If you are an outsider who wants to fit in, or a person seeking high social status, “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Brontë is the book for you.
You may be familiar with Kate Bush’s song “Wuthering Heights,” where she portrays Catherine as a ghost after her death. Catherine asks Heathcliff to let her into the mansion because she claims she has come home to him.
Typically, Gothic literature isn’t my cup of tea, but this book changed the way I see the world and the differences between the late 1800s and today. With all of the politics and the harsh reality of 2025, this book transports you to the harsh reality of the 1840s.
Set in the late 1800s, the main character, Heathcliff, owns a mansion called Wuthering Heights in Yorkshire, England. The book has two narrators who live at the mansion, Mr. Lockwood, a tenant, and Nelly Dean, the housekeeper. Mr. Lockwood narrates the present while Dean narrates Heathcliff’s past.
In Heathcliff’s past, the reader learns about his life as an adopted child living with the Earnshaws, who are the original owners of Wuthering Heights. As Heathcliff grows up, he develops a crush on Catherine, one of the children at the mansion. They start off as friends who would play together on the moors where the mansion rests.
As the two characters get older, instead of choosing Heathcliff, Catherine marries Edgar Linton, who lives at another mansion called Thrushcross Grange. Catherine chooses Linton for social status. Heathcliff is poor, which hurts her chances of living a wealthy life, whether she loves Edgar or not. When Heathcliff overhears her, he’s immediately jealous and leaves.
Years later, Heathcliff returns wealthy, having climbed social status. No one knows how he changed, and he never reveals it. With this new wealth, he becomes the owner of the mansion after all of the Earnshaw family dies.
Now, he has all of the power to treat people like dirt, including his own son. When I read this for ENG 265: The Novel, I was appalled. No one should be treated like this, and for people who side with Heathcliff, you better explain yourself.
My favorite character in the book is Cathy Linton, the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton. Cathy is an iconic character because she cares for her father as he dotes on her. He homeschooled her, giving her an education since most women didn’t go to school during the time period. However, he sets rules for her in order to protect her from outside of the house.
One rule is she can’t go past the mansion without a guardian. Her father doesn’t want her to go past the moors, for fear she’ll turn up at Wuthering Heights, where he has beef with Heathcliff. However, that doesn’t stop her from sneaking out of the house on her pony to explore outside.
I usually say that I’m a brave person when really there are a few things that scare me. Fortunately, Cathy gives me the strength to be myself, and I learn a lot from her. If you disagree, there are plenty of characters to relate to.
If you’re interested in reading, you can find “Wuthering Heights” on Amazon or wherever you get your books.
