Plot

• In 1801 a gentleman from the city, Mr. Lockwood, rents

Thrushcross Grange, an estate located deep in the wild
English countryside of Yorkshire. He sets out to meet
his landlord, Heathcliff, who lives at Wuthering Heights,
an estate across the moors. Intrigued by the odd
behavior of the residents at Wuthering Heights, who
appear to have no respect for social customs, Mr.
Lockwood returns the next day, arriving as it begins to
snow. The weather forces Mr. Lockwood to spend the
night there in a bedroom, which turns out to be
haunted by a ghost named Cathy. Mr. Lockwood's
screams bring Heathcliff into the room. Strangely,
Heathcliff cries out for Cathy's ghost to come inside.
• The next morning Mr. Lockwood makes his way through the
snow back to Thrushcross Grange. Struck with an illness
requiring him to stay in bed, Mr. Lockwood draws Mrs.
Dean, a servant, into telling Heathcliff's life story. Having
served at Wuthering Heights since childhood, Mrs. Dean
eagerly launches into the tale, beginning when Heathcliff is
first brought home by Mr. Earnshaw from a trip to
Liverpool. Mr. Earnshaw has found the homeless orphan
boy on the street there, taken him to Wuthering Heights,
and named him Heathcliff after his son who died. In Mrs.
Dean's narration, Mr. Earnshaw's wife and children, Cathy
and Hindley, despise Heathcliff immediately for being a
dark-haired "gipsy" with an ill-natured temperament.
• Mr. Earnshaw's favoritism toward Heathcliff
drives Hindley to violence and hatred, but
Cathy and Heathcliff become friends, running
wild on the moors and playing and studying
together. Hindley is sent to college but returns
with a wife when his father dies. As new
master of Wuthering Heights he uses his
power to turn Heathcliff into a servant, but
Cathy shares her studies with Heathcliff, and
they continue to play together on the moors.
• One night Cathy and Heathcliff sneak over to
Thrushcross Grange to spy on the wealthy, blond and
blue-eyed Linton children, Isabella and Edgar, curious
to see how they live. A dog bites Cathy, and the
children are caught. The Lintons take Cathy in but send
Heathcliff home, rejecting him because of his lower
class status and "gipsy" background. When Cathy
returns five weeks later, she has transformed into an
upper-class woman, with proper manners and elegant
clothes. She and Heathcliff become distant as Cathy
and Edgar grow closer. Cathy accepts Edgar's marriage
proposal even though she confesses her deep love for
Heathcliff to Mrs. Dean.
• Heathcliff overhears only part of their
conversation and runs away in humiliation.
Cathy is distraught over his disappearance.
Three years later, right after Cathy marries
Edgar Linton, Heathcliff returns. He has
transformed into a wealthy, attractive man
with the manners and appearance of a
gentleman.
• Heathcliff has returned to wreak revenge for
all the wrongs done to him in childhood.
Hindley's wife has died, leaving him to raise
their child, Hareton. Hindley has cursed God
and become an abusive alcoholic. Through
gambling with Hindley, Heathcliff takes control
of Wuthering Heights and manipulates
Hareton to love him more than his own father.
• Heathcliff visits Cathy at Thrushcross Grange, and they
become close friends again, confessing love for each other,
but also respecting Cathy's marriage to Edgar. All seems
well until Edgar's sister, Isabella, develops a one-sided crush
on Heathcliff, who uses her to take revenge on Edgar for his
childhood snobbery. Heathcliff marries Isabella and
spitefully abuses and degrades her. Cathy is driven to
madness when Heathcliff is forbidden to visit her because
of a fight between him and Edgar. Expected with Edgar's
child, Cathy fades into gloom and darkness. She and
Heathcliff have one last passionate meeting in which they
berate each other for not staying together. Cathy dies later
that night after giving birth to her daughter, Catherine.
• Soon after Cathy's death, Isabella runs away and
has Heathcliff's baby. She raises their son, Linton,
alone, near London. Edgar raises Catherine alone
at Thrushcross Grange. Hindley dies, and
Heathcliff raises Hareton alone at Wuthering
Heights. Continuing his vengeance even after
Hindley's death, Heathcliff raises Hareton to be
an uneducated servant instead of an upper-class
gentleman according to his station, forcing on
Hareton the degrading existence that Hindley
forced on Heathcliff as a young man.
• As a child, Catherine meets Hareton one day when they
are both out on the moors, and their dogs fight.
Catherine likes Hareton until she finds out that he is a
servant and her cousin. When Catherine is almost
thirteen, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live at
Thrushcross Grange, but Heathcliff demands to raise
his own son and forces Linton to live at Wuthering
Heights. Linton is a sickly, pampered child. Heathcliff
uses him to gain control of Thrushcross Grange as
Edgar is dying by forcing Linton and Catherine to marry.
Soon after their marriage, Catherine nurses Linton as
he dies.
• Afterward, she and Hareton, whom Catherine has
always despised, finally become friends. Haunted
by Cathy's memory for eighteen years, Heathcliff
loses his will to live and declines into an early
death; he is found lying beside an open window
in his room as the rain pours in. Heathcliff fails to
deliver the final blow to make his revenge
complete. Catherine and Hareton regain their
estates, Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering
Heights respectively. As Mr. Lockwood finds out,
they are now free, have fallen in love, and plan to
marry.
 Crux
• Introduction
• 1 Mr. Lockwood sees Cathy's ghost at Wuthering Heights.
• Rising Action
• 2 Heathcliff is adopted into the Earnshaw family.
• 3 Hindley forces Heathcliff to become a servant.
• 4 Heathcliff runs away because Cathy says something mean.
• 5 Heathcliff returns to take revenge.
• 6 Heathcliff and Edgar's fight causes Cathy's illness.
• 7 Heathcliff marries Isabella.
• 8 Cathy dies and Isabella leaves.
• 9 Heathcliff takes control of Linton to continue his revenge.
• 10 Heathcliff makes Linton and Catherine marry; Linton dies.
• Climax
• 11 Heathcliff dies without completing his revenge.
• Falling Action
• 12 Mr. Lockwood returns; Catherine owns Thrushcross
Grange.
• 13 Catherine and Hareton become friends and fall in
love.
• 14 How Heathcliff dies is revealed to Mr. Lockwood.
• Resolution
• 15 Catherine and Hareton will marry on New Year's
Day.