Emily Bronte

Lockwood is the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange which belongs to Heathcliff. He goes to meet the landlord at his home, Wuthering Heights. Here also live his old servant, Joseph, his daughter-in-law (fond of magic), the proud Hareton Earnshaw and a pack of dogs that attack the guest a couple of times. The poor hospitality of these people and the mutual hatred that marks all their sentences, create an embarassing atmosphere from which Lockwood can not escape because a heavy snowfall forbids him to leave the house. The only one who actually cares about his safety is the housekeeper, Fillah, who accompanies him to an empty room; here Lockwood reads, before falling asleep, a few lines written twenty years earlier by a little girl, Catherine Linton, that tell how her brother Hindley bullies both her and Heathcliff. Lockwood is haunted in his sleep by the image of that girl, and wakes up screaming: Heathcliff, who immmediately hurries to his room, is badly shaken by his guest’s dream , and, as he leaves, Lockwood hears him cry and call for Catherine. After witnessing another family row, Lockwood is seen home by Heathcliff.

From Mrs Dean, his housekeeper, Lockwood finds out that once at Wuthering Heights lived Hindley Earnshaw and his children: Hindley (fourteen years old), and Cathy, (six years old); one day their father came home with a little orphan they christened Heathcliff who immediately gained the hatred of both brother and sister for being so well liked by their father. He had a quiet character and was not revengeful, though he would have had the chance: every word of his was law, because the landlord trusted him; whereas the jealous Hindley held on to his initial hatred, Cathy got closer to him. One day Heathcliff wanted to take Hindley’s horse, he hit him, but knowing the risk if his father found out, he at last gave him his horse, and, having got what he wanted, Heathcliff did not show any sign of wanting to be revenged for the punch-up.

As the time passes the grudge between father and children increases: Hindley is sent to boarding school and Cathy becomes a real nuisance, always ready to rebel against her father strictness, though she is always far from being evil. Only old Joseph, who spends his evenings reading the Bible, defends Heathcliff. When the father dies, Cathy is distraught. Hindley comes back home with his sickly wife. Having become the landlord, he takes advantage of Heathcliff. The latter worships Cathy, and influences her greatly, but his influence is viewed negatively because it is wild and without restraint. One evening the two youngsters go to Thrushcross Grange, where the Lintons and their children Linton and Isabella, live. They are caught by a servant: Cathy is welcomed indoors, whereas Heathcliff is sent away. When Hindley finds out what happened, he threatens Heathcliff by telling him he will get sent away from home if he continues to disobey him and almost turns him into a servant. Cathy returns clean and elegant, and Heathcliff feels ashamed. When he appears at a party well-dressed, Hindley means to send him away immediately, but Edgar Linton mocks him, and he throws a cake in his face for which he gets hit and forced into the storeroom. During the party, Cathy manages to go and see him, therefore showing him that her affection has not been compromised. Heathcliff instead shows his wish to be revenged on his step-brother before dying. Mrs Earnshaw dies a few days later after giving birth to Hareton, who is therefore entrusted to Mrs Dean. The sorrow worsenes the landlord’s bad temper: he becomes an alcoholic and bullies Heathcliff and the servants without pity. On his behalf, Heathcliff enjoys Hindley’s depravity and becomes more devilish. Cathy, now twenty-two years old, is very proud: though she still prefers Heathcliff’s company, she wants to be seen and to go out with the Linton’s. Edgar courts her, and Mrs Dean, who has the task of watching over them, even gets caught and slapped by her proud young mistress for refusing to go into the kitchen. The argument and the ensuing slap end with Cathy and Edgar confessing their love for each other.

One evening Hindley comes home drunk and nearly kills his son by dropping him from the first floor. Luckily Heathcliff readily catches the child, even if he later regrets having lost such a chance to be revenged. Catherine confesses to Mrs Dean that she has accepted Edgar’s proposal and that, even if she knows it has been a mistake and she never means to part from Heathcliff (who she considers as a part of her very being), she does not want to lower herself by marrying such a nonentity: her pride makes her prefer the idea of becoming a rich and powerful lady, and she is also certain she will be able to help Heathcliff this way, if only by taking him away from Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff (who, unseen, hears everything) leaves and, though there is a shipwreck, does not go back home. Cathy gets sick and, moved to Thrushcross Grange, infects Lintoln’s parents who both die in a month’s time; when she gets better, she marries Edgar and brings Mrs Dean with her, who therefore has to leave little Hareton alone with his father and the old fanatic, Joseph.

Life goes along uneventfully for three years: Cathy and Edgar get on very well, though, now and then, she is melancholy, but Edgar proves himself a very sensitive husband, kind and understanding.

When he returns, extremely changed both in appearance and in manner, Heathcliff begins to go to Wuthering Heights again where he lives dissolutely: gambling, drinking and teaching Hareton to hate his father, obviously meaning to ruin Hindley and Thrushcross Grange where Edgar’s dislike for him is outbalanced by Catherine’s explosive joy and, incredibly, by Isabella’s love. Besides revealing all the cruelty and selfishness of Cathy’s character, the women’s reciprocal jealousy gives Heathcliff the chance of starting trouble in that household. One day he catches Isabella alone and embraces her; the scene that follows between him and Catherine is nothing compared to the row with Edgar, who, running out of patience, hits him and threatens to have him thrown out by the servants. Heathcliff leaves promising to be revenged, and Catherine, struck by the evil tone with which the friend of her childhood accused her of having tortured him to death and promised to be revenged, shows all the arrogance and falseness Edgar had once forgiven her. This time Mrs Dean, bored and disheartened by her mistress’s disrespectful behaviour towards everyone, defends the husband, and Catherine locks herself up alone in her room, refusing to eat for two whole days; when she finally asks Mrs Dean for a meal, she is in a pitiful state, close to madness. Nelly Dean, who had at first decided not to indulge her whim and who had therefore not informed Edgar, realizes Cathy is delirious, and, after leaving her in her furious husband’s care (and after Cathy calls her an enemy, having found out that Edgar had not come to beg her to eat, not out of stubborness, but because he did not know anything), she goes and looks for a doctor and discovers that Isabella has been seen running away on a horse with Heathcliff. Back home she has not got the courage to announce the latest disaster; when the news reaches Edgar, he simply orders for his sister’s things to be taken to her new home. In the midst of her delirium (pag. 159) Catherine says that, though everyone has hated and still hates each other, she had always believed they all loved her.

Nelly receives a letter from Isabella; Heathcliff is now the landlord of Wuthering Heights, and they have therefore settled there, but Isabella is already living in hell: the only servant is old Joseph, who considers her beneath the dog and the horses; now that Hindley is ruined he only lives in the hope of killing Heathcliff; Hareton is a savage, worthy of such a father and uncle, and Heathcliff has shown her his true colors, a scheming hypocrite who wants to sacrifice her to the god of revenge, an evil person who only knows that feeling and only lives to satisfy it. Nelly Dean goes to see her and witnesses the brutal way her husband treats her and the prison she is kept in: threatening to go himself to Thrushcross Grange, Heathcliff forces Nelly to bring Catherine a letter, but, even before she gets to read it, he steals into the house. They embrace and kiss, accusing each other of their own death; only by being with her Heathcliff gets his humanity back; she attacks him, fully knowing how much he suffers seeing her so ill and so close to death, but he also accuses her of having left him for Edgar and of being the only one responsible for his unhappiness. When Edgar enters the room and catches the enemy he hates, Catherine is lying faint in his arms and, rushing to her rescue, allows Heathcliff to escape. Catherine dies giving birth to a baby girl, christened with her mother’s name. Edgar’s sorrow is mad but discreet as his love had always been, Heathcliff’s is a scream.

After his sister’s death Hindley sems to become less wrathful, whereas Heathcliff’s contempt towards everyone increases even more; Isabella witnesses Hindley’s attempt at killing him, but Heathcliff stops him and punishes him by hitting him savagely. Isabella manages to escape and, after saying good bye to Nelly at Thrushcross Grange, runs far away; before dying she gives birth to a son she christenes Linton. Having given up on everything, Edgar starts to live quietly once again, worshipping Catherine’s memory, and is averse to both meeting and even hearing of Heathcliff.

When Hindley dies drunk, Heathcliff becomes the new landlord of the house he had been turned out of, and when Edgar means to take Hareton away, Heathcliff threatens to go and find Isabella’s son who he is entitled to. Little Cathy grows up healthy and lively, even if a bit spoilt; she meets Hareton only when she is thirteen years old and is horror-struck to find out she has such a cousin; her other cousin is Isabella’s son, melancholy and sickly, who Edgar hopes to look after, but who Heathcliff demands immediately, though luckily with no intention of ruining him (he wants to satisfy the insane ambition of seeing his own son dominate the children of those who treated him as a beggar when he was a child), and all of this even if the boy’s weakness and effeminacy quite revolt him. As time goes by, their relationship ends abruptly, and little Linton becomes anti-social and is always in a bad mood. Catherine meets him by chance, and, in spite of Nelly’s pleas and of her father’s explanations, she is certain that it is absurd not to visit her relatives at Wuthering Heights; her carefree and stubborn character makes her minimize (if not ignore) the events, and her total ignorance of evilness (she has always lived at Thruchcross Grange) prevents her from understanding its meaning, so one day Nelly finds out that Catherine and Linton often write to each other and that she has fallen in love with him. This is Heathcliff’s plan: allow them to marry in order to accomplish his revenge even on Edgar; he therefore encourages their meetings on the pretext of Catherine being the only one capable of raising his morale and make him feel better. Catherine does not notice either her uncle’s evil purposes or Linton’s self-pitying behaviour which often skillfully worsens hers to make her do what he wants.

One day Catherine secretly goes to his house and, in spite of some violent arguments, she gives in to his whims. Hareton is jealous of Linton: not being educated, he speaks as a stable boy, and, having always been treated as a servant, his manners are even worse. Cathy mocks him and holds him in contempt, and this increases his anger and his disappointment; Heathcliff felt the same when he was little, he too was at the mercy of people who did not treat him as a human being, and enjoys seeing a descendant of theirs suffering the same treatment. Edgar, whose health is quickly worsening, fears the oncoming wedding, though he understands it is the only way of keeping Catherine in the home of her ancestors (Linton’s the legitimate heir), but also Lintoln’s health is shaky: Heathcliff forces him to make out he is all right and to go outdoors, even if it weakens him. Lintoln is terrified of his father and faithfully obeys him; so, one day, he deceives both Nelly and Catherine: he begs them to see him home, and Heathcliff locks them in; only then, having fulfilled his mission and feeling safe, Linton calms down again and explains that his father means to marry them the following morning, without Edgar’s permission and making sure the groom does not die before the wedding takes place. When Catherine shows her disgust and pride, offended beyond reason, Heathcliff does not hesitate and slaps her to make her understand the way things work, and Linton whimpers terrified once again, fearing that, if his father’s plans do not succeed, he will be the first to pay. Heathcliff rails against Catherine, telling her he is happy to know Edgar is in agony and anxious for her, and describing her the miserable future she will lead as the wife of a selfish, coward and whimsical tyrant; the following morning Heathcliff takes Cathy away, but leaves Nelly as Hareton’s prisoner for five days, and Catherine, her husband’s prisoner, becomes completely indifferent to pain, tears, pleas, while news comes from Thrushcross Grange of Edgar’s approaching death. Catherine is a victim to Lintoln’s hateful selfishness, indifferent and only conscious of being safe from his father’s wrath and of being the new landlord of Thrushcross Grange: Heathcliff and his son are destroying her world and her feelings; Lintoln has been forged by Heathcliff to do just this. Nelly tells Edgar of the marriage, and he tells her to call the lawyer to rewrite his will, in order to stop Heathcliff seizing Thrushcross Grange at his death, but the lawyer has been paid by Heathcliff and arrives too late on the purpose; Edgar dies in his daughter’s arms, she got Lintoln to release her.

After the funeral, Heathcliff takes Cathy to Wuthering Heights, saying he wants to rent Thrushcross Grange, and reveals to Nelly that he has been obsessed for eighteen years by his Catherine and that he has bribed the undertaker to bury him near her when he dies and to open a breach in their coffins.

Lintoln is left to die, looked after only by Cathy, who becomes a stranger in that house, proud and contemptful of everyone, even of the harsh Hareton, who awkwardly tries to get her to like him.

Here Nelly Dean’s tale ends having reached the present state of affairs. Lockwood goes to Wuthering Heights and brings a message written by Nelly, he then leaves Thrushcross Grange; when he returns he finds out that Nelly has gone back to her mistress, Heathcliff has died and Cathy is getting on very well with Hareton.

Cathy had always mocked Hareton’s ignorance, but one day she offers to become his friend regretting her behaviour, and he, who was just waiting for her to change her mind, is happy to let her teach him how to read; obviously, Heathcliff dislikes their friendship, but is no longer so evil: he seems to have had enough revenge or rather, he is not interested in it anymore, and looking back, he realizes he has spent his life, day after day, building and improving a revenge that he no longer wants; Nelly finds him dead in his room after four days of delirium; he gets buried the way he wished.

The novel’s protagonist is Heathcliff, or rather, his boundless love for Catherine: Heathcliff lives for that love, even for a scrap of love, and to punish without pity those who try to take it away from him; all through his life Heathcliff experiences only these two extreme feelings: love and hate.

Catherine senses there is something not human in that love, and is dominated by it: she tries to live as a normal girl, marrying a very eligible young man, but the shadow of that love comes back now and then to haunt all her actions.

Edgar is a normal person who thinks things over and therefore does not understand what links Catherine and Heathcliff, but judges only his actions and realizes he is a man who hates him.

Hareton has grown up influenced by Heathcliff, and has learnt to consider him a kind of law of nature; he does not claim his rights, he does not even hate him; he is rather the only one who mourns him.

Cathy and Hareton represent Heathcliff’s revenge on Edgar and Hindley, his main persecutors during his childhood: no crime can be greater than this, and the revenge must last forever, up to his very last breath, first on the fathers, then on the children; actually, something at the end goes wrong when two of the children fall in love, but, after all, this is another humiliating defeat for Heathcliff, because under the same circumstances Hareton achieves the love that he should be forbidden, but it is even his triumph, because he turned Hareton, Hindley’s son, into a little Heathcliff, and Cathy, Edgar’s daughter, into a little Catherine, and they can love each other: the children of his persecutors are those who finally accomplish his love story.

Hindley is the first evil character of the novel, and teaches Heathcliff; he is also the first to suffer his revenge, the first one to die of his generation.

Isabel and Linton appear only briefly, but are, especially the latter, strong characters, and, even if they change the simmetry, they are essential to the creation of the different couples.

Also among the servants there is a perfect simmetry: Nelly, a kind and understanding character, is balanced by the insentive and stupid Joseph.

The novel is set in three different places: Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange and the moors; it spans three generations, years flash by, but focuses on various significant episodes in order to describe the characters’ psychological development: they are all followed from their childhood to their death, except the servants and the last two characters, their passing from the innocence of childhood to the common degradation of adulthood (except Edgar and Catherine); the weather, the storm and the ensuing quiet either anticipate or follow the events as if they are a part of them.

The main features of the narration are: the boundless passions (the delirium of each kiss, the furious arguments, the death wishes); the harmonious blending of landscape and environment (Heathcliff and Catherine belong to the moors); the contrast between sadism and infantilism (Heathcliff is a boy who wants to destroy what hurts him), between strength and weakness (each respectively centred at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange), the logical linking of events (nothing is taken for granted: everything carries on according to a certain situation or character); the flashbacks (from present to past) and the indirect narration (the ending is foretold twice and only the way it is accomplished is revealed); the life in the two different households.

In the novel there are some highlighted ideals: anti-manicheism (though the actions and the feelings are always taken to the extreme, noone is either completely good or completely bad and vice versa); palingenesis ( Heathcliff brings unhappiness and works to destroy: it is his only aim, but when he finishes destroying something is born again, and it is actually what could not have existed before, the love between a beggar and a princess); love (Cathy and Hareton, respectively born of the love between Edgar and Catherine and between Hindley and his wife, will be happy, whereas Linton, the son of hate, will die unhappy).

Nelly riceve una lettera da Isabella; Heathcliff e` ormai padrone di Wuthering Heights, e percio` si sono stabiliti li`, ma per Isabella e` subito cominciato l'inferno: l'unico servitore e` il vecchio Joseph, che la considera meno del cane e dei cavalli; ormai Hindley e` un uomo finito, che vive soltanto nella speranza di riuscire ad uccidere Heathcliff; Hareton e` un selvaggio, degno di tanto padre e di tanto ziastro, e Heathcliff le si presenta sotto le vere spoglie dell'ipocrita intrigante che vuole farne, senza nessuna pieta`, una vittima sacrificale sull'altare della vendetta, un malvagio che conosce soltanto quel sentimento e vive unicamente per soddisfarlo. Nelly Dean si reca a trovarla ed e` testimone del modo brutale con cui il marito la tratta e della prigione in cui e` tenuta: sotto la minaccia di presentarsi personalmente a Thrushcross Grange, Heathcliff costringe Nelly a portare una lettera a Catherine, ma, prima ancora che Catherine l'abbia letta, penetra lui stesso nella casa. I due s'abbracciano e si baciano, accusandosi a vicenda della propria morte; soltanto con lei Heathcliff recupera la sua umanita`; lei infierisce su di lui ben sapendo quanto egli soffra nel vederla cosi` malata e cosi` vicina alla morte, ma lui le rinfaccia d'averlo abbandonato per Edgar, d'essere stata la sola responsabile della sua infelicita`. Quando Edgar entra nella stanza e sorprende l'odiato nemico, Catherine giace svenuta tra le sue braccia, e, precipitandosi a soccorrere la moglie, Edgar gli consente di fuggire. Catherine muore dando alla luce una bambina, battezzata col nome della madre. Il dolore di Edgar e` folle e discreto com'e` stato il suo affetto, quello di Heathcliff e` un urlo.

Dopo la morte della sorella Hindley sembra diventare meno collerico, mentre Heathcliff aumenta ancora il suo disprezzo verso tutti; Isabella e` testimone d'un tentativo d'assassinio da parte di Hindley, che Heathcliff sventa e unisce picchiandolo selvaggiamente. Isabella riesce a fuggire e, dopo aver salutato Nelly a Thrushcross Grange, fugge lontano; prima di morire partorira` un figlio e lo battezzera` Linton. Ormai rassegnato, Edgar ha ripreso serenamente la sua vita, ricorda Catherine con adorazione e rifugge dall'incontrare o anche solo sentir parlare di Heathcliff. Quando Hendley muore ubriaco, si scopre che lui e` il nuovo padrone della casa da cui era stato scacciato, e quando Edgar manifesta l'intenzione di portargli via Hareton, per ritorsione Heathcliff minaccia d'andarsi a riprendere il figlio di Isabella, che gli spetta di diritto. La piccola Cathy cresce sana e vivace, anche se un po' viziata; incontra Hareton solo a 13 anni, ed apprende con orrore d'avere un simile cugino; un altro cugino e` il figlio di Isabella, malinconico e malaticcio, che Edgar spera di tenere sotto la sua custodia, che invece Heathcliff reclama subito ma non sembra avere, fortunatamente, intenzione di guastarlo (vuole soddisfare la folle ambizione di vedere suo figlio dominare i figli di coloro che da piccolo lo trattarono come un pezzente), e questo anche se la debole costituzione e l'effeminatezza del piccolo lo rivoltano non poco. Col passare del tempo si troncano i rapporti tra i due, ed il piccolo Linton acquista un carattere asociale unito ad un costante malumore. Catherine lo incontra casualmente, e, nonostante le suppliche di Nelly e le spiegazioni del padre, si convince che e` assurdo non frequentare i parenti di Wuthering Heights; il suo carattere spensierato e testardo la porta a minimizzare (se non ad ignorare) gli avvertimenti, e la totale ignoranza del male (e` sempre vissuta a Thrushcross Grange) le impedisce comunque d'afferrarne il significato, cosi` un giorno Nelly scopre che Catherine e Linton si scrivono sovente e che lei ne e` innamorata. Il disegno di Cliff e` questo: farli sposare per completare la sua vendetta anche su Edgar; favorisce percio` gli incontri tra i due adducendo a pretesto che Catehrine e` l'unica che sollevi il morale e la salute del ragazzo. Catherine non s'accorge ne' dei malvagi propositi dello zio, ne' dell'autocommiserazione di Linton, che spesso aggrava ad arte le sue condizioni per farle fare ciò che vuole. Catherine si reca ogni giorno di nascosto a casa sua e, nonostante violenti litigi, si sottomette ai suoi capricci. Hareton è geloso di Linton: non essendo stato istruito, parla come uno stalliere, e, essendo trattato come un servitore, i suoi modi sono anche peggiori. Cathy lo schernisce e lo disprezza, e questo aumenta la sua stizza e la sua delusione; Heathcliff ha provato le stesse sensazioni da piccolo, è stato anche lui in balia di persone che non lo trattavano come un essere umano, e gode di vedere il loro discendente subire lo stesso trattamento. Edgar, la cui salute va rapidamente declinando, teme l'unione che si profila, anche se capisce che quel matrimonio è l'unico mezzo per farla rimanere nella casa degli avi (l'erede legittimo è Linton), ma la salute di Lintoln è altrettanto precaria: Heathcliff lo costringe a fingere di star bene e ad uscire di casa, anche se così ne aggrava le condizioni. Linton è terrorizzato dal padre e ne segue fedelmente tutti gli ordini; così, un giorno, inganna Nelly e Catherine: le supplica d'accompagnarlo a casa, dove Heathcliff le rinchiude; solo allora, compiuta la sua missione e messosi in salvo, Linton riacquista la calma e spiega che suo padre intende sposarli l'indomani mattina, sia per fare a meno del consenso di Edgar, sia per essere certo che lo sposo non muoia prima. Quando Cathy assume il contegno disgustato ed altero di chi è offeso oltre ogni limite, Heathcliff non esita a schiaffeggiarla per farle capire come stanno le cose, e Linton miagola di nuovo atterrito, perché teme che, se non si realizzeranno i piani del padre, lui sarà il primo a farne le spese. Heathcliff inveisce su Catherine dicendole che è contento di sapere Edgar in agonia ed in ansia per lei, presentandole il miserabile futuro che l'attende come moglie d'un tiranno egoista, vigliacco e capriccioso; il mattino dopo Heathcliff porta via Cathy, ma lascia Nelly prigioniera di Hareton per ben cinque giorni, e Catherine è, adesso, prigioniera di suo marito, assolutamente indifferente al dolore, alle lacrime, alle suppliche, mentre da Thrushcross Grange giungono notizie sull'approssimarsi della morte di Edgar. Catherine è vittima dell'odioso egoismo di Linton del tutto insensibile e conscio soltanto d'essere salvo dalla furia paterna e di essere padrone di Thrushcross Grange: Heathcliff e suo figlio stanno distruggendo il suo mondo ed i suoi sentimenti; Linton è una macchina costruita da Heathcliff appunto per questo. Nelly racconta l'accaduto ad Edgar, e questi gli chiede di chiamare l'avvocato per rifare il testamento, in modo che Heathcliff non possa impossessarsi di Thrushcross Grange alla morte di Linton, ma l'avvocato s'è venduto a Heathcliff, e farà in modo di arrivare troppo tardi; Edgar si spegne tra le braccia della figlia, che è riuscita a farsi aprire da Linton.

Dopo il funerale, Heathcliff porta Cathy a Wuthering Heights, dicendo che vuole affittare Thrushcross Grange, e rivela a Nelly d'essere stato ossessionato per diciotto anni dalla memoria della sua Catherine, e d'aver corrotto il becchino affinché lo sotterri al suo fianco ed apra una breccia nelle due casse.

Linton viene lasciato morire, accudito solo da Cathy, che in quella casa diventa un'estranea, altera e piena di disprezzo verso tutti, anche verso il duro Hareton, che si prova goffamente a piacerle.

Il racconto di Nelly Dean termina perché quella è la situazione attuale. Lockwood si reca a Wuthering Heights e porta un biglietto di Nelly, poi lascia Thrushcross Grange; quando ritorna nella zona scopre che Nelly è tornata con la sua padrona, Heathcliff è morto e Cathy e Hareton vanno d'amore e d'accordo.

Cathy ha sempre deriso l'ignoranza di Hareton, ma un giorno gli offre, pentita, la sua amicizia, e lui, che da tempo non aspetta altro, è felice d'imparare a leggere da lei; la loro amicizia, ovviamente, dispiace a Heathcliff, che però non ha più l'antica malvagità dirompente: sembra sazio di vendette, o, meglio, non gli interessa più vendicarsi, e, guardando a ritroso la sua vita, si rende conto d'averla trascorsa giorno dopo giorno ad edificare e perfezionare questa vendetta, che adesso non gli dà più alcuna soddisfazione; Nelly lo trova morto nella sua stanza dopo che per quattro giorni s'è comportato come se si fosse in delirio; viene sepolto come voleva.

Il protagonista del romanzo è Heathcliff, o, meglio, il suo amore senza limiti per Catherine: Heathcliff vive per quell'amore, anche solo per qualche briciola d'amore, e per punire senza pietà coloro che cercano d'allontanarlo da lui; in tutta la sua vita Heathcliff conosce soltanto due sentimenti estremi: l'amore e l'odio.

Catherine avverte che in quell'amore c'è qualcosa di disumano, e ne resta succube: tenta di vivere come una ragazza normale, sposando un buon partito e vivendo di conserva, ma l'ombra di quell'amore ritorna a tratti ad oscurare ogni atto quotidiano.

Edgar è una persona normale che ragiona sulle cose, e per questo non capisce cosa leghi Catherine e Heathcliff, ma vede in lui soltanto le sue azioni, cioè un uomo che lo odia.

Hareton è cresciuto sotto l'influsso di Heathcliff, ed ha imparato a considerarlo una sorta di legge naturale: non rivendica i suoi diritti, non lo odia neppure; è, anzi, l'unico che lo piange.

Per Heathcliff, Cathy e Hareton rappresentano soltanto i mezzi per perpetuare la sua vendetta su Edgar e Hindley, principali persecutori della sua infanzia: nessun crimine è più grande di questo, e la vendetta non può che essere eterna, sino all'ultimo respiro, prima i padri, poi i figli; in realtà, qualcosa, alla fine, s'incepperà quando i due figli s'innamoreranno, ma, d'altronde, questo è, in realtà, un ulteriore smacco per Heathcliff, perché nelle sue stesse condizioni Hareton riesce ad avere per sé quell'amore che dovrebbe essergli proibito, ma è anche un suo trionfo, perché ha fatto di Hareton, figlio di Hindley, un piccolo Heathcliff, e di Cathy, figlia di Edgar, una piccola Catherine, e loro si possono amare: sono proprio i figli dei suoi persecutori a portare a termine la sua storia d'amore incompiuta.

Hindley è il primo malvagio del romanzo, ed insegna a Heathcliff; è anche la prima vittima della vendetta, il primo morto della sua generazione.

Isabel e Linton compaiono in un breve periodo, ma sono, soprattutto il secondo, ritratti potenti, e, anche se alterano la simmetria, sono indispensabili per gli accoppiamenti.

Anche tra i servitori c'è una simmetria perfetta: alla buona e comprensiva Nelly fa da contraltare l'insensibile e stupido Joseph.

Il romanzo è ambientato in tre scene: Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange e la brughiera; copre un arco di tempo molto lungo (tre generazioni), saltando in un baleno di anni, ma soffermandosi di volta in volta su un episodio significativo per illustrare la situazione psicologica dei personaggi: tutti sono seguiti dall'infanzia alla morte, salvo i servitori e gli ultimi due, nel loro uscire dall'innocenza dell'infanzia per entrare in quello che normalmente è il normale abbrutimento della maturità (fanno eccezione soltanto Edgar e Catherine); le condizioni atmosferiche, la tempesta e la calma, seguono e precedono gli avvenimenti come se essi ne fossero parte.

Caratteristiche della narrazione sono: le passioni dirompenti (i deliri di baci, le liti furiose, gli auguri di morte), l'armonica fusione tra paesaggi ed ambiente (Heathcliff e Catherine sono parte della brughiera), il contrasto tra sadismo ed infantilismo (Heathcliff è un bambino che vuole distruggere ciò che gli ha fatto del male), tra forza bruta e debolezza (aventi due epicentri diversi, Wuthering Heights e Thrushcross Grange), la logica concatenazione degli eventi (nulla è regalato: tutto prosegue come deve date la situazione e le personalità), il racconto a sbalzi (dal presente al passato) ed indiretto (per due volte si sa già la fine, e si attende di sapere come s'è arrivati a quella fine), la vita domestica.

Nel romanzo ci sono alcuni ideali parlanti: l'antimanicheismo (per quanto le azioni ed i sentimenti siano sempre estremi, nessuno è del tutto buono né del tutto cattivo: c'è sempre un punto di vista rispetto al quale il cattivo è buono e viceversa), la palingenesi (Heathcliff porta l'infelicità e lavora per distruggere: è il suo solo scopo, ma quando ha finito di distruggere qualcosa rinasce, ed è proprio ciò che prima non poteva esistere, l'amore tra uno straccione ed una principessa), l'amore (Cathy ed Hareton, rispettivamente figli dell'amore tra Edgar e Catherine e tra Hindley e sua moglie, saranno felici, mentre Linton, figlio dell'odio, morirà infelice).