brief summary wuthering heights

Wuthering Heights

Emily brontë, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Mr. Lockwood , an out-of-towner renting an estate called Thrushcross Grange, twice visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff , who lives at a nearby manor called Wuthering Heights. During the first visit, Heathcliff is gruff but compelling. During the second, Lockwood meets other mysterious residents of Wuthering Heights, is attacked by dogs when he tries to leave, and endures a ghostly visitation overnight. Lockwood asks the housekeeper at the Grange, Ellen Dean (a.k.a. "Nelly"), to tell him about Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights. She recounts a complicated story of two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons.

Mr. Earnshaw , a gentleman, owns Wuthering Heights. He has two children, Hindley and Catherine , and adopts a third, Heathcliff. Hindley is jealous of Heathcliff because both his father and his sister are very fond of the youngster. To avoid strife, Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, during which time Catherine and Heathcliff become extremely close. Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley, with a new wife, returns to claim Wuthering Heights. Still bitter, Hindley forces Heathcliff to give up his education and treats him like a servant. Hindley's wife dies soon after giving birth to a baby boy, Hareton , however. Hindley descends into alcoholism, though he continues to abuse and mistreat Heathcliff.

Meanwhile, Heathcliff and Catherine grow interested in the Lintons, a well-to-do family who live at Thrushcross Grange. The Lintons have two children, Edgar and Isabella , who seem very cultured and refined to the somewhat wild inhabitants of Wuthering Heights. After suffering an injury while spying on the Lintons, Catherine Earnshaw spends five weeks with the Lintons, becoming close to Edgar. She finds Edgar's wealth and blonde beauty enticing, yet her feelings for Heathcliff are far more passionate. Even so, Catherine tells Nelly that she can't marry Heathcliff because of how Hindley has degraded him. Heathcliff overhears Catherine, and flees Wuthering Heights that night.

In Heathcliff's absence, a devastated Catherine marries Edgar Linton and moves to Thrushcross Grange. All is well—until Heathcliff returns, now rich and dignified, but just as wild and ferocious. Catherine is thrilled to see Heathcliff again. Edgar doesn't share her excitement. He tries to keep them apart, but Catherine continues to see Heathcliff despite her husband's disapproval. Heathcliff, meanwhile, moves into Wuthering Heights. Hindley, who has become a gambler, welcomes Heathcliff into his home because he lusts after Heathcliff's money.

Soon after, Catherine reveals to Heathcliff that Isabella has a crush on him. Not long after that, she observes the two of them embracing. The developing romance leads to a conflict between Edgar and Heathcliff, after which Edgar demands that Catherine choose between the two of them. Catherine responds by locking herself into her room and refusing to eat for three days. On the third day, she is frenzied and delusional and believes herself near death. That same night, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella.

Edgar nurses Catherine for two months. Her health improves somewhat, though not completely. She also discovers that she is pregnant. At Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff treats Isabella terribly from the moment after their wedding. Edgar, however, refuses to have any contact with Isabella, and fears that Heathcliff wed Isabella solely as a way to try to take Thrushcross Grange from the Lintons. Two months after the wedding, Heathcliff, concerned about Catherine's health, pays a surprise visit to Thrushcross Grange while Edgar is away. In a tearful reunion, Heathcliff and Catherine profess their continuing and eternal love for each other, but Edgar soon returns and Catherine collapses. That night, Catherine gives birth to a girl, Cathy , and dies a few hours later. Catherine is buried in a spot overlooking the moors where she used to play with Heathcliff as a child.

Two days later, Isabella escapes from Wuthering Heights and goes to town outside London, where she gives birth to Heathcliff's son, Linton . Hindley dies six months later, so deeply in debt to Heathcliff that Heathcliff becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff then places Hareton into the same kind of servitude into which Hindley once placed him.

Twelve years pass. Cathy grows into a beautiful young woman, while Hareton grows into a rough youth. Isabella dies, and Edgar brings Linton back to Thrushcross Grange, but Heathcliff insists that Linton come to live with him at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff then carefully and deliberately cultivates a friendship between the weak and spineless Linton and the strong-willed Cathy. Though Edgar at first forbids Cathy from seeing Linton at all, as his own health fails he relents and allows her to meet with Linton at Thrushcross Grange or on the moors. One day, while meeting with Linton on the moors, Heathcliff forces Cathy and Nelly to return with him and Linton to Wuthering Heights. He confines Cathy and Nelly in the house until Cathy marries Linton, which she ultimately does. Cathy escapes from Wuthering Heights long enough to be with her father as he dies, but is soon taken back to Wuthering Heights by Heathcliff. Edgar is buried next to Catherine. Linton dies soon after that, and Heathcliff, because of careful legal maneuverings, now owns both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Cathy reluctantly lives with Heathcliff and Hareton (whom she constantly mocks for his illiteracy) at Wuthering Heights. This brings the story up to the present, when Lockwood has rented Thrushcross Grange.

Lockwood goes back to London, but passes through the region six months later. Much to everyone's surprise, Cathy and Hareton have fallen in love. Cathy has realized Hareton's nobility and kindness beneath his lack of education. Heathcliff, who sees strong a resemblance in both Hareton and Cathy to Catherine, no longer feels the need for revenge. He dies and is buried beside Catherine (on the side opposite where Edgar is buried). Cathy and Hareton, at last free of interfering adults, plan to marry and move to Thrushcross Grange.

'Wuthering Heights' Summary

• M.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan
• M.A., Journalism, New York University.
• B.A., Classics, Catholic University of Milan

Wuthering Heights is a story of love, hate, social status, and revenge set in the moorlands of Northern England at the end of the 18th century. The novel follows the repercussions of the ill-fated love between the impetuous, strong-willed protagonists Catherine “Cathy” Earnshaw and Heathcliff. The story is narrated in diary-like entries by Lockwood, a tenant of one of Heathcliff’s estates. Lockwood annotates and gathers the story told to him by Nelly Dean, the housekeeper, and also records his present-day interactions to create the frame of the story. The events taking place in Wuthering Heights span a 40-year period.

Chapters 1-3

Lockwood is a wealthy young man from the South of England who, in 1801, rents Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire in order to recover his health. A visit to Heathcliff, his landlord who lives in a farmhouse called Wuthering Heights, makes Lockwood notice the peculiarity of that household. Heathcliff is a gentleman but is uncouth, the mistress of the house is reserved and in her mid-teens, and the third person, Hareton, is sullen and illiterate. Lockwood first mistakes Catherine for Heathcliff’s wife and then for Hareton’s wife, which offends his hosts. A snowstorm erupts during his visit and forces him to stay the night, which irritates the residents of Wuthering Heights.

A housekeeper mercifully accommodates Lockwood in a small bedchamber, where he finds the name Catherine Earnshaw carved on the bed. The guest also finds one of Catherine's diaries, where she laments being abused by her older brother and writes of her escapes to the moors with her playmate, Heathcliff. Once Lockwood nods off, he is plagued by nightmares, which involve a visitation from a ghost named Catherine Linton, who gets hold of his arm and begs to be let in. Lockwood's agitation rouses Heathcliff, who orders him to leave for having slept in his dead beloved’s chamber. The unwelcomed houseguest then witnesses Heathcliff’s display of anguish and desperation, as he begs for the ghost to enter the property. The following morning, Heathcliff resumes his brutish manners, to which Catherine willfully reacts. Lockwood leaves, feeling disgust towards that odd household.

On his way back, he catches a cold, and, while he is bedridden, he asks Nelly Dean to tell him the story of Wuthering Heights and how it turned out the way it did. A servant at Wuthering Heights since she was little, Nelly grew up with the Earnshaw children, Catherine and Hindley. Her story begins with the arrival of Heathcliff, when Hindley was 14 and Catherine was 6 years old. An ethnically ambiguous child whom Cathy's and Hindley’s father picked up in Liverpool, Heathcliff was at first greeted with horror by the household but soon becomes Cathy’s ally and Hindley’s enemy. After his father’s death, Hindley takes over Wuthering Heights, cutting Heathcliff’s education and forcing him to work as a farmhand, and abusing Cathy in a similar way. This situation only strengthens the bond between the two children.

On a Sunday, the pair escapes to the nearby pristine Thrushcross Grange, the home of the Lintons, and witness the children, Edgar and Isabella Linton, in the throes of a tantrum. Before they can leave, they are attacked by the guard dogs and they get caught. Cathy is recognized by the family, promptly aided and taken in, while Heathcliff is deemed “unfit for a decent house” and thrown out. Cathy would spend five weeks there. When she returns to Wuthering Heights, she is covered in furs and silks. 

Chapters 4-9

After Hindley’s wife dies while giving birth to a son, Hareton, Hindley gets consumed by grief, and resorts to heavy drinking and gambling. As a consequence, his mistreatment of Heathcliff escalates. Meanwhile, Cathy begins leading a double life, being reckless at home and prim and proper with the Lintons.

One afternoon, during a visit from Edgar, Cathy takes her rage out on Hareton, and, when Edgar intervenes, she boxes his ear. Somehow, in their fight, they end up declaring their love, and they get engaged. That evening, Cathy tells Nelly that, while she has accepted Linton’s proposal, she feels uneasy.

In what would become one of the most famous speeches in literature, she reminisces about a dream in which she was in heaven, yet felt so miserable that the angels flung her back to earth. She likens marrying Linton to the misery she felt in her dream, as, while in “heaven,” she would mourn Heathcliff. She then explains how the love she feels for Linton is different from the one she feels for Heathcliff: the former is ephemeral, and the latter is eternal, passionate, and among two equals, to the point that she feels that her soul and Heathcliff’s are the same. Nelly, while listening, notices that Heathcliff has overheard the conversation, but has left because he was stung by Cathy’s admission that it would be degrading for her to marry destitute Heathcliff—and he did not hear Cathy’s declaration of love.

Heathcliff departs Wuthering Heights. During his three years of absence, the Linton parents die, Cathy weds Edgar, and the pair move to Thrushcross Grange, bringing Nelly with them. 

Chapter 10-17

Nelly interrupts her story and Lockwood is left in a fretful state. Four weeks pass before Lockwood makes Nelly continue with her story. The first year of Cathy’s marriage is a happy one, with Edgar and Isabella indulging all her wishes. Heathcliff’s return, however, shatters that idyll.

Heathcliff returns an educated, well dressed man. Cathy is overjoyed by his return, but the usually polite Edgar barely tolerates it. Heathcliff moves in with Hindley, who has lost to him in a game of cards and wants to reclaim his debts. Meanwhile, Edgar’s sister, Isabella, develops a crush on Heathcliff and she confides it to Cathy, who advises her against pursuing Heathcliff. Heathcliff, in turn, is not smitten by her, but acknowledges that Isabella would be Edgar’s heir, were he to die without a son.

When Heathcliff and Isabella are caught embracing in the garden, Cathy is called and an argument ensues. Heathcliff accuses her of treating him “infernally.” Edgar tries to throw Heathcliff out of the house, but, when he has to leave to find reinforcements, Heathcliff manages to escape through a window. Cathy is angry at both men and declares that she shall hurt them through self-destruction. Her tirade sends Edgar cowering, and she locks herself in her room and starves herself. Three days later, Nelly is allowed to enter her room and finds her delirious. When she opens the windows to call for Heathcliff, Edgar enters. Meanwhile, Heathcliff and Isabella elope.

Two months later, Cathy is nursed back to health and is expecting a child. Heathcliff and Isabella have moved back to Wuthering Heights, whose conditions and inhabitants (beastly Hareton, drunkard Hindley, and Joseph) horrify Isabella. In a letter to Nelly, she describes the destitution of the place and complains about Heathcliff’s abusive behavior. Nelly then decides to pay a visit to them, and finds Isabella quite destitute. Nelly also notices that she has become as cruel as her husband. Heathcliff asks Nelly to help him see Cathy. 

Heathcliff and Cathy finally reunite when Edgar is away for mass. Heathcliff sees her as both a beautiful, haunting vision and as a shadow of her former self. As the two embrace, a reunion that is both recrimination and forgiveness ensues. Acknowledging that she would die soon, Cathy says she hopes he will suffer as he made her suffer, while he asks her why she had despised him and betrayed him. Then, Edgar walks in on them. Cathy, mad with grief and emotionally overwhelmed, faints, and Edgar promptly tends to her. That evening, she gives birth to a daughter and dies in childbirth.

While the house is in mourning, Nelly witnesses an angry and unrepentant Heathcliff wishing for Cathy not to rest in peace while he lives. Nelly also meets Isabella, who has run to Thrushcross Grange from Wuthering Heights coatless through a snowstorm. She is giddy because she has finally managed to escape her abusive household. Heathcliff had thrown a knife at her because she had told him that he was the reason Cathy had died.

Nelly eventually learns that Isabella settled in London, where she gave birth to a sickly child named Linton. Shortly after, Hindley died, leaving Hareton in Heathcliff’s dependency. 

Chapter 18-20

Catherine Linton, Cathy’s daughter, is now 13, and she has been raised by Nelly and Edgar, a grief-stricken yet loving father. She has both her mother’s spirit and her father’s tenderness. Catherine lives a sheltered life, unaware of the existence of Wuthering Heights, until one day her father is summoned to his sister Isabella’s deathbed. Catherine rides to the Heights against Nelly’s orders, and is found happily drinking tea with the housekeeper and Hareton, now a bashful 18-year-old. Nelly forces her to leave.

When Isabella dies, Edgar returns with the sickly Linton, Isabella and Heathcliff’s child, and Catherine dotes on him. However, when Heathcliff demands his son, Edgar has to comply. Linton is taken to Heathcliff, who promises to pamper him. As a consequence, he grows into a spoiled and selfish person.

Chapter 21-26

Catherine and Nelly meet Heathcliff and Hareton on a walk on the heath, and Heathcliff cajoles Catherine into visiting the Heights. There, she finds her cousin Linton, now a languid teenager, and Hareton has grown to be even hoarser than he used to be, and he is snubbed by Catherine and mocked by Linton. Heathcliff proudly remarks that he has reduced Hindley's son into what his abuser had made of him years before.

Upon learning that Catherine went to Wuthering Heights, Edgar forbids further visits. As a consequence, Catherine begins a secret correspondence with her cousin, and they send each other love letters. Upon a random meeting with Heathcliff, he accuses Catherine of breaking his son’s heart and learns that Linton is dying. This prompts her to pay him a secret visit with Nelly, where he exaggerates his symptoms in order to force Catherine to pamper him. During their ride back, Nelly catches a violent cold. While Nelly is bedridden, Catherine visits Linton almost every day. Nelly discovers this and tells Edgar, who, again, puts an end to them. However, since Edgar’s own health is deteriorating, he agrees for the cousins to meet. Linton is in very poor health during this meeting, barely able to walk.

Chapter 27-30

The following week, Edgar’s health is deteriorating to the point that Catherine visits Linton unwillingly. Heathcliff appears and Linton falls limp. Catherine has to help Heathcliff escort him to the house, with Nelly following along, scolding them. When they arrive at the Heights, Heathcliff kidnaps Catherine and, when she resists him, he slaps her. She and Nelly are forced to stay the night.

The following morning, he takes Catherine away, while Nelly remains locked up. When she is set free, she learns that Heathcliff forced Catherine to marry Linton, and when she runs to find help, she finds Edgar on his deathbed. When Catherine manages to escape that evening, she gets home in time to say goodbye to her father. After Edgar’s funeral, Heathcliff takes Catherine back in order for her to nurse Linton.

Heathcliff also tells Nelly about his necrophiliac tendencies. After Edgar’s burial, he digs up and opens Cathy’s coffin; he has been haunted by her presence since the night of her funeral. Her beauty is still intact, and that eases his tortured nerves.

Catherine’s new life at the Heights appears to be miserable. She has to take care of Linton until he dies, and she becomes embittered and hostile, rarely leaving her room. In the kitchen, she abuses the housekeeper and rebukes Hareton’s displays of kindness. This is where Nelly’s narration catches up with the present, as Lockwood himself witnesses the dysfunctional dynamics of the household.

Chapter 31-34

Lockwood has recovered his health and wants to return to London. He visits the Heights once more, where he meets a sullen Catherine, who mourns her old life and mocks Hareton’s attempts at reading. He develops a liking towards her, but his meeting is cut short by Heathcliff.

Eight months later, Lockwood is in the area again and decides to spend the night at Thrushcross Grange. He finds out that Nelly has moved to the Heights and decides to pay a visit to her. Subsequently, he learns that Heathcliff died and that Catherine is now engaged to Hareton, whom she is teaching how to read. While regretting not making a move first, he hears the end of the story from Nelly: Shortly after Lockwood’s departure, Catherine and Hareton had reached a detente and developed a mutual likeness for one another, while Heathcliff’s mental health had started deteriorating more and more. He had grown increasingly distant, and regularly forgot to eat and sleep. He was routinely transfixed in a reverie, and while he spent the nights wandering in the heath, he spent his days locked inside Cathy’s bedroom. Following a night of wild storms, Nelly entered the room and found the windows wide open. After closing them, she found Heathcliff’s dead body.

Heathcliff is buried next to Catherine, but the two souls are not at rest. Instead, there are rumors and reports of two wandering ghosts traipsing around the moorland. 

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Wuthering Heights

By emily brontë.

Emily Brontë, in ‘Wuthering Heights,’ masterminds a unique narrative style by creatively merging flashback and backstory techniques to effectively cover the four ends of her book.

Article written by Victor Onuorah

Degree in Journalism from University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Emily Brontë uses two prominent characters in ‘ Wuthering Heights ’ – Nelly and Lockwood – to unveil the timelines of her book’s plots, which are not only interesting and captivating but also a bit scary for the reader. 

‘Spoiler Free’ Wuthering Heights Summary

A generous farmer goes on a trip to Liverpool and returns home with an innocent little dark-skinned boy he names Heathcliff and introduces him to his son and daughter, Hindley and Catherine. The latter loves and cherishes the boy, but the former hates him for taking his place in the family, and this begins the history of horrible treatment, violence, and extreme dehumanization that goes on for the rest of the book.

Once the generous farmer dies, Heathcliff is reduced to a servant level by Hindley, deprived of education, and assigned the most difficult chores, like a prisoner on hard labor. As if that isn’t enough, Edgar Linton shows up and steals Catherine away from him, the one person that gives meaning to his miserable existence. Heathcliff comes to rage, vowing to exert revenge on all who have hurt him, whether that includes their innocent children; he doesn’t care. 

Wuthering Heights Summary 

Spoiler alert : important details of the novel are revealed below

The plot is introduced with Lockwood’s visit to ‘ Wuthering Heights ‘ as he looks to rent Thrushcross Grange, one of Heathcliff’s mansions. Lockwood is fascinated by Heathcliff after their first meeting and finds his landowner a bit odd and unusual. On a later visit to ‘ Wuthering Heights ,’ Lockwood has weird encounters; attacks by dogs, and scared by spooky presence.

He returns to Thrushcross and talks about his encounter with Nelly (Ellen Dean), a long-serving maid at the Thrushcross. Lockwood asks Nelly to tell him about Heathcliff and ‘ Wuthering Heights .’ Nelly tells the story. 

Many years ago, Mr. Earnshaw, a successful farmer and owner of ‘ Wuthering Heights ,’ returns from Liverpool with Heathcliff, a youthful, destitute kid, to live with him and his two youngsters, Hindley and Catherine. While Catherine cherishes and acknowledges Heathcliff, Hindley disdains him for having his spot in his dad’s eyes. Misunderstandings and quarrels brew based on this until Hindley is sent away to a boarding school.

Hindley returns later after the death of his father to reprise and dehumanize Heathcliff – lessening him to the situation with a worker slave. Even as this happens, Catherine loves Heathcliff and is always spending time with him in the fields. Later, things rapidly change for Heathcliff and Catherine after they find the Linton family, proprietors of Thrushcross Grange. 

One time while spying on the Lintons, Catherine is attacked by dogs and is forced to spend a few days over at the Lintons’ house recuperating. Catherine finds herself drawn to Edgar since he’s refined and well-taught and his family has a decent economic and social standing. Nonetheless, this can’t match the affection she feels for Heathcliff.

With Catherine spending more time with the Lintons, Heathcliff is jealous, and angered and thinks of several ways to win her back and reprise those who suffer him or try to steal his joy. However, he appears to have given up hope and run away when he overhears Catherine telling Nelly she can’t wed him because he’s been belittled too much by Hindley.

After Heathcliff disappears, Catherine is heartbroken and reluctantly chooses to marry Edgar, but their marriage is not a blissful one since Catherine is constantly diverted by her feelings for Heathcliff. After three years, Heathcliff returns a changed man with strange riches and stays a short while with Hindley – who now has a son, Hareton – at ‘ Wuthering Heights .’ 

Heathcliff starts his revenge by marrying Isabella, Edgar’s sister, and treats her horribly so that she contemplates running away from home. Shortly after, Catherine gives birth to her daughter, Cathy, but dies afterward due to health complications. Her death greatly affects Heathcliff turning him into a meaner man. Isabella has a son, Linton, for Heathcliff and dies twelve years later. Heathcliff plans to take control of ‘ Wuthering Heights ’ and Thrushcross Grange.

Later, following the passing of Hindley and Edgar, Heathcliff arranges a marriage between his child Linton and Cathy while seriously mistreating Hindley’s son, Hareton, for the sins of the father. At last, the marriage between Linton and Cathy gives him full ownership of ‘ Wuthering Heights ‘ and Thrushcross Grange. However, his sickly child, Linton, soon dies – rendering the Grange out of his possession again. 

As Heathcliff pursues his wicked and dubious ambitions, he is tormented by Catherine’s spirit. Eventually, Heathcliff seems to have understood that retribution can give anything close to the fulfillment that he truly seeks and that the main thing that could give him harmony is reuniting with his Catherine. He dies afterward. Cathy and Hareton find passionate feelings for each other and plan marriage and relocation from ‘ Wuthering Heights ‘ to Thrushcross Grange.

Is ‘ Wuthering Heights ’ hard to read?

Emily Brontë’s ‘ Wuthering Heights ’ can prove a bit hard for new readers, but it’s not all that difficult when you get deep into it in full rhythm. 

What age should you be to read ‘ Wuthering Heights ’?

‘ Wuthering Heights ’ is not only captivating but also a fairly strong book to read, so any reader hoping to flip through its pages should be at least thirteen years old or above. 

Who controls ‘ Wuthering Heights ’ and Thrushcross Grange?

Hareton and Cathy, two cousins and children of Hindley and Catherine, become the ones who inherit all properties of both families – the Lintons and the Earnshaws.

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Victor is as much a prolific writer as he is an avid reader. With a degree in Journalism, he goes around scouring literary storehouses and archives; picking up, dusting the dirt off, and leaving clean even the most crooked pieces of literature all with the skill of analysis.

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Wuthering Heights

by Emily Bronte

• Wuthering Heights Summary

Wuthering Heights is related as a series of narratives which are themselves told to the narrator, a gentleman named Lockwood . Lockwood rents a fine house and park called Thrushcross Grange in Yorkshire, and gradually learns more and more about the histories of two local families. This is what he learns from a housekeeper, Ellen Dean , who had been with one of the two families for all of her life:

In around 1760, a gentleman-farmer named Earnshaw went from his farm, Wuthering Heights, to Liverpool on a business trip. He found there a little boy who looked like a gypsy who had apparently been abandoned on the streets, and brought the child home with him, to join his own family of his wife, his son Hindley, his daughter Catherine, a manservant named Joseph , and Ellen, who was very young at the time and working as a maid. Earnshaw named the boy Heathcliff after a son of his who had died. All the other members of the household were opposed to the introduction of a strange boy, except for Catherine, who was a little younger than Heathcliff and became fast friends with him. Hindley in particular felt as though Heathcliff had supplanted him, although he was several years older and the true son and heir. Hindley bullied Heathcliff when he could, and Heathcliff used his influence over Earnshaw to get his way. Heathcliff was a strange, silent boy, who appeared not to mind the blows he received from Hindley, although he was in fact very vindictive. Earnshaw's wife died. Hindley was sent away to college in a last attempt to turn him into a worthy son, and to ease pressures at home.

After some years, Earnshaw's health declined and he grew increasingly alienated from his family: in his peevish old age he worried that everyone disliked Heathcliff simply because Earnshaw liked him. He did not like his daughter Catherine's charming and mischievous ways. Finally he died, and Catherine and Heathcliff were very grieved, but consoled each other with thoughts of heaven.

Hindley returned, now around twenty years old. Heathcliff was about twelve and Catherine was eleven. Hindley was married to a young woman named Frances, to the surprise of everyone at Wuthering Heights. Hindley used his new power as the head of the household to reduce Heathcliff to the level of a servant, although Heathcliff and Catherine continued their intimacy. Catherine taught Heathcliff her lessons and would join him in the fields, or they would run away to the moors all day to play, never minding their punishments afterward.

One day they ran down to the Grange, a more civilized house where the Lintons lived with their children Edgar, thirteen, and Isabella, eleven. Catherine and Heathcliff despised the spoiled, delicate Linton children, and made faces and yelled at them through the window. The Lintons called for help and the wilder children fled, but Catherine was caught by a bulldog and they were brought inside. When the Lintons found out that the girl was Miss Earnshaw, they took good care of her and threw Heathcliff out.

Catherine stayed at the Grange for five weeks, and came home dressed and acting like a proper young lady, to the delight of Hindley and his wife, and to Heathcliff's sorrow––he felt as though she had moved beyond him. Over the next few years, Catherine struggled to both maintain her relationship with Heathcliff, and socialize with the elegant Linton children.

Frances gave birth to a son, Hareton, and died soon after of tuberculosis. Hindley gave in to wild despair and alcoholism, and the household fell into chaos. Heathcliff was harshly treated, and came to hate Hindley more and more. Edgar Linton fell in love with Catherine, who was attracted by his wealth and genteel manners, although she loved Heathcliff much more seriously. Edgar and Catherine became engaged, and Heathcliff ran away. Catherine fell ill after looking for Heathcliff all night in a storm, and went to the Grange to get better. The Linton parents caught her fever and died of it. Edgar and Catherine were married when she was 18 or 19.

They lived fairly harmoniously together for almost a year––then Heathcliff returned. He had mysteriously acquired gentlemanly manners, education, and some money. Catherine was overjoyed to see him, Edgar considerably less so. Heathcliff stayed at Wuthering Heights, where he gradually gained financial control by paying Hindley's gambling debts. Heathcliff's relationship with the Linton household became more and more strained as Edgar grew extremely unhappy with Heathcliff's relationship with Catherine. Finally there was a violent quarrel: Heathcliff left the Grange to avoid being thrown out by Edgar's servants, Catherine was angry at both of the men, and Edgar was furious at Heathcliff and displeased by his wife's behavior. Catherine shut herself in her room for several days. In the meantime, Heathcliff eloped with Isabella (who was struck by his romantic appearance) by way of revenge on Edgar. Edgar could not forgive Isabella's betrayal of him, and did not try to stop the marriage. Catherine became extremely ill, feverish and delirious, and nearly died ­ though she was carefully tended by Edgar once he discovered her condition.

A few months later, Catherine was still very delicate and looked as though she would probably die. She was pregnant. Heathcliff and Isabella returned to Wuthering Heights, and Isabella wrote to Ellen describing how brutally she was mistreated by her savage husband, and how much she regretted her marriage. Ellen went to visit them to see if she could improve Isabella's situation. She told them about Catherine's condition, and Heathcliff asked to see her.

A few days later, Heathcliff came to the Grange while Edgar was at church. He had a passionate reunion with Catherine, in which they forgave each other as much as possible for their mutual betrayals. Catherine fainted, Edgar returned, and Heathcliff left. Catherine died that night after giving birth to a daughter. Edgar was terribly grieved and Heathcliff wildly so––he begged Catherine's ghost to haunt him. A few days later, Hindley tried to murder Heathcliff, but Heathcliff almost murdered him instead. Isabella escaped from Wuthering Heights and went to live close to London, where she gave birth to a son, Linton. Hindley died a few months after his sister Catherine.

Catherine and Edgar's daughter, Cathy, grew to be a beloved and charming child. She was brought up entirely within the confines of the Grange, and was entirely unaware of the existence of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, or her cousin Hareton there. Once she found the farmhouse while exploring the moors, and was upset to think that such an ignorant rustic as Hareton could be related to her. Ellen ordered her not to return there and explained about Heathcliff's feud with Cathy's father, Edgar.

Isabella died when Linton was about twelve years old, and Edgar went to fetch him to the Grange. Linton was a peevish and effeminate boy, but Cathy was pleased to have a playmate. That very day, however, Heathcliff sent Joseph to fetch his son to Wuthering Heights, and when Cathy woke up the next morning her cousin was gone. Though sad at first, she soon got over it, and continued her happy childhood.

On her sixteenth birthday, Cathy and Ellen strayed onto Heathcliff's lands, and he invited them into Wuthering Heights to see Linton. Cathy was pleased to renew her acquaintance, and Heathcliff was eager to promote a romance between the two cousins, so as to ensure himself of Edgar's land when he died. When they returned home, Edgar forbade Cathy to continue visiting there, and said that Heathcliff was an evil man. Cathy then began a secret correspondence with Linton, which became an exchange of love letters. Ellen found out and put an end to it.

Edgar became ill. Heathcliff asked Cathy to return to Wuthering Heights because Linton was breaking his heart for her. She did so, and found Linton to be a bullying invalid, but not without charm. Ellen fell ill as well and was unable to prevent Cathy from visiting Wuthering Heights every day. Cathy felt obliged to help Linton, and despised Hareton for being clumsy and illiterate. Ellen told Edgar about the visits when she found out, and he forbade Cathy to go any more.

Edgar was in poor health and didn't know about Linton's equally bad health and bad character, so he thought it would be good for Cathy to marry him––since Linton and not Cathy would most likely inherit the Grange. A system was fixed up in which Linton and Cathy met outside. Linton was increasingly ill, and seemed to be terrified of something––as it turned out, his father was forcing him to court Cathy. Heathcliff feared Linton would die before Edgar did, so eventually he all but kidnapped Cathy and Ellen, and told them Cathy couldn't go home to see her dying father until she married Linton. Cathy did marry Linton, and escaped in time to see Edgar before he died.

After Edgar's funeral (he was buried next to his wife) Heathcliff fetched Cathy to Wuthering Heights to take care of Linton, who was dying, and to free up the Grange so he could rent it out (to Lockwood, in fact). Heathcliff told Ellen that he was still obsessed by his beloved Catherine, and had gone to gaze at her long-dead body when her coffin was uncovered by the digging of Edgar's grave.

Cathy had to care for Linton alone, and when he died, she maintained an unfriendly attitude to the household: Heathcliff, Hareton (who was in love with her), Joseph, and Zillah , the housekeeper. As time passed, however, she became lonely enough to seek Hareton's company, and began teaching him to read.

This is around the time of Lockwood's time at the Grange. He leaves the area for several months, and when he returns, he learns that while he was gone:

Heathcliff began to act more and more strangely, and became incapable of concentrating on the world around him, as though Catherine's ghost wouldn't let him. He all but stopped eating and sleeping, and Ellen found him dead one morning, with a savage smile on his face. He was buried next to Catherine, as he had wished. Hareton grieved for him, but was too happy with the younger Cathy to be inconsolable. When the novel ends, Hareton and Cathy plan to marry and move to the Grange.

Wuthering Heights Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Wuthering Heights is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why does Cathy have a hybrid character in Wuthering heights?

Cathy is a hybrid, embodying the virtues of both households, genuinely caring for the sick, but also capable of exercising her own will and judgement and going out onto the moors unsupervised.

Catherine Earnshaw is Mr. Earnshaw's daughter and Hindley's sister. She is also Heathcliff's foster sister and love interest. She marries Edgar Linton and has a daughter, also named Catherine. Catherine is beautiful and charming, but she is never...

Spending the night at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood... Select one: a. has to be rescued from the dogs by Zillah the housekeeper. b. sleeps in Catherine Earnshaw’s room and reads her journal. c. sees a ghostly apparition and refuses its plea to “let me in!”

I would say "E". Lockwood experiences a nightmare that feels like an apparition.

Study Guide for Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights study guide contains a biography of Emily Bronte, literature essays, a complete e-text, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Wuthering Heights
• Wuthering Heights Video
• Character List

Essays for Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

• Heathcliff's Obsessions
• The Setting in Wuthering Heights
• Mirrors, Windows, and Glass in Wuthering Heights
• The Problem of Split Personalities in Wuthering Heights
• The Main Characters in Wuthering Heights and Their Resemblance To Children

Lesson Plan for Wuthering Heights

• About the Author
• Study Objectives
• Common Core Standards
• Introduction to Wuthering Heights
• Relationship to Other Books
• Bringing in Technology
• Notes to the Teacher
• Related Links
• Wuthering Heights Bibliography

E-Text of Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights e-text contains the full text of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

• Chapters 1-5
• Chapters 6-10
• Chapters 11-15
• Chapters 16-20
• Chapters 21-25

Wikipedia Entries for Wuthering Heights

• Introduction
• Publication history
• Critical response

A summary of the novel

A single page synopsis of the story of Wuthering Heights including a single paragraph summary

A Brief Summary

Many people, generally those who have never read the book, consider Wuthering Heights to be a straightforward, if intense, love story — Romeo and Juliet on the Yorkshire Moors. But this is a mistake. Really the story is one of revenge. It follows the life of Heathcliff, a mysterious gypsy-like person, from childhood (about seven years old) to his death in his late thirties. Heathcliff rises in his adopted family and then is reduced to the status of a servant, running away when the young woman he loves decides to marry another. He returns later, rich and educated, and sets about gaining his revenge on the two families that he believed ruined his life.

Chapters 1 to 3

Mr Lockwood, a rich man from the south, has rented Thrushcross Grange in the north of England for peace and recuperation. Soon after arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland farmhouse called "Wuthering Heights". He finds the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights to be a strange group: Mr Heathcliff appears a gentleman but his manners and speech suggest otherwise; the mistress of the house is in her late teens, an attractive but reserved, even rude woman; and there is a young man who appears to be one of the family although he dresses and talks like a servant.

Being snowed in, he has to stay the night and is shown to an unused chamber where he finds books and graffiti from a former inhabitant of the farmhouse called "Catherine". When he falls asleep, his dreams are prompted by this person and he has a nightmare where he sees her as a ghost trying to get in through the window. He wakes and is unable to return to sleep so, as soon as the sun rises, he is escorted back to Thrushcross Grange by Heathcliff. There he asks his housekeeper, Ellen Dean, to tell him the story of the family from the Heights.

The Childhood of Heathcliff

Chapters 4 to 17

The story begins thirty years before when the Earnshaw family lived at Wuthering Heights consisting of, as well as the mother and father, Hindley, a boy of fourteen, and six-year-old Catherine, the same person that he had dreamt about and the mother of the present mistress. In that year, Mr Earnshaw travels to Liverpool where he finds a homeless, gypsy-like boy of about seven whom he decides to adopt as his son. He names him "Heathcliff". Hindley, who finds himself excluded from his father's affections by this newcomer, quickly learns to hate him but Catherine grows very attached to him. Soon Heathcliff and Catherine are like twins, spending hours on the moors together and hating every moment apart.

Because of this discord, Hindley is eventually sent to college but he returns, three years later, when Mr Earnshaw dies. With a new wife, Frances, he becomes master of Wuthering Heights and forces Heathcliff to become a servant instead of a member of the family.

Heathcliff and Cathy continue to run wild and, in November, a few months after Hindley's return, they make their way to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the inhabitants. As they watch the childish behaviour of Edgar and Isabella Linton, the children of the Grange, they are spotted and try to escape. Catherine, having been caught by a dog, is brought inside and helped while Heathcliff is sent home.

Five weeks later, Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights but she has now changed, looking and acting as a lady. She laughs at Heathcliff's unkempt appearance and, the next day when the Lintons visit, he dresses up to impress her. It fails when Edgar makes fun of him and they argue. Heathcliff is locked in the attic where, in the evening, Catherine climbs over the roof to comfort him. He vows to get his revenge on Hindley.

In the summer of the next year, Frances gives birth to a child, Hareton, but she dies before the year is out. This leads Hindley to descend into a life of drunkenness and waste.

Two years on and Catherine has become close friends with Edgar, growing more distant from Heathcliff. One day in August, while Hindley is absent, Edgar comes to visit Catherine . She has an argument with Ellen which then spreads to Edgar who tries to leave. Catherine stops him and, before long, they declare themselves lovers.

Later, Catherine talks with Ellen, explaining that Edgar had asked her to marry him and she had accepted. She says that she does not really love Edgar but Heathcliff. Unfortunately she could never marry the latter because of his lack of status and education. She therefore plans to marry Edgar and use that position to help raise Heathcliff's standing. Unfortunately Heathcliff had overheard the first part about not being able to marry him and flees from the farmhouse. He disappears without trace and, after three years, Edgar and Catherine are married.

Six months after the marriage, Heathcliff returns as a gentleman, having grown stronger and richer during his absence. Catherine is delighted to see him although Edgar is not so keen. Isabella, now eighteen, falls madly in love with Heathcliff, seeing him as a romantic hero. He despises her but encourages the infatuation, seeing it as a chance for revenge on Edgar. When he embraces Isabella one day at the Grange, there is a argument with Edgar which causes Catherine to lock herself in her room and fall ill.

Heathcliff has been staying at the Heights, gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad habits. Hindley is gradually losing his wealth, mortgaging the farmhouse to Heathcliff to repay his debts.

While Catherine is ill, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, causing Edgar to disown his sister. The fugitives marry and return two months later to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff hears that Catherine is ill and arranges with Ellen to visit her in secret. In the early hours of the day after their meeting, Catherine gives birth to her daughter, Cathy, and then dies.

The day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella flees Heathcliff and escapes to the south of England where she eventually gives birth to Linton, Heathcliff's son. Hindley dies six months after his sister and Heathcliff finds himself the master of Wuthering Heights and the guardian of Hareton.

The Maturity of Heathcliff

Chapters 18 to 31

Twelve years on, Cathy has grown into a beautiful, high-spirited girl who has rarely passed outside the borders of the Grange. Edgar hears that Isabella is dying and leaves to pick up her son with the intention of adopting him. While he is gone, Cathy meets Hareton on the moors and learns of her cousin and Wuthering Heights' existence.

Edgar returns with Linton who is a weak and sickly boy. Although Cathy is attracted to him, Heathcliff wants his son with him and insists on having him taken to the Heights.

Three years later, Ellen and Cathy are on the moors when they meet Heathcliff who takes them to Wuthering Heights to see Linton and Hareton. His plans are for Linton and Cathy to marry so that he would inherit Thrushcross Grange. Cathy and Linton begin a secret and interrupted friendship.

In August of the next year, while Edgar is very ill, Ellen and Cathy visit Wuthering Heights and are held captive by Heathcliff who wants to marry his son to Cathy and, at the same time, prevent her from returning to her father before he dies. After five days, Ellen is released and Cathy escapes with Linton's help just in time to see her father before he dies.

With Heathcliff now the master of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Cathy has no choice but to leave Ellen and to go and live with Heathcliff and Hareton. Linton dies soon afterwards and, although Hareton tries to be kind to her, she retreats into herself. This is the point of the story at which Lockwood arrives.

After being ill with a cold for some time, Lockwood decides that he has had enough of the moors and travels to Wuthering Heights to inform Heathcliff that he is returning to the south.

Chapters 32 to 34

In September, eight months after leaving, Lockwood finds himself back in the area and decides to stay at Thrushcross Grange (since his tenancy is still valid until October). He finds that Ellen is now living at Wuthering Heights. He makes his way there and she fills in the rest of the story.

Ellen had moved to the Heights soon after Lockwood had left to replace the housekeeper who had departed. In March, Hareton had had an accident and been confined to the farmhouse. During this time, a friendship had developed between Cathy and Hareton. This continues into April when Heathcliff begins to act very strangely, seeing visions of Catherine. After not eating for four days, he is found dead in his room. He is buried next to Catherine.

Lockwood departs but, before he leaves, he hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New Year's Day.

"Wuthering Heights" Summary

"Wuthering Heights" is written as a series of narratives told by Mr. Lockwood. The book describes the life and struggles of two landed gentry families over three generations, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, living on the West Yorkshire Moors around the 1800s. This Emily Brontë Wuthering Heights summary tells the story in short.

"Wuthering Heights" Plot Overview

This Wuthering Heights short summary begins with the narrator, Mr. Lockwood’s first journal entry in Chapter 1 . He writes about his day at Thrushcross Grange, and his visit to the house’s landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. The landlord lives in a farmhouse nearby named Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff was a mysterious man, he spoke like a gentleman but seemed somber, gruff, and tense. Though the house, staff, dogs, and Heathcliff were all unwelcoming, Lockwood’s curiosity was piqued and he vowed to visit again. 

In chapter 2 , Lockwood decides to visit Wuthering Heights again. It starts snowing as he arrives and an elderly servant, Joseph, tells him that he is not allowed in. A young man eventually lets him in through the kitchen where he encounters a beautiful young woman who is cold towards him. Heathcliff returns and tells Lockwood that it was foolish to be out in a snowstorm. The woman turns out to be Heathcliff’s daughter-in-law rather than his wife as Lockwood initially assumed. Lockwood asks for assistance to get back but is denied help. He grabs a lantern to make his own way back, but Joseph thinks he is stealing it and lets the dogs loose on him. Lockwood ends up with a bloody nose and stays at Wuthering Heights for the night. 

Chapter 3 begins with a maid, Zillah, showing Lockwood to a room. There, Lockwood finds the 25-year-old diary of someone named Catherine. He reads about her older brother Hindley being cruel to Catherine and Heathcliff. Lockwood falls asleep but has wild dreams. He realizes that a branch tapping against the window is influencing his dreams and as he tries to remove it feels a cold hand grasping his. He screams as he realizes that a ghost claiming to be Catherine Linton moans “Lets me in”. Heathcliff is upset to see Lockwood in the room and when he hears about the ghost he starts crying and begging for the ghost to reappear.

In chapter 4 , Lockwood meets the longtime housekeeper of Thrushcross Grange, Nelly Dean, who starts telling him about the history of the family. She takes over the narration and starts with the day Mr. Earnshaw brought back an orphan boy - Heathcliff - from Liverpool. Catherine and her brother Hindley initially despise the boy, but Catherine quickly becomes fond of him. 

In chapter 5 we find out that Mr. Earnshaw loves Heathcliff despite the tension between the orphan and his biological son Hindley. When Mr. Earnshaw gets sick, he sends Hindley off to college. Mr. Earnshaw soon dies, leaving Heathcliff with only Catherine who likes him. 

In Chapter 6 Hindley returns to take charge of Wuthering heights with a wife - Frances. He essentially makes Heathcliff a servant. One day, Heathcliff comes back home alone and explains that he and Catherine had gone to Thrushcross Grange to make fun of the Linton children, Edgar and Isabella. As they were running away, one of the dogs bit Catherine on the ankle. She was taken inside but the Linton’s sent scruffy Heathcliff away. Mr. Linton criticizes Hindley for his treatment of his sister and furious, Hindley forbids Heathcliff from speaking to Catherine. 

During chapter 7 , the Linton’s take care of Catherine for five weeks and transform her from a wild child to a young lady. When she returns, she greets Heathcliff fondly but comments on him appearing dirty, upsetting him. As a thank you, Hindley invites the Linton’s over for dinner and they agree on the condition that Heathcliff not be present. Heathcliff still ends up throwing applesauce at Edgar and is banished to the attic. Nelly lets him have some food and Heathcliff tells her that he is plotting revenge. 

Nelly continues her story in Chapter 8 with the birth of Hareton - Frances and Hindley’s child. Unfortunately, Frances dies soon after, causing Hindley to become a tyrant and leaving Nelly in charge of Hareton. Though he treats Heathcliff worse than ever before, Heathcliff is pleased by Hindley’s suffering. Catherine develops a double character, one of good manners with Edgar Linton and her usual unruly self at home with Heathcliff. She exposes her wild side once when Edgar came to visit, but the incident just made him more infatuated with her. 

In chapter 9 , Hindley drops Hareton over the banisters in a drunken rage but Heathcliff catches him. Later, Catherine tells Nelly that she has accepted Edgar’s proposal for marriage, and though she truly loves Heathcliff, marrying him would degrade her. Heathcliff overhears just this part and leaves Wuthering Heights. When he is discovered missing, Catherine goes out in the rain to find him and falls sick. She is taken to Thrushcross Grange to recover but ends up giving her fever to the Linton’s, both of whom die. She marries Edgar 3 years later. 

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Heathcliff reappears in chapter 10 , 6 months after the wedding of Catherine and Edgar. He has changed a lot over the years and is now a dashing, rich, young man. He stays at Wuthering Heights, gambling with Hindley, and frequently visits Thrushcross Grange. Isabella, Edgar’s sister develops feelings for him, but he only has eyes for Catherine. 

In chapter 11 , Nelly goes to Wuthering heights where she finds an unruly and violent Hareton who doesn’t remember her. The next day, Catherine catches Heathcliff and Isabella in an embrace. The situation devolves into a fight between Edgar and Heathcliff and Edgar later asks Catherine to choose between the two men. In a rage, Catherine locks herself in her room and Edgar warns Isabella not to be involved with Heathcliff.

Chapter 12 begins with the information that Catherine has been starving herself for 3 days. She is upset that Edgar hasn’t come to her begging for forgiveness. She is half-mad, claiming to see Wuthering Heights from her window and telling stories about her childhood. She says that even if she dies, she will not be at rest without Heathcliff. Edgar is shocked to find her in this state and send for a doctor. The doctor tells him about a rumor that Heathcliff and Isabella had eloped, and Edgar rushes to her room to find it empty. He tells Nelly that Isabella is now his sister in name only.

Chapter 13 takes place 2 months later. Edgar has been taking care of Catherine for 2 months, who is slowly recovering. She is also pregnant, important because a male heir would allow Edgar to maintain control of the property. Isabella has been living in Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff and understands her mistake, but receives no responses from letters she sends to her brother. 

In chapter 14, Edgar continues to ignore letters from his sister but allows Nelly to go visit her. Nelly is shocked at the state of both Wuthering Heights and Isabella. Heathcliff demands a secret meeting with Catherine and Nelly refuses till she is threatened by him. She agrees to take a letter to Catherine, hoping this would cheer her up. 

In Chapter 15 , Nelly gives the letter to Catherine four days after her trip to Wuthering heights while Edgar is at church. Catherine is so sick she cannot read, but Heathcliff himself enters the room. Catherine accuses him and Edgar of breaking her heart and killing her but they embrace as he begs forgiveness. He says he can forgive her for what she did to him but he can’t forgive her for what she did to herself. She collapses in his arms as Edgar returns, and rather than fight, Heathcliff insists that Edgar take care of Catherine. 

Chapter 16 starts at midnight as Catherine gives birth two months prematurely to her daughter Cathy. Catherine herself dies a few hours later, Heathcliff is both upset and angry, cursing her spirit. Heathcliff later replaces a lock of Edgar’s hair in Catherine’s locket with his own. Nelly finds it, combines both men’s hair, and puts it in the locket. Hindley does not attend the funeral and Isabella isn’t invited. Catherine is buried overlooking the moors where she played as a child. 

In chapter 17 Isabella shows up at Thrushcross Grange soaking wet and injured. She tells Nelly that Hindley lost his nerve to attend the funeral and ended up drinking all day, eventually saying that he would kill Heathcliff. Isabella warns Heathcliff, who enters the house anyway and beats Hindley. The next morning the two men have another fight and Heathcliff throws a knife at Isabella hurting her. Isabella moves to London where she gives birth to a boy, Linton, and dies thirteen years later, never returning to the area. Hindley dies six months after Catherine and Nelly discover that Heathcliff owns the mortgage. Nelly and Edgar try to take Hareton, but Heathcliff warns them that he would take Linton if they did. 

Chapter 18 takes place thirteen years later. Cathy grows up sheltered, never being allowed off the grounds. But one day when her father is out of town, she accidentally ends up at Wuthering Heights, playing with Hareton. She has a good time till she finds out that he is not the son of the master and assumes that he is a servant. A servant tells her that he is actually her cousin and Cathy says that it can’t be possible because her father is in London getting her real cousin. Nelly begs Cathy not to tell Edgar about the incident, saying that she would be fired if he found out. 

In Chapter 19 , Edgar comes back with Linton. He is delicate and easily moved to tears, but Edgar hopes that Cathy will be a good influence on him. Joseph arrives the next day demanding that they turn over Heathcliff’s son.

In Chapter 20 , Nelly takes Linton to Wuthering Heights. Cathy is told that Linton had to leave to be with his father but not told how close he is. Linton is terrified of both Wuthering Heights and his father and begs to go with Nelly, but she leaves him there. 

Chapter 21 takes place three years later. While on a walk Cathy bumps into Heathcliff and upon realizing who she is, he invites her back to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff reveals to Nelly that he plans on getting the cousins married so that he could have possession of both properties. Cathy is pleasantly surprised to see Linton. Edgar explains things his way when she returns home, and though she believes him, she starts a secret love letter affair with Linton. Nelly discovers it and makes her stop, burning the letters, but not telling Edgar. 

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In Chapter 22 Edgar falls sick, Cathy worries about her father even though Nelly tells her that he will recover. She bumps into Heathcliff again one day and he tells her that Linton is close to death because she stopped writing letters to him and he was heartbroken. Though Cathy says she doesn’t believe him, she is consumed with guilt and decides to visit the next day. 

In Chapter 23 Cathy and Nelly visit Wuthering Heights and find a sickly Linton who guilt trips Cathy into feeling sorry for him. Nelly makes Cathy promise not to go back. Unfortunately, Nelly falls sick as well and Cathy takes care of both her father and her by day, but secretly visits Linton in the evenings. 

Chapter 24 takes place a few weeks later when Nelly has recovered and catches Cathy returning one night. On one visit, an argument broke out between Hareton, Cathy, and Linton which Linton blamed on Cathy. She vowed never to return but after he expressed his love for her, all was forgiven. Nelly tells Edgar, who forbids Cathy from visiting but says he will invite Linton over. 

In Chapter 25 Edgar’s health continues to worsen. He tells Cathy that as long as it makes her happy, he would not mind if Heathcliff’s plan is fulfilled and she marries Linton. He keeps corresponding with Linton who says that Heathcliff won’t let him come to the Grange. But eventually, all parties agree to meet in the middle on the moors. Nelly tells Lockwood that this happened just last winter. 

During chapter 26 , Cathy and Nelly meet with Linton. They are shocked to see him so weak and understand that Heathcliff is intimidating the boy. They come home worried but decide not to tell Edgar anything till another visit. 

In Chapter 27 Edgar’s health worsens and Cathy is always by his side until her appointment with Linton. At the appointment, she and Nelly are tricked by Heathcliff into entering Wuthering Heights and are kept prisoner tell Cathy agrees to marry Linton. 

Chapter 28 takes place 5 days later. Nelly is finally let out of her room by Zillah. She finds out that Linton and Cathy are married, but she is kept locked in a room. She goes back to the Grange and sends men to get Cathy but they return without her. Cathy escapes with Linton’s help and arrives in time to meet her father before he dies. She lies to him, saying that she is happy in the marriage. A lawyer appears and dismisses all the servants except Nelly. 

In Chapter 29 , Heathcliff arrives to take Cathy back to Wuthering Heights. He tells Nelly that she will stay to take care of the Grange and is not welcome at the Heights. He has a conversation with her about seeing the ghost of Catherine for the past 18 years. 

Chapter 30 is the last of Nelly’s narration. She has not seen Cathy since the previous events and only gets news of her through Zillah. Cathy had been forced to take care of Linton alone till he died and had a miserable existence in that house. Zillah and Hareton try to be nice to her but she responds rudely. Lockwood tells Nelly that he intends to leave in the morning. 

In Chapter 31 Lockwood goes to Wuthering heights with a note for Cathy. Though it’s intercepted by Hareton, her tears make him feel bad and he gives it to her. Lockwood has an awkward dinner while he tells Heathcliff he plans to leave. 

Chapter 32 takes place 6 months later. Lockwood goes to the Grange and is surprised to hear that Nelly is at the Heights. There, she catches him up on events. After Zilla left, Nelly was called to be Cathy’s companion. Heathcliff had withdrawn more and more and Cathy and Hareton were getting close. 

In Chapter 33 we find out that during an argument with Heathcliff, Hareton had taken Cathy’s side. The two of them reminded Heathcliff of Catherine so much that he was feeling ill at ease. 

The summary of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë ends with Chapter 34 . Heathcliff had been behaving oddly and eating less and less. He seemed to be seeing Catherine’s ghost frequently. He spent an entire night in the moors and returned happy. That night he was found dead in his bed. He was buried next to Catherine, and Cathy and Hareton will be married soon. 

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"Wuthering Heights" Summary

By Emily Brontë

classics | 492 pages | Published in 1870

Estimated read time: 5 min read

One Sentence Summary

A passionate and destructive love story unfolds on the Yorkshire moors.

Table of Contents

Introduction, brief synopsis, main characters, summary of different story points over chapters, main events, themes and insights, reader's takeaway.

"Wuthering Heights" is a classic novel written by Emily Brontë, first published in 1847. It is a story of love, revenge, and the destructive power of jealousy and obsession. Set in the wild and rugged Yorkshire moors of England, the novel unfolds a tale of passion, betrayal, and the complexities of human relationships.

The story begins with Mr. Lockwood, a new tenant at Thrushcross Grange, visiting his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, at Wuthering Heights. There, he encounters the enigmatic inhabitants and becomes intrigued by their complex relationships. Through a series of flashbacks, Lockwood learns about the troubled history of the Earnshaw and Linton families, whose lives are intertwined in a web of love and hatred.

Plot Overview and Setting

The novel is primarily set in two neighboring houses: Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Wuthering Heights, a dark and imposing manor, represents the untamed and passionate nature of its inhabitants. In contrast, Thrushcross Grange symbolizes refinement and civility. The story spans several decades, capturing the tumultuous relationships between the characters and the unforgiving landscape of the Yorkshire moors.

The novel features a cast of complex and deeply flawed characters whose lives are intertwined in a web of passion, revenge, and tragedy.

Chapter 1-3

Mr. Lockwood, the narrator, arrives at Wuthering Heights and becomes intrigued by the mysterious inhabitants. He encounters the surly Heathcliff and the ghostly specter of Catherine Earnshaw.

Chapter 4-7

Nelly Dean, the housekeeper, recounts her experiences at Wuthering Heights and the troubled history of the Earnshaw family. She describes the passionate relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff.

Chapter 8-12

Catherine's marriage to Edgar Linton causes a rift between her and Heathcliff. Heathcliff's vengeful nature becomes increasingly apparent, leading to tragic consequences for the characters.

Chapter 13-16

Heathcliff's mistreatment of Isabella Linton and his manipulation of Hindley Earnshaw further intensify the cycle of revenge and betrayal within the story.

Chapter 17-20

The next generation of characters, including Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshaw, becomes embroiled in the legacy of their parents' tumultuous relationships, perpetuating the cycle of love and hatred.

• Heathcliff's arrival at Wuthering Heights as a young orphan and his bond with Catherine Earnshaw.
• Catherine's marriage to Edgar Linton and her conflicted feelings for Heathcliff.
• Heathcliff's relentless pursuit of revenge against those who wronged him, leading to tragic outcomes for the characters.
• The intertwining destinies of the next generation, as they grapple with the legacy of their parents' choices.

Theme 1: Love and Obsession

The novel explores the destructive power of obsessive love, as seen in Heathcliff's consuming passion for Catherine, which ultimately leads to tragedy and turmoil.

Theme 2: Social Class and Status

Brontë delves into the societal constraints and prejudices that impact the characters' choices and relationships, highlighting the conflict between passion and social expectations.

Theme 3: Nature and Setting

The untamed landscape of the Yorkshire moors serves as a metaphor for the wild and tumultuous emotions of the characters, emphasizing the inescapable influence of nature on human lives.

Theme 4: Revenge and Retribution

Heathcliff's quest for vengeance exposes the cyclical nature of retribution, as each act of revenge begets further suffering and perpetuates a cycle of destruction.

"Wuthering Heights" offers a compelling exploration of human nature, love, and the consequences of unchecked passion and revenge. The novel's vivid characters and vivid portrayal of the Yorkshire moors create an immersive reading experience that lingers in the reader's mind long after the final page.

Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" is a timeless masterpiece that continues to captivate readers with its intense portrayal of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of the human spirit. Through its rich tapestry of characters and themes, the novel invites readers to contemplate the complexities of human relationships and the profound impact of choices on individual destinies.

Wuthering Heights FAQ

What is the genre of wuthering heights.

Wuthering Heights is a classic novel that falls into the genre of gothic fiction.

Who is the author of Wuthering Heights?

The author of Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë, who wrote the novel under the pseudonym Ellis Bell.

What is the setting of Wuthering Heights?

The story is primarily set in the moorland of Yorkshire in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Who are the main characters in Wuthering Heights?

The main characters are Heathcliff, Catherine Earnshaw, Edgar Linton, and Nelly Dean.

What is the plot of Wuthering Heights?

Wuthering Heights follows the passionate and destructive love story between Heathcliff and Catherine, and the impact it has on their families and the next generation.

Is Wuthering Heights a tragic love story?

Yes, Wuthering Heights is often considered a tragic love story due to the tumultuous and destructive nature of the love between Heathcliff and Catherine.

What are the major themes in Wuthering Heights?

Some major themes in Wuthering Heights include love, revenge, social class, and the destructive power of passion.

Is Wuthering Heights a challenging read?

Some readers may find Wuthering Heights challenging due to its complex narrative structure and the dark, brooding nature of the story.

What is the writing style of Wuthering Heights?

Emily Brontë's writing style in Wuthering Heights is characterized by its intense emotional depth and vivid depiction of the natural landscape.

Is Wuthering Heights suitable for young readers?

Due to its mature themes and complex narrative, Wuthering Heights may be more suitable for older or more mature readers.

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Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Plot Summary

Summary of wuthering heights.

This article deals with the summary of Wuthering Heights. The author of this book is Emily Bronte. Generally, people, who have never read this book, consider Wuthering Heights to be a straightforward but intense love story.  But, in reality, this is a story of revenge. Summary of Wuthering Heights focuses on a person Heathcliff, who is a mysterious gypsy-like person.

Heathcliff rises in the family who had adopted him and then he was reduced to the status of a servant there. Further, he ran away from the young woman whom he loved very much and decided to marry another. Then after he returns as rich and educated, and sets about to get his revenge on the two families that he believed ruined his life.

Summary of Wuthering Heights in short

This article explains the Summary of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. It presents the summary of Wuthering Heights in a brief way. The plot of the summary of Wuthering Heights is of England during the early 19th century. Mr. Lockwood is living on rent in the estate called Thrushcross Grange. He visited twice his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff’s residence at a nearby manor called Wuthering Heights. During his second visit, Lockwood meets some mysterious residents of Wuthering Heights. Lockwood asks the housekeeper Nelly, to know about Heathcliff and the Wuthering Heights. Then Nelly recalls a complicated story of two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons.

Mr. Earnshaw was the owner of Wuthering Heights and having two children, Hindley and Catherine, and one adopted child Heathcliff. Hindley is jealous of Heathcliff whereas his father and sister both are very fond of Heathcliff. Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley to the college, and meanwhile, Catherine and Heathcliff become close to each other. After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, and Hindley returns with his wife, as a new owner. Hindley forces Heathcliff to live like a servant. Hindley’s wife dies after giving birth to a boy, Hareton.

Meanwhile, Heathcliff and Catherine grow interested in another family of Lintons, at Thrushcross Grange. The Lintons have two children, Edgar and Isabella. During his stay of five weeks with the Lintons, Catherine becomes close to Edgar. She finds Edgar’s wealth and beauty more attractive, although she is still passionate about Heathcliff. Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights in one night.

In the absence of Heathcliff, Catherine marries Edgar Linton and moves to Thrushcross Grange. Just after one year, Heathcliff returns, as rich and dignified, but wild and ferocious too. Catherine is excited to see Heathcliff and she continues to see Heathcliff despite her husband’s disapproval. Heathcliff moves into Wuthering Heights. Hindley welcomes Heathcliff into his home seeing his money, as he has become a gambler and has lost his wealth.

Soon after, it reveals that Heathcliff and Isabella are having a crush on each other. But, this developing romance leads to a conflict between Edgar and Heathcliff. Edgar is against all of these. Meanwhile, Catherine becomes ill due to her decision to not eating anything. On the other hand, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella on some night.

Edgar takes care of Catherine for two months. Catherine is pregnant. At Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff treats Isabella in a very terrible way just after the wedding. Edgar refuses to have any relationship with Isabella because he believes that Heathcliff wed Isabella only for taking Thrushcross Grange from the Lintons. Heathcliff take concerned about Catherine’s health, and he goes to Thrushcross Grange while Edgar is away. Heathcliff and Catherine profess about their continuing and eternal love. That night, Catherine gives birth to a girl, Cathy, and then she dies after a few hours.

Two days later, Isabella escapes from the Wuthering Heights to leave somewhere outside London. There she gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, Linton. After six months, Hindley dies. By paying all debts of Hindley, Heathcliff becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff keeps Hareton in the same kind of servitude into which he was placed by Hindley before.

After twelve years, Cathy is now a beautiful young woman, and Hareton is a rough youth. After the death of Isabella, Edgar brings Linton back to Thrushcross Grange, whereas Heathcliff insists that Linton should come to live with him at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff then purposely cultivates a friendship between Linton and Cathy. Due to his bad health, Edgar allows Cathy to meet with Linton at Thrushcross Grange.

One day, Heathcliff forces Cathy and Nelly to return with him and Linton to Wuthering Heights. There Cathy is married to Linton. Then to take care of her father Cathy escapes from Wuthering Heights. But after her father’s death, she is taken back to Wuthering Heights by Heathcliff. Edgar is buried next to her wife Catherine. Soon Linton dies, and Heathcliff now owns both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Cathy lives forcefully with Heathcliff and Hareton at Wuthering Heights.

Now the story is back to present when Lockwood has rented Thrushcross Grange. Lockwood goes back to London. As a matter of surprise to everyone, Cathy and Hareton have fallen in love. Heathcliff sees a strong similarity in both Hareton and Cathy with his love story and hence no longer he feels the need for revenge. He dies and is buried beside the Catherine on opposite side of Edgar. At last Cathy and Hareton are free of interfering adults and thus plan to marry and move to Thrushcross Grange.

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The wonderful summary thank you for this.

They did not belong to the family of gorden cook and you also didn’t write the spelling correct it’s James cook 😶😑

What’s funny is that Miss Fairchild said the line- “Money isn’t everything. But people always misunderstand things and remain stupid-” when she herself misunderstood the situation.

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Wuthering Heights short summary & analysis

Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

Wuthering heights analysis, wuthering heights short summary.

Wuthering Heights

21 pages • 42 minutes read

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Poem Analysis

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Summary and Study Guide

Written in 1961, “Wuthering Heights” by Anglo American poet and novelist Sylvia Plath was first published in The New Statesman in January 1962. The poem is an example of Plath’s rich landscape poetry, and it takes its title from Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel. Set in the same windswept moors that inspired Brontë’s novel, the lyric poem contains 45 lines divided in five nine-line regular stanzas. In the poem, a solitary speaker sets out for a walk in the highlands and feels overwhelmed by nature’s terrifying beauty. As is typical of Plath’s nature poetry, the landscape is used to symbolize its speaker’s inner tumult. Although the poem is based on actual walks taken by Plath in the Yorkshire moors, the emotions of alienation and ambiguity the poem describes are universal. Plath uses the imagery of horizons, grass, sheep, and wind to describe the solitary self at war with personal and institutional forces. The poem is notable for Plath’s use of sharp metaphors and similes, her unusual, vivid imagery, and her intensity of emotion.

Poet Biography

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Sylvia Plath was born on October 27, 1932, to Otto and Aurelia Plath in Boston, Massachusetts. After Otto—a world-renowned authority on bees—died in 1940, Aurelia, trained as a teacher, moved Plath and her younger brother, Warren, to Wellesley. Plath showed a precocious talent for writing, publishing her first poem when she was eight years old. She went on to attend the prestigious Smith College, where she won a prize as the guest editor of the magazine Mademoiselle in 1953. Shortly afterward, she experienced depression and attempted suicide. Plath was administered electroconvulsive therapy as part of her treatment, an event that deeply scarred her. After her recovery, Plath returned to Smith to graduate with honors. In 1955, she was awarded a Fulbright fellowship to Newnham College, Cambridge and moved to England.

Cambridge was where Plath met the poet Ted Hughes, an ex-student, in 1956. Plath and Hughes married just four months after their first meeting and moved back to the US in 1957 so Plath could teach at her alma mater, Smith. Plath was devoted to her writing and that of Hughes, typing out both their poems and regularly sending them out for publication. In 1959, Plath audited Robert Lowell’s writing of poetry course at Boston University, an immortal event in literary history as her co-students included poets Anne Sexton and George Starbucks. The same year Plath and Hughes decided to locate to London. Though Plath’s poems sometimes express an ambiguous relationship with England, she firmly chose it as her definitive place of stay, as she stated in a BBC interview. Throughout these years, Plath continued to publish in literary journals of repute. Her first collection of poems, The Colossus , was published in 1960, the same year her first child, Frida, was born. Plath and Hughes also found lucrative work recording poems and programs for the BBC, and after winning the Hawthornden Prize for his poems, Hughes was coming into literary fame.

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In 1961, Plath and Hughes moved to Court Green, an old manor in Devon in the English countryside. Their son Nicholas was born in early 1962. Plath had already begun work on her novel The Bell Jar , based on her suicide attempt as a college student. Over the summer of 1962, the marriage between Plath and Hughes began to fray, with Hughes moving out of Court Green by October. Plath was left to care for an infant and a toddler, but she found herself on a creative streak, writing noteworthy poems such as “ Daddy ” and “ Lady Lazarus ” in the period. In December, she moved to London with the children, taking a lease on a flat in which the poet William Butler Yeats had once lived. Her October poems had already begun to attract the notice of influential literary critics like Al Alvarez, and Plath hoped to carve an independent, new identity. However, the brutal winter of 1962-1963, coupled with caring for two young children, began to take a toll on Plath, and she again experienced depression. The tepid response to The Bell Jar , published in January 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, worsened her condition (since then, The Bell Jar has come to be regarded as a classic of American literature).

Plath wrote her possibly last poem “Edge” in the first few days of February. On February 11, 1963, she died by suicide. Hughes found her manuscript of Ariel , which contained many of her recent poems and the famous bee-sequence poems, on her desk, and had the collection published in 1965. Ariel met with astonishing success, and in 1981, Plath’s Collected Poems , compiled by Hughes, won the 1982 Pulitzer Prize in poetry, only the fourth posthumous work to receive the distinction. Plath’s work—impeccably crafted and filled with unusual, powerful imagery—has since endured, as has her mythos. In recent times, biographers and critics have focused on newer areas of study in her works, exploring themes such as Surrealism, nature, and politics in her poems.

Plath, Sylvia. “ Wuthering Heights .” 1961. Allpoetry.com.

On a walk through the Yorkshire moors, the unnamed first-person speaker says the sunset-lit horizon circles her like “faggots” (Line 1)—bundles of wooden sticks—ready to be lit. Like the kindling, the horizon seems titled and unstable. If a match is set to it, the horizon may warm the speaker. A warm orange tint would spread through the sky (as the sun sets); after sunset a pale color would suffuse the landscape with courage. However, the sunset brings no such hope for the speaker. The landscape dissolves like empty promises, unfolding endlessly as the speaker walks on.

The moors are high (being a grassy plateau) but flat. No life exists here above the grass (there being few trees around) or the ubiquitous sheep. A sharp, cold wind blows across the landscape, making everything bend in one direction. To the speaker, it seems the wind has the force of destiny. It tries to siphon away the speaker’s bodily warmth. If the speaker, bent against the wind, stares too close at the heather shrubs covering the ground, the heather would invite the speaker to sink in and die right there. The speaker’s bones would bleach among the grass.

Unlike the speaker, who is unnerved by the landscape, the sheep are sure of their place in the moors. Their dirty gray fur matches the weather. The sheep study the speaker with their vertical pupils. The speaker feels the sheep’s eyes are a mailing slot through which the speaker is being mailed into space like an inconsequential message. The sheep seem disguised as grandmothers, their large teeth and wool seeming like false dentures and wigs.

Now the speaker discovers “wheel ruts” (Line 28), or the grooves left by wheels in the ground. Clear water flows through the grooves and the speaker’s hands (suggesting it may be raining). To the speaker, the water is like solitude that cannot be retained. The grooves seem like door arches through the grass, as if architecture has rid itself of people. Alternatively, the speaker may have come across ruins. Through the real or imaginary open structures, the moaning wind seems to echo with few, remembered words: “black stone, black stone” (Line 36).

The speaker is the one tall, upright thing in the landscape, the one vertical holding up the sky “among all horizontals” (Line 38). Buffeted by the wind, the grass is beating itself to oblivion. Being too delicate for the terrible company of the dark weather, the grass wants to disappear. As night descends, the lights from houses come on, gleaming like tiny coins in the purses of narrow valleys.

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Pride & Prejudice: The 17 Best Movie & TV Adaptations

Little women: every adaptation ranked (including the 2019 movie), twilight: every wuthering heights reference explained.

• The best Wuthering Heights adaptation ultimately depends on viewer preference in style and plot points from Brontë's novel.
• Most adaptations skimp out on one of the two stories within the novel, impacting overall quality and storytelling choices.
• Despite varying in approach, these movies highlight Brontë's enduring cultural influence, evident in modern franchises such as Twilight 's references to the classic tale.

The best Wuthering Heights movies include several adaptations over the years. As one of the most famous love stories of all time, the source material continues to draw storytellers in with the challenge of adapting the timeless story. Part of the challenge of bringing Brontë's story to the screen is the sprawling nature of the novel, both in terms of space and time. The story follows two families over two generations. However, the best Wuthering Heights movie adaptations usually skimp out on one of the stories.

When it comes to the best Wuthering Heights movie, it ultimately depends on viewer preference, as each adaptation differs in style and the plot points borrowed from the 1847 novel by Emily Brontë . Nonetheless, in terms of overall quality, there are ways to pinpoint which among these adaptations is the best Wuthering Heights movie or series. As different as they are, like all the Wuthering Heights references in Twilight reveal, these movies prove how deeply Brontë's work remains embedded in the cultural zeitgeist.

10 Movies From Hollywood's Golden Age Worth Watching In 2020

The golden era of Hollywood is called golden with a reason. Here are ten movies from that period that are worth watching today.

11 Wuthering Heights (2003)

A musical version of wuthering heights.

The 2003 adaptation is generally considered to be the least appreciated of the Wuthering Heights movies. The basic premise is the same; a young woman named Cate accepts a marriage proposal from Edward, but remains in love with another man, Heath, after she's married. This movie introduces a musical aspect as the characters sing original songs throughout, but the effort ultimately wasn't successful.

Though it's far from being the best Wuthering Heights movie, the songs are great, which makes this MTV-produced adaptation unique. Most of the songs are performed by Erika Christensen (Julia from Parenthood ) , who plays Cate, and Mike Vogel (Barbie from Under the Dome ), who plays Heath. The charm of the songs comes from the fact that executive producer Jim Steinman produced the album, and he credits the book, Wuthering Heights , for his power ballad, "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," which Celine Dion covered.

10 Wuthering High (2015)

A made-for-tv drama adaptation.

2015's Wuthering Heights Lifetime movie adaptation re-imagines the story of Cathy and Heathcliff in California between two high school students . A high school teen, Heath, is adopted by the wealthy and prominent Earnshaw family and begins a romantic relationship with his new step-sister. The basic premise is there, but this falls far from what viewers would expect from an adaptation of Wuthering Heights .

It never connected as an adaptation of the source material or as a movie standing on its own.

A more teen-based drama, the 2015 Wuthering Heights movie stars James Caan as the patriarch of the Earnshaw family, easily the most recognizable face in the entire film. This Wuthering Heights adaptation received no critical review average on Rotten Tomatoes , but the low 31% rating from the Audience Score shows that it never connected as an adaptation of the source material or as a movie standing on its own. It also doesn't help that, at only 88 minutes, the movie never had a chance to properly tell the full story anyway.

9 Wuthering Heights (1962)

A bbc remake that uses the same script as the 1953 movie.

Released in 1962, the BBC television adaptation of Wuthering Heights is shorter and mostly focuses on the first half of the book with some great performances by Claire Bloom as Cathy, Keith Mitchell as Heathcliff, and Patrick Troughton as Hindley. The set is minimal and doesn't have many, if any, outdoor shots, which is odd considering what a big part the Yorkshire moors play in the novel.

The outdated production value and over-the-top drama make this one difficult to watch for modern audiences, though it has its moments. At the moment, while the BFI has this movie in its library, the company has refused to allow it to stream or receive any public screenings today (via BFI ). Claire Bloom earned a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Album when she returned to the role of Cathy 17 years later for an audio version of Wuthering Heights , losing to Orson Welles's audio version of Citizen Kane .

8 Wuthering Heights (1967)

A bbc miniseries based on wuthering heights.

This 1960s adaptation of Wuthering Heights was a BBC multi-episode miniseries that aired on television and finished with decent ratings. Ian McShane and Angela Scoular star as Heathcliff and Cathy, and it is a decent adaptation of the original novel that is set during the same period and attempts to follow the original text. The movie shifts between more of a stage play and a movie, so it is a bit lost at times, but overall it's a decent adaptation with some fine acting.

One thing that really helps this Wuthering Heights adaptation stand above some others is the outdoor scenes, which show the desolation of the Yorkshire moors.

One thing that really helps this Wuthering Heights adaptation stand above some others is the outdoor scenes, which show the desolation of the Yorkshire moors, with barren trees and a foreboding horizon. While the 1962 movie failed to show almost any outdoor scenes, despite their importance to the story, this version ensured that the location and setting remained a strong part of the story . Sadly, the master tapes were wiped, so the only versions available are black and white film copies transferred to DVD.

Jane Austen's iconic novel Pride And Prejudice has been adapted to movies and TV shows many times. These are the best adaptations of the book!

7 Wuthering Heights (1950)

A made-for-tv version starring charlton heston.

The 1950 version of Wuthering Heights , a made-for-TV movie, suffers from the low production values that one would expect from a project like this during that particular era. An unexpected element present is the inclusion of Charlton Heston , although at that time he wasn't a mainstream star yet and was starring in several Studio One releases. On top of Wuthering Heights , he also had roles in the TV movie versions of Jane Eyre (1949), The Taming of the Shrew (1950), and Macbeth (1951).

This adaptation features melodramatic performances and production values that make it far from being the best Wuthering Heights movie. However, the source material is relentlessly dramatic, so perhaps all the melodrama can be forgiven considering when it was made , and under a studio situation that puts out multiple editions of these dramatic adaptations every year. From 1948 until 1957, Studio One produced 467 episodes, although the series did receive Emmy nominations every year from 1950 to 1958.

6 Wuthering Heights (2011)

Won the cinematography award at venice film festival.

The 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights forgoes any emphasis on the romantic in favor of a focus on the raw elements of the story, from the setting to the characters. This retelling was considered too rough for some, who felt that the film might have benefited from paying closer attention to the more romantic, traditional elements of the novel. However, this may be the best Wuthering Heights movie for those who love the gothic world of Emily Brontë's tale of love, obsession, and revenge.

The most beautifully shot Wuthering Heights adaptation, winning the Best Cinematography award at the Venice Film Festival.

It's certainly the most beautifully shot Wuthering Heights adaptation, winning the Best Cinematography award at the Venice Film Festival. The 2011 movie, made in North Yorkshire, chose to pass on big-name stars like Natalie Portman and Michael Fassbender and instead went with Kaya Scodelario as Catherine and James Howson as Heathcliff (via Digital Spy ), focusing mostly on their childhood and adolescence and less on the later years of their lives.

5 Wuthering Heights (1970)

Picked up a golden globes nomination.

Starring Timothy Dalton as Heathcliff and Anna Calder-Marshall as Cathy, 1970's Wuthering Heights is one of the more critically praised and loyal adaptations of the book. This version puts up a good fight for the title of best Wuthering Heights movie for its honest interpretations of the internal struggles of the main characters. Had the movie adapted the entire book instead of following the previous convention to adapt only the first half, it may have ended up as the best adaptation ever.

The movie was also a box-office success, making over $2.2 million, while picking up a Golden Globes nomination (for Michel Legrand's music score). Not only was the movie a financial success and a critical darling, but it also almost received a sequel called Return to Wuthering Heights . It is unclear if this would have allowed a second movie to finish the story from the book. On a side note, there was a book released in 1993 with that exact name, although that story would have had nothing to do with the proposed sequel from 1970.

4 Wuthering Heights (2009)

An itv two-part series, wuthering heights (2009).

This may be the most popular version of Wuthering Heights , despite possibly being the least accurate. There are changes to the order in which the events of the story are told, as well as several minor additions that, depending on one's view, add to the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. Other moments that are considered iconic from the book are left out, such as Cathy's ghost at the window and Heathcliff overhearing her speech to Nelly.

Even Hardy's strange wig took nothing from the fact that he may be the best version of Heathcliff.

However, the performances of the leads are good, with Charlotte Riley and the now-Hollywood-A-lister Tom Hardy displaying great chemistry. Even Hardy's strange wig took nothing from the fact that he may be the best version of Heathcliff . Another very familiar face for many fans is Rick Grimes himself, as Anthony Lincoln stars as Edgar Linton in this version of the story. While it was, in the end, a series that mostly had highlights from the source novel, it remains one of the more entertaining retellings.

3 Wuthering Heights (1939)

Picked up eight oscar nominations, including best picture, wuthering heights (1939).

This classic Wuthering Heights adaptation started the trend of telling only the first half of the story , ending with Cathy's death and forgoing the entire latter half of the plot in which Heathcliff enacts his revenge. It did end up winning an Oscar, despite complaints from those who felt that the story was too thin due to the choice to exclude the second half. This movie had a huge name behind the camera, with William Wyler directing. Wyler picked up a record of 12 Best Director Oscar nominations in his career, including one for this movie.

While Wyler went on to win three Oscars ( Mrs. Miniver , The Best Years of Our Lives , and Ben-Hur ), he turned in a solid movie adaptation of Wuthering Heights (he lost to Victor Fleming's Gone with the Wind ). With legends like Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff and Merle Oberon as Cathy — combined with its fantastic cinematography (its Oscar win) and scoring — the 1939 version may be the best Wuthering Heights movie from the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women book has inspired several movie adaptations over the years, and here's all of them, ranked worst to best.

2 Wuthering Heights (1998)

The incredibly gothic bbc television adaptation.

The 1998 Wuthering Heights adaptation gets credit for accuracy, taking a little more time than its predecessor so that story beats feel less rushed. However, Heathcliff is slightly miscast (Robert Cavanah), as this version makes him visually hardly distinguishable from Linton, his romantic rival for Cathy's affections. However, due to this version's devotion to accuracy, the most important, tragic plot points from the novel remain intact.

Those who consider the book to be the best gothic novel often consider the 1998 adaptation to be the best Wuthering Heights movie

Matthew Macfadyen (Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice ) plays Hareton, Hindley's illiterate son who works for Heathcliff when Lockwood arrives. Those who consider the book to be the best gothic novel often consider the 1998 adaptation to be the best Wuthering Heights movie , as it keeps that gothic atmosphere intact. Sarah Smart, who stars in this movie as Catherine, went on to star in Sparkhouse in 2002, which itself was a modern take on Wuthering Heights , but with the characters gender-swapped.

1 Wuthering Heights (1992)

The first movie to adapt the entire wuthering heights novel.

What's unique about the 1992 Wuthering Heights adaptation is that it features an introduction and voiceover from Emily Brontë (voiced by Sinead O'Connor). In addition to this element, this adaptation is the only one to have the same actress play Cathy and Catherine (Juliette Binoche), with Ralph Fiennes as Heathcliff in his movie debut. While this adaptation has been criticized for rushing certain plot points, it does succeed at being the first movie to bring the entire novel — and not just its first half — to life.

It's not perfect, but this 1992 adaptation is considered by many to be the best Wuthering Heights movie in terms of overall quality and re-watchability, as well as telling the entire story and not only half of it. The movie was also a big moment for Fiennes , as it introduced him to the world and allowed him to earn the role of Amon Goeth in Schindler's List , as Steven Spielberg credited Wuthering Heights as the movie that convinced him to give the role to the actor (via Collider ).

Are Twilight's Edward and Bella closely based on Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff and Cathy? Or are their love stories too different to compare?