(Contains spoilers) Published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, Wuthering Heights is widely regarded as one of the most emotionally intense, substantially powerful and acutely accomplished novels in all of Victorian literature.
Set in the austere Yorkshire moors, spanning across thirty extravagant years, Emily Brontë's only novel follows Mr. Lockwood, a visitor from London and the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange. It is here where he meets Nelly Dean, as the novel is then frame-narrated whilst Lockwood accounts the tempestuous history of the profound, zealous relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine. Brontë induces both gothic and romantic elements to augment a story of ongoing passion and desire, leaving Lockwood startled following a visit from the preposterous ghost of Catherine Earnshaw.
"The intense horror of my nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, ‘Let me in—let me in!’…As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child’s face looking through the window. Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it wailed, ‘Let me in!’"
An abhorrent state of fear, consternation and perplexity compels Lockwood to question Mrs Dean as he searches for the answers behind his newly acquired and seemingly accursed manor house. Nelly, Lockwood's housekeeper, then begins to recite her childhood. Recollecting the former owner of the Manor, Mr Earnshaw, Nelly recounts his visit to Liverpool, and his subsequent return with a dark-skinned gypsy named Heathcliff. Earnshaw's existing children, Hindley and Catherine, initially detest their newly adopted brother, however Catherine quickly takes a fancy to him, and the pair become inseparable. This forms the beginning of a highly intense relationship that stems throughout the rest of the novel.
After some unfortunate events unfold, Catherine is forced to work under the upper class Lintons, and the two are torn apart. Despite her burning desire for Heathcliff, Catherine emphatically becomes infatuated with Edgar, and a yearning for social advancement prompts her engagement to him. After falling ill, distressed by her wantonness of Heathcliff, Catherine's death is met with immense poignancy and anguish, leaving Heathcliff in a calamitous turmoil.
"Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you—haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable!"
Heathcliff and Catherine's undying passion lies at the centre of the novel's intense emotional power. Brontë uses the elements, alongside an exorbitant and complex setting to portray the excessive emotion that the story of Catherine and Heathcliff evokes. Such an atmosphere is uniquely gripping, profoundly enigmatic yet comprehensively meticulous. Heathcliff's ambiguous transition from a slave to a man of mysterious wealth generates a whirling of emotions, in unison with excessive suffering, turbulent devotion and extravagance. The novel is an emotional conundrum, creating an upwelling of pure eccentricity. A long-lasting, hard hitting triumph, exquisitely replicated by the means of Kate Bush and film adaptations, Wuthering Heights is a complete emotional masterpiece.
Overall, Wuthering Heights is a must read, and it is fully deserving of its place at the pinnacle of nineteenth century literature.
Stay in the know, and check out what I've been reading on The Storygraph:
dark, mysterious, slow-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75/5 stars
Comments