The Structure Of Wuthering Heights English Literature Essay

-He meets Heathcliff. Lockwood explains him as someone who is more exaggeratively reserved than he is. Shows the reader how Wuthering Heights looks like. Gothic structure. Grotesque Carvings.

Lockwood, on his second visit to Thrushcross Grange, ends up sleeping at Wuthering Heights. He reads the diary and has a pair of nightmares in which an apparition that called itself Catherine Linton begged to be let in.

-Here he is introduced into the drama behind the Earnshaw family.

Nelly Dean begins her story about the people of Wuthering Heights.

-Begins to explain his misconceptions about the family tree. Talk about journey.

Heathcliff is taken in as a member of the Earnshaw family.

-At this point, Hindley disfavor him because of the attention he gets from his father. Catherine becomes inseparable from Heathcliff. When Mrs. Earnshaw dies, Mr.Earnshaw loves him more than his own son.

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Mr.Earnshaw dies and Hindley becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights.

-Turning Point. Hindley returns with a wife and becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff, the pampered boy, becomes a lowly stable hand and field laborer who must now live with the servants.

Catherine gets bitten by the Linton’s dog, and is hospitalized at Thrushcross Grove for a couple of weeks.

-This may not seem to be like such an important event. But, this is the event that catalyzes Catherine’s transformation into a proper young lady.

Catherine comes back from Thrushcross Grange.

When Catherine comes back, her remark on the difference in cleanliness between her and Heathcliff also serves to show the difference in social status that developed between these two. This difference later serves to separate Catherine and Heathcliff.

The Lintons come to visit Wuthering Heights.

The separation that is enforced between them is the first signs of social class separation. I believe this dinner party is a physical manifestation of how the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff will end up. Hindley not let Heathcliff join the dinner. When Catherine is unseen by her peers, she sneaks out and takes care of him.

Frances, Hindley’s wife, dies after birthing Hareton.

Hindley resorts to excessive drinking. Introduction of new character.

Catherine and Edgar confess their love for each other.

CLIMAX: Heathcliff overhears Catherine’s confession to Nelly.

She says how she can’t marry Heathcliff because he’s been casted down so low. But, loves him more than anything. That they are kindred spirits. Heathcliff only overhears the first part and then runs away.

Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights.

Edgar and Catherine marry.

Heathcliff come back with extreme wealth.

Heathcliff elopes with Isabella Linton.

Catherine becomes very ill.

Heathcliff and Catherine feverish discussion

Catherine gives birth to young Catherine and then dies.

Heathcliff and Edgar’s hair is entwined into Catherine’s locket.

Isabella runs away to London and gives birth to a son, Linton.

Hindley dies and Heathcliff comes into possession of Wuthering Heights.

Hareton becomes an uneducated person who works for his keep while Catherine becomes a proper beautiful and intelligent young lady.

Young Catherine meets Hareton for the first time. She is introduced to Wuthering Heights.

Isabella dies, and Linton is brought over to Thrushcross Grange.

Catherine develops feelings for him.

Heathcliff claims Linton as his own and takes him.

Linton and Catherine’s Romance-

Catherine and Nelly, going out birdhunting, inadvertently meets Heathcliff and Hareton. Heathcliff invites them to visit Wuthering Heights and her cousin.

Linton and Catherine become reacquainted.

Linton and Catherine send secret love letters to each other, which Nelly later stops.

Heathcliff meets Catherine and convinces her to come visit Linton, professing that Linton is dying of unrequited love.

Saying that he was hurt by Catherine, Linton makes Catherine guilty. She comes every evening to nurse him.

Catherine is forbidden from going to Wuthering Heights by her father.

It is revealed that Linton is being forced by his father to court Catherine.

Heathcliff imprisons Catherine and Nelly in Wuthering Heights and refuses to let them leave until Catherine marries Linton.

Nelly is able to make her escape, and from Linton she hears that Catherine has married him.

Edgar dies. Catherine is forced to live with Heathcliff.

Linton dies shortly after.

Lockwood moves out of Thrushcross Grove to London, and 6 months later comes back to visit.

Catherine and Hareton resolve their differences and become close.

Heathcliff and Catherine get into an argument, and just as he is about to slap her he stops and lets her go.

Afterwards he even tells Nelly that he no longer wishes to harm Catherine and Hareton.

Heathcliff starts to become stranger. He starts eating less, talking to ghosts, and saying Catherine’s name. ” O God! It is a long fight; I wish it were over!”

Heathcliff dies and is buried next to Catherine.

Young Catherine and Hareton marry.

Early in the year, young Catherine is imprisoned by Heathcliff and forced to marry Linton; Edgar Linton dies; Linton dies; Heathcliff assumes control of Thrushcross Grange. Late in the year, Lockwood rents the Grange from Heathcliff and begins his tenancy. In a winter storm, Lockwood takes ill and begins conversing with Nelly Dean.

Wuthering Heights centers around the story of Heathcliff. The first paragraph of the novel provides a vivid physical picture of him, as Lockwood describes how his “black eyes” withdraw suspiciously under his brows at Lockwood’s approach. Nelly’s story begins with his introduction into the Earnshaw family, his vengeful machinations drive the entire plot, and his death ends the book. The desire to understand him and his motivations has kept countless readers engaged in the novel.

Heathcliff, however, defies being understood, and it is difficult for readers to resist seeing what they want or expect to see in him. The novel teases the reader with the possibility that Heathcliff is something other than what he seems-that his cruelty is merely an expression of his frustrated love for Catherine, or that his sinister behaviors serve to conceal the heart of a romantic hero. We expect Heathcliff’s character to contain such a hidden virtue because he resembles a hero in a romance novel. Traditionally, romance novel heroes appear dangerous, brooding, and cold at first, only later to emerge as fiercely devoted and loving. One hundred years before Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights, the notion that “a reformed rake makes the best husband” was already a cliché of romantic literature, and romance novels center around the same cliché to this day.

Brontë was one of six children born to Reverend Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell Brontë. Born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, on July 30, 1818, she was the sister of Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell. Her family moved to Haworth when she was two years old, and here she first experienced the moors, a part of the Pennine Chain of mountains, andhere she lived until she died 30 years later.

A variety of conflicting influences shaped her life. Her father, of Irish descent, was known for his poetry and imagination even though he was the cleric. Her mother, a staunch Methodist, died when Emily was only three years old, so what she knew of her she learned from her siblings and her Aunt Elizabeth (Maria’s sister), who raised the children after Maria’s death. Elizabeth brought a religious fervor to the house that Brontë soon rejected.

Brontë’s environment shaped her life and her work. The village of Haworth was isolated and surrounded by moors; thus, the one world she knew and lived in became the setting for her only novel. Paralleling her own life, she creates motherless characters in Wuthering Heights.

Wuthering Heights opens with Lockwood, a tenant of Heathcliff’s, visiting the home of his landlord. A subsequent visit to Wuthering Heights yields an accident and a curious supernatural encounter, which pique Lockwood’s curiosity. Back at Thrushcross Grange and recuperating from his illness, Lockwood begs Nelly Dean, a servant who grew up in Wuthering Heights and now cares for Thrushcross Grange, to tell him of the history of Heathcliff. Nelly narrates the main plot line of Wuthering Heights.

Mr. Earnshaw, a Yorkshire Farmer and owner of Wuthering Heights, brings home an orphan from Liverpool. The boy is named Heathcliff and is raised with the Earnshaw children, Hindley and Catherine. Catherine loves Heathcliff but Hindley hates him because Heathcliff has replaced Hindley in Mr. Earnshaw’s affection. After Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley does what he can to destroy Heathcliff, but Catherine and Heathcliff grow up playing wildly on the moors, oblivious of anything or anyone else – until they encounter the Lintons.

Edgar and Isabella Linton live at Thrushcross Grange and are the complete opposites of Heathcliff and Catherine. The Lintons welcome Catherine into their home but shun Heathcliff. Treated as an outsider once again, Heathcliff begins to think about revenge. Catherine, at first, splits her time between Heathcliff and Edgar, but soon she spends more time with Edgar, which makes Heathcliff jealous. When Heathcliff overhears Catherine tell Nelly that she can never marry him (Heathcliff), he leaves Wuthering Heights and is gone for three years.

While he is gone, Catherine continues to court and ends up marrying Edgar. Their happiness is short-lived because they are from two different worlds, and their relationship is strained further when Heathcliff returns. Relationships are complicated even more as Heathcliff winds up living with his enemy, Hindley (and Hindley’s son, Hareton), at Wuthering Heights and marries Isabella, Edgar’s sister. Soon after Heathcliff’s marriage, Catherine gives birth to Edgar’s daughter, Cathy, and dies.

Heathcliff vows revenge and does not care who he hurts while executing it. He desires to gain control of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and to destroy everything Edgar Linton holds dear. In order to exact his revenge, Heathcliff must wait 17 years. Finally, he forces Cathy to marry his son, Linton. By this time he has control of the Heights and with Edgar’s death, he has control of the Grange.

Through all of this, though, the ghost of Catherine haunts Heathcliff. What he truly desires more than anything else is to be reunited with his soul mate. At the end of the novel, Heathcliff and Catherine are united in death, and Hareton and Cathy are going to be united in marriage.