Studying Wuthering Heights: The Complete Text and Revision Guide recap

Tenant Lockwood asks housekeeper Nelly Dean to explain the hostile household of his landlord, Heathcliff. Nelly recounts how the orphan Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw grew up inseparable at Wuthering Heights, but Catherine married the genteel Edgar Linton. Heathcliff returned wealthy and pursued revenge: he ruined Catherine's brother Hindley, married and abused Edgar's sister Isabella, and remained consumed by Catherine until her death after giving birth to Cathy. Years later he controlled Hindley's son Hareton and his own sickly son Linton, then forced young Cathy to marry Linton so he could acquire Thrushcross Grange as well as the Heights. Edgar and Linton died, leaving Cathy trapped in Heathcliff's household. Cathy eventually befriended and educated Hareton, and they fell in love. Haunted by Catherine and no longer interested in revenge, Heathcliff died. Cathy and Hareton planned to marry and move to the Grange, restoring affection and inheritance to the younger generation.

Mr Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange in an isolated part of Yorkshire and visits his landlord, Heathcliff, at nearby Wuthering Heights. The welcome is cold. Lockwood meets the hostile young widow Cathy, the rough Hareton Earnshaw, and the elderly servant Joseph but cannot determine how the household members are related. Snow forces him to remain overnight in an old room associated with a Catherine Earnshaw. He reads names and fragments of childhood writing, then dreams that a girl's ghost begs at the window to be admitted. Heathcliff reacts with anguish when he hears Catherine's name and calls into the storm for her to return. Back at the Grange, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to explain the history behind the house.

Nelly begins with the Earnshaw family. Mr Earnshaw brings an orphan boy from Liverpool to Wuthering Heights and names him Heathcliff. Catherine quickly becomes Heathcliff's closest companion, but her brother Hindley resents him, especially because their father favors the newcomer. After Mr Earnshaw dies, Hindley returns with his wife Frances, takes control of the estate, stops Heathcliff's education, and reduces him to labor. Catherine and Heathcliff continue ranging over the moors. When they spy on the Linton children at Thrushcross Grange, a dog injures Catherine and she remains there for several weeks. She returns with polished manners and a new friendship with Edgar Linton, making Heathcliff newly conscious of his degraded position. Frances gives birth to Hareton and dies, after which Hindley sinks into grief, drink, and greater violence.

Edgar courts Catherine while Heathcliff remains her deepest companion. Catherine tells Nelly that she has accepted Edgar because marrying him offers social position and security; she also says that her bond with Heathcliff is fundamental to her identity. Heathcliff overhears only the part in which she says marriage to him would lower her, and he disappears before hearing the rest. Catherine searches for him in a storm and becomes ill. She later marries Edgar and lives at Thrushcross Grange. After three years Heathcliff returns, educated in manner and mysteriously wealthy. Catherine welcomes him passionately. Edgar distrusts him, while Isabella develops a romantic interest in him. Heathcliff takes up residence at the Heights and exploits Hindley's drinking and gambling, beginning a deliberate campaign against both families.

Heathcliff encourages Isabella's infatuation as a way to injure Edgar and gain a claim on Linton property. Conflict between Edgar, Catherine, and Heathcliff escalates. Catherine shuts herself away, refuses food, and becomes dangerously ill and pregnant. Heathcliff elopes with Isabella, then treats her cruelly at Wuthering Heights; she realizes that his marriage is an instrument of revenge. Heathcliff secretly visits the dying Catherine at Thrushcross Grange. Their reunion is loving and accusatory, with each blaming the other for their separation. Catherine gives birth prematurely to a daughter, Cathy, and dies soon afterward. Heathcliff is devastated and wishes that Catherine will haunt him rather than leave him alone. Isabella eventually escapes the Heights while the conflict there continues.

Isabella settles away from Heathcliff and raises their frail son, Linton. Hindley dies after years of debt, allowing Heathcliff to take possession of Wuthering Heights and keep Hareton dependent and uneducated, repeating the degradation Hindley once imposed on him. Twelve years pass. Edgar raises Cathy at Thrushcross Grange in seclusion and affection, and she grows up knowing little of the Heights. On an unauthorized trip she meets Hareton but mistakes his position and treats him as socially beneath her. When Isabella dies, Edgar brings Linton to the Grange, where Cathy is delighted to discover a cousin. Heathcliff immediately claims his son and takes the weak, frightened boy to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff now has an heir through whom he may obtain the Linton estate.

Heathcliff arranges further contact between Cathy and Linton, presenting the cousins' relationship as affection while treating it as a property strategy. Cathy and Linton secretly exchange letters until Nelly discovers and ends the correspondence. Later Cathy visits Wuthering Heights and sees that Linton is sickly, selfish, and frightened of his father. Hareton, drawn to Cathy despite her contempt, is humiliated when she mocks his inability to read. Heathcliff presses Cathy to continue visiting because Edgar is ill and Linton's health is worsening. Cathy believes her attention may help Linton, but the meetings place her increasingly within Heathcliff's control. His aim is to secure their marriage before either Edgar or Linton dies.

Heathcliff imprisons Cathy and Nelly at Wuthering Heights and refuses to let Cathy return to her dying father until she marries Linton. Linton is too frightened of Heathcliff to protect her and participates weakly in the coercion. Cathy escapes in time to see Edgar before he dies, but the forced marriage has already directed the Grange through Linton to Heathcliff. Linton dies soon afterward, leaving Cathy widowed and Heathcliff owner of both houses. Cathy must live at Wuthering Heights, bitter and isolated. Nelly remains at the Grange, while Hareton responds to Cathy's scorn with anger even though he is strongly attached to her. Lockwood's first visits occur during this bleak aftermath, which explains the household he could not understand.

Cathy gradually regrets mocking Hareton and offers to teach him to read. He accepts, and their shared study becomes affection. Their alliance combines the younger Earnshaw and Linton lines and undermines the emotional isolation Heathcliff created. Heathcliff discovers that he no longer wants to punish them: Hareton recalls Hindley yet is loved by him, and both young people remind him of Catherine. Increasingly convinced that Catherine is near, Heathcliff stops eating, wanders outside, and withdraws from his long campaign of revenge. Nelly finds him dead in Catherine's former room beside an open window. He is buried near Catherine and Edgar. Months later Lockwood returns and finds Cathy and Hareton preparing to marry on New Year's Day and move to Thrushcross Grange, leaving Wuthering Heights behind. Local people report seeing Heathcliff and Catherine together on the moors, while Lockwood visits the three graves and reflects on their apparent peace.

After gaining both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Heathcliff loses interest in completing his revenge. Hareton increasingly resembles the people Heathcliff loved and hated, while Cathy and Hareton overcome their hostility: she teaches him to read, he responds with devotion, and they plan to marry. Heathcliff becomes preoccupied with Catherine's presence and withdraws from ordinary life, eating little and wandering the moors. Nelly finds him dead in Catherine's old room beside an open window. He is buried beside Catherine and Edgar, and local stories claim that Heathcliff and Catherine are seen together on the moors. Lockwood later returns to find the oppressive household transformed. Cathy and Hareton intend to marry on New Year's Day and move to Thrushcross Grange, leaving Joseph at the Heights. The younger pair's union reconciles the Earnshaw and Linton lines and ends the cycle of dispossession, while Lockwood closes at the three graves.