Concetti Chiave
- Mr. Lockwood experiences a strange dream about Catherine, which sets in motion the recounting of her story by the housekeeper, Nelly Dean.
- Mr. Earnshaw brings home an orphan named Heathcliff, who grows close to Catherine, leading to a complex love story entwined with social class issues.
- Heathcliff returns after years to take revenge, gaining control of Wuthering Heights and manipulating the fates of those around him.
- The novel's setting in desolate Yorkshire enhances its Romantic themes, with characters exhibiting intense emotions akin to the Byronic hero model.
- The landscape and weather reflect the characters' inner turmoil, while Gothic elements and powerful symbolism pervade the narrative.
Mr Lookwood's dream
At the beginning of the story, Mr Lookwood, the tenant of T.G., stay at W.H with his landlord because of a snowstorm.During the night, he has a strange dream about Catherine, a girl near the window who asked to be let in after 20 years in the moors. The next day, Mr Lookwood returns to T.G. and the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, tells him a story in wich Catherine is the protagonist.
In fact, his father, Mr Earnshaw, one day came back from Liverpool with a foundling called Heatcliff. With him, Catherine roamed the moors and they promised they an eternal love. So one day, Catherine was bitten by a Linton's dog and was forced to stay five weeks at T.G. During this period, she know Edgar and his refined way of life.
Few years later Catherine accepted his proposal and she told Nelly Dean she would not marry Heatcliff because it was socially inferior but he listened the conversation and he escapes.
Heatcliff at home again
Three years later he returned to take his revenge, in fact he won the possession of W.H. gambling with Hindley, the brother of Catherine, and he married Edgar's sister and treated her like a servant.After the Catherine's death, Heatcliff kidnapped her daughter Cathy and obliged her to marry his son Linton. Nelly's narrative ends here.
Lookwood leaves Yorkshire but a years later he returns and he finds that Catherine and Heatcliff are died and Cathy and Hindley's son Hareton are married but Nelly tells Lookwood that there are rumors and the figures of a young man and woman in the moors.
What are the romantic setting and characteristics of Wuthering Heights?
The novel is set in the desolate Yorkshire and revolves around two houses W.H and T.G. respectively inhabited by the Earnshaws and the Lintons.
This setting creates the perfect pretext to develop Romantic themes and feature, specifically through character’s psychological determination.
As a matter of fact, most of them are influenced by the Byronic hero model because they are full of passions, sensations and emotions that not only are extreme and cannot be controlled but also spotted by a longing for the fulfilment reachable in the afterlife in the uncomplete earthliness.
In addition to that, cruelty, mystery, unpredictability and charm are elements that guide character’s behaviours and decisions.
At the end, then, nature is not indifferent or passive because it resembles the characters’ psychology and it carries with it powerful symbolism that transcends human logic to connect to the long-desired otherworldly world. In this way, also the Gothic features are recalled.
For example, tempests represents passion and rebelliousness, the park represents stability and steadiness but also closeness, the graveyard echoes the bloodiness while in the dark ghosts are spotted.
The language also is subjected to this expressionist process where the individuality of one character is powerful enough to deform the syntax in order to create a prose as intense as what is felt. For example rationality and realism can be found in Mr Lockwood and Nelly’s speeches but poetry and drama overabound in Catherine and Heathcliff’s ones.
Domande da interrogazione
- What significant event occurs during Mr. Lockwood's stay at Wuthering Heights?
- What is the outcome for Cathy and Hareton by the end of the story?
Mr. Lockwood experiences a strange dream about Catherine, a girl asking to be let in after 20 years in the moors, which leads to Nelly Dean recounting Catherine's story.
By the end of the story, Cathy and Hareton are married, and there are rumors of the figures of a young man and woman in the moors, suggesting a continuation of the cycle.
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