Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë (1818-1848) is perhaps the greatest writer of the three Brontë sisters- Charlotte, Emily and Anne. Emily Brontë published only one novel, Wutherings Heights (1847), a story of doomed love end revenge. But that single work places has place among the masterpieces of English lilterature. Some of her best lyrics are also rated with the best in England.

Emily Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, on July 30, 1818. Her father was a rector of Haworth from 1820. After their mother died in 1821, the children spent more of their time in reading and composition. To escape their unhappy childhood, Anne, Emily, Charlote and their brother Branwell created imaginary worlds.

Between the years 1824- 1825 Emily attended school at Cowan Bridge with Charlotte, and then was largely educated at home.

In 1835 Emily attendet school at Roe Head, but suffered from homesickness and returned after a few months to the moorlandscenery of home. In 1837 she became a governess at Law Hill, near Halifax, where she spent six months. To facilitate their plan to keep a school for girls, Emily and Charlotte Brontë went 1842 to Bruselss to learn foreign languages and school management. Emily returned on the same year to Haworth where she stayed for the rest of her brief life.

Emily Brontë died of tuberculosis on December 19, 1848, having caught cold at her brother Branwell ´s funeral in september. Ironically, after discover of Wuthering Heights, some sceptics maintained that the book was written by Branwell, on the grounds that no woman from such a circumscribed life, could have written such a passionate story. In 1850, Wuthering Heights was foumd with a selection of poems and a biographical note from Charlotte Brontë. In 1941, the Hatfield edition of the Complete Poems of Emily Jane Brontë was published.Wutherings Heights:

In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcrossgrange in the isolated moor country England. Here he met his new landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in a ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood askes his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the stange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood write down his recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights.

Nelly remember her childhood. As a young girl, she work as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the manor, Mr. Ernshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Ernshaw goes to Liverpool and returned home with an orphan, gipsy boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Ernshaw children- a boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine- detest the dark- Heathcliff. But the Catherine quickly comes to love him. Soon they spending their days playing on the moors. Atfer Mr. Ernshaw wife´s death , he grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Ernshaw sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.

Three years later, Mr. Ernshaw dies and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heighs. He returns with his new wife, Frances, and immediately seeks the revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later and favored son, Heathcliff must work in the fields. Heatcliff continues his close relationship with Caterine. One night they wander Thrushcross Grange, hoping to see Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children, who live there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs. Linton to make her a proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become friend with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated.

When Frances dies after giving birth to a boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves even more cruelly toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar´s marriage. When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking and revenge on all whowas cruel to him. Having come into a vast mysterious wealth, he lends money to the drunken Hindley, knowing that Hindley will increase his debst and fall into deeper depression. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also placed himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton. he behaves to her very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives to birth a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form she will, she may haunt him, drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her there.

Thirteen years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her temperament is modified by her father’s gentler influence. Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day, however, wandering through the moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays together with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff was so sickly, and he behaves more cruelly toward boy, than he behaves to boy´s mother.

Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors, and makes a visit to Wuthering Heights to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through letters. When Nelly destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl begins sneaking out at night to spend time with her frail young lover, who asks her to come back and nurse him back to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Linton is pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange, and his revenge upon Edgar Linton will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, and holds them as prisoner until Catherine marries Linton. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood. Nelly’s story ends as she reaches the present. Lockwood returns to London. However, six months later, he visits Nelly, and learns of further developments in the story. Although Catherine originally mocked Hareton’s ignorance and illiteracy (Heathcliff ended Hareton’s education after Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton as they live together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff becomes more and more obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent that he begins speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking on the moors, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and young Catherine inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they plan to be married on the next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.