This entire novel takes place in England
between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange,
two homes on the
English moors. There is a distance of
approximately two miles between the two
homes. The moors are vast open lands that may
stretch out for miles at a time. Due to
location and
climate, there is
usually a heavy fog present on the moors during the night. This presence adds
dreariness and
confusion to the already complex feud occurring between the two families living
in the
homes.
The exact period of time was never
precisely established but the general time period is
suggested by the
setting. The use of horses for
transportation back and forth between the two homes
was maximized as
there was a consistent flow of news between the two families. The use of candles
being taken
"upstairs to bed" also suggests an early time period. The actual duration of the book
takes many years,
approximately sixty, due to the spreading of the story over three generations.
One chief character was Heathcliff. The entire story was written around
Heathcliff and yet
he wasn't really
the main character. Heathcliff was
adopted off of the streets at a very young age.
Neither of his
foster siblings cared much for him at first.
Eventually, his sister grew to like him and
his brother grew
to hate him. As the years passed,
Heathcliff's brother Hindley continued to scar him
emotionally and
his sister Cathy grew to love him with such a passion that when Cathy and
Hindley
died in their
middle ages, Heathcliff vowed to take revenge on Hindley's son and to not rest
until he
lay in the ground
beside Cathy. There were many instances
in the story where one was compelled
to feel sorry for
the way Heathcliff was constantly barraged by Hindley's acts of contempt. However,
no matter how
much damage Hindley did, there was no one to blame for Heathcliff's mannerism
but
Heathcliff.
One example of Heathcliff's psychological
turmoil was when Cathy died. He bribed
the
cemetery
caretaker to open Cathy's grave after the funeral services had passed. On doing so,
Heathcliff kicked
one side of the coffin in so that the dust and dirt could be free to
intermingle with
the body of
Cathy. He instructed the caretaker to
close the grave and to repeat the same ordeal this
time with
Heathcliff's coffin when he died.
Another chief character was Nelly, the
secondary narrator. (Secondary because
she tells the
majority of the
story within the dialogue of the primary narrator. Nelly was the only person that was
present at the
beginning of the story and lived to tell the see the end of it. Nelly was an important
character because
she was the one that raised most of the children in the story. Although the children
may not have
turned out the way Nelly would have liked, she still played an important part
in shaping
the lives of the
characters and in turn the course of the story.
The most important event of the story, I
believe, was when Heathcliff died. With
Heathcliff
dead, along with
Cathy and Hindley, there was no one remaining who wished to seek revenge upon
another. Hindley's son Haerton eventually married
Cathy's daughter, Cathy. And as most
stories go,
the two lived
happily every after at Wuthering Heights.
I would strongly recommend this book to
another reader. The book is well
written. It is
easily read due
to the manner in which the text flows.
There is no need to tear apart the sentences
in order to
follow the story as you would in reading, for instance, Lord of the Flies. All in all the
book had a good
storyline, a wonderful cast of characters, a pleasant ending, and is definitely
a classic
piece of English
Literature.
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