Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë | Summary & Analysis

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Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe provides an in-depth analysis of the plot, characters, symbols, and themes of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights.

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A story of intergenerational conflict based in class struggle set against the atmospheric backdrop of the Yorkshire moors, the novel tells the tale of thwarted love. It is between Heathcliff, a working class boy taken into a wealthy family, and Cathy, his adoptive sister.

Close in childhood, they are ultimately separated by Cathy's marriage to Edgar, a neighbor closer to her own station. Heathcliff leaves, only to return years later after he has transformed into a wealthy, attractive man with the manners and appearance of a gentleman.

Heathcliff and Cathy grow close again and have one last passionate meeting in which they berate each other for not staying together.

However, Heathcliff's toxic resentment of his treatment by Edgar and Hindley persists, even after Cathy's death, leading him to enact his revenge on the next generation. He takes over the Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights estates and uses their children as pawns in his game of revenge.

Rife with imagery and torrid declarations of both love and hatred, this novel is among the most studied in this era of English literature.

English author Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights was first published in 1847. The only novel she ever published, Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights defies genre categorization with its sui generis combination of gothic, Romantic, and realistic elements. She grew up alongside her sisters Charlotte and Anne who also became famous writers.

The novel Wuthering Heights contains many powerful symbols, including weather representing the passionate emotions of the characters, ghosts representing memory and obsession, hair representing the intertwined lives of the characters, and moors symbolizing the passion and danger of Heathcliff and Cathy’s love. Important themes include revenge, belonging, and love and obsession.

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