she becomes selfish and bitter.

Lockwood: Lockwood himself doesn’t play a roll in the story of the Ernshaws and Lintons. But it is because of him we find out about the story. He comes from the city, is sober and somewhat naïve, gullible and curious.

Heathcliff: He joins the Earnshaw family as a small boy when Heathcliff takes him home after one of his trips. His life before is unknown but he soon becomes inseparable with Catherine. Meanwhile his brother Hindley starts hating him more. Heathcliff has a wild nature, is rebellious and easily trouble-seeking, has little patience and is willing to go to great lengths to get what he wants. But the older he gets, the more bitter he becomes about the things he's lost in life, mainly his great love Catherine, and the more harsh and violent he becomes towards those around him.

PLOT & STRUCTURE:

The story is told from two first-person perspectives, namely Mr. Lockwood and housekeeper Nelly Dean. In the first part of the book we are introduced to Lockwood, who rents Thrushcross Grange and becomes fascinated with his gruff and unfriendly landlord Heathcliff. Most of the story unfolds from very vivid memories of Nelly telling Lockwood all about the residents of Wuthering Heights and the former residents of the Grange. When her story ends, Lockwood regains perspective: he leaves for the city, and when he returns, things have changed. Nelly tells him what happened in his absence. The first part of the story therefore serves to get acquainted with the characters, but above all to raise questions about their relationships and personalities.

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUE:

Wuthering Heights is writing in two different pov’s. The one of Lockwood and Nelly Dean. Both are first              person pov’s.

GENRE + THEME(S):

Wuthering heights is a Gothic novel. It usually features supernatural elements, ominous settings, and threats to young women, often involving imprisonment in an isolated mansion. Which is a good description of the book.

The main theme of the story is love. Unattainable love relationship to be precise. The love that has existed between Heathcliff and Catherine since childhood, but which can also turn into hatred at certain moments. The love between Linton and Catherine, which is not really love, but more of a form of settling, as well as the relationship between Heathcliff and Isabella, which mainly stems from jealousy.

CLIMAX/TURNING POINT:

The turning point happens when Catherine tells Nelly that she accepted Edgar’s proposal, on page 89. Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights after he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him. This moment brings the events in the beginnen of the book to an end and starts the events of the rest of the story. Without this moment there is no Cathy, nor Lintion.

OPINION/JUDGMENT:

I'm pleasantly surprised by this book, which I honestly didn't have high hopes for. People told me it was long-winded and boring. They told that the book, Jane Eyre, of the sister of Emily Brontë is much more engaging. But I can now say that I do not agree with these views: I enjoyed Wuthering Heights as much as I have enjoyed Jane Eyre, if not more.

The story dragged me in from the very beginning, the characters captivated me with their lazy attitude and harsh mannerisms. The dark atmosphere left me with many questions and forced me to keep reading. Even though the intensiveness, I found it somewhat difficult to really get into the story, because there are a lot of characters that are quite similar. It was difficult to keep their names and relationships to eachother clear. Their names looked like eachother and who is the child of who now?

However, this was totally made up for by the interesting change of perspective and I really enjoyed the story about the characters' childhoods. I think the author has developed the characters very well: they are not necessarily sympathetic, but they are very fascinating in their way of thinking and living. At no time was the plot predictable and I was constantly curious about how it would turn out. I even felt a little uneasy at times because of the dark atmosphere and characters, but this only added depth to the story for me. I did regret that little attention was paid to certain story elements, such as Heathcliff's history and what happened to the characters in the periods that are not described.

I would definitely recommend this book. It has some bueatiful quotes about love and love that is impossible. It takes some dedication to get through it, but its worth it.