Wuthering Heights?

Question

I am not one for reading fiction, but can anyone tell me, in a nutshell, the plot of this novel.

Answer 1

In a Nutshell?........Brontë's novel tells the tale of Catherine and Heathcliff, their all-encompassing love for one another, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them both. Social tensions prevent their union, leading Heathcliff to shun and abuse society. The story is narrated by a character named Lockwood, who is renting a house from Heathcliff. The house, Thrushcross Grange, is close to Wuthering Heights.
Much of the action itself is narrated to Lockwood during his illness by the housekeeper of Thrushcross Grange, Nelly Dean. Lockwood's arrival is after much of the story has already happened - but his story is interwoven with Dean's.
Dean's story provides insight into how the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine would have far-reaching repercussions for their families.............................Brilliant!!!

Answer 2

Emily Brontë's story of heartbreak and mystery with its theme of doomed romance. Much of the first half of the novel concerns the passionate and illicit relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and Mr Heathcliff as narrated by a number of individuals: primarily by Mr Lockwood and Nelly Dean, the housekeeper of Thrushcross Grange. There is intrigue concerning Heathcliff who has taken over the Grange and keeps a clumsy boy called Hareton Earnshaw. We learn of how his morose and stern attitude began and the cruel twists of fate which have torn two families apart. The death of Catherine and the true intentions of the novel's various mysterious characters have been the source of much speculation and even now Wuthering Heights remains genuinely harrowing and cathartic

Answer 3

Rich spoilt girl Cathy, poor orphan boy Heathcliffe (daft name)taken in by girl's father. Made to work like a slave. Girl falls for boy, boy driven away by brother of girl. Brother makes girl marry rich neighbour, whom she hates. Boy comes back very rich, seduces and marries girls sister for spite and makes her life hell. Bankrupts brother, keeps visiting Cathy. Cathy dies supposedly of a broken heart. Heathcliffe roams the moors calling "Cathy" several times until he too pops his clogs. Together at last as spirits walking the moors. Sister then comes into small fortune and lives happily ever after. The End.

Answer 4

Father (surname Earnshaw) of two kids, Hindley (boy) and Cathy (girl) brings home orphan boy, Heathcliff. Cathy grows up and loves Heathcliff but won't marry him, marries Edgar Linton. Hindley grows up hates Heathcliff. Heathcliff goes away, come back, finds Cathy married and doesnt like it. Marries Edgar's sister Isabella out of spite. Cathy dies, loving both Edgar and Heathcliff, after having child, Catherine. Isabella is treated bad by Heathcliff but has child, Linton. Hindley ends up drunkard and gambler and loses his home to Heathcliff. Heathcliff looks after Hindley's son Hareton when he dies.Heathcliff forces Linton and young Catherine to agree to marry, but after Linton and Heathcliff both dead, she falls in love with Hareton.

Not easy in a nutshell and i prob left important bits out.

Read the book, it's one of my faves!

Answer 5

She loves Heathcliffe but feels he is beneath her (socially) so she marries the posh boy but she is not happy because all she wants is Heathcliffe.
This is a marvellous tale of passion yet far removed from the trashy two-a-penny stories you find.

Answer 6

Read it!!!

Why do you want the plot if you're not interested in reading fiction???

Answer 7

basically heathcliff and catherine are desperately in love but life and the usual shitty things get in the way - reunited in death when both are buried in same grave - should try and read it though - really does suck you in

Answer 8

it's a naff chick flick in a book!!! does he love me will he love me blah blah blah!!!
if you must- rent the film!!!!

Answer 9

Brontë's novel tells the tale of Catherine and Heathcliff, their all-encompassing love for one another, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them both. Social tensions prevent their union, leading Heathcliff to shun and abuse society. The plot is given here in detail, as the book's narration is at times non-linear.

The story is narrated by a character named Lockwood, who is renting a house from Heathcliff. The house, Thrushcross Grange, is close to Wuthering Heights.

Much of the action itself is narrated to Lockwood during his illness by the housekeeper of Thrushcross Grange, Nelly Dean. Lockwood's arrival is after much of the story has already happened - but his story is interwoven with Dean's.

Dean's story provides insight into how the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine would have far-reaching repercussions for their families. Heathcliff's passion for Catherine is so dark and sinister that he becomes hellbent on destroying the happiness of her sister-in-law, her daughter and even his own son. This mission of destruction, though fervent during Catherine's lifetime, becomes still more impassioned after her death.

Part One

The plot is complicated, involving many turns of fortune. It begins with Mr. Earnshaw, the original proprietor of Wuthering Heights, bringing back the dark-skinned foundling Heathcliff from Liverpool. Initially, Earnshaw's children - Hindley and Catherine - detest the boy, but over time Heathcliff wins Catherine's heart, to the resentment of Hindley, who sees Heathcliff as an interloper of his father's affections. Later, Hindley is packed off to college by his father. Catherine and Heathcliff become inseparable.

Upon Earnshaw's death three years later, Hindley comes home from college and surprises everyone by also bringing home a wife, a woman named Frances. He takes over Wuthering Heights, and brutalizes Heathcliff, forcing him to work as a hired hand. Despite this, Heathcliff and Catherine remain the fastest of friends. By means of an accident (a dog bite), Catherine is forced to stay at the Linton family estate, Thrushcross Grange, for some weeks, wherein she matures and grows attached to the refined young Edgar Linton. When she returns to Wuthering Heights, she goes to some trouble to maintain her friendship with both Edgar and Heathcliff, in spite of them having an instantaneous dislike for each other.

A year later, Frances dies soon after the birth of Hindley's child Hareton. The loss leaves Hindley despondent, and he turns to alcohol. Some two years after that, Catherine becomes engaged to Edgar, causing Heathcliff to leave. Heathcliff departs and is furious by the fact that he can no longer be with Catherine.

Part Two

After Catherine has been married to Edgar for about half a year, Heathcliff returns to see her. In the interim, he has amassed significant wealth (by means that are not revealed). He has duped Hindley into owing him Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff learns of, and takes advantage of, a crush Edgar's sister Isabella has on him and he seduces and elopes with her, much to Edgar's despair. This places Heathcliff in a position to inherit Thrushcross Grange, as well. After his marriage, Heathcliff's true feelings toward Isabella emerge and his cruelty towards her (and Hareton, as the son of his old rival, Hindley) knows no bounds.

Back at Thrushcross Grange, Catherine dies in childbirth, giving birth to her and Edgar's child, a girl— also named Catherine. Isabella flees Heathcliff's cruelty a year after, and later gives birth to a boy, Linton. At around the same time, Hindley dies, and Heathcliff takes final control of Wuthering Heights. He also takes complete control of Hindley's son, Hareton, determined to raise the boy with as much neglect as he suffered at Hindley's hands years earlier. (Hareton, however, will remain loyal to Heathcliff to the end, looking at him as a surrogate father.) Twelve years later, Isabella is dying and sends for Edgar to come retrieve and raise her son. However, Heathcliff finds out about this and takes Linton from Thrushcross Grange back to Wuthering Heights. The boy is sickly and spoiled. Through a series of events, Heathcliff forces young Catherine and Linton to marry. Soon after, Edgar Linton, father of young Catherine, dies, followed shortly by Heathcliff's son, Linton. This leaves young Catherine a widow and a virtual prisoner at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff gains complete control of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.

It is at this point in the story, the winter of 1801, that Lockwood arrives. Dean tells him the past thirty or so years of the story during his illness. Lockwood is horrified and departs for London.

Part Three

Young Catherine, at first repulsed by Hareton's roughness, eventually grows tender towards him— just as her mother grew tender towards Heathcliff. In her lonely state of existence at Wuthering Heights, Hareton becomes her only source of happiness.

Only through the union of young Hareton and young Catherine can the pattern of hatred and darkness be broken and of course this can only come with Heathcliff's eventual demise at the end of the novel. The difference between young Hareton and young Catherine and Catherine and Heathcliff is that they are matched in experience and current social status and therefore have more in common than just their love for one another. Furthermore, it is strongly implied that Heathcliff himself, on seeing their love for one another, no longer cares to pursue his life-long vendetta.

Tormented for years by what he perceives as the elder Catherine's ghost, Heathcliff finally dies, and Catherine and Hareton marry. Heathcliff is buried with Catherine (the elder), and the story concludes with Lockwood visiting the grave, unsure of exactly what to feel.

Supernatural elements

A number of apparently supernatural incidents occur during the novel, although their true nature is always ambiguous. The mystery of Heathcliff's parentage is never solved, and at one point in the novel Nelly Dean entertains the notion that Heathcliff may be some hideous changeling. At the beginning of the novel, Lockwood has a horrible vision of Catherine (the elder) as a child, appearing at the window of her old chamber at Wuthering Heights, begging to be allowed in; not only does Heathcliff, on hearing of this, lend it credence, but when he dies it is noted that the window of his room was left open, raising the possibility that Catherine returned at the moment of his death. After Heathcliff dies, Nelly Dean reports that various superstitious locals have claimed to see Catherine and Heathcliff's ghosts roaming the moors, although in the closing line of the novel Lockwood discounts the idea of "unquiet slumbers for those sleepers in that quiet earth."

Timeline
1762 Edgar Linton born
1764 Heathcliff born
1765 Catherine Earnshaw born
1766 Isabella Linton born
1771 Heathcliff is brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw (late summer)
1773 Mrs Earnshaw dies
1774 Hindley is sent off to college
1777 Hindley marries Frances; Mr Earnshaw dies; Hindley comes back (October); Catherine goes to stay at Thrushcross Grange (November), then returns to Wuthering Heights (Christmas).
1778 Hareton is born (June); Frances dies (autumn)
1780 Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights; Mr and Mrs Linton both die
1783 Catherine marries Edgar (April); Heathcliff comes back (September)
1784 Heathcliff marries Isabella (January); Catherine dies and Cathy is born (20 March)' Hindley dies; Linton Heathcliff is born (September)
1797 Isabella dies; Cathy visits Wuthering Heights and meets Hareton; Linton is brought to Thrushcross Grange and is then taken to Wuthering Heights
1800 Cathy meets Heathcliff and sees Linton again (20 March)
1801 Cathy and Linton are married (August); Edgar dies (September); Linton dies (October); Mr Lockwood goes to Thrushcross Grange and visits Wuthering Heights, beginning his narrative
1802 Mr Lockwood goes back to London (January); Heathcliff dies (May); Mr Lockwood comes back to Thrushcross Grange
1803 Cathy marries Hareton