Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte, published in 1847, is an engrossing novel about revenge and passion, which explores how these can not only cause great turmoil, but tarnish the very soul of the person who cannot let go of the past. The story begins with a man named Mr. Lockwood, who visits Wuthering Heights, and meets the residences there. As he dines with the family, he is taken aback by how solemn everyone is. Later, he returns to where he stayed, and learns their family history, as recounted by a servant named Ellen Dean, who had been with the family for decades and seen all that had transpired hitherto.
We learn that Mr. Earnshaw had adopted a boy, who he named Heathcliff, and the father has two children of his own: Hindley and Catherine. Nearby, there is an estate called the Grange (Thrushcross Grange), where therein lives two siblings: Isabella and Edgar. After Mr. Earnshaw passes away, Hindley becomes the heir of the estate, and therein sets a rivalry between him and Heathcliff, in which the latter tends to the manual labor of the estate while Hindley lives as the head of the estate. Catherine later marries Edgar Linton (who lives at the Grange), and when Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights after being away . . . let’s just say ruin comes upon them all.
The first half of the book gives us an introduction to the lives of these characters and their personalities and goals. As Ellen Dean recounts what happened, she often tells the events in segments, since Mr. Lockwood becomes all the more fascinated as he hears more. The second half of the book picks up with Hindley’s son, Hareton Earnshaw, Isabella’s son, Linton, and Catherine’s daughter, Catherine. With Heathcliff now in charge of Wuthering Heights, he schemes to ruin them all and take control of the Grange–all in pursuit of revenge due to the past and he he felt wronged.
I won’t go into details of the third act, as it’s unavoidable to tell what happens without revealing spoilers, but suffice it to say that there are a lot of twists and turns, especially at the end, where we learn the fate of the characters and how things worked themselves out. There are a number of gripping scenes throughout the novel that held my attention, and the characters are really well done, taking on a life of their own. It’s a novel that explores the longings of the human heart, and how it can either lead to redemption or one’s downfall.
Fallton Havenstonne 