Plot Summary of Wuthering Heights

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Let's look at a plot summary of Wuthering Heights:

The events of the novel are mediated through two narrators: Lockwood opens and concludes, and we rely on Nelly Dean for the rest. The novel spans a period of forty years or so, charting the histories of three generations of the Earnshaws and Lintons. The central characters are Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Their frustrated and passionate relationship affects all around them, being the force driving the story forward, and continuing to dominate the lives of others beyond the grave.

Lockwood introduces himself at the beginning as Mr. Heathcliff's new tenant, and we see his relationship with his landlord explored in the first three chapters. Lockwood is unsettled and disturbed during his stay, being at a loss as to how to deal with its inhabitants and experiencing a number of strange and visionary dreams. Attempting to leave, he gets lost in snow and is forced to rest until better. Here the narrative then passes to Nelly, who tells Lockwood of how Heathcliff came to Wuthering Heights.

Heathcliff enters the Earnshaw family as a foundling, Mr. Earnshaw taking pity on the boy while on a visit to Liverpool. He is given the name of a dead son and treated as such by the father. Cathy and Heathcliff grow up as brother and sister. Their bond swiftly deepens after Cathy's initial resentment, but Hindley Earnshaw, the son of Mr. Earnshaw and Cathy's real brother, never becomes reconciled to the intrusion.

He sees Heathcliff's entrance into the family as a usurpation and leaves after being humiliated in a confrontation. The death of Mr. Earnshaw brings the newly married Hindley back to reclaim the Heights. Seeking to degrade Heathcliff now, his desire to weaken their tie is given opportunity when Catherine is forced to spend five weeks at Thrushcross Grange, the house of the Lintons, after being bitten by their guard dog. Hindley is able now to avenge himself upon Heathcliff, insisting that he works as a labourer on his land after refusing him education. The boy's shame is compounded when Catherine returns to the Heights transformed into a lady, her friendship with Edgar and Isabella Linton making him intensely jealous. Her decision to marry Edgar, despite professing to Nelly her deeper love for Heathcliff, causes him to disappear ...