Review | Wuthering Heights

Updated: Apr 25, 2022

by Emily brontë

Published : This edition 2018

Publisher : Penguin classics

Format : Kindle, Hardback, paperback

Genre : Classic Literature

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Synopsis

In a house haunted by memories, the past is everywhere ...

As darkness falls, a man caught in a snowstorm is forced to shelter at the strange, grim house Wuthering Heights. It is a place he will never forget.

There he will come to learn the story of Cathy: how she was forced to choose between her well-meaning husband and the dangerous man she had loved since she was young. How her choice led to betrayal and terrible revenge - and continues to torment those in the present. How love can transgress authority, convention, even death.

My Review

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same"

This is a love story, but not in the traditional sense. Catherine and Edgar Heathcliff grew up happy at Wuthering Heights, on a journey home their loving father came across a boy he had found abandoned on the road, the same age as his Catherine. Not being able to leave him there, he brought him home with him and raised him as his own giving him just one name, the same as their surname, Heathcliff. Edgar, being a little older was put out and stayed clear, but Catherine and Heathcliff soon became inseparable, both were mischievous and enjoyed getting up to no good. When Mr Heathcliff died couple of years after, Edgar became the master and, having always resented Heathcliff, he reduced him to living as a servant, Catherines feelings never changed and one evening, not aware that Heathcliff was sitting in the kitchen, she opened up to her house servant about her true feelings towards him and the love that she felt, but also knowing she could never marry him.

This is where the story really begins. Having heard Catherines confessions he disappears for three years and she ends up marrying the boy in the nearby house, Earnshaw Linton. All is well with the pair, they are happy and she is pregnant until one afternoon Heathcliff comes back and has grown into a man over the previous years, still rough and rugged but even more handsome. Angry at seeing Catherine married and not waiting for him, he steals away with Earnshaws young sister and tricks her into marrying him, he treats her abominably, making his hatred for her clear and practically keeping her as a prisoner, Heathcliff is hell bent on punishing Earnshaw for having Catherine through his sister.

She finally escapes pregnant with his son.

Upon the daily visits and seeing the affection between his wife and the aggressive man who grew up with her, Earnshaw and Heathcliff eventually argue and being caught between the two soon takes its toll on Catherine and already having a sensitive disposition, she dies giving birth to her daughter.

Over the next twenty years the two families, Earnshaw and his daughter Cathy and Heathcliff, his son who now lives with him and his nephew Hareton all collide in and out of each others lives, all being drawn to and from each other and are all pieces that Heathcliff uses to play out his twisted games, all because of a love that he was denied and now can never get over. For years he treats everyone around him with disgust and evil, forcing them to do things that he wants them to do, in order to get what he wants, regardless of who gets hurt in the process. Cathy and Hareton, one being Catherines daughter and the other being her nephew, both have her eyes and look like her, and Heathcliff son looks more like his wife then himself so he is constantly surrounded with resemblances that fuel his anger daily. Towards the middle of the book I hated Heathcliff's character, he was extremly nasty to all of the young family members and blamed everyone for something they had no control over, its like both families, The Heathcliff's and The Linton's are destined to be forever caught up in the twisted web of sadness and pain. Then towards the end, regardless of how Heathcliff has behaved through out all of the book, again we are showed his pain at still desperately missing his childhood love, which he never got to properly express other then one kiss they shared, and his despair at wanting to be with her again.

Why I Loved It

This is my second classical literature that I have read, having decided to have a classical Christmas beginning with Jane Eyre.

I absolutely loved Jane Eyre and I have been told numerous of times that you are either a Jane Eyre fan or a Withering Heights fan, and that the latter is harder to read. I loved both. I didn't struggle to read the second any more then I did the first, with the only exception of Josephs character, his accent was strongly written out and this at times took a lot of concentrating on to just decipher what he was actually saying.

Wuthering Heights is at the heart of it a love story, Heathcliff's love for Catherine is so strong and deep rooted that it causes him to become a monster throughout the rest of his life. He is extremely mean to those that live with him and as I read I found he was my least liked character as he was blaming those around him for reminding him of his lost love and as much as this was awful and unfair, I could still read through his constant angry demeanour and see the hurt beneath that he felt every time he looked at them. That said, he purposefully forced them around him so its very conflicting, he basically torments himself.

This is a story about a love that slowly blossomed in secret between two children and never had the chance to manifest into anything more as fate stepped in and got in the way.

It wasn't Heathcliff's fault that his should be brother demoted him to serving staff, or that Catherine should marry another whilst he was gone but either way their love stayed throughout a lifetime after one passed away and the result of that caused endless torment and pain not only to the man left behind but also to all of those he insisted on forcing around him.

This has been described many times as The Greatest Love Story Ever Written, because their love transcends past marriages and even death and turned into something dark.

this link HERE explains more but one thing is certain, this story has very conflicting reviews from both sides.