Analysis: Chapters I–V

The strange, deliberately confusing opening chapters of Wuthering Heights serve as

Brontë’s introduction to the world of the novel and to the complex relationships among
the characters, as well as to the peculiar style of narration through which the story will be
told. One of the most important aspects of the novel is its second- and third-hand manner
of narration. Nothing is ever related simply from the perspective of a single participant.
Instead, the story is told through entries in Lockwood’s diary, but Lockwood does not
participate in the events he records. The vast majority of the novel represents
Lockwood’s written recollections of what he has learned from the testaments of others,
whether he is transcribing what he recalls of Catherine’s diary entry or recording his
conversations with Nelly Dean. Because of the distance that this imposes between the
reader and the story itself, it is extremely important to remember that nothing in the book
is written from the perspective of an unbiased narrator, and it is often necessary to read
between the lines in order to understand events.

The reader can immediately question Lockwood’s reliability as a conveyer of facts. A

vain and somewhat shallow man, he frequently makes amusing mistakes—he assumes,
for instance, that Heathcliff is a gentleman with a house full of servants, even though it is
apparent to the reader that Heathcliff is a rough and cruel man with a house full of dogs.
Nelly Dean is more knowledgeable about events, as she has participated in many of them
first hand, yet while this makes her more trustworthy in some ways, it also makes her
more biased in others. She frequently glosses over her own role in the story’s
developments, particularly when she has behaved badly. Later in the novel, she describes
how she took the young Linton to live with his cruel father after the death of his mother.
She lies to the boy on the journey, telling him that his father is a kind man, and, after his
horrible meeting with Heathcliff, she tries to sneak out when he is not paying attention.
He notices her and begs her not to leave him with Heathcliff. She ignores his entreaties,
however, and tells Lockwood that she simply had “no excuse for lingering longer.” Nelly
is generally a dependable source of information, but moments such as this one—and there
are many—remind the reader that the story is told by a fallible human being.

Apart from establishing the manner and quality of narration, the most important function
of these early chapters is to pique the reader’s curiosity about the strange histories of the
denizens of Wuthering Heights. The family relationships, including multiple Earnshaws,
Catherines, Lintons, and Heathcliffs, seem at this point in the novel to intertwine with
baffling complexity, and the characters, because Lockwood first encounters them late in
their story, seem full of mysterious passions and ancient, hidden resentments. Even the
setting of this history seems to possess its own secrets. Wild and desolate, full of eerie
winds and forgotten corners, the land has borne witness to its residents’ nighttime walks,
forbidden meetings, and graveyard visits. Indeed, the mysteries of the land cannot be
separated from the mysteries of the characters, and the physical landscape of the novel is
often used to reflect the mental and emotional landscapes of those who live there.

While the odd characters and wild setting contribute to a certain sense of mystery, this
sense is most definitively established by the appearance of Catherine Earnshaw’s ghost.
Yet while Lockwood’s account of the event greatly influences the feel of the novel, and
while his subsequent account of it to Heathcliff provokes a reaction that may offer us
clues as to his relationship with the late Catherine, the reader may still conclude that the
ghost is a figment of Lockwood’s imagination. Because Lockwood has proven himself
flighty and emotional, and he is still half asleep when he encounters the ghost, one could
infer that he never actually sees a ghost, but simply has an intense vision in the midst of
his dream. It seems likely, however, that Emily Brontë would have intended the ghost to
seem real to her readers: such a supernatural phenomenon would certainly be in keeping
with the Gothic tone pervading the rest of the novel. Moreover, Heathcliff refers to
Catherine’s ghost several times during the course of the novel. Clearly he concurs with
Lockwood in believing that she haunts Wuthering Heights. Thus the ghost, whether
objectively “real” or not, attests to the way the characters remain haunted by a troubling
and turbulent past.

Analysis: Chapters VI–IX

In this section, Nelly brings to conclusion the story of Heathcliff and Catherine’s
childhood, with Heathcliff leaving Wuthering Heights the night Catherine decides to
marry Edgar Linton. In the climactic scene in which Catherine discusses with Nelly her
decision to marry Edgar, Catherine describes the conflict between her love for Heathcliff
and her love for Edgar. She says that she loves Edgar because he is handsome, rich, and
graceful, and because he would make her the greatest lady in the region. However, she
also states that she loves Heathcliff as though they shared the same soul, and that she
knows in her heart that she has no business marrying Edgar. Nevertheless, her desire for a
genteel and socially prominent lifestyle guides her decision-making: she would marry
Heathcliff, if Hindley had not cast him down so low.

Heathcliff’s emotional turmoil is due in part to his ambiguous class status. He begins life
as a lower-class orphan, but is raised to the status of a gentleman’s son when Mr.
Earnshaw adopts him. He suffers another reversal in status when Hindley forces him to
work as a servant in the very same household where he once enjoyed a life of luxury. The
other characters, including the Lintons and, to an extent, Catherine—all upper-class
themselves—prove complicit in this obliteration of Heathcliff’s hopes. Inevitably, the
unbridgeable gap in Catherine’s and Heathcliff’s social positions renders their fervent
romance unrealizable on any practical level.

Nevertheless, the passion between the two lovers remains rooted in their hearts,
impervious to external contingencies. The text consistently treats the love between
Catherine and Heathcliff as an incontestable fact of nature. Nothing can alter or lessen it,
and the lovers know this. Heathcliff and Catherine know that no matter how they hurt
each other, they can be sure of never losing their shared passion and ultimate mutual
loyalty. Catherine can decide to marry Edgar, certain that this outward act will have no
effect on her and Heathcliff’s inner feelings for one another. Similarly, it is in the
knowledge of their passion’s durability that Heathcliff later undertakes his cruel revenge.

Analysis: Chapters X–XIV

Heathcliff, who seemed an almost superhuman figure even at his most oppressed,
emerges in these chapters as a demonically charismatic, powerful, and villainous man,
capable of extreme cruelties. Tortured by the depth of his love for Catherine, by his sense
that she has betrayed him, and by his hatred of Hindley and the Linton family for making
him seem unworthy of her, Heathcliff dedicates himself to an elaborate plan for revenge.
The execution of this plan occupies much of the rest of the novel.

Though Heathcliff’s first reunion with Catherine seems joyful, Nelly is right to fear his
return, for he quickly exhibits his ardent malice, first through his treatment of the pathetic
wretch Hindley, and then through his merciless abuse of the innocent Isabella. But
though his destructive cruelty makes him the villain of the book, Heathcliff never loses
his status as a sympathetic character. Although one can hardly condone his actions, it is
difficult not to commiserate with him.

This ambiguity in Heathcliff’s character has sparked much discussion among critics, who
debate whether his role in the novel is that of hero or villain. In some sense, he fulfills
both roles. He certainly behaves cruelly and harmfully toward many of the other
characters; yet, because he does so out of the pain of his love for Catherine, the reader
remains just as attuned to Heathcliff’s own misery as to the misery he causes in others.
The love between Catherine and Heathcliff constitutes the center of Wuthering Heights
both thematically and emotionally, and, if one is to respond at all to the novel, it is
difficult to resist sympathizing with that love. Correspondingly, as a participant in this
love story, Heathcliff never becomes an entirely inhuman or incomprehensible character
to the reader, no matter how sadistically he behaves.

Many scholars believe that Brontë intended her novel to be a moralizing, cautionary tale
about the dangers of loving too deeply. If this is true, then one might argue that the book,
in creating such charismatic main characters as Heathcliff and Catherine, defeats its own
purpose. For instance, Isabella, though innocent and morally pure, never exerts the same
power over the reader’s imagination as Heathcliff and Catherine. As a result, it becomes
unnervingly easy to overlook Isabella’s suffering, even though her suffering would
otherwise function as one of the novel’s strongest pieces of evidence in its condemnation
of obsessive passions. Similarly, Heathcliff suffers the ill treatment of characters who
seem his intellectual and spiritual inferiors; thus when he seeks revenge on a brute such
as Hindley, the reader secretly wishes him success. As a result, once again, Brontë’s
strong characterization of Heathcliff undermines any possible intent she might have had
to warn her readers about the perils of an overly intense love.

In addition to exploring the character of Heathcliff as a grown man, this section casts
some light on the character of Nelly Dean as a narrator. Her narrative has always shown
certain biases, and throughout the book she harshly criticizes Catherine’s behavior,
calling her spoiled, proud, arrogant, thoughtless, selfish, naïve, and cruel. It is true that
Catherine can be each of those things, but it also seems clear that Nelly is jealous of
Catherine’s beauty, wealth, and social station. It is important to remember that Nelly is
not much older than Catherine and grew up serving her.
Some readers have speculated that Nelly’s jealousy may also arise from a passion for
Edgar Linton—whom she praises extravagantly throughout the novel—or even for
Heathcliff, whom she often heatedly denounces. This section of the book offers some
evidence for the latter view. For instance, when Catherine teasingly tells Heathcliff in
Chapter X that Isabella has fallen in love with him, she does so by saying, “Heathcliff,
I’m proud to show you, at last, somebody that dotes on you more than myself. I expect
you to feel flattered.” She then says, “Nay, it’s not Nelly; don’t look at her!” This
comment suggests that Heathcliff looks at Nelly after Catherine’s first statement. Perhaps
in the past he has suspected Nelly of having feelings for him. Certainly, a reader might
interpret Catherine’s words in a different manner. Nevertheless, Catherine’s comments
substantiate the idea that Nelly’s feelings for the other characters in the novel are deeper
and more complicated than she reveals to Lockwood.

Analysis: Chapters XV–XX

Wuthering Heights is, in many ways, a novel of juxtaposed pairs: Catherine’s two great
loves for Heathcliff and Edgar; the two ancient manors of Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange; the two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons; Heathcliff’s
conflicting passions of love and hate. Additionally, the structure of the novel divides the
story into two contrasting halves. The first deals with the generation of characters
represented by Catherine, Heathcliff, Hindley, Isabella, and Edgar, and the second deals
with their children—young Catherine, Linton, and Hareton. Many of the same themes
and ideas occur in the second half of the novel as in the first half, but they develop quite
differently. While the first half ends on a note of doom and despair with Catherine’s
death and Heathcliff’s gradual descent into evil, the novel as a whole ends on a note of
hope, peace, and joy, with young Catherine’s proposed marriage to Hareton Earnshaw.

In the first of the chapters in this section, we witness the event that marks the dividing
line between the two halves of the novel: Catherine’s death. The episodes surrounding
her passing—her dramatic illness, her confrontation with Heathcliff, Heathcliff’s conflict
with Edgar, and Heathcliff’s curse upon her soul to walk the earth after her death
(contrasting immediately with Nelly’s gentle claim that she at last rests in heaven) rank
among the most intense scenes in the book. In fact, many readers view the second half of
the novel, in which Catherine figures only as a memory, as a sort of anticlimax. While the
latter chapters may never reach the emotional heights of the earlier ones, however, they
remain crucial to the thematic development of the novel, as well as to its structural
symmetry.

Young Catherine grows up sheltered at Thrushcross Grange, learning only in piecemeal

fashion about the existence of Heathcliff and his reign at Wuthering Heights.
Unbeknownst to her, Heathcliff’s legal claim on the Grange (through his marriage to
Isabella) may jeopardize her own eventual claim on it. Edgar Linton, however, painfully
aware of this threat, searches for a way to prevent Heathcliff from taking the property.
These events underscore the symbolic importance of the two houses. Wuthering Heights
represents wildness, ungoverned passion, extremity, and doom. The fiery behavior of the
characters associated with this house—Hindley, Catherine, and Heathcliff—underscores
such connotations. By contrast, Thrushcross Grange represents restraint, social grace,
civility, gentility, and aristocracy—qualities emphasized by the more mannered behavior
of the Lintons who live there. The names of the two houses also bear out the contrast.
While the adjective “wuthering” refers to violent storms, the thrush is a bird known for its
melodious song, as well as being a symbol of Christian piety. In addition, whereas
“Heights” evoke raw and imposing cliffs, “Grange” refers to a domestic site, a farm—
especially that of a gentleman farmer. The concepts juxtaposed in the contrast of the two
estates come into further conflict in Catherine’s inability to choose between Edgar and
Heathcliff. While she is attracted to Edgar’s social grace, her feelings for Heathcliff reach
heights of wild passion.

As the second generation of main characters matures, its members emerge as

combinations of their parents’ characteristics, blending together qualities that had been
opposed in the older generation. Thus young Catherine is impetuous and headstrong like
her mother, but tempered by the gentling influence of her father. Linton, on the other
hand, represents the worst of both of his parents, behaving in an imperious and
demanding manner like Heathcliff, but also remaining fragile and simpering like Isabella.
Hareton appears as a second Heathcliff, rough and unpolished, but possessed of a
strength of character that refuses to be suppressed, despite Heathcliff’s attempts to stunt
his development.

Analysis: Chapters XXI–XXVI

As Nelly tells Lockwood, her story has now nearly caught up with the present. Hareton
was born in the summer of 1778; the first Catherine married Edgar in 1783 (a fact that
can be extrapolated from Nelly’s claim in 1801 to have been living at Thrushcross
Grange for about eighteen years); and young Catherine was born in 1784, first met her
cousins in 1797, and carried on her romance with Linton in the winter of 1800–1801, just
over a year ago (see “Chronology”). The realization that Nelly has been narrating recent
events should come as something of a surprise to the reader, to whom these events have
seemed strange and distant. Now, both the reader and Lockwood realize that the story he
has been hearing is not remote history, but bears on the present. Indeed, the events that
Lockwood has just heard recounted may partially explain the interactions of the
characters at Wuthering Heights when he first visited.

Apart from supplying important chronological information, these chapters largely help to
further the generational drama, illustrating the similarities and differences between the
first and second generations of main characters. Young Catherine’s taunting of Hareton
for his ignorance directly parallels the first Catherine’s taunting of Heathcliff, just as
Heathcliff’s oppression of Hareton parallels Hindley’s oppression of Heathcliff. In
addition, these chapters demonstrate that Heathcliff accomplishes his revenge
methodically, punishing his dead contemporaries by manipulating and bullying their
children. By this point in the novel, revenge has supplanted love as the main force
bearing upon Heathcliff’s behavior. His acts take on a sense of urgency as he hurries to
have young Catherine married to Linton before the boy dies. This plot evidences the way
that Heathcliff makes a pawn of everyone—even his own son. Indeed, Heathcliff may
despise Linton more than any other character in the novel. Worried that Linton will not
outlive Edgar, Heathcliff hastens to secure his claim on Thrushcross Grange by uniting
his son with Edgar’s daughter.

Analysis: Chapters XXVII–XXX

As Edgar Linton grows weak and dies, Heathcliff’s cruelty rages unchecked. Without
fear of repercussion, he abuses the other characters mercilessly, kidnapping Nelly and
young Catherine. With no one left who is strong enough to counter Heathcliff, the course
of events in these chapters seems inevitable. Heathcliff easily succeeds in marrying his
son to young Catherine, and in inheriting Thrushcross Grange. However, a new force
begins to rise up against the tyrant. Catherine shows a defiant spirit, and she triumphantly
declares that the love between her and Linton will save them from misery and make them
superior to Heathcliff. This foreshadows her eventual strong-willed rebellion against
Heathcliff—and her redemption of her oppressed predecessors through her love for her
other cousin, Hareton Earnshaw.

The young Catherine’s manifestation of her mother’s boldness, as well as Heathcliff’s

progressing revenge, bring to mind the older Catherine and the defiant marriage to Edgar
with which she first sparked Heathcliff’s wrath. Indeed, perhaps because of young
Catherine’s behavior, Heathcliff himself seems to become increasingly preoccupied with
thoughts of the late Catherine. The horrifying spectacle of Heathcliff uncovering her
grave and gazing upon her corpse’s face, as well as his intense concern about the fate of
Catherine’s body, testifies to the extreme depth of his obsession. In a sense, Heathcliff’s
interest in the decomposition of his beloved is quite in keeping with the nature of their
relationship. The text consistently describes their love not only in spiritual terms, but in
material ones. Thus Catherine declares in Chapter IX, “Whatever souls are made of, his
and mine are the same.” Moreover, the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine has
come to be associated with the soil where it has been conducted; its fate becomes
intertwined with that of the earth, as the narrative repeatedly links both Heathcliff and
Catherine to the severe and wild moors, which frequently symbolize the unruly nature of
their love.

These chapters give us insight not only into the story’s main characters and their
relationships, but also into the story’s narrator, Nelly Dean. First, Nelly chooses to lie to
Edgar about his daughter’s condition as Edgar lingers near death, a well-meaning untruth
that resembles her earlier lie to Linton, which she told en route to deliver him to
Heathcliff. Just as she declared to Linton that his father was kind and generous, she now
tells Edgar that his daughter is happily married. Nelly thus shows herself willing to lie
and distort the truth in order to spare feelings and ease social situations. Nelly again
displays a certain manipulative quality in a statement she makes outside the story, to
Lockwood. She tells him that the young Catherine’s last hope for salvation would be a
second marriage, but that she, Nelly, is powerless to bring about such a union. This
remark seems intended to express more than idle wishfulness. As the reader may recall,
Nelly insinuates in Chapter XXV that Lockwood might fall in love with Catherine
himself. At the time, the comment seemed nothing more than speculation. Yet now the
reader can see that Nelly may be pursuing a plot to rescue her former mistress.

Indeed, Nelly’s willingness to narrate the story to Lockwood in the first place may stem
from this notion of saving Catherine. Nelly paints a far more flattering picture of young
Catherine than she does of the girl’s mother, even when they exhibit similar traits. Nelly
frequently emphasizes young Catherine’s beauty, and she may subtly frame her story in a
certain way so as to pique Lockwood’s interest in the girl. Of course, this is merely one
possible interpretation of the text, but again, it is extremely important to consider the
motivations and biases of the character who narrates the story. One of the most
impressive aspects of Emily Brontë’s achievement in Wuthering Heights is her ability to
include such finely drawn, subtle psychological portraits as that of Nelly Dean—many of
whose most fascinating human qualities emerge only when one reads between the lines of
her narration.

Analysis: Chapters XXXI–XXXIV

Unlike most Gothic romances, Wuthering Heights does not build to an intense, violent
climax before its ending; rather, its tension quietly unravels as the inner conflict within
Heathcliff gradually dissipates, his love for Catherine eroding his lust for revenge.
Although the novel’s happy ending is not possible until Heathcliff’s death, his influence
has become an ever less menacing one in the preceding days, and thus his demise does
not constitute a dramatic reversal of the book’s trends. As time passes, Heathcliff
becomes increasingly obsessed with his dead love, and he finds reminders of her
everywhere. He begins conversing with her ghost, and, after his climactic night on the
moors—a night that we do not see or hear anything about, because Nelly was not there—
a strange cheer comes over him, a happy premonition of his own impending death.
Because he rejects all religious notions of the afterlife, Heathcliff does not fear death.
Although the text frequently likens him to the Devil, he does not believe in hell, and his
forced religious education as a child has caused him to deny the existence of heaven. His
lack of religious belief leads him to refuse to allow Nelly to Christianize his death by
calling for a priest. Rather, for Heathcliff, the end of life can mean only one thing: the
beginning of his reunion with Catherine.

As Heathcliff anticipates a union in the afterlife, young Catherine and Hareton look
forward to a shared life. Their love for one another seems not only to secure happiness
for the future, but to redeem the miseries of the past. When young Catherine regrets aloud
her mockeries of Hareton, she redeems not only her own past sins, but those of her
mother, who behaved similarly toward Heathcliff—though without remorse. For his part,
Hareton represents a final renewal for the manor of Wuthering Heights. He stands poised
to inherit the estate, where his name is carved over the entrance, inscribed there by an
earlier Hareton over three centuries before. Hareton’s appropriation of the manor will
signify the end of one cycle and the beginning of another, his very name marking the
entry into a new era for Wuthering Heights. Finally, Catherine and Hareton together, as a
unit, represent a resolution of past troubles. Together, they seem to manifest all of the
best qualities of their parents and merge the various conflicting aspects of Wuthering
Heights and Thrushcross Grange into a stronger whole. In essence, they embody the
strength and passion of Wuthering Heights without its doomed intensity, and the civility
and kindness of Thrushcross Grange without its cowardly snobbishness. Joined through
their loving bond, the two estates will constitute a haven of warmth, hope, and joy.