Wuthering Heights Video

Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel written by Emily Bronte and published in 1847, the same year that her sister, Charlotte, published Jane Eyre. Growing up relatively isolated, Emily published the novel—her first and only—under the name Ellis Bell, a pen name that her sisters helped coin along with their own when they co-authored a book of poetry in 1846. Dying soon after Wuthering Heights was published to scathing reviews, Emily would never read the introduction to the novel penned by her sister, Charlotte, in which she outed Emily as the author and defended her from critics: “her mind would of itself have grown like a strong tree.” Set on the moors near Yorkshire, Wuthering Heights tells the story of two neighboring families that become tragically entangled as a result of a fraught romance between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff.

The novel begins with its narrator, Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant of a fine estate called Thrushcross Grange, paying a visit to the neighboring property, Wuthering Heights, which is owned by a troubled man named Heathcliff. Finding himself snowed in, Lockwood passes the night at Wuthering Heights by reading the diary of Catherine Earnshaw, the former inhabitant of his room. While reading, Lockwood is visited by Catherine’s ghost, who asks to be let in through the window. Upon returning home, Lockwood falls ill and asks his housekeeper, Ellen “Nelly” Dean, who used to work at Wuthering Heights, to tell him what she knows about the place.

Nelly’s story begins with the original owner of Wuthering Heights, a gentleman-farmer named Earnshaw, who returns from a trip to Liverpool with a “dark-skinned” orphan boy he found roaming the streets. Naming the boy Heathcliff after his late son, Earnshaw raises the child as his own, inspiring the envy of his biological son, Hindley, who beats Heathcliff every chance he gets. In contrast, Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine, immediately befriends Heathcliff, and the two become close throughout the years.

Eventually, Earnshaw and his wife pass away. Hindley returns from college to take over as the new head of Wuthering Heights, bringing his new wife, Frances. With his father gone, Hindley relegates 12 year-old Heathcliff to the level of a servant. But 11 year-old Catherine continues her friendship with Heathcliff, roaming the moors with him despite the punishment they both know to expect when they return home.

One day, Catherine and Heathcliff are caught spying on the civilized Linton family, who live at Thrushcross Grange. While the Lintons throw Heathcliff out, they invite Catherine to stay for five weeks, dressing and teaching her to behave like a proper young lady. During this time, Catherine also becomes infatuated with Edgar, the Lintons’ son. When Catherine finally returns to Wuthering Heights a changed young woman, Heathcliff worries that she will lose interest in him.

Frances gives birth to a son, Hareton, and dies of tuberculosis soon after. Hindley gives into despair and alcoholism, neglecting the upkeep of Wuthering Heights. After accepting a marriage proposal from Edgar, Catherine admits to Nelly that, despite her consuming affection for Heathcliff, she cannot marry him due to his inferior social status. Overhearing this, Heathcliff becomes distraught and runs away. Catherine searches for him all night in a raging storm, but to no avail. At the age of 18, Catherine marries Edgar and moves into Thrushcross Grange.

To Catherine’s relief, Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights three years later, having mysteriously acquired gentlemanly manners, education, and money while he was away. While spending time with Catherine at the Grange, Heathcliff indulges the affections of Edgar’s sister, Isabella, in an attempt at revenge on her brother. Over time, the tense atmosphere between Heathcliff and Edgar culminates in Heathcliff being thrown out of the Grange, to which Catherine responds by shutting herself in her room. Ultimately, Edgar is unable to stop Heathcliff and Isabella from being together, and they elope.

Locked in her room, Catherine refuses food and falls ill, even though she is pregnant with Edgar’s child. Meanwhile, Heathcliff and Isabella return to Wuthering Heights, miserable and regretting their elopement. One day, while Edgar is in church, Heathcliff comes to Grange, where he and Catherine have a passionate reunion, forgiving each other for their betrayals. In order to avoid Edgar, Heathcliff leaves but is later devastated to learn that Catherine died that very night, after giving birth to a daughter, Cathy.

Wracked with grief, Heathcliff calls on Catherine’s ghost to haunt him for the rest of his days. Hindley dies soon after his sister, making Heathcliff the head of Wuthering Heights. Plagued by Heathcliff’s cruelty, Isabella flees to London, giving birth to their son, Linton. Meanwhile, Edgar raises Cathy entirely within the confines of the Grange, depriving her of contact with Wuthering Heights. That is, until she stumbles upon it one day while exploring the moors. Horrified by the realization that she is related to her uncultured cousin, Hareton, Cathy flees. Ellen warns her never to return.

When Linton is twelve years old, his mother, Isabella dies, leaving Edgar and Heathcliff to compete over where the child will be raised. Ultimately, Heathcliff wins out, taking Linton to Wuthering Heights, where he grows up isolated from Edgar and Cathy. But on her sixteenth birthday, Cathy strays onto Heathcliff’s property, where he invites her and Nelly to spend time with Linton. While Edgar later forbids Cathy from returning to Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff begins to encourage a romance between her and Linton. Sure enough, Cathy and Linton begin writing love letters to each other, though Nelly later puts an end to their correspondence.

Edgar falls ill, and Cathy defies him by returning to Wuthering Heights to continue her liaison with Linton, who soon grows ill as well. Soon enough, however, Cathy realizes that Linton is only pursuing her at his father’s urging, since Heathcliff hopes to inherit the Grange when Edgar dies. Heathcliff eventually forces Cathy to remain at Wuthering Heights until she marries Linton. Finally consenting, she escapes Wuthering Heights just in time to see her father before he dies.

Following Edgar’s funeral, Heathcliff forces Cathy to live at Wuthering Heights as a glorified servant tasked with caring for Linton, who eventually dies. Although she detests the uncivilized Hareton, who is by now in love with her, she becomes so lonely that she begins teaching him to read, gradually coming to return his feelings. Meanwhile, growing increasingly crazed, Heathcliff reveals to Nelly that he is still tormented by the ghost of Catherine, having dug up her grave in a deranged attempt to gaze upon her corpse.

With Cathy at Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff rents the Grange to Lockwood, bringing us up to the present in Nelly’s story. Tiring of the gloomy moors, Lockwood moves away but encounters Nelly while passing through the area eight months later. Nelly explains to Lockwood that Heathcliff grew so obsessed with Catherine’s ghost that he stopped eating and sleeping. One day, Nelly found him dead, with a bizarre smile on his face. Heathcliff is buried with Catherine, while Hareton and Cathy make plans to marry and move into the Grange.