Wuthering Heights is a novel by Emily Brontë published in 1847. It was her only novel and written between December 1845 and

July 1846. It remained unpublished until July 1847 and was not printed until December after the success of her sister Charlotte

Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. It was finally printed under the pseudonym Ellis Bell; a posthumous second edition was edited by

Charlotte.

The title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors of the story. The narrative centres on the all-encompassing,

passionate but doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys

them and many around them.

Today considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights was met with mixed reviews when it first appeared, mainly

because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty.[1][2] Although Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was generally

considered the best of theBrontë sisters' works during most of the nineteenth century, many subsequent critics of Wuthering

Heights argued that it was a superior achievement.[3] Wuthering Heights has also given rise to many adaptations and inspired works,

including films, radio, television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, a ballet, three operas (respectively by Bernard

Herrmann, Carlisle Floyd, and Frédéric Chaslin), a role-playing game, and a song by Kate Bush.

Contents

  [hide] 

1 Plot

o 1.1 Opening (chapters 1 to 3)

o 1.2 The Childhood of Heathcliff (chapters 4 to 17)

o 1.3 The Maturity of Heathcliff (chapters 18 to 31)

o 1.4 Ending (chapters 32 to 34)

2 Characters

o 2.1 Relationships map

3 Timeline

4 Development history

5 Critical response

o 5.1 Early reviews

6 References in culture

7 Adaptations

8 Notes

9 References

10 Bibliography

11 External links

[edit]Plot

[edit]Opening (chapters 1 to 3)

In 1801, Mr. Lockwood, a rich man from the south, rents Thrushcross Grange in the north of England for peace and recuperation.

Soon after his arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland farmhouse called "Wuthering Heights".

He finds the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights to be a strange group: Mr. Heathcliff appears a gentleman but his mannerisms

suggest otherwise; the reserved mistress of the house is in her mid-teens; and a young man appears to be one of the family,

although he dresses and talks like a servant.

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Being snowed in, Mr. Lockwood stays the night and is shown to an unused chamber, where he finds books and graffiti from a former

inhabitant of the farmhouse named Catherine. When he falls asleep, he has a nightmare in which he sees Catherine as

a ghost trying to enter through the window. He wakes and is unable to return to sleep. As soon as the sun rises, he is escorted back

to Thrushcross Grange by Heathcliff. There, he asks his housekeeper, Ellen Dean, to tell him the story of the family from the

Heights.

[edit]The Childhood of Heathcliff (chapters 4 to 17)

Thirty years prior, the Earnshaw family lived at Wuthering Heights. The children of the family are the teenaged Hindley and his

younger sister, Catherine. Mr. Earnshaw travels to Liverpool, where he finds a homeless gypsy boy whom he decides to adopt,

naming him "Heathcliff". Hindley finds himself robbed of his father's affections and becomes bitterly jealous of Heathcliff. However,

Catherine grows very attached to him. Soon, the two children spend hours on the moors together and hate every moment apart.

Because of the domestic discord caused by Hindley and Heathcliff's sibling rivalry, Hindley is eventually sent to college. However,

he marries a woman named Frances and returns three years later, after Mr. Earnshaw dies. He becomes master of Wuthering

Heights, and forces Heathcliff to become a servant instead of a member of the family.

Several months after Hindley's return, Heathcliff and Catherine travel to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the Linton family. However,

they are spotted and try to escape. Catherine, having been caught by a dog, is brought inside the Grange to have injuries tended to

while Heathcliff is sent home. Catherine eventually returns to Wuthering Heights as a changed woman, looking and acting as a lady.

She laughs at Heathcliff's unkempt appearance. When the Lintons visit the next day, Heathcliff dresses up to impress her. It fails

when Edgar, one of the Linton children, argues with him. Heathcliff is locked in the attic, where Catherine later tries to comfort him.

He swears vengeance on Hindley.

In the summer of the next year, Frances gives birth to a son, Hareton, but she dies before the year is out. This leads Hindley to

descend into a life of drunkenness and waste.

Two years pass and Catherine has become close friends with Edgar, growing more distant from Heathcliff. One day in August, while

Hindley is absent, Edgar comes to visit Catherine. She has an argument with Ellen, which then spreads to Edgar who tries to leave.

Catherine stops him and, before long, they declare themselves lovers.

Later, Catherine talks with Ellen, explaining that Edgar had asked her to marry him and she had accepted. She says that she does

not really love Edgar but Heathcliff. Unfortunately she could never marry Heathcliff because of his lack of status and education. She

therefore plans to marry Edgar and use that position to help raise Heathcliff's standing. Unfortunately, Heathcliff had overheard the

first part about not being able to marry him and runs away, disappearing without a trace. After three years, Edgar and Catherine are

married.

Six months after the marriage, Heathcliff returns as a gentleman, having grown stronger and richer during his absence. Catherine is

delighted to see him although Edgar is not so keen. Edgar's sister, Isabella, now eighteen, falls in love with Heathcliff, seeing him as

a romantic hero. He despises her but encourages the infatuation, seeing it as a chance for revenge on Edgar. When he embraces

Isabella one day at the Grange, there is an argument with Edgar which causes Catherine to lock herself in her room and fall ill.

Heathcliff has been staying at the Heights, gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad habits. Hindley is gradually losing his

wealth, mortgaging the farmhouse to Heathcliff to repay his debts.

While Catherine is ill, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, causing Edgar to disown his sister. The fugitives marry and return two months

later to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff hears that Catherine is ill and arranges with Ellen to visit her in secret. In the early hours of the

day after their meeting, Catherine gives birth to her daughter, Cathy, and then dies.

The day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella flees Heathcliff and escapes to the south of England where she eventually gives birth to

Linton, Heathcliff's son. Hindley dies six months after Catherine. Heathcliff finds himself the master of Wuthering Heights and the

guardian of Hareton.

[edit]The Maturity of Heathcliff (chapters 18 to 31)

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Brontë Society plaque at Top Withens

Twelve years later, Cathy has grown into a beautiful, high-spirited girl who has rarely passed outside the borders of the Grange.

Edgar hears that Isabella is dying and leaves to pick up her son with the intention of adopting him. While he is gone, Cathy meets

Hareton on the moors and learns of her cousin and Wuthering Heights' existence.

Edgar returns with Linton who is a weak and sickly boy. Although Cathy is attracted to him, Heathcliff wants his son with him and

insists on having him taken to the Heights.

Three years later, Ellen and Cathy are on the moors when they meet Heathcliff who takes them to Wuthering Heights to see Linton

and Hareton. He has plans for Linton and Cathy to marry so that he will inherit Thrushcross Grange. Cathy and Linton begin a

secret friendship.

In August of the next year, while Edgar is very ill, Ellen and Cathy visit Wuthering Heights and are held captive by Heathcliff who

wants to marry his son to Cathy and, at the same time, prevent her from returning to her father before he dies. After five days, Ellen

is released and Cathy escapes with Linton's help just in time to see her father before he dies.

With Heathcliff now the master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Cathy has no choice but to leave Ellen and to

go and live with Heathcliff and Hareton. Linton dies soon afterwards and, although Hareton tries to be kind to her, she retreats into

herself. This is the point of the story at which Lockwood arrives.

After being ill with a cold for some time, Lockwood decides that he has had enough of the moors and travels to Wuthering Heights to

inform Heathcliff that he is returning to the south.

[edit]Ending (chapters 32 to 34)

In September, eight months after leaving, Lockwood finds himself back in the area and decides to stay at Thrushcross Grange

(since his tenancy is still valid until October). He finds that Ellen is now living at Wuthering Heights. He makes his way there and she

fills in the rest of the story.

Ellen had moved to the Heights soon after Lockwood left to replace the housekeeper who had departed. In March, Hareton had an

accident and has been confined to the farmhouse. During this time, a friendship developed between Cathy and Hareton. This

continues into April when Heathcliff begins to act very strangely, seeing visions of Catherine. After not eating for four days, he is

found dead in his room. He is buried next to Catherine. Lockwood visits their graves.

Lockwood departs but, before he leaves, he hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New Year's Day.

[edit]Characters

Heathcliff : Found, and presumably orphaned, on the streets of Liverpool, he is taken to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw

and reluctantly cared for by the rest of the family. He and Catherine later grow close, and their love becomes the central theme

of the first volume; his revenge and its consequences are the main theme of the second volume. Heathcliff is typically

considered a Byronic hero, but critics have found his character, with a capacity for self-invention, to be profoundly difficult to

assess. His position in society, without status (Heathcliff serves as both his given name and surname), is often the subject

of Marxist criticism.[4]

Catherine Earnshaw : First introduced in Lockwood's discovery of her diary and etchings, Catherine's life is almost entirely

detailed in the first volume. She seemingly suffers from a crisis of identity, unable to choose between nature and culture (and,

by extension, Heathcliff and Edgar). Her decision to marry Edgar Linton over Heathcliff has been seen as a surrender to

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culture, and has implications for all the characters of Wuthering Heights. The character of Catherine has been analysed by

many forms of literary criticism, including:psychoanalytic and feminist.[5]

Edgar Linton : Introduced as a child of the Linton family, who resides at Thrushcross Grange, Edgar's life and mannerisms are

immediately contrasted with those of Heathcliff and Catherine, and indeed the former dislikes him. Yet, owing much to his

status, Catherine marries him and not Heathcliff. This decision, and the differences between Edgar and Heathcliff, have been

read into by feminist criticisms.

Ellen (Nelly) Dean : The second and primary narrator of the novel, Nelly has been a servant of each generation of both the

Earnshaw and Linton families. She is presented as a character who straddles the idea of a 'culture versus nature' divide in the

novel: she is a local of the area and a servant, and has experienced life at Wuthering Heights. However, she is also an

educated woman and has lived at Thrushcross Grange. This idea is represented in her having two names, Ellen—her given

name and used to show respect, and Nelly—used by her familiars. Whether Nelly is an unbiased narrator and how far her

actions, as an apparent bystander, affect the other characters are two points of her character discussed by critics. [6]

Isabella Linton : Introduced as part of the Linton family, Isabella is only ever shown in relation to other characters. She views

Heathcliff as a romantic hero, despite Catherine's warning her against such a view, and becomes an unwitting participant in his

plot for revenge. After being married to Heathcliff and abused at Wuthering Heights, she escapes to London and gives birth to

Linton. Such abusive treatment has led many, especially feminist critics, to consider Isabella the true/conventional 'tragic

romantic' figure of Wuthering Heights.

Hindley Earnshaw : Catherine's brother who marries Frances, an unknown woman to the family, and only reveals this when Mr.

Earnshaw dies. He spirals into destructive behaviour after her death and ruins the Earnshaw family with his drinking and

gambling.

Hareton Earnshaw : The son of Hindley and Frances, initially raised by Nelly but passed over to in effect Joseph and Heathcliff.

The former works to instill a sense of pride in Earnshaw heritage, even though Hareton has no right to the property associated

with it. The latter strives to teach him all sorts of vulgarities as a way of avenging himself on Hareton's father, Hindley. Hareton

speaks with a similar accent to Joseph and works as a servant in Wuthering Heights, unaware of his true rights. His

appearance regularly reminds Heathcliff of Catherine.

Cathy Linton : The daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton, she is a spirited girl, though unaware of her parents'

history. Edgar is very protective of her and as a result she is constantly looking beyond the confines of the Grange.

Linton Heathcliff: The son of Heathcliff and Isabella, he is a very weak child and his character resembles Heathcliff's, though

without its only redeeming feature: love. He marries Cathy Linton, but only under the direction of his father, whom he discovers

only as he enters his teens.

Joseph: A servant at Wuthering Heights who is a devout Christian. He speaks with a very thick Yorkshire accent.

Lockwood : The narrator of the book, he comes to rent Thrushcross Grange from Heathcliff to escape society but finally

decides he prefers company rather than ending up as Heathcliff.

Frances: A generally amiable character, her marriage to Hindley is unrevealed until Mr Earnshaw dies.

Kenneth: A doctor in the nearby village of Gimmerton.

Zillah : A servant to Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights in the time after Catherine's death.

[edit]Relationships map

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Key:

black line: son or daughter of; if dotted it means adoption

red line: wedding; if double it means second wedding

pink line: love

blue line: affection

green line: hate

light yellow area: active heroes

violet area: external observers

[edit]Timeline

1500:The stone above the front door of Wuthering Heights, bearing the name of Hareton Earnshaw, is inscribed, possibly to mark

the completion of the house.

1757: Hindley Earnshaw born (summer); Nelly Dean born

1762: Edgar Linton born

1765: Catherine Earnshaw born (summer); Isabella Linton born (late 1765)

1771: Heathcliff brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw (late summer)

1773: Mrs Earnshaw dies (spring)

1774: Hindley sent off to college

1777:Hindley marries Frances; Mr Earnshaw dies and Hindley comes back (October); Heathcliff and Catherine visit Thrushcross

Grange for the first time; Catherine remains behind (November), and then returns to Wuthering Heights (Christmas Eve)

1778: Hareton born (June); Frances dies

1780: Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights; Mr and Mrs Linton both die

1783: Catherine has married Edgar (March); Heathcliff comes back (September)

1784: Heathcliff marries Isabella (February); Catherine dies and Cathy born (20 March); Hindley dies; Linton born (September)

1797:Isabella dies; Cathy visits Wuthering Heights and meets Hareton; Linton brought to Thrushcross Grange and then taken to

Wuthering Heights

1800: Cathy meets Heathcliff and sees Linton again (20 March)

1801:Cathy and Linton are married (August); Edgar dies (August); Linton dies (September); Mr Lockwood goes to Thrushcross

Grange and visits Wuthering Heights, beginning his narrative

1802:Mr Lockwood goes back to London (January); Heathcliff dies (April); Mr Lockwood comes back to Thrushcross Grange

(September)

5

1803: Cathy plans to marry Hareton (1 January)

[edit]Development history

There are several theories as to which building was the inspiration for Wuthering Heights. One is Top Withens, a ruined farmhouse,

that is located in an isolated area near the Haworth Parsonage. Yet, its structure does not match that of the farmhouse described in

the novel, and is therefore considered less likely to be the model.[7] Top Withens was first suggested as the model for the fictitious

farmhouse by Ellen Nussey, a friend of Charlotte Brontë, to Edward Morison Wimperis, a commissioned artist for the Brontë sisters'

novels in 1872.[8]

The second option is the now demolished High Sunderland Hall, near Halifax, West Yorkshire.[7] This Gothic edifice is located near

Law Hill, and was where Emily worked briefly as a governess in 1838. While very grand for the farmhouse of Wuthering Heights, the

hall had grotesque embellishments of griffins and misshapen nude men similar to those described by Lockwood of Wuthering

Heights in chapter one of the novel:

"Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially

about the principal door, above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the

date '1500'".

The inspiration for Thrushcross Grange has been traditionally connected to Ponden Hall, near Haworth, although very small.

More likely is Shibden Hall, near Halifax.[9][10]

[edit]Critical response

[edit]Early reviews

Early reviews of Wuthering Heights were mixed in their assessment. Whilst most critics recognised the power and imagination

of the novel, many found the story unlikeable and ambiguous.[note 1] Released in 1847, at a time when the background of the

author was deemed to have an important impact on the story itself, many critics were also intrigued by the authorship of the

novels.[note 2] H. F. Chorley of the Athenaeum said that it was a "disagreeable story" and that the 'Bells' (Brontës) "seem to affect

painful and exceptional subjects".

The Atlas review called it a "strange, inartistic story", but commented that every chapter seems to contain a "sort of rugged

power". Summarising the novel: "We know nothing in the whole range of our fictitious literature which presents such shocking

pictures of the worst forms of humanity. There is not in the entire dramatis persona, a single character which is not utterly

hateful or thoroughly contemptible ... Even the female characters excite something of loathing and much of contempt. Beautiful

and loveable in their childhood, they all, to use a vulgar expression, "turn out badly".

The Graham's Lady Magazine critique bluntly stated "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 Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper critique was more positive, yet still shocked at the novel's raw depictions, noting "In

Wuthering Heights the reader is shocked, disgusted, almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity, and the most diabolical

hate and vengeance, and anon come passages of powerful testimony to the supreme power of love—even over demons in the

human form. The women in the book are of a strange fiendish-angelic nature, tantalising, and terrible, and the men are

indescribable out of the book itself". However the review also emphasized the "great power" of the novel and its provocative

qualities; it said that it was a "strange sort of book—baffling all regular criticism" and that "[it is] impossible to lay it aside

afterwards and say nothing about it". Although the Examiner agreed on the strangeness, it saw the book as "wild, confused;

disjointed and improbable". The Britannia review mirrored those comments made on the unpleasant characters, arguing that it

would have been a "far better romance" if the characters were not "nearly as violent and destructive as [Heathcliff]". The

unidentified review was less critical, considering it a "work of great ability" and that "it is not every day that so good a novel

makes its appearance".

[edit]References in culture

Main article: List of Wuthering Heights references

[edit]Adaptations

6

Main article: List of Wuthering Heights adaptations

The earliest known film adaptation of Wuthering Heights was filmed in England and directed by A. V. Bramble. It is unknown if

any prints still exist.[11] The most famous was 1939'sWuthering Heights, starring Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon and

directed by William Wyler. This adaptation, like many others, eliminated the second generation's story (young Cathy, Linton

and Hareton). It won the 1939 New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Film and was nominated for the 1939 Academy

Award for Best Picture.

The 1970 film with Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff is notable for emphasizing that Heathcliff may be Cathy's illegitimate half-

brother. This is the first colour version of the novel, and gained acceptance over the years though it was initially poorly

received. The character of Hindley is portrayed much more sympathetically, and his story-arc is altered.

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.

Recent film or TV adaptations include ITV's 2009 two part drama series starring Tom Hardy, Charlotte Riley, Sarah

Lancashire, and Andrew Lincoln.[12] and the forthcoming film starringKaya Scodelario and James Howson directed by Andrea

Arnold. It completed principal photography in late 2010.

Adaptations which reset the story in a new setting include the 1954 adaptation retitled Abismos de Pasion directed by Spanish

filmmaker Luis Buñuel 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.[13] Also with a transposed setting is Yoshishige Yoshida's 1988 adaptation which set the story

in Tokugawa period Japan. In this film, the Heathcliff character, Onimaru, is raised in a nearby community of priests who

worship a local Fire God. In 2003, MTV produced a poorly reviewed version set in modern California high school.

The novel has been popular in opera and theatre, including operas written by Bernard Herrmann, Carlisle Floyd and Frédéric

Chaslin (most of which like many films cover only the first half of the book) and a musical by Bernard J. Taylor. The libretto of

Herrmann's opera (written by his wife) incorporates material from poems by Emily Brontë, and his score has a few musical

motifs that appeared in both prior and subsequent film scores by Herrmann.

In autumn of 2008, Mark Ryan launched a dramatic musical adaptation of the novel, narrated by Ray Winstone. He composed,

sang and produced the tracks with Robb Vallier who also worked on Spamalot. He also directed the video for the song

"Women" filmed especially for the website and featuring Jennifer Korbee, Jessica Keenan Wynn and Katie Boeck.

Works inspired by

Kate Bush's song "Wuthering Heights" (primarily inspired by the Olivier-Oberon film version which deeply affected her as a

young child) is most likely the best-known creative work inspired by Brontë's story that is not properly an "adaptation". It was

Bush's first single, and the promo for her debut album. The song is sung from Catherine's point of view as she pleads at

Heathcliff's window to be let in. It uses quotations from Catherine, both in the chorus - "Let me in! I'm so cold!" - and the

verses, with Catherine's admitting to her servant of "bad dreams in the night." Critic Sheila Whiteley writes 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".[14]

Wuthering Heights is also in the company of novels that have inspired a role-playing game, despite not being a fantasy, spy, or

detective story. The game is distributed free on the Internet by the French author Philippe Tromeur.[15] The game is briefly

alluded in the introduction to the 2007 Broadview Press edition of Wuthering Heights and in a footnote in the 2005 (Volume 33)

issue of periodical Victorian literature and culture.[16]

[edit]Notes

1. ̂  Emily Brontë saved sections of five reviews of the 1847 version of Wuthering Heights, of which four have been identified as having

appeared in the January 1848 numbers of the Atlas,Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper, the Examiner, and the Britannia. The fifth

has neither a date nor source.

7

2. ̂  Wuthering Heights was released alongside Agnes Grey under the pseudonyms "Acton and Ellis Bell" (Anne and Emily

respectively). Wuthering Heights comprised the first two parts of the volume, and Agnes Grey the third: "The third volume of the

book is made up of a separate tale relating to the fortunes of a governess." (Britannia (1848))

[edit]References

1. ̂  "Excerpts from Contemporary Reviews". Academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu. 4 March 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2010.

2. ̂  "''Wuthering Heights'': Publication & Contemporary Critical Reception". Academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu. 4 March 2009. Retrieved 19

May 2010.

3. ̂  "Later Critical Response to Wuthering Heights". Academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu. 4 March 2009. Retrieved 19 May 2010.

4. ̂  Eagleton, Terry. Myths of Power: A Marxist Study of the Brontës. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

5. ̂  Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Imagination.

New Haven: Yale UP, 2000.

6. ̂  Hafley, James (1958) (PDF). The Villain in Wuthering Heights. p. 17. Retrieved 3 June 2010.

7. ^ a b Paul Thompson (June 2009). "Wuthering Heights: the home of the Earnshaws". Retrieved 11 October 2009.

8. ̂  Paul Thompson (June 2009). "The inspiration for the Wuthering Height's farmhouse?". Retrieved 11 October 2009.

9. ̂  Robert Barnard (2000) Emily Brontë

10. ̂  Ian Jack (1995) Explanatory Notes in Oxford World's Classics edition of Wuthering Heights

11. ̂  Wuthering Heights (1920) at the Internet Movie Database

12. ̂  Wuthering Heights (2009(TV)) at the Internet Movie Database

13. ̂  Vincent Canby (December 27, 1983). "Abismos de Pasion (1953) Bunuel's Brontë". New York Times. Retrieved 22 June 2011.

14. ̂  Whiteley, Sheila (2005). Too much too young: popular music, age and gender. Psychology Press. p. 9. ISBN 0415310296,

9780415310291.

15. ̂  Tromeur, Philippe (2011-01). "Wuthering Heights" game, January 2011. Many reviews of the game use an older link. Retrieved on

2011-01 from http://www.unseelie.org/rpg/wh/index.html.

16. ̂  The former on page 11, the latter on p. 611

[edit]Bibliography

This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain : Cousin, John William (1910). A Short

Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & Sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.

'Law of the Moors' essay

Laurence Olivier from the 1939 film

Ian McShane from the 1967 drama

Timothy Dalton from the 1970 film

Ken Hutchison from the 1978 TV drama

Ralph Fiennes from the 1992 film

Robert Cavanah from the 1998 TV drama

8

Tom Hardy from the 2009  TV drama

James Howson from the 2011 film

Catherine's love and the anti-hero of the story. The book essentially follows his story from first appearance at Wuthering Heights to his death there. He is badly treated by Hindley and his love for Catherine (which is more like a twin's than a lover's) becomes all-enveloping. But she prefers to marry Edgar for his position and breeding, and he vows vengeance on Hindley, Edgar and their children.

Note: there is no "E" at the end of "Heathcliff"

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: unknown Siblings: unknown

Date of birth: about 1764 Place of birth: unknown. Was found living in Liverpool, starving and homeless

Married: Isabella Linton in February 1784

Children: Linton Heathcliff, born 1784

Date of death: April 1802 (aged about 37)

Place of death: Wuthering Heights

Physical description: thick, low brows; black hair and whiskers; athletic

Notes: In the novel, he was named "Heathcliff" after a son of Mr Earnshaw who died in childhood. Emily may have created the name from "Thorncliff" in Rob Roy (see Inspirations) .

Click here for "FAQ: Where did Heathcliff go?"

Click here for "FAQ: Was Catherine and Heathcliff's love incentuous?"

Click here for "FAQ: Was Heathcliff black?"

Click here for "FAQ: When did Heathcliff embrace Catherine's body?"

Click here for "FAQ: Was Heathcliff Mr Earnshaw's son?"

QUOTES (1771, aged about 7) ...I had a peep at a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk

and talk: indeed, its face looked older than Catherine's; yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand. ...All that I could make out, amongst her scolding, was a tale of his seeing it starving, and houseless, and as good as dumb, in the streets of Liverpool, where he picked it up and inquired for its owner. Not a soul knew to whom it belonged, he said; and his money and time being both limited, he thought it better to take it home with him at once, than run into vain expenses there: because he was determined he would not leave it as he found it.

(1771, aged about 7) He seemed a sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment: he would stand Hindley's blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him only to draw in a breath and open his eyes, as if he had hurt himself by accident, and nobody was to

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blame...He took to Heathcliff strangely, believing all he said (for that matter, he said precious little, and generally the truth)...

(Childhood) Cathy and her brother harassed me terribly [during their illness with the measles]: he was as uncomplaining as a lamb; though hardness, not gentleness, made him give little trouble.

Top of Page (Childhood) I wondered often what my master saw to admire so much in the sullen boy; who never,

to my recollection, repaid his indulgence by any sign of gratitude. He was not insolent to his benefactor, he was simply insensible; though knowing perfectly the hold he had on his heart, and conscious he had only to speak and all the house would be obliged to bend to his wishes.

(1777, aged about 13) You are younger [than Edgar], and yet, I'll be bound, you are taller and twice as broad across the shoulders; you could knock him down in a twinkling; don't you feel that you could?

(1777, aged about 13) Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil's spies?

(1780, aged about 16) In the first place, he had by that time lost the benefit of his early education: continual hard work, begun soon and concluded late, had extinguished any curiosity he once possessed in pursuit of knowledge, and any love for books or learning. His childhood's sense of superiority, instilled into him by the favours of old Mr. Earnshaw, was faded away...Then personal appearance sympathised with mental deterioration: he acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness; and he took a grim pleasure, apparently, in exciting the aversion rather than the esteem of his few acquaintance.

(1783, aged about 19) A ray fell on his features; the cheeks were sallow, and half covered with black whiskers; the brows lowering, the eyes deep-set and singular. I remembered the eyes.

(1783, aged about 19) He had grown a tall, athletic, well-formed man; beside whom [Edgar] seemed quite slender and youth-like. His upright carriage suggested the idea of his having been in the army. His countenance was much older in expression and decision of feature than Mr. Linton's; it looked intelligent, and retained no marks of former degradation. A half-civilised ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued; and his manner was even dignified: quite divested of roughness, though stern for grace.

(1783, aged about 19) ...[Edgar] had sense to comprehend Heathcliff's disposition: to know that, though his exterior was altered, his mind was unchangeable and unchanged.

(1801, aged about 37) He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure; and rather morose.

C A T H E R I N E E A R N S H A W

Merle Oberon from the 1939 film

Angela Scourer from the 1967 drama

Anna Calder-Marshall from the 1970 film

Kay Adshead from the 1978 TV drama

Juliette Binoche from the 1992 film

Orla Brady from the 1998 T V drama

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Charlotte Riley from the 2009  TV drama

Kaya Scodelario from the 2011 film

Heathcliff's love and heroine of the story although she dies part of the way through the book. Her character, both alive and dead, haunts Heathcliff. She is free-spirited and beautiful, but can also be spiteful and arrogant. Growing up alongside Heathcliff, their love is more like that of twins than lovers, and she marries Edgar because of his position and breeding.

Known as Catherine Linton after her marriage.

Note: to differentiate between this Catherine and her daughter in this site, the mother is always written as

"Catherine" and her daughter as "Cathy", except in quotations.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: Mr and Mrs Earnshaw Siblings: Hindley (brother - nearly 8 years older)

Date of birth: Summer 1765 Place of birth: Wuthering Heights (assumed)

Married: Edgar Linton in March 1783 at Gimmerton Chapel.

Children: Catherine (Cathy) Linton, born 1784

Date of death: 20 March 1784 (about 2 in the morning) (18 years old)

Place of death: Thrushcross Grange

Physical description: very pretty; thick, long, brown hair

Click here for "FAQ: When did Heathcliff embrace Catherine's body?"

Click here for "Musings: Searching for the perfect Catherine"

QUOTES

(1771, aged 6) ...petting him up far above Cathy, who was too mischievous and wayward for a favourite.

(Childhood) ...she put all of us past our patience fifty times and oftener in a day: from the hour she came downstairs till the hour she went to bed, we had not a minute's security that she wouldn't be in mischief. Her spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going—singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do

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the same. A wild, wicked slip she was—but she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile, and lightest foot in the parish: and, after all, I believe she meant no harm; for when once she made you cry in good earnest, it seldom happened that she would not keep you company, and oblige you to be quiet that you might comfort her.

(Childhood) ...she was never so happy as when we were all scolding her at once, and she defying us with her bold, saucy look, and her ready words; turning Joseph's religious curses into ridicule, baiting me [Ellen]...

(1780, aged 15) At fifteen she was the queen of the countryside; she had no peer; and she did turn out a haughty, headstrong creature!

(1780, aged 15) 'I didn’t touch you, you lying creature!' cried she, her fingers tingling to repeat the act, and her ears red with rage. She never had power to conceal her passion, it always set her whole complexion in a blaze.'What’s that, then?' I retorted, showing a decided purple witness to refute her.She stamped her foot, wavered a moment, and then, irresistibly impelled by the naughty spirit within her, slapped me on the cheek: a stinging blow that filled both eyes with water.

(1783, aged 18) 'Set two tables here, Ellen: one for your master [Edgar] and Miss Isabella, being gentry; the other for Heathcliff and myself, being of the lower orders.'

(1784, aged 18) It was enough to try the temper of a saint, such senseless, wicked rages! There [Catherine] lay dashing her head against the arm of the sofa, and grinding her teeth, so that you might fancy she would cE D G A R

L I N T O N

David Niven from the 1939 film

Ian Ogilvy from the 1970 film

David Robb from the 1978 TV drama

Simon Shepherd from the 1992 film

Crispen Bonham-Carter from the 1998  TV drama

Andrew Lincoln from the 2009  TV drama

Catherine's husband. His breeding and wealth attracted Catherine though Heathcliff was her true love. He is a spoiled, cowardly man although tender and loving to

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Catherine and his daughter. He is a contrast to Heathcliff both physically and spiritually.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: Mr and Mrs Linton Siblings: Isabella (sister - 3 years younger)

Date of birth: 1762 Place of birth: Thrushcross Grange (assumed)

Married: Catherine Earnshaw in March 1783

Children: Cathy Linton, born 20 March 1784

Date of death: August 1801 (between 3 and 4 in the morning) (aged 39)

Place of death: Thrushcross Grange.

Physical description: fair skin; long, light hair curled at temples; blue eyes

QUOTES

(1777, aged 15) Edgar stood on the hearth weeping silently, and in the middle of the table sat a little dog, shaking its paw and yelping; which, from their mutual accusations, we understood they had nearly pulled in two between them.

(1777, aged 15) But, Nelly, if I knocked [Edgar] down twenty times, that wouldn't make him less handsome or me [Heathcliff] more so. I wish I had light hair and a fair skin, and was dressed and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!And cried for mamma at every turn,' I added, 'and trembled if a country lad heaved his fist against you, and sat at home all day for a shower of rain.

(1777, aged 15) In other words, I must wish for Edgar Linton's great blue eyes and even forehead,' he replied.

(1780, aged 18) He had a sweet, low manner of speaking, and pronounced his words as you [Lockwood] do: that's less gruff than we talk here, and softer.

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(About 1783, aged 20/21) [Description of his portrait] I discerned a soft-featured face, exceedingly resembling the young lady at the Heights, but more pensive and amiable in expression. It formed a sweet picture. The long light hair curled slightly on the temples; the eyes were large and serious; the figure almost too graceful.

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(Around 1783, aged 20/21) I observed that Mr. Edgar had a deep-rooted fear of ruffling [Catherine's] humour. He concealed it from her; but if ever he heard me answer sharply, or saw any other servant grow cloudy at some imperious order of hers, he would show his trouble by a frown of displeasure that never darkened on his own account.

(1784, aged 21) ...whereupon Mr. Edgar was taken with a nervous trembling, and his countenance grew deadly pale. For his life he could not avert that excess of emotion: mingled anguish and humiliation overcame him completely. He leant on the back of a chair, and covered his face.

(1784, aged 21) It was named Catherine; but [Edgar] never called it the name in full, as he had never called the first Catherine short: probably because Heathcliff had a habit of doing so. The little one was always Cathy: it formed to him a distinction from the mother, and yet a connection with her; and his attachment sprang from its relation to her, far more than from its being his own.

rash them to splinters!

3. I S A B E L L A L I N T O N

Geraldine Fitzgerald from the 1939 film

Hilary Heath (Dwyer) from the 1970 film

Caroline Langrishe from the 1978 TV drama

Sophie Ward from the 1992 film

Flora Montgomery from the 1998  TV drama

Rosalind Halstead from the 2009  TV drama

Isabella is Edgar's younger sister. A weak and spoiled girl, she becomes infatuated by Heathcliff, seeing him as a romantic hero. He despises her and uses her purely as a tool in his revenge. She is a contrast both physically and spiritually to Catherine.

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BASIC DETAILS

Parents: Mr and Mrs Linton Siblings: Edgar Linton (brother - 3 years older)

Date of birth: late 1765 Place of birth: Thrushcross Grange (assumed)

Married: Heathcliff in February 1784 Children: Linton Heathcliff, born 1784

Date of death: about July 1797 (aged 31)

Place of death: Near London (assumed)

Physical description: pale skin; blonde hair; blue eyes

QUOTES

(1777, probably aged 12 despite Heathcliff's statement) Isabella—I believe she is eleven, a year younger than Cathy—lay screaming at the farther end of the room, shrieking as if witches were running red-hot needles into her.

(1783, aged 18) I [Catherine] never feel hurt at the brightness of Isabella's yellow hair and the whiteness of her skin, at her dainty elegance, and the fondness all the family exhibit for her.

(1783, aged 18) She was at that time a charming young lady of eighteen; infantile in manners, though possessed of keen wit, keen feelings, and a keen temper, too, if irritated.

(1783, aged 18 ) 'You'd hear of odd things if I lived alone with that mawkish, waxen face [Isabella's]: the most ordinary would be painting on its white the colours of the rainbow, and turning the blue eyes black, every day or two: they detestably resemble Linton's.'

(1784, aged 18) '[Isabella] abandoned them under a delusion,' [Heathcliff] answered; 'picturing in me a hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous devotion. I can hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature, so obstinately has she persisted in forming a fabulous notion of my character and acting on the false impressions she cherished. But, at last, I think she begins to know me: I don't perceive the silly smiles and grimaces that provoked me at first; and the senseless incapability of discerning that I was in earnest when I gave her my opinion of her infatuation and herself. It was a marvellous effort of perspicacity to discover that I did not love her. I believed, at one time, no lessons could teach her that!...Are you sure

15

you hate me? If I let you alone for half a day, won't you come sighing and wheedling to me again?'

(1784, aged 18) I [Heathcliff] never, in all my life, met with such an abject thing as she is. She even disgraces the name of Linton; and I've sometimes relented, from pure lack of invention, in my experiments on what she could endure, and still creep shamefully cringing back!

(1797, aged 31) Her family were of a delicate constitution: she and Edgar both lacked the ruddy health that you will generally meet in these parts. What her last illness was, I am not certain: I conjecture, they died of the same thing, a kind of fever, slow at its commencement, but incurable, and rapidly consuming life towards the close.

4. H I N D L E Y E A R N S H A W

Hugh Williams from the 1939 film

Julian Glover from the 1970 film

John Duttine from the 1978 TV drama

Jeremy Northam from the 1992 film

Ian Shaw from the 1998 T V drama

Burn Gorman from the 2009  TV drama

Hindley is Catherine's elder brother. He hates Heathcliff from the start because of his father's preference for the latter and treats him badly. When his wife dies, he descends into gambling and drunkenness. Heathcliff gains his revenge by buying Wuthering Heights from him.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: Mr and Mrs Earnshaw Siblings: Catherine Earnshaw (sister

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- nearly 8 years younger)

Date of birth: summer 1757 Place of birth: Wuthering Heights (assumed)

Married: Frances around 1777 Children: Hareton Earnshaw, born June 1778

Date of death: about September 1784 (aged 27)

Place of death: Wuthering Heights

Physical description: long hair; similar eyes to Cathy

Notes: Hindley is pronounced with a short "i": "Hinned - lee" with the stress on the first syllable (see Pronunciations). The name "Earnshaw" may have come from a female servant who worked at Law Hill when Emily was there.

QUOTES

(1771, aged 14) The former was a boy of fourteen, but when he drew out what had been a fiddle, crushed to morsels in the great-coat, he blubbered aloud...

(1777, aged 20) He had grown sparer, and lost his colour, and spoke and dressed quite differently...

(1778 onwards, aged 21) He neither wept nor prayed; he cursed and defied: execrated God and man, and gave himself up to reckless dissipation. The servants could not bear his tyrannical and evil conduct long...

(1783, aged 26) '[Heathcliff] means to offer liberal payment for permission to lodge at the Heights; and doubtless [Hindley's] covetousness will prompt him to accept the terms: he was always greedy; though what he grasps with one hand he flings away with the other.

(1784, aged 26) ...it was opened by a tall, gaunt man, without neckerchief, and otherwise extremely slovenly; his features were lost in masses of shaggy hair that hung on his shoulders; and his eyes, too, were like a ghostly Catherine's with all their beauty annihilated.

(1784, aged 26) Hindley has exactly [Catherine's] eyes.

5. F R A N C E S

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Morag Hood from the 1970 film

Maggie Wilkinson from the 1978 TV drama

Janine Wood from the 1992 film

Catherine Cheshire from the 1998 TV drama

Sia Berkeley from the 2009  TV drama

Frances is a woman that Hindley met while at college, married and brought back to Wuthering Heights. She is childish and physically weak, and dies soon after giving birth to Hareton.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: unknown; probably not rich or distinguished

Siblings: unknown

Date of birth: unknown; probably around 1760.

Place of birth: unknown

Married: Hindley Earnshaw probably around 1777

Children: Hareton Earnshaw, born June 1778

Date of death: autumn or winter of 1778, of tuberculosis (aged about 18)

Place of death: Wuthering Heights

Physical description: thin and frail; fresh complexion; sparkling eyes

Notes: Frances may well have been a servant at Hindley's college as he does not mention her on any of his visits home. It is likely then that he did not marry her until late during his college stay, probably in early 1777 before he returned for the funeral. She is not a very mature person suggesting that she was not very old. She was presumably younger than Hindley (born no earlier than 1757) and must have been 16 at marriage (born no later than 1761).

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QUOTES

(1777, aged about 17) ...he brought a wife with him. What she was, and where she was born, he never informed us: probably, she had neither money nor name to recommend her, or he would scarcely have kept the union from his father.

(1777, aged about 17) Every object she saw, the moment she crossed the threshold, appeared to delight her; and every circumstance that took place about her...I thought she was half silly, from her behaviour while that went on: she ran into her chamber, and made me come with her, though I should have been dressing the children: and there she sat shivering and clasping her hands, and asking repeatedly ‘Are they gone yet?’ Then she began describing with hysterical emotion the effect it produced on her to see black; and started, and trembled, and, at last, fell a-weeping—and when I asked what was the matter, answered, she didn’t know; but she felt so afraid of dying! I imagined her as little likely to die as myself. She was rather thin, but young, and fresh-complexioned, and her eyes sparkled as bright as diamonds. I did remark, to be sure, that mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick; that the least sudden noise set her all in a quiver, and that she coughed troublesomely sometimes: but I knew nothing of what these symptoms portended, and had no impulse to sympathise with her.

(About 1777, aged about 17) Frances pulled [Heathcliff's] hair heartily, and then went and seated herself on her husband’s knee, and there they were, like two babies, kissing and talking nonsense by the hour...

(1778, aged about 18) But the doctor says missis [Frances] must go: he says she’s been in a consumption these many months. I heard him tell Mr. Hindley: and now she has nothing to keep her, and she'll be dead before winter.

(1778, aged about 18) And besides [Hindley], you should have known better than to choose such a rush of a lass!

6. C A T H Y ( C A T H E R I N E ) L I N T O N

Cathryn Harrison from the 1978 TV drama

Juliette Binoche from the 1992 film

Sarah Smart from the 1998 TV drama

Rebecca Night from the 2009 TV drama

The daughter of Catherine and Edgar. Heathcliff hates her and plans his revenge around her. She inherits her mother's beauty and headstrong behaviour but Edgar and Ellen turn her into a gentler character. When she is taken to live with Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights, her treatment turns her into a reserved, unfriendly person until her growing friendship with Hareton brings out her former

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traits.

Known as Catherine Heathcliff after first marriage, and Catherine Earnshaw after second marriage

Note: to differentiate between this Catherine and her mother in this site, the mother is always 

written as "Catherine" and her daughter as "Cathy", except in quotations.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: Edgar Linton and Catherine Earnshaw

Siblings: none

Date of birth: 20 March 1784 (about midnight 19th/20th)

Place of birth: Thrushcross Grange

Married: Linton Heathcliff in September 1801 (1)

Married: Hareton Earnshaw on 1 January 1803 (2)

Physical description: pretty; flaxen or golden hair, in ringlets; small features; dark eyes

Click here for "FAQ: Was Heathcliff the father of Cathy?"

Click here for "FAQ: Was Cathy's marriage legal?"

QUOTES

(Childhood) She was the most winning thing that ever brought sunshine into a desolate house: a real beauty in face, with the Earnshaws’ handsome dark eyes, but the Lintons' fair skin and small features, and yellow curling hair. Her spirit was high, though not rough, and qualified by a heart sensitive and lively to excess in its affections. That capacity for intense attachments reminded me of her mother: still she did not resemble her: for she could be soft and mild as a dove, and she had a gentle voice and pensive expression: her anger was never furious; her love never fierce: it was deep and tender. However, it must be acknowledged, she had faults to foil her gifts. A propensity to be saucy was one; and a perverse will, that indulged children invariably acquire, whether they be good tempered or cross...Fortunately, curiosity and a quick intellect made her an apt scholar: she learned rapidly and eagerly, and did honour to his teaching.

(1800, aged 16) Catherine had reached her full height; her figure was both plump and slender, elastic as steel, and her whole aspect sparkling with health and spirits.

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(1801, aged 17) [Cathy] was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding; small features, very fair; flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck; and eyes, had they been agreeable in expression, that would have been irresistible...

(1801, aged 17) "I’ll put my trash away, because you can make me if I refuse," answered [Cathy], closing her book, and throwing it on a chair. "But I'll not do anything, though you should swear your tongue out, except what I please!"

(1802, aged 18) ...perhaps you have never remarked that their [Hareton and Cathy] eyes are precisely similar, and they are those of Catherine Earnshaw. The present Catherine has no other likeness to her, except a breadth of forehead, and a certain arch of the nostril that makes her appear rather haughty, whether she will or not.

7. H A R E T O N E A R N S H A W

David Wilkinson from the 1978 TV drama

Jason Riddington from the 1992 film

Matthew Macfadyen from the 1998 TV drama

Andrew Hawley from the 2009  TV drama

Hareton is Hindley and Frances' only child. Raised as an uneducated farmworker by Heathcliff, he is basically a kind soul beneath the rough exterior although he does not like being slighted. He is one of the few that Heathcliff likes or respects. After initial reluctance, he takes to Cathy's attempts at education to improve himself.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: Hindley Earnshaw and Frances

Siblings: none

Date of birth: June 1778 Place of birth: Wuthering Heights (assumed)

Married: Cathy Linton on 1 January 1803

 

Physical description: thick, brown, curled hair; thick whiskers; same eyes

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as Catherine and Cathy

Notes: Hareton is pronounced as it appears: "Hare - tun" with the stress on the first syllable (see Pronunciations). The name may have come by altering the surname of the Heaton family who lived in Ponden Hall and were friends with the Brontës.

QUOTES

(1778, birth) [Frances]'s out of her head for joy, it's [Hareton] such a beauty!

(1783, aged 5) That was my first idea on observing an elf-locked, brown-eyed boy setting his ruddy countenance against the bars.

(1784, aged 5) By the fire stood a ruffianly child, strong in limb and dirty in garb, with a look of Catherine in his eyes and about his mouth.

(1797, aged 19) 'It's your father's, isn't it?' said [Cathy], turning to Hareton.'Nay,' he replied, looking down, and blushing bashfully.He could not stand a steady gaze from her eyes, though they were just his own.

(1797, aged 19) I [Ellen] could scarcely refrain from smiling at this antipathy to the poor fellow [Hareton]; who was a well-made, athletic youth, good-looking in features, and stout and healthy, but attired in garments befitting his daily occupations of working on the farm and lounging among the moors after rabbits and game. Still, I thought I could detect in his physiognomy a mind owning better qualities than his father ever possessed...Mr. Heathcliff, I believe, had not treated him physically ill; thanks to his fearless nature, which offered no temptation to that course of oppression: he had none of the timid susceptibility that would have given zest to ill-treatment, in Heathcliff's judgement. He appeared to have bent his malevolence on making him a brute: he was never taught to read or write; never rebuked for any bad habit which did not annoy his keeper; never led a single step towards virtue, or guarded by a single precept against vice.

 

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(1800, aged 21) The uncivil little thing [Cathy] stood on tiptoe, and whispered a sentence in Heathcliff's ear. He laughed; Hareton darkened: I perceived he was very sensitive to suspected slights, and had obviously a dim notion of his inferiority.

(1800, aged 21) 'Have you noticed, Catherine, his [Hareton's] frightful Yorkshire pronunciation?'

(1801, aged 23) ...his dress and speech were both rude, entirely devoid of the superiority observable in Mr. and Mrs. Heathcliff; his thick brown curls were rough

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and uncultivated, his whiskers encroached bearishly over his cheeks, and his hands were embrowned like those of a common labourer: still his bearing was free, almost haughty, and he showed none of a domestic’s assiduity in attending on the lady of the house.

(1801, aged 23) Earnshaw blushed crimson when his cousin made this revelation of his private literary accumulations, and stammered an indignant denial of her accusations.

(1802, aged 23) His honest, warm, and intelligent nature shook off rapidly the clouds of ignorance and degradation in which it had been bred; and Catherine's sincere commendations acted as a spur to his industry. His brightening mind brightened his features, and added spirit and nobility to their aspect...

(1802, aged 23) ...perhaps you have never remarked that their [Hareton and Cathy] eyes are precisely similar, and they are those of Catherine Earnshaw...With Hareton the resemblance [to Catherine Earnshaw] is carried farther: it is singular at all times, then it was particularly striking; because his senses were alert, and his mental faculties wakened to unwonted activity.

8. L I N T O N H E A T H C L I F F

Andrew Burleigh from the 1978 TV drama

Jonathan Firth from the 1992 film

William Mannering from the 1998 TV drama

Tom Payne from the 2009 TV drama

Linton is the son of Heathcliff and Isabella. Both physically and mentally weak, he is despised by Heathcliff who uses him simply to gain control of Thrushcross Grange.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: Heathcliff and Isabella Linton

Siblings: none

Date of birth: "a few months" after April 1784

Place of birth: Near London

Married: Cathy Linton in September 1801 at Wuthering Heights

Children: none

Date of death: September 1801 Place of death: Wuthering Heights

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(aged 17)

Physical description: Pale skin; thick, pale blond hair in curls; large languid blue eyes like Isabella; slim and frail

QUOTES

(At birth) He was christened Linton, and, from the first, [Isabella] reported him to be an ailing, peevish creature.

(1797, aged 12) 'Aunt Isabella sent papa a beautiful lock of his hair; it was lighter than mine [Cathy's] —more flaxen, and quite as fine.'

(1797, aged 12) [Linton] was asleep in a corner, wrapped in a warm, fur-lined cloak, as if it had been winter. A pale, delicate, effeminate boy, who might have been taken for [Edgar's] younger brother, so strong was the resemblance: but there was a sickly peevishness in his aspect that Edgar Linton never had.

(1797, aged 12) 'Black hair and eyes!' mused Linton. 'I can’t fancy him [Heathcliff]. Then I am not like him, am I?''Not much,' I answered: not a morsel, I thought, surveying with regret the white complexion and slim frame of my companion, and his large languid eyes—his mother's eyes, save that, unless a morbid touchiness kindled them a moment, they had not a vestige of her sparkling spirit.

(1800, aged 15) Linton's looks and movements were very languid, and his form extremely slight; but there was a grace in his manner that mitigated these defects, and rendered him not unpleasing.

(1800, aged 16) Cathy, beside herself, gave the chair a violent push, and caused him to fall against one arm. He was immediately seized by a suffocating cough that soon ended his triumph. It lasted so long that it frightened even me.

(1800, aged 16) We were recalled by a scream. Linton had slid from his seat on to the hearthstone, and lay writhing in the mere perverseness of an indulged plague of a child, determined to be as grievous and harassing as it can.

(1801, aged 16) 'Linton can play the little tyrant well. He'll undertake to torture any number of cats, if their teeth be drawn and their claws pared.'

9. E L L E N ( N E L L Y ) D E A N

Flora Robson from the 1939 film

Judy Cornwell from the 1970 film

Pat Heywood from the 1978 TV drama

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Janet McTeer from the 1992 film

Polly Hemingway from the 1998  TV drama

Sarah Lancashire from the 2009  TV drama

Ellen, or Nelly Dean, is the housekeeper of Thrushcross Grange as the novel begins and is the servant of both Catherines. Intelligent and compassionate, she is often more of a friend or relative to the characters in the book than a servant. Consequently, she knows more of the story than anyone else so is able to fill Mr Lockwood in on events.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: few details. Her mother had nursed Hindley and lived to eighty

Siblings: unknown

Date of birth: 1757 Place of birth: unknown

Married: unknown. Lockwood refers to her as "Mrs Dean" in 1801 but there is no other mention of a husband. It is probably a polite term applied to all housekeepers.

 

Physical description: stout when older, short of breath

Occupation: When young, her mother was nurse to Hindley so Ellen acted as a servant-cum-companion to Hindley and Catherine, playing with them and running errands. Considered herself a foster-sister to Hindley and Catherine.Came to Thrushcross Grange in 1783 to act as Catherine's maid. Stayed on after her death as a housekeeper.

Notes: her first name may have come from Ellen Nussey, a close friend of the Brontës.

 

Wuthering Heights Housekeepers

TimeHousekeep

erEvents Notes

August Mrs Heathcliff  

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1771 Earnshaw arrives

May 1773 Ellen Dean Mrs Earnshaw dies

Ellen takes over, aged 15

March 1783

None Catherine and Edgar marry

Ellen moves to Thrushcross Grange soon after the marriage. No replacement as Hindley does not want any women in the house.

October 1784

Name unknown

Hindley dies Joined after the death of Hindley (chapter 18)

July 1799 Zillah Housekeeper leaves

Previous housekeeper left two years after Linton arrived

November 1801

Zillah Lockwood's first visit

Zillah had been there "a year or two"

January 1802

Ellen Dean Zillah leaves  

QUOTES

(Childhood) ...I was almost always at Wuthering Heights; because my mother had nursed Mr. Hindley Earnshaw...and I got used to playing with the children: I ran errands too, and helped to make hay, and hung about the farm ready for anything that anybody would set me to.

(1801, aged 43) At this diabolical violence I [Ellen] rushed on him furiously. 'You villain!' I began to cry, 'you villain!' A touch on the chest silenced me: I am stout, and soon put out of breath; and, what with that and the rage, I staggered dizzily back and felt ready to suffocate, or to burst a blood-vessel.

(1801, aged 44) ...you [Ellen], my good friend, are a striking evidence against that assertion. Excepting a few provincialisms of slight consequence, you have no marks of the manners which I am habituated to consider as peculiar to your class. I am sure you have thought a great deal more than the generality of servants think. You have been compelled to cultivate your reflective faculties for want of occasions for frittering your life away in silly trifles....but I [Ellen] have undergone sharp discipline, which has taught me wisdom; and then, I have read more than you would fancy, Mr. Lockwood. You could not open a book in this library that I have not looked into, and got something out of also...

ELLEN (NELLY) DEAN

Flora Robson from the 1939 film

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Judy Cornwell from the 1970 film

Pat Heywood from the 1978 TV drama

Janet McTeer from the 1992 film

Polly Hemingway from the 1998 T V drama

Sarah Lancashire from the 2009 TV drama

Ellen, or Nelly Dean, is the housekeeper of Thrushcross Grange as the novel begins and is the servant of both Catherines. Intelligent and compassionate, she is often more of a friend or relative to the characters in the book than a servant. Consequently, she knows more of the story than anyone else so is able to fill Mr Lockwood in on events.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: few details. Her mother had nursed Hindley and lived to eighty

Siblings: unknown

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Date of birth: 1757 Place of birth: unknown

Married: unknown. Lockwood refers to her as "Mrs Dean" in 1801 but there is no other mention of a husband. It is probably a polite term applied to all housekeepers.

 

Physical description: stout when older, short of breath

Occupation: When young, her mother was nurse to Hindley so Ellen acted as a servant-cum-companion to Hindley and Catherine, playing with them and running errands. Considered herself a foster-sister to Hindley and Catherine.Came to Thrushcross Grange in 1783 to act as Catherine's maid. Stayed on after her death as a housekeeper.

Notes: her first name may have come from Ellen Nussey, a close friend of the Brontës.

 

Wuthering Heights Housekeepers

TimeHousekeep

erEvents Notes

August 1771

Mrs Earnshaw

Heathcliff arrives

 

May 1773 Ellen Dean Mrs Earnshaw dies

Ellen takes over, aged 15

March 1783

None Catherine and Edgar marry

Ellen moves to Thrushcross Grange soon after the marriage. No replacement as Hindley does not want any women in the house.

October 1784

Name unknown

Hindley dies Joined after the death of Hindley (chapter 18)

July 1799 Zillah Housekeeper leaves

Previous housekeeper left two years after Linton arrived

November Zillah Lockwood's Zillah had been there "a year or two"

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1801 first visit

January 1802

Ellen Dean Zillah leaves  

QUOTES

(Childhood) ...I was almost always at Wuthering Heights; because my mother had nursed Mr. Hindley Earnshaw...and I got used to playing with the children: I ran errands too, and helped to make hay, and hung about the farm ready for anything that anybody would set me to.

(1801, aged 43) At this diabolical violence I [Ellen] rushed on him furiously. 'You villain!' I began to cry, 'you villain!' A touch on the chest silenced me: I am stout, and soon put out of breath; and, what with that and the rage, I staggered dizzily back and felt ready to suffocate, or to burst a blood-vessel.

(1801, aged 44) ...you [Ellen], my good friend, are a striking evidence against that assertion. Excepting a few provincialisms of slight consequence, you have no marks of the manners which I am habituated to consider as peculiar to your class. I am sure you have thought a great deal more than the generality of servants think. You have been compelled to cultivate your reflective faculties for want of occasions for frittering your life away in silly trifles....but I [Ellen] have undergone sharp discipline, which has taught me wisdom; and then, I have read more than you would fancy, Mr. Lockwood. You could not open a book in this library that I have not looked into, and got something out of also...

10. J O S E P H

Leo G Carroll from the 1939 film

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Aubrey Woods from the 1970 film

Brian Wilde from the 1978 TV drama

Robert Demeger from the 1992 film

Tom Georgeson from the 1998  TV drama

Des McAleer from the 2009  TV drama

The lifelong servant at Wuthering Heights, to the Earnshaws and then Heathcliff. Fanatically Calvinist and self-righteous, he is unpleasant and unkind. He speaks in a broad Yorkshire accent.

BASIC DETAILS

Parents: unknown Siblings: unknown

Date of birth: unknown, probably around 1730. As he is considered 'very old' in 1801, he would have been born in the early part of the eighteenth century. He was an important servant to Mr Earnshaw in 1771 and had been serving the family for "sixty years" in 1802.

Place of birth: unknown

Married: apparently never

Children: none known

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Physical description: "vineger-faced", hale and sinewy

Click here for a translation of some of Joseph's speeches

QUOTES

He was, and is yet most likely, the wearisomest self-righteous Pharisee that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling the curses to his neighbours.

(1801, aged about 71) Joseph was an elderly, nay, an old man: very old, perhaps, though hale and sinewy. 'The Lord help us!' he soliloquised in an undertone of peevish displeasure, while relieving me of my horse: looking, meantime, in my face so sourly that I charitably conjectured he must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner, and his pious ejaculation had no reference to my unexpected advent.

(1801, aged about 71) Vinegar-faced Joseph projected his head from a round window of the barn.

11. M R L O C K W O O D

Miles Mander from the 1939 film

Richard Kay from the 1978 TV drama

Paul Geoffrey from the 1992 film

Peter Davison from the 1998 TV drama

Essentially in the story to act as the substitute reader, asking questions and learning the history of Heathcliff, the Earnshaws and the Lintons from Ellen Dean. Rather vain and pompous, he is from a different area of the country and finds it hard to understand the character of the people he meets.

BASIC DETAILS

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Parents: unknown. Presumably rich as he can afford to spend a year at Thrushcross Grange with no apparent occupation.

Siblings: none known

Date of birth: unknown. Probably between 1770 and 1780. (Both he and Ellen consider it possible that he might woo and marry Cathy. As she is 17 at the time, we can assume that he is no more than about 15 years older than her at most.)

Place of birth: probably in the south, maybe near London

Married: no  

Physical description: Lockwood is not described in the novel as he is the narrator. Being rich and coming from the south, maybe near London, he would probably have had the latest fashions and would have stood out quite distinctly from the other characters in the book.

QUOTES

(1800) You [Lockwood] are too young to rest always contented, living by yourself; and I some way fancy no one could see Catherine Linton and not love her. You smile; but why do you look so lively and interested when I talk about her? and why have you asked me to hang her picture over your fireplace? and why—?''Stop, my good friend!' I cried. 'It may be very possible that I should love her; but would she love me? I doubt it too much to venture my tranquillity by running into temptation: and then my home is not here. I’m of the busy world, and to its arms I must return.'

(1801) While enjoying a month of fine weather at the sea-coast, I was thrown into the company of a most fascinating creature: a real goddess in my eyes, as long as she took no notice of me. I 'never told my love' vocally; still, if looks have language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears: she understood me at last, and looked a return—the sweetest of all imaginable looks. And what did I do? I confess it with shame—shrunk icily into myself, like a snail; at every glance retired colder and farther; till finally the poor innocent was led to doubt her own senses, and, overwhelmed with confusion at her supposed mistake, persuaded her mamma to decamp. By this curious turn of disposition I have gained the reputation of deliberate heartlessness; how undeserved, I alone can appreciate.

(1801) ...I knew, through experience, that I was tolerably attractive.

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(1802) 'No books!' I exclaimed. 'How do you contrive to live here without them? if I may take the liberty to inquire. Though provided with a large library, I'm frequently very dull at the Grange; take my books away, and I should be desperate!'

(1802) Living among clowns and misanthropists, [Cathy] probably cannot appreciate a better class of people [himself] when she meets them.

12. M I N O R C H A R A C T E R S

CONTENTS (click on boxes)

Mr Earnshaw Mrs Earnshaw Mr Linton Mrs Linton

Zillah Dr   Kenneth Mr   Green  

MR EARNSHAW

The father of Hindley and Catherine, adopted father of Heathcliff. Dies October 1777.

A strict and grave man with no sense of humour. Nevertheless he is a kindly man who takes pity on Heathcliff when he is found alone and starving in the streets of Liverpool and adopts him as his own son. Unfortunately, he favours Heathcliff above his true son, Hindley, creating enmities which would have long-lasting consequences.

It is a puzzle why he prefers Heathcliff as Ellen says: "I wondered often what my master saw to admire so much in the sullen boy; who never, to my recollection, repaid his indulgence by any sign of gratitude. He was not insolent to his benefactor, he was simply insensible; though knowing perfectly the hold he had on his heart, and conscious he had only to speak and all the house would be obliged to bend to his wishes."

MRS EARNSHAW

The mother of Hindley and Catherine. Dies May 1773, less than two years after Heathcliff's arrival.

She is not very happy at her husband bringing Heathcliff back from Liverpool (although this may be due to the costs and difficulty of another mouth rather than any hostility).

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MR LINTON

The father of Edgar and Isabella. Dies August 1780

The magistrate and owner of Thrushcross Grange before Edgar. Although he looks down on the Earnshaws and Heathcliff, he is essentially kindly and looks after Catherine when she is caught by the dogs at the Grange. He dies from the same fever as his wife.

MRS LINTON

The mother of Edgar and Isabella. First name Mary. Wears spectacles. Died August 1780

Like her husband, a kindly person who helps transform Catherine from a rough, wild child to a young lady. She has a dislike of Heathcliff. She brings Catherine to the Grange when the former catches a fever and contracts it herself, dying from it as a result.

ZILLAH

One of the housekeepers at Wuthering Heights. She starts about July 1799 when the previous housekeeper leaves and finishes January 1802 to be replaced by Ellen (see the table on Ellen's page). She is a stout woman, generally kind-hearted although Ellen called her "a narrow-minded, selfish woman" when she refused to help Cathy. However, she had been told not to by Heathcliff so this was understandable and Ellen learns much of what is happening at the Heights from her.

She plays a minor part in the story when she leads Mr Lockwood to Catherine's room at the beginning

DR KENNETH

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The doctor from Gimmerton, a "plain, rough man", and frank. He is present at several events in the book: Hareton's birth (chapter 8), Catherine's illness (chapter 9), Hindley's death (chapter 17), Edgar's death (chapter 28), and Heathcliff's final days (chapter 34). (He was probably at other events but is not mentioned). He also treats Mr Lockwood during his illness.

He was a close friend of Hindley's and liked to drink with him for Hindley says in chapter 9 when drunk: "You needn't laugh; for I've just crammed Kenneth, head-downmost, in the Black-horse marsh." In chapter 17, Kenneth announces Hindley's death: "Your old friend Hindley...and my wicked gossip: though he's been too wild for me this long while. There! I said we should draw water. But cheer up! He died true to his character: drunk as a lord."

In chapter 12, he also brings news of Heathcliff and Isabella's late night meeting to Ellen.

MR GREEN

The lawyer for Edgar Linton. As Edgar lays dying, he sends for Green to change his will and prevent Heathcliff from inheriting Thrushcross Grange. But Green delays his journey to the Grange and Edgar dies before her could change it. It turns out that he had sold out to Heathcliff.

II. S U M M A R Y

A single page summary of the story of "Wuthering Heights".

CONTENTS (click on boxes)

Prologue (1-3)Childhood of Heathcliff (4-

17)Maturity of Heathcliff (18-

31)Epilogue(32-34)

BRIEF SUMMARY

Many people, generally those who have never read the book, consider Wuthering Heights to be a straightforward, if intense, love story — Romeo and Juliet on the Yorkshire Moors. But this is a mistake. Really the story is one of revenge. It follows the life of Heathcliff, a mysterious gypsy-like person, from childhood (about seven years old) to his death in his late thirties. Heathcliff rises in his adopted family and then is reduced to the status of a servant, running away when the young woman he loves

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decides to marry another. He returns later, rich and educated and sets about gaining his revenge on the two families that he believed ruined his life.

PROLOGUE (CHAPTERS 1 TO 3)

Mr Lockwood, a rich man from the south, has rented Thrushcross Grange in the north of England for peace and recuperation. Soon after arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland farmhouse called "Wuthering Heights". He finds the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights to be a strange group: Mr Heathcliff appears a gentleman but his manners and speech suggest otherwise; the mistress of the house is in her late teens, an attractive but reserved, even rude woman; and there is a young man who appears to be one of the family although he dresses and talks like a servant.

Being snowed in, he has to stay the night and is shown to an unused chamber where he finds books and graffiti from a former inhabitant of the farmhouse called "Catherine". When he falls asleep, his dreams are prompted by this person and he has a nightmare where he sees her as a ghost trying to get in through the window. He wakes and is unable to return to sleep so, as soon as the sun rises, he is escorted back to Thrushcross Grange by Heathcliff. There he asks his housekeeper, Ellen Dean, to tell him the story of the family from the Heights.

THE CHILDHOOD OF HEATHCLIFF (CHAPTERS 4 TO 17)

The story begins thirty years before when the Earnshaw family lived at Wuthering Heights consisting of, as well as the mother and father, Hindley, a boy of fourteen, and six-year-old Catherine, the same person that he had dreamt about and the mother of the present mistress. In that year, Mr Earnshaw travels to Liverpool where he finds a homeless, gypsy boy of about seven whom he decides to adopt as his son. He names him "Heathcliff". Hindley, who finds himself excluded from his father's affections by this newcomer, quickly learns to hate him but Catherine grows very attached to him. Soon Heathcliff and Catherine are like twins, spending hours on the moors together and hating every moment apart.

Because of this discord, Hindley is eventually sent to college but he returns, three years later, when Mr Earnshaw dies. With a new wife, Frances, he becomes master of Wuthering Heights and forces Heathcliff to become a servant instead of a member of the family.

Heathcliff and Cathy continue to run wild and, in November, a few months after Hindley's return, they make their way to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the inhabitants. As they watch the childish behaviour of Edgar and Isabella Linton, the children of the Grange, they are spotted and try to escape. Catherine, having been caught by a dog, is brought inside and helped while Heathcliff is sent home.

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Five weeks later, Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights but she has now changed, looking and acting as a lady. She laughs at Heathcliff's unkempt appearance and, the next day when the Lintons visit, he dresses up to impress her. It fails when Edgar makes fun of him and they argue. Heathcliff is locked in the attic where, in the evening, Catherine climbs over the roof to comfort him. He vows to get his revenge on HIndley.

In the summer of the next year, Frances gives birth to a child, Hareton, but she dies before the year is out. This leads Hindley to descend into a life of drunkenness and waste.

Top of Page

Two years on and Catherine has become close friends with Edgar, growing more distant from Heathcliff. One day in August, while Hindley is absent, Edgar comes to visit Catherine . She has an argument with Ellen which then spreads to Edgar who tries to leave. Catherine stops him and, before long, they declare themselves lovers.

Later, Catherine talks with Ellen, explaining that Edgar had asked her to marry him and she had accepted. She says that she does not really love Edgar but Heathcliff. Unfortunately she could never marry the latter because of his lack of status and education. She therefore plans to marry Edgar and use that position to help raise Heathcliff's standing. Unfortunately Heathcliff had overheard the first part about not being able to marry him and flees from the farmhouse. He disappears without trace and, after three years, Edgar and Catherine are married.

Six months after the marriage, Heathcliff returns as a gentleman, having grown stronger and richer during his absence. Catherine is delighted to see him although Edgar is not so keen. Isabella, now eighteen, falls madly in love with Heathcliff, seeing him as a romantic hero. He despises her but encourages the infatuation, seeing it as a chance for revenge on Edgar. When he embraces Isabella one day at the Grange, there is an argument with Edgar which causes Catherine to lock herself in her room and fall ill.

Heathcliff has been staying at the Heights, gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad habits. Hindley is gradually losing his wealth, mortgaging the farmhouse to Heathcliff to repay his debts.

While Catherine is ill, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, causing Edgar to disown his sister. The fugitives marry and return two months later to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff hears that Catherine is ill and arranges with Ellen to visit her in secret. In the early hours of the day after their meeting, Catherine gives birth to her daughter, Cathy, and then dies.

The day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella flees Heathcliff and escapes to the south of England where she eventually gives birth to Linton, Heathcliff's son. Hindley dies six months after his sister and Heathcliff finds himself the master of Wuthering Heights and the guardian of Hareton.

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THE MATURITY OF HEATHCLIFF (CHAPTERS 18 TO 31)

Twelve years on, Cathy has grown into a beautiful, high-spirited girl who has rarely passed outside the borders of the Grange. Edgar hears that Isabella is dying and leaves to pick up her son with the intention of adopting him. While he is gone, Cathy meets Hareton on the moors and learns of her cousin and Wuthering Heights' existence.

Edgar returns with Linton who is a weak and sickly boy. Although Cathy is attracted to him, Heathcliff wants his son with him and insists on having him taken to the Heights.

Three years later, Ellen and Cathy are on the moors when they meet Heathcliff who takes them to Wuthering Heights to see Linton and Hareton. His plans are for Linton and Cathy to marry so that he would inherit Thrushcross Grange. Cathy and Linton begin a secret and interrupted friendship.

In August of the next year, while Edgar is very ill, Ellen and Cathy visit Wuthering Heights and are held captive by Heathcliff who wants to marry his son to Cathy and, at the same time, prevent her from returning to her father before he dies. After five days, Ellen is released and Cathy escapes with Linton's help just in time to see her father before he dies.

With Heathcliff now the master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Cathy has no choice but to leave Ellen and to go and live with Heathcliff and Hareton. Linton dies soon afterwards and, although Hareton tries to be kind to her, she retreats into herself. This is the point of the story at which Lockwood arrives.

After being ill with a cold for some time, Lockwood decides that he has had enough of the moors and travels to Wuthering Heights to inform Heathcliff that he is returning to the south.

EPILOGUE (CHAPTERS 32 TO 34)

In September, eight months after leaving, Lockwood finds himself back in the area and decides to stay at Thrushcross Grange (since his tenancy is still valid until October). He finds that Ellen is now living at Wuthering Heights. He makes his way there and she fills in the rest of the story.

Ellen had moved to the Heights soon after Lockwood had left to replace the housekeeper who had departed. In March, Hareton had had an accident and been confined to the farmhouse. During this time, a friendship had developed between Cathy and Hareton. This continues into April when Heathcliff begins to act very strangely, seeing visions of Catherine. After not eating for four days, he is found dead in his room. He is buried next to Catherine.

Lockwood departs but, before he leaves, he hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New Year's Day.

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C H A P T E R L I S T , F A M O U S S C E N E S  A N D L I S T O F N A R R A T O R S

2.  Click on page icons to read that chapter. Chapter numbers are also given in Roman numerals in case you have a printed copy which uses them. Note: the chapters are not titled in the book. The titles have been added by me to make it easier to identify.

 Table of Contents for online book

CONTENTS (click on boxes)

Chapter Summaries

FamousScenes

List of Narrators

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

PROLOGUE

 CHAPTER 1:(I) A VISIT TO WUTHERING HEIGHTS

1801. Mr Lockwood visits Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights who is leasing him Thrushcross Grange. He describes Heathcliff and the sitting room of the the Heights, and briefly has an altercation with the dogs before returning to the Grange.

 CHAPTER 2:(II) A SINGULAR FAMILY

Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights the next day. He encounters the rest of Heathcliff's family ― sullen Cathy and rough Hareton. The weather turns bad and, after being injured by the dogs, Lockwood is forced to remain at the Heights overnight.

 CHAPTER 3:(III) THE GHOST AT THE WINDOW

Lockwood is shown to a room to sleep which used to belong to Cathy's mother, Catherine. He has a restless night and is apparently woken by a tree branch tapping on the window. As he reaches out to stop it, his wrist is grasped by a cold hand, the ghost of Catherine. He wakes and rouses Heathcliff. Unable to sleep, he moves downstairs until Heathcliff escorts him back to Thrushcross Grange.

THE CHILDHOOD OF HEATHCLIFF

 CHAPTER 4:(IV) ARRIVAL OF A FOUNDLING

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1: A Visit to Wuthering Heights

In Thrushcross Grange, Ellen begins to tell Lockwood of the story of Heathcliff. She explains how he was brought to Wuthering Heights as a child and spread discord among the Earnshaw family.

 CHAPTER 5:(V) THE DEATH OF MR EARNSHAW

Mr Earnshaw sends Hindley off to college. Several years later, he goes into decline and dies.

 CHAPTER 6:(VI) NEW ACQUAINTANCES

Hindley returns to Wuthering Heights with a new wife. Catherine and Heathcliff grow more rebellious and wild. They sneak into Thrushcross Grange and Catherine is injured by their dogs.

 CHAPTER 7:(VII) CATHERINE BECOMES A LADY

Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights having been taught to look and act like a lady at Thrushcross Grange. She acts aloof from Heathcliff who briefly tries to smarten himself up to impress her but fails, throwing apple sauce over Edgar.

 CHAPTER 8:(VIII) THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE EARNSHAWS

Hareton is born to Hindley and Frances but the latter soon dies of tuberculosis, causing Hindley to gradually fall apart. Catherine continues her friendship with Edgar, moving further from Heathcliff and closer to Edgar.

 CHAPTER 9:(IX) THE DISAPPEARANCE OF HEATHCLIFF

In a drunken state, Hindley returns and drops Hareton from the landing; the child is saved by Heathcliff. Catherine talks with Ellen and reveals that she has accepted an offer of marriage from Edgar. She says that she couldn't marry Heathcliff because he is too poor and rough but that, really, her heart belongs to him. He overhears the first part of this but not the second and runs away from Wuthering Heights. Catherine goes on to marry Edgar and Ellen leaves with her as her maid.

 CHAPTER 10:(X) MR HEATHCLIFF RETURNS

Three years after Heathcliff's departure, six months after the marriage, Heathcliff arrives at Thrushcross Grange, now improved in physique and manner. He is staying with Hindley at Wuthering Heights and taking advantage of his alcoholism and gambling. Isabella falls in love with Heathcliff and is teased by Catherine.

 CHAPTER 11:(XI) "THE MILK-BLOODED COWARD"

Ellen walks to Wuthering Heights to see Hindley but she meets Hareton at the gate who has become coarse and foul-mouthed under Heathcliff's tutorage. Heathcliff goes to Thrushcross Grange to see Catherine and Isabella, and clashes with Edgar.

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 CHAPTER 12:(XII) DELIRIUM

Catherine falls ill from fever and delirium, and Ellen gets into trouble for not telling Edgar. With their minds occupied by this, they are unaware that Isabella has eloped with Heathcliff.

 CHAPTER 13:(XIII) ISABELLA LEARNS HER FATE

Under Edgar's care, Catherine recovers from her fever. Ellen receives a letter from Isabella describing her arrival at Wuthering Heights and the poor treatment she received there. She writes how she wishes to hear from her brother.

 CHAPTER 14:(XIV) THE MEDIATOR

Ellen visits Wuthering Heights with the news that Edgar no longer wants any communication with Isabella or Heathcliff. Heathcliff wants to see Catherine again and refuses to let Ellen leave until she agrees to act as mediator.

 CHAPTER 15:(XV) THE FINAL MEETING

While Edgar is absent, Heathcliff arrives at Thrushcross Grange for a final meeting with Cathy. Edgar returns but, with Cathy very ill, he is more concerned with her than his enemy.

 CHAPTER 16:(XVI) LIFE AND DEATH

Cathy is born and her mother dies soon after. Heathcliff makes one last visit to see her body before she is buried.

 CHAPTER 17:(XVII) THE MASTER OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Isabella arrives at Thrushcross Grange, having fled from Heathcliff. She eventually moves south near London where she gives birth to Linton. Six months after Catherine's death, Hindley dies as well and Heathcliff becomes master of Wuthering Heights.

THE MATURITY OF HEATHCLIFF

 CHAPTER 18:(XVIII) THE EXPLORER

Cathy grows up in isolation at Thrushcross Grange. With Isabella dying, Edgar travels to London to pick up Linton. While he is away, Cathy goes exploring on the moor and meets Hareton at Wuthering Heights.

 CHAPTER 19:(XIX) A SICKLY CHILD

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Edgar arrives back at Thrushcross Grange with Linton. Before the day is out, Joseph arrives with orders to take the child to Wuthering Heights immediately but Edgar puts him off until the morning.

 CHAPTER 20:(XX) FATHER AND SON

The next day, Ellen takes Linton up to Wuthering Heights. Although Heathcliff despises the child, he assures Ellen that he will look after him as he has plans for him.

 CHAPTER 21:(XXI) YOUNG LOVE

On her sixteenth birthday, Catherine goes with Ellen onto the moor and meets Heathcliff to takes her back to Wuthering Heights to meet Hareton. She is prohibited by her father from seeing either of them again but keeps up a clandestine relationship via mail. Ellen finds out and burns the letters, forcing Catherine to promise to end the relationship.

 CHAPTER 22:(XXII) AN INVITATION FROM HEATHCLIFF

A few months later, Catherine and Ellen are walking around the grounds when they encounter Heathcliff on the boundary road. He explains that Linton is ill and believes that Catherine deliberately stopped writing. Heathcliff notes that he will be away for a week and she could visit in the meantime. Reluctantly, Ellen agrees to accompany her to Wuthering Heights the next day.

 CHAPTER 23:(XXIII) THE WILES OF LINTON

At Wuthering Heights, they find Linton who quarrels with Cathy. He feigns illness and she is fooled into sympathy for him. They return home where Ellen is confined to bed with illness for a few weeks. While there, Cathy continues to visit Linton.

 CHAPTER 24:(XXIV) DEEPER IN

Ellen learns of Cathy's secret visits to Wuthering Heights to see Linton. The former reveals the information to Edgar who prohibits Cathy from visiting the Heights again (although he allows Linton to visit Thrushcross Grange).

 CHAPTER 25:(XXV) MR LINTON CONSIDERS THE FUTURE

As Edgar begins to decline and fear for the future, he reconsiders his opposition to Linton and comes to believe that a marriage between him and Cathy may be the best option so that she will not be left without an inheritance.

 CHAPTER 26:(XXVI) AN OMINOUS MEETING

Some months later, Edgar allows Cathy to meet Linton again (but not at Wuthering Heights). Linton is visibly more ill and hardly has the energy to meet her. He makes her promise to return the next week.

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 CHAPTER 27:(XXVII) PRISONERS

With Edgar dying, Ellen and Cathy make their way onto the moor to see Linton. He is there but very frightened. Heathcliff arrives and persuades everyone to go into Wuthering Heights. Once there, he locks them in and says that they will remain prisoners until Cathy and Linton are married.

 CHAPTER 28:(XXVIII) THE LAST OF THE LINTONS

Ellen is set free and returns to Thrushcross Grange after failing to free Cathy. Edgar is on the point of death. She vows to get Cathy freed but, fortunately, the girl arrives after being let out by Linton. She spends a last few moments with her father before he dies and Heathcliff takes control of the Grange.

 CHAPTER 29:(XXIX) HEATHCLIFF TRIUMPHANT

Heathcliff arrives at Thrushcross Grange to escort Cathy to Wuthering Heights while Ellen must stay. While Cathy is preparing, he tells Ellen of how he has been tormented by Catherine for the last eighteen years.

 CHAPTER 30:(XXX) CATHERINE ALONE

Heathcliff does not allow Linton any medical help and he dies. Later on, Hareton tries to start a friendship with Cathy but, because of his previous neglect, remains aloof.

 CHAPTER 31:(XXXI) MR LOCKWOOD TAKES HIS LEAVE

Deciding to stay no longer in Yorkshire, Lockwood rides to Wuthering Heights to tell Heathcliff. He sees Cathy and Hareton in argument over books and the latter's attempts to improve his education.

EPILOGUE

 CHAPTER 32:(XXXII) MANY CHANGES

The next autumn, Lockwood visits Thrushcross Grange on a trip north. He finds Ellen has moved to Wuthering Heights. When he arrives there, he finds that Hareton and Cathy are in love and Heathcliff has been dead three months. Ellen tells him of the events since he left, explaining how Cathy gradually broke down Hareton's resistance by offering to teach him to read.

 CHAPTER 33:(XXXIII) THE HAUNTED SOUL

In Ellen's account, Cathy persuades Hareton to dig up some of Joseph's fruit bushes to make a garden. When Heathcliff finds out though, his expected outburst is muted. He

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is strangely quiet and tells Ellen that he feels a change coming on, that he is haunted by Catherine everywhere.

 CHAPTER 34:(XXXIV) UNIONS

Heathcliff grows worse, roaming the moors and neither eating nor sleeping. He sees Catherine everywhere he looks but is strangely happy. Eventually he is found dead in Catherine's room and is buried alongside her. Lockwood leaves with Hareton and Cathy planning to marry and move to Thrushcross Grange.

T O P O F P A G E

FAMOUS SCENES

The right hand column indicates roughly where in the chapter the scene begins, useful if you have a printed copy. The page icon in the left column will take you directly to it

in the online version.

Catherine's ghost Catherine's ghost appears at a window and begs to be let in

Ch 3, halfway

Heathcliff's arrival Heathcliff's first appearance as a child, brought from Liverpool by Mr Earnshaw.

Ch 4, halfway

Catherine and Heathcliff at Thrushcross Grange

Catherine and Heathcliff visit Thrushcross Grange for the first time and Catherine remains there.

Ch 6, halfway

Heathcliff runs away Catherine accepts Edgar's proposal and pours out her heart to Ellen. Heathcliff overhears and runs away from Wuthering Heights.

Ch 9, one quarter

Heathcliff returns Heathcliff returns after three years away. Ch 10, one quarter

Edgar and Heathcliff fight

Edgar finds Heathcliff at Thrushcross Grange and they briefly fight.

Ch 11, halfway

Catherine in delirium Catherine tears her pillow apart in delirium and then wishes to be back at Wuthering Heights.

Ch 12, one quarter

The final meeting Heathcliff meets Catherine for the final time before she dies.

Ch 15, one third

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Catherine's death Catherine dies and her daughter is born. Ch 16, beginning

Heathcliff visits Catherine's body

Heathcliff visits Catherine's body before the funeral and intertwines his hair with hers in a locket.

Ch 16, end

The clash at Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff fights with Hindley, and Isabella flees. Ch 17, one third

Meeting on the road Cathy meets Heathcliff on the road at the edge of the park.

Ch 22, two thirds

Cathy held captive Cathy and Ellen are held captive by Heathcliff where the former tries to take the key from his hand.

Ch 27, halfway

Heathcliff removes the side of Catherine's coffin

Before Edgar's funeral, Heathcliff pays the sexton to uncover Catherine's grave where he removes the side of her coffin.

Ch 29, halfway

Heathcliff digs up Catherine's coffin

Heathcliff digs down to Catherine's coffin to embrace her bodybut, note, he doesn't actually reach her.

Ch 29, two thirds

Cathy and Hareton become friends

Cathy decides that she wants to be friends with Hareton and he accepts a book as a gift.

Ch 32, two thirds

Death of Heathcliff Heathcliff is found dead in his chamber. Ch 34, two thirds

Heathcliff and Catherine as ghosts

A shepherd boy sees Heathcliff and 'a woman' as ghosts.

Ch 34, near the end

T O P O F P A G E

LIST OF NARRATORS

To help you understand the multiple narrators in Wuthering Heights, here is a list of who is talking and when. Names in (brackets) indicate minor narration.

Chap Narrators Chap Narrators

1 Lockwood 18 Ellen

2 Lockwood 19 Ellen

3 Lockwood 20 Ellen

4 Lockwood, Ellen 21 Ellen

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5 Ellen 22 Ellen

6 Ellen, Heathcliff 23 Ellen

7 Ellen 24 Ellen, Cathy

8 Ellen 25 Ellen, (Lockwood)

9 Ellen (Lockwood) 26 Ellen

10 (Lockwood), Ellen 27 Ellen

11 Ellen 28 Ellen

12 Ellen 29 Ellen, Heathcliff

13 Ellen, Isabella 30 Ellen, Zillah, (Lockwood)

14 Ellen, (Lockwood) 31 Lockwood

15 (Lockwood), Ellen 32 Lockwood, Ellen

16 Ellen 33 Ellen

17 Ellen, Isabella 34 Ellen, Lockwood

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2. Here are the most famous quotations from Wuthering Heights. Quotations relevant to characters can be found on their individual pages. There are quotations about the geography of the moors in the story on the Moors page.

CONTENTS (click on boxes)

Let me in!

God won't have the satisfaction that I shall

It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff

I am Heathcliff!

I love my murderer

I cannot live without my soul!

We'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another

I am surrounded with her image!

Imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth

CHAPTER 3 ("LET ME IN!")

I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, 'Let me in—let me in!' 'Who are you?' I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself. 'Catherine Linton,' it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of Linton? I had readEarnshaw twenty times for Linton) 'I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor!' As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking through the window. Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it wailed, 'Let me in!' and maintained its tenacious gripe, almost maddening me with fear. 'How can I!' I said at length. 'Let me go, if you want me to let you in!' The fingers relaxed, I snatched mine through the hole, hurriedly piled the books up in a pyramid against it, and stopped my ears to exclude the lamentable prayer. I seemed to keep them closed above a quarter of an hour; yet, the instant I listened again, there was the doleful cry moaning on! 'Begone!' I shouted. 'I'll never let you in, not if you beg for twenty years.' 'It is twenty years,' mourned the voice: 'twenty years. I've been a waif for twenty years!'

CHAPTER 7 ("GOD WON’T HAVE THE SATISFACTION THAT I SHALL")

He leant his two elbows on his knees, and his chin on his hands and remained rapt in dumb meditation. On my inquiring the subject of his thoughts, he answered gravely 'I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!'

'For shame, Heathcliff!' said I. 'It is for God to punish wicked people; we should learn to forgive.'

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'No, God won’t have the satisfaction that I shall,' he returned. 'I only wish I knew the best way! Let me alone, and I'll plan it out: while I'm thinking of that I don't feel pain.'

CHAPTER 9 ("IT WOULD DEGRADE ME TO MARRY HEATHCLIFF")

'This is nothing,' cried she: 'I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.'

CHAPTER 9 ("I AM HEATHCLIFF!")

'I think that's the worst motive you've given yet for being the wife of young Linton.'

'It is not,' retorted she; 'it is the best! The others were the satisfaction of my whims: and for Edgar's sake, too, to satisfy him. This is for the sake of one who comprehends in his person my feelings to Edgar and myself. I cannot express it; but 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? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and heremained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it.—My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I amHeathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. So don't talk of our separation again: it is impracticable; and—'

CHAPTER 15 ("I LOVE MY MURDERER")

'You teach me now how cruel you've been—cruel and false. Why did you despise me? Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me, and cry; and wring out my kisses and tears: they'll blight you—they'll damn you. You loved me—then what right had you to leave me? What right—answer me—for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart—youhave broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. So much the

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worse for me that I am strong. Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when you—oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?'

'Let me alone. Let me alone,' sobbed Catherine. 'If I’ve done wrong, I'm dying for it. It is enough! You left me too: but I won't upbraid you! I forgive you. Forgive me!'

'It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands,' he answered. 'Kiss me again; and don’t let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer—butyours! How can I?'

CHAPTER 16 ("I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT MY SOUL!")

'May she wake in torment!' he cried, with frightful vehemence, stamping his foot, and groaning in a sudden paroxysm of ungovernable passion. 'Why, she's a liar to the end! Where is she? Not there—not in heaven—not perished—where? Oh! you said you cared nothing for my sufferings! And I pray one prayer—I repeat it till my tongue stiffens—Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you—haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! only donot leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!'

CHAPTER 17 ("WE'LL SEE IF ONE TREE WON'T GROW AS CROOKED AS ANOTHER")

He had the hypocrisy to represent a mourner: and previous to following with Hareton, he lifted the unfortunate child on to the table and muttered, with peculiar gusto, 'Now, my bonny lad, you aremine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!'

CHAPTER 33 ("I AM SURROUNDED WITH HER IMAGE!")

"... for what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in the flags! In every cloud, in every tree—filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day—I am surrounded with her image! The most ordinary faces of men and women—my own features—mock me with a resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda that she did exist, and that I have lost her!"

CHAPTER 34 ("IMAGINE UNQUIET SLUMBERS FOR THE SLEEPERS IN THAT QUIET EARTH")

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I sought, and soon discovered, the three headstones on the slope next the moor: the middle one grey, and half buried in the heath; Edgar Linton's only harmonised by the turf and moss creeping up its foot; Heathcliff's still bare.

I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.

3. G E N E A L O G Y

To see a family tree of the Brontë family, go to the Emily Brontë page.

Clicking on a character will take you to their descriptive page. The names in the timeline diagram at the bottom can also be selected

PRINTING THE FAMILY TREE

A4-sized colour and black-and-white versions of the above tree can be downloaded from the Downloads page

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4. W U T H E R I N G H E I G H T S

A sixteenth century farmhouse, the grandest building in the neighbourhood except for Thrushcross Grange. 

The home of the Earnshaws and, later on, owned by Heathcliff.

CONTENTS (click on boxes)

Position Layout Ground Floor First Floor Roofspace Inspirations

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POSITION

Wuthering Heights ("Wuthering" is a local word, meaning wild, exposed, storm-blown, see Pronunciations) is in a very exposed position on the moors, a four mile (6.5 kilometer) walk from Thrushcross Grange. The nearest town or village is Gimmerton which has the doctor and parson.

The farm sits on the northern side of a hilltop also known as Wuthering Heights (or "the Heights"). This hill prevents it from seeing Thrushcross Grange. The road from the farm into Gimmerton valley is steep and winding.

To see an enlarged view of the the map left, see The Moors page.

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LAYOUT

The farm is surrounded by a wall with a barred gate secured by a chain. A pathway leads from the garden gate to the main door with gooseberry bushes bordering it.

There is a barn nearby with a round window (possibly a pitching window) which is within speaking distance of the main door. The barn has a fairly large porch (big enough to shelter twelve sheep).

There are also some stables with a porch and a shed behind the barn which can be used for milking cows.

From the farmhouse entrance, a yard is visible. As well as the front entrance, you can get to the interior by passing through a wash-house and a paved area containing a coal shed, pump and pigeon cot.

GROUND FLOOR

The farmhouse has a few stunted trees at the end of the house and a range of thorns, permanently bent by the wind. The trees are firs, one of which damages the kitchen chimney stack during high winds. They are close to the house for one of them breaks Lockwood's window in chapter 2, and Cathy escapes via the trees.

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It has narrow windows, deeply set in the walls, protected by shutters. The building's corners are defended by large, jutting stones. There are at least two chimney stacks, one in the east which is the kitchen's.

SITTING-ROOM (THE 'HOUSE')

The entrance to the sitting-room has grotesque carving over the front and around the main door. The door has griffins and 'boys' (cherubs?) carved above with the date 1500 and the name 'Hareton Earnshaw'. This leads directly into the family sitting-room, big enough to hold a fifteen-man band. (In other farms, it generally was the sitting-room and kitchen but Wuthering Heights had a separate kitchen.)

There is a large fireplace. Opposite is a vast oak dresser which reaches to the roof (which is not underdrawn). This dresser has a collection of large pewter dishes with silver jugs and tankards, and space at the bottom for dogs and children to shelter in. Above the fireplace are some old guns and horse pistols. There are three gaudily-painted canisters on the mantlepiece.

The floor of the sitting room is of smooth, white stone. There are some high-backed, primitive chairs painted green and one or two heavy black ones in the shadows. It has a side door leading down to a cellar.

KITCHEN

The kitchen has a hearth nearly enclosed by two benches shaped as circular segments. There is a ladder that goes through a trap in the roof, believed by Lockwood to lead to the garret where Joseph sleeps (although he sleeps above the first floor). The kitchen has windows which face east or south east to allow in light in the morning.

OTHER ROOMS

There is a small spare room which Hindley considered turning into a parlour but it is not clear whether this was on the ground or first floor.

The stairs are probably in or close to the kitchen (Lockwood gets to it from upstairs without disturbing the dog in the sitting-room). They are open since Hindley looks down from above and drops Hareton over the banisters.

FIRST FLOOR

The main bedroom during Heathcliff's ownership of Wuthering Heights was described thus: "There was a carpet—a good one, but the pattern was obliterated by dust; a fireplace hung with cut-paper, dropping to pieces; a handsome oak-bedstead with ample crimson curtains of rather expensive material and modern make; but they had evidently experienced rough usage: the vallances hung in festoons, wrenched from their rings, and the iron rod supporting them was bent in an arc on one side, causing the drapery to trail upon the floor. The chairs were also damaged, many of them severely; and deep indentations deformed the panels of the walls."

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Another room, Catherine's, consists of a chair, clothes-press and a large oak case with squares cut near the top resembling coach windows. It has panelled sides which slide back to reveal a couch. It is against a window whose ledge acts as a table. A fir tree is outside, close enough for its branches to touch the latticed window (in 1801).

One room upstairs is turned into a parlour for Linton and also used as such by Cathy.

Possible First Floor Room Allocations

Year Events Main RoomSecond Room

Third RoomFourth Room

Spare Room

1771 Heathcliff's arrival

Mr & Mrs Earnshaw

Hindley & Catherine

Ellen Spare Spare

1771-4

Catherine & Hindley grow apart

Mr & Mrs Earnshaw

Hindley Ellen Catherine & Heathcliff

Spare

1777 Hindley's return

Hindley & Frances

Spare Ellen (& Hareton later)

Catherine Spare

1783 Mar

Catherine marries Edgar

Hindley Spare Hareton (nearly 5)

Spare Spare

1783 Sep

Heathcliff returns

Hindley Heathcliff Hareton (5) Spare Spare

1784 Heathcliff marries Isabella

Heathcliff Hindley (until Sep)

Hareton Spare Isabella

1797 Linton arrives

Heathcliff Linton Housekeeper

Unused Parlour

1801 Aug

Cathy marries Linton

Heathcliff Cathy & Linton

Zillah Unused Parlour

1801 Nov

Lockwood's first visit

Heathcliff Cathy Zillah Unused (except by Lockwood)

Unused

1802 Lockwood's return

Heathcliff Cathy Ellen Hareton Parlour

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ROOFSPACE

Joseph's room is in the attic (garrets), reached via a ladder. There is enough room for at least four people (the young Cathy, Heathcliff and a plough boy were treated to a service with Joseph).

There are (at least) two garrets, one of which Heathcliff was locked in as a child (and may well have been his room). They have skylights and the young Catherine was able to climb from one garret to the other via the skylights

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The Construction of Wuthering Heights

See how the farmhouse of Wuthering Heights may have

evolved over its three centuries.

Take a tour of Wuthering Heights

See more views of the interior and exterior

ofWuthering Heights

T O P O F P A G E

INSPIRATIONS

The remote, abandoned farm of Top Withens (or Top Withins) is often thought of as the inspiration for Wuthering Heights although its appearance does not match the house in the book. Its location though does suggest the isolated and windswept site of the Heights. Top Withens is located about 5 kilometers south-west of Haworth at OS reference SD 9813 3539 (altitude 415 meters) . To see an aerial view of Top Withens on Google Maps, click here. A location map of Top Withens can be seenhere.

Top Withens (in the 1920s) Top Withens (the ruins now)(click on pictures for larger views)

Click here for the Top Withens page with larger pictures and directions

Another building that Emily Brontë would probably have seen when she was at Law Hill, and is sometimes considered to be an inspiration is High Sunderland Hall, near Halifax (now sadly demolished). It certainly has architectural features resembling Wuthering Heights, particularly the porch, but it is too grand for a farmhouse. A Victorian map showing High Sunderland Hall can be seen by clicking here.

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High Sunderland Hall High Sunderland Hall entrance

(click on pictures for larger views)

Possibly the most likely single inspiration for the building is actually the one usually cited as Thrushcross Grange, Ponden Hall. As can be seen from the photographs below, it is not unlike the 3D model that I constructed (which I did before seeing Ponden Hall). Imagine the Hall being located where Top Withens is and you are not far from Wuthering Heights.

Rear of Ponden Hall End wall of Ponden HallClick here for the Ponden Hall page with larger pictures and details

Note: the 3D models of the buildings were created in Google Sketchup

A GoogleMap showing Wuthering Heights and Emily Brontë locations can be seen by clicking on the image left or here.

5. P O R T R A I T S O F E M I L Y B R O N T Ë

There are only two known genuine portraits of Emily, both painted by her brother Branwell. But there are many images floating around the Internet that are claimed to be of her. On this page, I try to collect all of these images so you can know which are the real thing.

CONTENTS (click on boxes)

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Genuine Portraits Disputed Portraits

Mistaken Portraits Interpretations

TV and Movies  

GENUINE PORTRAITS

A. The ‘Gun Group’ (1833/4)

Engraving Photograph

The painting known as the 'Gun Group' was produced by Branwell around 1833/4. Soon after 1861 – once Patrick, the last of the Brontë family, had died – Charlotte's widow, Arthur Bell Nicholls, destroyed the painting as he believed the likenesses were so poor. However, the image of Emily was presumably more accurate as he retained this which is now known as the Profile Portrait (B below). He took it back to Ireland with the Piller Portrait (C) before being discovered in 1914 after he died.

On the left is a tracing of Emily from the Gun Group produced by the Haworth stationer, John Greenwood before it was destroyed.

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For many years, only the tracings and an 1879 engraving of the original painting remained but, in 1989, a photograph was found of the painting, copied about 1879 from a daguerrotype of 1858-61.

Link to image in Getty Library

B. The Profile Portrait (1833/4)

Original Restoration

This is actually part of the Gun Group painting (see above) but can be considered separately since the rest of the original was destroyed. Emily would have been about 15 or 16 at the time.

It is now on show in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

On the right above is a 1999 restoration by Michael Armitage.

 

 

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C. The ‘Pillar’ Portrait (1835)

Original Restoration

The painting known as the Pillar Portrait was painted by Branwell in 1835, a year or two after the Gun Group/Profile painting. It is so named because of the 'pillar' in the background which is where Branwell's figure originally stood and which is gradully reappearing with time. The order of the figures then is Anne, Emily, (Branwell) and Charlotte.

It is now on show in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

On the right above is a 1999 restoration by Michael Armitage.

 

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DISPUTED PORTRAITS

The Landseer ‘Sisters’ (1838)

Full image Close-up of 'Emily' figure

This painting came to light in 2011 and is claimed to be a painting of the sisters produced in 1838 by Edwin Landseer. However, the sisters were unknown outside Haworth at that time so it is unlikely that a top artist would have painted them. They also bear little resemblance to the known portraits of the sisters.

Links: BBC website | Ferndean Manor

John Hunter Thompson (1840)

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Full image Close-up

Another painting which appeared in 2011 and claimed to be of Emily. It is believed to be painted by John Hunter Thompson of Bradford around 1840. As can be seen, it is very similar to the picture from 'The Woman at Home' magazine in 1894 (below) which was reported to be from a 'book of beauty'. Written on the back of the painting is 'Emily Bronte – Sister of Charlotte B... Currer Bell', and on the backing paper 'Emily Bronte/Sister of Charlotte Bronte/Ellis Bell'.

The  Brontë Society  does not believe that it is of Emily.

MISTAKEN PORTRAITS

‘The Woman at Home’ (1894)

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This drawing was featured in the 1894 edition of 'The Woman at Home' magazine and was claimed to be a portrait of Emily drawn by Charlotte. However, Clement K. Shorter in his book Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle (1896), commented on it:

There are three or four so-called portraits of Emily in existence, but they are all repudiated by Mr. Nicholls as absolutely unlike her. The supposed portrait which appeared in The Woman at Home for July 1894 is now known to have been merely an illustration from a 'Book of Beauty,' and entirely spurious.

Links: Bronte Blogspot | Getty Images

‘Thornton and the Brontës’ (1898)

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The cover of the 1898 book Thornton and the Brontës featured a portrait claimed to be of Emily. The author, William Scruton wrote:

The portrait of Emily Brontë was carefully and accurately copied by Miss Preston from a picture which came to me from Haworth with good credentials as to authenticity. The original was submitted to the inspection of Martha Brown, the Brontë housekeeper, and admitted by her to be a tolerably faithful portrait. The picture formerly belonged to a member of the Brown family, of Haworth, who always regarded it as a good likeness. On the strength of this evidence, and nothwithstanding Mr. Shorter’s opinion that the quest for an authentic portrait of Emily Brontë now seems hopeless, I have felt justified in giving the portrait a prominent place in my book.

Readers of Miss Robinson’s Emily Brontë will doubtless remember that lady’s word-picture of the authoress of Wuthering Heights, – “A quality of dark-brown hair, deep, beautiful hazel eyes that could flash with passion, features somewhat strong and stern, the mouth prominent and resolute.” Martha Brown, who was thrown much in contact with Emily, said, “We always thought he to be the best looking, the cleverest, and the bravest-spirited of the three sisters”.

Link to image in Getty library

The Getty Portrait

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Original Colourised

Another image found floating around the Internet with a close resemblance to the Emily of the Branwell paintings is this one. It is part of the Hulton Library/Getty Images collection and is claimed to be Emily Brontë. However, the origin of the picture is unknown and there is no basis for being a genuine representation.

One rumour was that it was a portrait of George Henry Lewes, a writer and critic who corresponded with Charlotte. The portrait left is of a young G H Lewes and is held in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

 

According to Charlotte, Lewes had many similarities to Emily. In a letter to Ellen Nussey (June 1850), Charlotte wrote of Lewes:

I have seen Lewes too—he is a man with both weaknesses and sins; but unless I err greatly the foundation of his nature is not bad—and were he almost a fiend in character—I could not feel otherwise to him than half sadly half tenderly—a queer word the last—but I use it because the aspect of Lewes’s face almost

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moves me to tears—it is so wonderfully like Emily—her eyes, her features—the very nose, the somewhat prominent mouth, the forehead—even at moments the expression: whatever Lewes does or says I believe I cannot hate him.

The Charlotte Portrait

This chalk portrait of Charlotte was created by George Richmond in 1850. Although there is not the slightest doubt that it is of Charlotte, you can still find the image being used for Emily on the Internet. It is on show in the National Portrait Gallery.

INTERPRETATIONS

A portrayal from Life magazine A portrayal by B J Tanke

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TV AND MOVIE PORTRAYALS

Ida Lupino Rosemary McHale

   

Isabelle Adjani Sinead O'Connor

Ida Lupino from the 1946 film "Devotion" Rosemary McHale from the 1973 television series "The Brontës of Haworth" Isabelle Adjani from the 1979 film "Les Soeurs Brontës" Sinead O'Connor from the 1992 film "Wuthering Heights"

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