English 109 - Cora Agatucci
Survey of Western World Literature: Modern

Wuthering Heights Study Guide
 ENG 109 - Spring 2003 - Linked to Online Course Plan

Emily Bronte (British, 1818-1848): Wuthering Heights (1847),
One of the "Representative Texts" featured in
Davis, Paul, and others, eds. Western Literature in a World Context. Volume 2:
The Enlightenment through the Present. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995.
Unless otherwise indicated, text & page references are to this Spring 2000 Eng 109 required textbook.

Narrative Structure

Chs. 1-4 [Narrative Present; narr. by Lockwood] Lockwood's visits to Wuthering Heights and his ensuing illness; he entreats Nelly Dean to tell the "history" and the Exposition (introduction) of major settings, characters, and conflicts begins.

Narrative Frame is established to provide a plausible reason for telling the story (the narrative) of Wuthering Heights: The first narrative voice we hear in the "narrative present" of the novel is that of the character Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange (Heathcliff is his landlord). Shocked and intrigued by his visits to Wuthering Heights, Lockwood the first narrator (story teller) invites his housekeeper Nelly Dean to tell him the full "history." Thus, we are introduced to the second and main narrator of the story: Nelly Dean was an eye-witness, a participant-narrator in the "history" she will relate to Lockwood—and to us, the readers of Wuthering Heights. The "time frame " of the narrative will thus shift back and forth between the "narrative past" (of Nelly Dean re-telling the "history" of Wuthering Heights) the "narrative present" (of Lockwood being told the "history" by Nelly Dean).

The character of participant-narrator Nelly Dean is especially important to analyze and understand. In creating and choosing this character to be the primary narrator of WH, Emily Bronte has set up a complex narrative frame. Many critics have asked and tried to answer why. One reason may be to make WH more believable and "realistic. Nelly Dean seems firmly rooted in common sense, every day, normative "reality," and thus helps to "authenticate"—or make more "realistic" and plausible—the often wild, passionate, even fantastic story of WH. Yet Nelly Dean also complicates our understanding of the characters and actions of the story, because she was a "participant" in the past history she relates. Overall, she seems to be a "reliable" narrator—but -not altogether nor always an objective, disinterested observer. –She has opinions and interests invested in the events and characters she presents to Lockwood—and to us. Keep in mind, then, that Nelly "mediates" the story—we have access to the "history" only through her "mediating" point of view—she "filters" and can be tempted to "color" her account with her values, opinions, and perspectives. For example, it becomes clear after awhile that she does not like the protagonist Cathy Earnshaw: consider how Nelly’s attitude could affect and prejudice the way she represents the original Cathy to Lockwood—and to us. Consider also that as a participant as well as a witness to most of the events, she narrates, Nelly Dean may also have a stake in "coloring" her own part (or blame) at times.

Chs. 4-7 ["Narrative Past" narr. Nelly Dean] Heathcliff's mysterious origins and introduction to the Earnshaw household & estate Wuthering Heights. Family dynamics are characterized in terms of relationships to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw’s favorite (why?). Formative childhood characters and events develop Heathcliff, Catherine, & Hindley. Hindley is sent away to college. Mr. Earnshaw dies and Hindley returns with wife & abuses/degrades Heathcliff. Strong attachment between Catherine & Heathcliff: Catherine teaches Heathcliff his letters & they roam the moors as free spirits. Then comes the incident at Thrushcross Grange: Catherine mends, staying 5 weeks with Lintons. When Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights, she is changed.

KEY SCENE: Ch. 7. Edgar and Isabella Linton visit Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff attempts to be presentable but Hindley banishes him to the garret. Catherine steals away to join Heathcliff--who vows revenge:"…I shall pay Hindley back" (714). Note contrasts between Edgar Linton & Heathcliff—especially from Cathy’s point of view.

Chs. 7-10 [Narrative Past, narr. Nelly Dean]. Hareton Earnshaw is born, his mother Mrs. Hindley Earnshaw dies, and his father Hindley grows ferocious and savage, especially toward Heathcliff. Then . . .

KEY SCENES: Ch. 8-9. Catherine dresses for Edgar Linton’s visit; note further contrasts made between Edgar and Heathcliff. Nasty scene develops wherein Cathy slaps Nelly and Edgar, but Edgar doesn’t leave—he is "doomed" in Nelly’s view. Hindley enters drunk and abusive: he drops his son Hareton, but Heathcliff saves the child, ironically "the instrument of thwarting his own revenge" (722).

Out of sight by the fire, Heathcliff overhears (part of) Catherine’s discussion with Nelly regarding Cathy’s accepting Edgar’s proposal of marriage. Catherine relates her "queer dream"—a parallel with traits of the Byronic hero/ine—her "joy" when angels fling her out of heaven. Cathy contrasts her love for Edgar and Heathcliff: "Nelly, I am Heathcliff" (726). She can’t abide the idea that they would ever be really separated. Heathcliff disappears, Cathy grieves and experiences her first serious illness--Nelly observes, Catherine can’t "bear crossing much" (730). Edgar and Catherine marry, and Nelly goes with them to live at Thrushcross Grange.

[Return to "Narrative Present":] Lockwood’s illness updated; Nelly continues her "history"

Chs. 10-14 [Narrative Past, narr. Nelly Dean, resumed]. Catherine & Edgar’s marital happiness--until Heathcliff returns after 3 years absence. Heathcliff’s transformation and Cathy’s joy. Isabella Linton falls in love with Heathcliff, despite Catherine’s and Nelly’s warnings and assessment of his true character. Heathcliff pursues his revenge plot against Hindley, taking up his gambling debts. Heathcliff learns of Isabella’s feelings for him and hatches a second revenge plot:

KEY SCENES: Ch. 11-12: Heathcliff accuses Cathy of treating him "infernally" and swears he won’t "suffer unrevenged" (743). Edgar forbids Heathcliff to come again to the ‘Grange. Note Catherine’s reaction to this 2nd separation from Heathcliff: she holds herself blameless, feels victimized by both Heathcliff’s and Edgar’s "ingratitude" (744), vows to "break their hearts by breaking my own" (745) and punish them by dying. Catherine fasts three days in her room. Nelly mistakes Catherine’s "true condition" (747) and remembers too late Cathy’s previous illness (748; caused also by the first sustained separation from Heathcliff, when he disappeared three years earlier). Cathy’s madness: her bird and mirror hallucinations, her return to childhood self when Hindley had also tried to separate her from Heathcliff, "my all in all" (750). To this 12-year-old remembered Catherine, Mrs. Linton is "wife of a stranger; an exile and an outcast"/an "abyss" (750). Catherine foresees her own death, and speaks to Heathcliff through the window to her past self: "I won’t rest til you are with me. I never will!" (750). Edgar, learning of Catherine’s true condition, is enraged with Nelly Dean. Cathy, realizing very late that Nelly has been an enemy rather than a friend, calls Nelly "traitor" and "witch" (752).

Isabella elopes with Heathcliff; Edgar is resigned. Catherine, pregnant, sustains a long illness. Nelly learns that Isabella and Heathcliff have returned to Wuthering Heights via a long letter Isabella writes to Nelly. In it Isabella asks, "Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? . . . mad? . . . [or] a devil?" (756). Alarmed, Nelly pays a visit to Wuthering Heights, is more alarmed when she sees Isabella, and undergoes Heathcliff’s close questioning about Catherine’s illness. Heathcliff is in obvious inner torment, and he exacts from Nelly a promise to help him see Catherine.

Ch. 15[Narrative Present; narr. Lockwood ]. Lockwood is recovering from his illness and says he’ll continue the "history" of Wuthering Heights. He is said to remark, but in Nelly’s "own words, . . . [that] she is . . . a fair narrator." Then . . .

Chs. 15-25 [Return to Narrative Past, narr. Nelly Dean]

KEY SCENE: Ch. 15: Heathcliff’s last meeting with Catherine alive: "Oh, Cathy! Oh, my life! how can I bear it? . . .". Catherine responds: " . . . You and Edgar have both broken my heart, Heathcliff! . . ." Heathcliff: " . . . Why shouldn’t you suffer? I do! . . . " (768). Catherine: ". . . I shall not be at peace. . ." (768). Heathcliff: ". . . Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? . . . " (769). & etc. Edgar comes, but Cathy won’t let loose her grasp on Heathcliff. She faints.

Young Cathy is born, the child of Edgar and Catherine. Catherine dies; Heathcliff’s reaction is savage, tormented. Nelly Dean twines the locks of Heathcliff’s and Edgar’s hair and (re)places them in dead Catherine’s locket before she is buried (773). A storm breaks the next day. Hindley and Isabella’s murder attempt on Heathcliff’s life fails. Isabella escapes Wuthering Heights, goes south (to London), and bears their son Linton Heathcliff. Hindley dies 6 months after his sister Catherine dies. Heathcliff is now the outright legal master of Wuthering Heights, and he extends his revenge plot against the next generation: to Hindley’s son Hareton, Heathcliff says: "Now . . . you are mine!….we’ll see if one tree won’t grow as crooked as another, given the same wind to twist it!" (783).

Twelve years pass. Young Cathy’s character is introduced. She begins to long to visit Penistone Crags, which she cans ee through her nursery windows, and she gets her chance when her father Edgar goes to London to attend his dying sister Isabella. While he is away, young Cathy visits Wuthering Heights. She encounters her cousin Hareton Earnshaw and they wound each other’s pride. Edgar returns with his nephew Linton Heathcliff, but Heathcliff comes to claim his son, "my property" (794). Heathcliff still pursues his revenge plot against Edgar Linton: wanting to his son Lord of Thrushcross Grange (795), Heathcliff plots to get young Cathy to marry his son Linton. Meanwhile, Linton Heathcliff’s abusive treatment of his cousin Hareton Earnshaw is depicted. Direct and inverted parallels suggest themselves between the first and second generations of the Earnshaw-Linton-Heathcliff characters. Edgar tries to warn his daughter Cathy of Heathcliff’s true character, but she still wants to get to know her cousin Linton Heathcliff better. Their secret "love" correspondence is stopped, but during her chaperon Nelly Dean’s illness, young Cathy visits Linton at Wuthering Heights. Nelly tells on Cathy, and her father Edgar forbids further visits.

Ch. 25 [Return to Narrative Present]: "These things happened last winter," Nelly tells Lockwood (820). Lockwood vows to leave the district for "the busy world" beyond, though he is a bit attracted to young Cathy Linton.

Chs. 25-30 [Narrative Past]

Edgar relents and allows Cathy and Linton’s correspondence to resume. Both Edgar and Linton are very ill, though Linton’s state is kept secret. Cathy rides to meet Linton on the heath, and she doubts his professed feelings for her, but Linton is desperate because of his father’s threats. Heathcliff lures Cathy and Nelly Dean back to Wuthering Heights with Linton, and takes them prisoner. Heathcliff’s final revenge plot nears fruition, when he forces Cathy to marry Linton. Cathy is anguished at being kept from her dying father Edgar. Nelly is released, and Cathy escapes and manages to see her father Edgar before he dies. Edgar is unable to change his will in time, for his lawyer has been bought off by Heathcliff. Edgar dies, and Cathy, now married to Linton, is ordered to return to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff reveals to Nelly that he has unearthed Catherine’s face in her grave and is "pacified—a little" (838). Heathcliff takes Catherine’s portrait from Thrushcross Grange and makes Nelly stay at the Grange.

Nelly, our primary narrator, now must rely upon the reports of Zillah, the housekeeper at Wuthering Heights, for news of young Cathy’s life. Nelly calls Zillah "a narrow-minded, selfish woman" because Zillah dislikes young Cathy (839)—an ironic parallel to her own attitude toward the original Cathy. Linton dies: "He’s safe and I’m free," young Cathy proclaims (840). Yet Heathcliff’s second revenge plot seems fulfilled: he is now master of Thrushcross Grange and young Cathy, "destitute of cash and friends" (840), is his dependent. Zillah tries to help Hareton smarten up (note parallels to Nelly’s relationship to young Heathcliff in earlier years), but young Cathy scorns her cousin . . . at first.

Ch. 30-31 [Return to Narrative Present]: "Thus ended Mrs. Dean’s story" (842). Lockwood, recovered, plans to quit the Grange and return to London, and he visits his landlord Heathcliff to tell his plans.

Ch. 32-34 [Narrative Present & immediate past]

Some time passes: Lockwood returns to Yorkshire and finds Nelly Dean at Wuthering Heights, Cathy and Hareton in love (Cathy teaching Hareton to read & the two wandering the moors, paralleling the original Cathy and Heathcliff in their youth), and Heathcliff dead.

Nelly provides Lockwood with the "sequel of Heathcliff’s history" (849).

Heathcliff’s reaction to the growing intimacy between Cathy Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw: an "absurd termination to my violent exertions" (856)—i.e. an ironic conclusion to his revenge plots. Heathcliff is disarmed by young Cathy’s "resemblance" to the original Catherine, and sees her eyes in both young Cathy and Hareton. He also sees in Hareton "a personification of my youth" (857). Heathcliff: "I am surrounded by her image" (857), and he foretells a strange "change," the attainment of his "single wish" is at hand. Nelly relates Heathcliff’s strange behavior, his talk of his will and burial wishes. Heathcliff is haunted: "Well, there is one who won’t shrink from my company! By God! she is relentless" (862-863). Nelly finds Heathcliff dead in his bed. Joseph gives thanks that the "lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their rights" (863). Hareton grieves for Heathcliff’s death. Heathcliff is buried next to Catherine in the churchyard, to the scandal of the neighborhood. Country folk swear that the ghosts of Heathcliff and "a woman" walk. Hareton and Cathy are to marry on New Year’s Day and move to Thrushcross Grange.

Ch. 34 [Narrative Present & Conclusion; narr. Lockwood]

Lockwood visits the graves of Edgar, Catherine, and Heathcliff. In the closing lines, Lockwood "wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth" (864).

Reading & Discussion Questions

  1. What sort of person is Lockwood? How does his own experience color his account? Is his illness related to his visits to Wuthering Heights?
  2. How do Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange differ as physical places? What do these differences suggest about their symbolic role in the novel? Is it reasonable to characterize them as opposites?
  3. Characterize Nelly Dean. Why do you think Bronte chose her to narrate the story? Is Dean a reliable narrator? Does she misrepresent or omit information in her account? Does she cause any significant events to happen? What is the purpose of having two narrators—Lockwood and Dean—as the "narrative frame" of Wuthering Heights?
  4. What mysteries are there about Heathcliff and his origins? What possible explanations might there be for Mr. Earnshaw’s fondness for Heathcliff? What attracts Catherine to Heathcliff? Why does Hindley hate him?
  5. Why does Catherine marry Edgar Linton? Does Catherine’s explanation to Nelly Dean of her different feelings for Linton and Heathcliff suggest she knows that she is making a mistake in marrying Linton?
  6. Many critics view Catherine and Heathcliff as "Byronic heroes"—e.g. like the heroes in the poems of George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824), a celebrated and notorious English Romantic poet. The typical Byronic hero is contemptuous and rebellious against conventional morality and/or defies fate; is proud, moody, cynical, with defiance on his brow and misery on his brow—usually a secret misery; he is passionate: capable of strong and deep affection, implacable in revenge. Do you think this description fits the character of Catherine and/or Heathcliff?
  7. Analyze the characters of Edgar and Isabella Linton. Why does Heathcliff marry Isabella? Describe Heathcliff’s relationships with Hindley and Hareton.
  8. Does Wuthering Heights seem to be Catherine’s story or Heathcliff’s? Or would you argue that the novel has two protagonists? Do you sympathize with either or both? What motives and desires drive these two characters?
  9. Some critics consider Catherine a Faustian character. Both Catherine and Faust are divided souls, conflicted within themselves. Are their divisions and conflicts similar? Consider also the destructive choices that Catherine and Faust make—these female and male versions of the Romantic quest to overcome self-division. Compare/contrast Catherine and Faust.
  10. What are some of the "Realistic" aspects of the novel. Consider, for example, Joseph. He is a difficult character in the novel, difficult to get along with and his dialect difficult for most readers to understand. What is his role in the novel? What would be missing if he were left out?
  11. Wuthering Heights covers a long period of time and three generations of the families involved. How does Bronte try to unify her story? What are the roles of Hareton and young Cathy, and the effect of carrying the story of the Earnshaws and Lintons into a third generation? Compare/contrast them to Heathcliff and the original Cathy. Would the novel have been more or less effective if it had stopped with the story of Catherine and Heathcliff’s generation? Compare Catherine and Heathcliff’s end to that of Hareton and young Cathy. Do they redeem the excesses of the original pair?

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