My Impression of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

This is the third time I’ve read Wuthering Heights. It is the first time to annotate it. I always take notes while reading. While reading Wuthering Heights this time, I marked with a red pencil all the characters throughout the book. I marked with a blue pencil several themes that stood out to me. This is first time to study the text in depth. This made a huge difference in how I understood key features of the story.

I read this book along with the slow read group led by Haley Larsen, PhD in literature @ Closely Reading.

The story is 256 pages. The book holds 464 total printed pages. Included in my Norton edition is the preface to the fifth edition, the 1847 edition of Wuthering Heights, diary entries of Emily Brontë, several of her poems and letters, and critical reviews written.

While reading Wuthering Heights I also read The Oxford Companion to The Brontës. I have another book to read as a companion read, How to Be a Victorian: A Dawn-to- Dusk guide to Victorian Life by Ruth Goodman.

Wuthering Heights is a fascinating story. I chose not to become bogged down in the muck of the relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Instead, I focused on other things. For example, characterization, themes, and the word love and how it is displayed in the whole of the story.

Several features I learned:

1. It is important to understand this is a gothic novel. The link is to Britannica and explains in brief the Gothic novel-fiction story.

2. Names are recycled. Catherine and Linton and Earnshaw are used and reused in the generations of characters. Sometimes the story uses last names. And with Catherine, the shorted name Cathy is sometimes used. This makes the reader pay attention and compare.

3. In reusing the same name, as with Catherine, it is easy to compare them-to look for how the characters are the same and how they are different.

4. It is a story that provokes the reader with emotion and reaction.

5. It is a story that cultivates questions. For example, what was Heathcliff’s earlier life like before he was taken in by Mr. Earnshaw? How did that earlier childhood shape who he became? Why did Mr. Earnshaw bring this particular child home knowing it would cause angst?

6. Negative traits like jealousy, revenge, bitterness, and loneliness are displayed in the characters. We see these traits develop further through the years as they grow older.

7. Love. The word love is shown in its various forms. A parent and child. A child for a parent. A couple who are “in-love” which is a romantic love. Most reviews or essays of this story focus on Heathcliff and Catherine’s love. I prefer the love demonstrated by Edgar Linton. He and Catherine married. He knew about Heathcliff and Catherine’s close relationship. Yet he loved Catherine unconditionally. He loved her sacrificially. There is a point in the story where he did not want Heathcliff and Catherine to see one another again, but what husband would want his beloved wife to spend time canoodling with another man? Edgar’s love shaped the character and demonstration of love from his daughter. She is another Catherine, born shortly before her mother died.

8. Wuthering Heights pushes the reader to make a judgement about Heathcliff. Is he a person to be considerate of and make allowances for because of his hardships early in life? Is he a person to feel anger towards? Is he a hardened criminal responsible fully for his actions and reactions? Why are these two women attracted to him?

9. I enjoyed seeing characters through the lens of other characters. For example, all the characters have some kind of response (often a strong one) towards Heathcliff.

10. The first narrator is a rather dim fellow named Mr. Lockwood. He is a little comical. My reaction to him is to raise one eyebrow. I prefer Mrs. Ellen or Nell Dean as narrator. She has a lengthy history with the characters. She is not a family member and I trust her impressions.

11. I enjoyed the descriptive words which set the atmosphere of the story.

12. Wuthering Heights is strong in inner conflict.

13. If this story were written for the year 2026, what changes would be made in how the story shaped itself?

A few themes not strong in the story: restraint, patience, gentleness, and tenderness.

A few themes that are strong in the story: passion, oppression, dramatic, and evocative.

Clearly seen themes: men and women’s relationships, jealousy, family, power, and revenge.

Have you read Wuthering Heights?
Have you seen the new film?

The film is based, loosely based on the book. It is the creative expression of the director, Emerald Fennell.

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