What is your first impression of the inhabitants of wuthering heigths chapter1

Chapter 1, Summary

In Chapter 1 the narrator, Mr. Lockwood, relates how he has just returned from a visit to his new landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. Lockwood, a self-described misanthropist, is renting Thrushcross Grange in an effort to get away from society following a failure at love. He had fallen in love with a "real goddess," but when she returned his affection he acted so coldly she "persuaded her mamma to decamp." He finds that relative to Heathcliff, however, he is extremely sociable. Heathcliff, "a dark skinned gypsy, in aspect, in dress, and manners a gentleman" treats his visitor with a minimum of friendliness, and the farm, Wuthering Heights, where he lives, is just as foreign and unfriendly. "Wuthering" means stormy and windy in the local dialect. Dangerous-looking dogs inhabit the bare and old-fashioned rooms, and threaten to attack Lockwood: when he calls for help Heathcliff implies that Lockwood had tried to steal something. The only other inhabitants of Wuthering Heights are an old servant named Joseph and a cook. Despite his rudeness, Lockwood finds himself drawn to Heathcliff: he describes him as being intelligent, proud and morose, an unlikely farmer, and declares his intention to visit Wuthering Heights again. The visit is set in 1801.

Analysis:

This chapter introduces the reader to the frame of the story: Lockwood will gradually discover the events which led to Heathcliff ­ now about forty years old ­ living all but alone in Wuthering Heights, almost completely separated from society. The casual violence and lack of concern for manners or consideration for other people which characterizes Heathcliff here is only a hint of the atmosphere of the whole novel, in which that violence is contrasted with more genteel and civilized ways of living.