Wuthering Heights: THE PLOT
Mr. Lockwood, the narrator, has just rented a large, secluded house called Thrushcross Grange in the desolate moors of Yorkshire in northern England. When he goes to visit his landlord, a Mr. Heathcliff, who lives a few miles away at a smaller place called Wuthering Heights, he finds his new neighbor surly and quarrelsome. Forced to spend the night there because of a snowstorm, he dreams of a ghost calling itself Catherine Linton. Back at the Grange, he asks his housekeeper, Ellen (Nelly) Dean, to tell him about the strange household at Wuthering Heights. Mrs. Dean's story begins thirty years before, when Wuthering Heights was the home of a respectable family called the Earnshaws. After a visit to Liverpool, Mr. Earnshaw has brought home a stray gypsy lad, whom he calls Heathcliff, to raise with his own children, Hindley and Catherine. Catherine feels a special closeness with Heathcliff, but Hindley hates him because the gypsy boy is Mr. Earnshaw's favorite. Shortly after his father dies, Hindley comes home from school with a new wife, and forces Heathcliff into the role of servant. Cathy takes Heathcliff's side, and the two run wild together on the moors, eventually falling in love. On one of their rambles they are caught peeking into the windows of Thrushcross Grange, where the Lintons live. The Linton children, Edgar and Isabella, are afraid of the rough Heathcliff, but become fond of Catherine, who is forced to stay with them for several weeks to recover from the bite of their watchdog. When Cathy returns home, she's dressed like a lady and has given up her wild ways. She laughs at Heathcliff's black, cross look, and he runs off in anger. Hindley's wife dies soon after bearing a son, and in his grief Hindley treats Heathcliff worse than ever. Cathy and Heathcliff have also been arguing intensely. Thus when Edgar Linton proposes, Cathy accepts. Afterward she tells Ellen, the housekeeper, that Edgar is handsome and cheerful, and that he's going to be rich one day. It would degrade her to marry Heathcliff now, she says, even though she believes she belongs with him. Unbeknownst to Cathy, Heathcliff has been listening, and when he hears her say it would degrade her to marry him, he runs away. Cathy is beside herself when she learns he's gone, and falls ill. Three years later, Cathy and Edgar marry, and together with Ellen, whom they persuade to come with them, make their home at Thrushcross Grange. The young couple have been happy together for six months when Heathcliff returns, a rich and educated man. He stays at Wuthering Heights with his old enemy Hindley, who's now a drunk. When Heathcliff visits Thrushcross Grange, Cathy is delighted to see him. Isabella Linton soon falls in love with the transformed Heathcliff. Cathy and Edgar, are both enraged, but for different reasons. Although Heathcliff thinks that Isabella is silly and weak, he pursues her in order to get revenge on Edgar and, perhaps, to get her property. Shortly after, Cathy falls ill. Delirious with fever, she imagines herself back with the young Heathcliff. While she lies ill, he and Isabella elope. By the time the newlyweds return to live at Wuthering Heights, Cathy is sufficiently recovered to recognize Heathcliff when he sneaks into her room one day. Each accuses the other of betraying their love. That night Cathy dies in premature childbirth. When Heathcliff learns of her death, he beats his head against a tree and begs her ghost to haunt him. Meanwhile, Isabella's love for Heathcliff has turned to hate. The day after Cathy's funeral, Isabella flees to Thrushcross Grange to confide her troubles in Ellen. Hindley, driven mad by the knowledge that he gambled away his property to Heathcliff, had tried to kill him the night before. In the ensuing struggle, Heathcliff had seriously injured Hindley. Isabella escapes to the south of England, and six months later Hindley dies. Twelve years pass. Hareton, Hindley's son, grows up at Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff, who raises him to be proud of his ignorance and bad temper. Cathy and Edgar's daughter, also named Catherine, grows up at Thrushcross Grange, where Edgar gives her the love he once lavished on his wife. Cathy's told nothing about Wuthering Heights or Heathcliff. Edgar hears that his sister Isabella is dying, and goes south to see her and the son, Linton, she bore not long after leaving Heathcliff. Edgar brings Linton home to Thrushcross Grange after Isabella dies, but the next day Heathcliff claims his son. Cathy doesn't see Linton again until three years later, when she meets Heathcliff for the first time. Heathcliff takes Cathy to Wuthering Heights, where she is briefly reunited with Linton. Heathcliff tells Ellen that he intends the two to marry. Despite Edgar's ban on communication between the two households, Cathy secretly exchanges love letters with Linton until Ellen finds out and puts a stop to it. The next time Cathy runs into Heathcliff, he tells her that Linton is dying of love for her, but when she goes to see him, they fight. Heathcliff has turned Linton's natural peevishness into maliciousness. Cathy continues secretly to see the boy, however. Edgar is dying, and fears for Cathy's future. Since he has no male heir, the property will pass to Linton, his sister's son. The only way Cathy can stay at Thrushcross Grange is to marry Linton. Shortly after Edgar dies, Linton also succumbs, and Heathcliff claims Thrushcross Grange in his late wife's name. The major portion of Ellen Dean's story ends here. Lockwood leaves Yorkshire for a while. A year passes. Then Lockwood returns, and Ellen tells him what has happened in the interim. When Hareton, Hindley's son, and Cathy fell in love, a strange change came over Heathcliff. He lost interest in his revenge, yearning only to be again with his Cathy, and finally died. As the story ends, Hareton and the younger Cathy are to be married. The characters in Wuthering Heights are sometimes compared to figures in myths, ballads, fairy tales, or dreams because they are rarely seen engaged in the more social commonplaces of everyday life. Edgar Linton, for instance, is said to be fun to talk to, but you are given no idea what he talks about. Nor are you shown how characters act when they are outside the tight knot of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, the two households that dominate the novel. Each character is generally of one of two types--the Wuthering Heights type (strong, passionate, stormy) or the Thrushcross Grange type (passive, civilized, calm). The obvious contrast is between Heathcliff and Edgar.
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Creada: 22/02/2000 Última Actualización: 07/03/2000