Wuthering Heights Video Summary

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Wuthering Heights is a gothic novel written by Emily Bronte and published in 1847, the same year that her sister, Charlotte, published Jane Eyre. Growing up relatively isolated, Emily published the novel—her first and only—under the name Ellis Bell, a pen name that her sisters helped coin along with their own when they co-authored a book of poetry in 1846. Dying soon after Wuthering Heights was published to scathing reviews, Emily would never read the introduction to the novel penned by her sister, Charlotte, in which she outed Emily as the author and defended her from critics: “her mind would of itself have grown like a strong tree.”

Set on the moors near Yorkshire, Wuthering Heights tells the story of two neighboring families that become tragically entangled as a result of a fraught romance between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff.

The novel begins with its narrator, Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant of a fine estate called Thrushcross Grange, paying a visit to the neighboring property, Wuthering Heights, which is owned by a troubled man named Heathcliff. Finding himself snowed in, Lockwood passes the night at Wuthering Heights by reading the diary of Catherine Earnshaw, the former inhabitant of his room. While reading, Lockwood is visited by Catherine’s ghost, who asks to be let in through the window. Upon returning home, Lockwood falls ill and asks his housekeeper, Ellen “Nelly” Dean, who used to work at Wuthering Heights, to tell him what she knows about the place.

Nelly’s story begins with the original owner of Wuthering Heights, a gentleman-farmer named Earnshaw, who returns from a trip to Liverpool with a “dark-skinned” orphan boy he found roaming the streets. Naming the boy Heathcliff after his late son, Earnshaw raises the child as his own, inspiring the envy of his biological son, Hindley, who beats Heathcliff every chance he gets. In contrast, Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine, immediately befriends Heathcliff, and the two become close throughout the years.

One day, Catherine and Heathcliff are caught spying on the civilized Linton family, who live at Thrushcross Grange. Catherine also becomes infatuated with Edgar, the Lintons’ son. When Catherine finally returns to Wuthering Heights a changed young woman, Heathcliff worries that she will lose interest in him. After accepting a marriage proposal from Edgar, Catherine admits to Nelly that, despite her consuming affection for Heathcliff, she cannot marry him due to his inferior social status. Overhearing this, Heathcliff becomes distraught and runs away. At the age of 18, Catherine marries Edgar and moves into Thrushcross Grange.

To Catherine’s relief, Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights three years later, having mysteriously acquired gentlemanly manners, education, and money while he was away. While spending time with Catherine at the Grange, Heathcliff indulges the affections of Edgar’s sister, Isabella, in an attempt at revenge on her brother. Over time, the tense atmosphere between Heathcliff and Edgar culminates in Heathcliff being thrown out of the Grange, to which Catherine responds by shutting herself in her room. Ultimately, Edgar is unable to stop Heathcliff and Isabella from being together, and they elope.

Meanwhile, Heathcliff and Isabella return to Wuthering Heights, miserable and regretting their elopement. One day, while Edgar is in church, Heathcliff comes to Grange, where he and Catherine have a passionate reunion, forgiving each other for their betrayals. In order to avoid Edgar, Heathcliff leaves but is later devastated to learn that Catherine died that very night, after giving birth to a daughter, Cathy.

Wracked with grief, Heathcliff calls on Catherine’s ghost to haunt him for the rest of his days.
Growing increasingly crazed, Heathcliff reveals to Nelly that he is still tormented by the ghost of Catherine, having dug up her grave in a deranged attempt to gaze upon her corpse.

Tiring of the gloomy moors, Lockwood moves away but encounters Nelly while passing through the area eight months later. Nelly explains to Lockwood that Heathcliff grew so obsessed with Catherine’s ghost that he stopped eating and sleeping. One day, Nelly found him dead, with a bizarre smile on his face. Heathcliff is buried with Catherine, while Hareton and Cathy make plans to marry and move into the Grange.