Concetti Chiave
- The novel is set in Yorkshire and focuses on two houses, W.H. and T.G., inhabited by the Earnshaws and the Lintons.
- Mr. Lookwood, a tenant at T.G., experiences a supernatural dream about Catherine during a stay at W.H. due to a snowstorm.
- Nelly Dean, the housekeeper, narrates a tale involving Catherine, her love for Heathcliff, and the resulting tragic events.
- Heathcliff seeks revenge after overhearing Catherine's rejection, leading to manipulation and control over both families.
- The story concludes with Lookwood discovering Catherine and Heathcliff's deaths and rumors of their spirits in the moors.
Indice
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 daughterCathy 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.
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
- Qual è il sogno di Mr Lookwood e cosa rappresenta?
- Come si sviluppa la vendetta di Heatcliff?
- Quali misteri rimangono alla fine della storia?
Mr Lookwood sogna Catherine che chiede di essere lasciata entrare dopo 20 anni nei moors, rappresentando il legame eterno e tormentato tra i personaggi principali.
Heatcliff ritorna dopo tre anni, prende possesso di W.H. vincendo al gioco con Hindley, sposa la sorella di Edgar e la tratta come una serva, e costringe la figlia di Catherine a sposare suo figlio Linton.
Alla fine, Lookwood scopre che Catherine e Heatcliff sono morti, Cathy e Hareton si sono sposati, ma ci sono voci di figure di un giovane uomo e una donna nei moors, lasciando un alone di mistero.
Accedi a tutti gli appunti
Tutor AI: studia meglio e in meno tempo
