Wuthering Heights Summary for Readers

The setting of the story is the winter of 1801. Readers are introduced to a man called Lockwood. The man intends to rent a house, Thrushcross Grange. He intends that he should be isolated from the other people within the area. He encounters his landlord, a man called Heathcliff. The landlord is wealthy and resides in the old manor located in Wuthering Heights. This is 4 miles from where the Grange is located.  The countryside is stormy and wild. Lockwood requests Nelly Dean, the housekeeper to narrate to him the tales of Heathcliff as well as the happenings in Wuthering Heights. Nelly accepts with makes Lockwood to write the story. This detailed recollection is part of the story, ‘Wuthering Heights’ written by a renowned author, Emily Brontë.

Nelly recalls the things that happened during her childhood. As a tender and young girl, she is working at Wuthering Heights as a servant for the manor owner called Mr. Earnshaw, who is living with his family. There is a day Mr. Earnshaw travels to Liverpool. On his return, he comes home with a boy who is an orphan. He intends to raise the boy together with his children. In the beginning, Hindley, his son, and Catherine, his daughter, are against Heathcliff’s idea. After a while, Catherine begins to like this boy. Soon, they become the best of friends and spend most of the time together playing. After the death of Mr. Earnshaw’s wife, he begins to love Heathcliff as he would one of his children. Because of Hindley’s cruelty towards Heathcliff, Hindley is sent to college by Mr. Earnshaw. At this point, Heathcliff is now near Mr. Earnshaw.

Mr. Earnshaw dies after three years. Consequently, Hindley becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights. On Hindley’s return with his wife, Frances, he intends to mistreat Heathcliff as revenge. From being an orphan and living a comfortable life as a favorite son of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff now has to live a complicated life of a normal laborer. He has to work hard, maintaining the fields that now belong to Hindley. At the same time, Heathcliff is still close to Catherine. There is a night they both go to Grange in Thrushcross. They intend to tease the children who reside in that place. The children, Edgar, and Isabella Linton, are known to be cowards and also exhibit snobbish behavior. Unfortunately, a dog bites Catherine. As a result, she has to remain within the premises of the Grange as she recovers from the pain of the bite. During five weeks, Mrs. Linton has the responsibility to transform Catherine to a young lady of proper stature. During her stay in the Grange, Catherine becomes close to Edgar. The infatuation between Catherine and Edgar puts Heathcliff in a more complicated situation with Catherine.

Frances Hindley’s dies. She leaves behind Hareton, a baby boy. Meanwhile, Hindley becomes a heavy drinker. Because of his alcoholism, he becomes crueler and an abusive towards Heathcliff. Because Catherine intends to elevate her social stature, she accepts an engagement to Edgar Linton. This is even though she loves Heathcliff dearly. Heathcliff escapes the slavery situation in Wuthering Heights. He stays away for three years. On his return, Catherine and Edgar are already married.

Heathcliff’s mission on his return is to revenge on the people that have made his life unbearable. Because he is now mysteriously wealthy, he accepts to lend the Hindley, who is now deep into alcoholism some money as part of the scheme to get his revenge. He knows that Hindley is likely to increase the debts as he becomes more irresponsible because of his alcohol situation. After the death of Hindley, Heathcliff takes over the ownership of the manor. To put himself in a better position to places to own Thrushcross Grange marries Isabella Linton. During the marriage, he exposes Isabella to cruel treatment. Catherine’s health deteriorates with time because she is unwell. After giving birth to a baby girl, she dies. Heathcliff hopes and prays that Catherine’s spirit should be on Earth. In his prayers, he wants her spirit to take whatever it is interested in and even make him mad if she wishes. The point is that Catherine’s spirit should not leave Heathcliff alone. After that, Isabella goes to London. While there, she bears a child whom she gives the name Linton, a family. She continues staying with the boy in London.

For 13 years, it is Nelly Dean who serves as nursemaid to Catherine’s daughter. They are still staying at Thrushcross Grange. The Young girl is as beautiful and intelligent, just like the mother, Catherine. She grows up at Grange without knowing anything concerning Wuthering Heights. She discovers the manor when she one day wanders off and meets Hareton. The two play together. After the death of Isabella, Linton comes from London and stays with Heathcliff. The treatment the boy gets from Heathcliff is cold and worse than how he treated Isabella, his mother.

After three years, Catherine’s daughter, Cathy, gets to meet Heathcliff while walking around the moors. She then visits Wuthering Heights, where she meets Linton. The young Cathy and Linton start a romantic relationship secretly. They used letters to communicate with each other. When the letter collection that Catherine had is destroyed by Nelly, Cathy has to sneak out at wee hours of the night to be with her lover. However, it is soon discovered that Linton’s pursuance of Catherine is motivated by Heathcliff. In Heathcliff’s calculation, the hope is that the marriage between Catherine and Linton makes it easy for him to claim Thrushcross Grange. In the process, he will have revenge against Edgar Linton. That is his ultimate goal. During the days when Edgar Linton falls ill and is almost dead, Heathcliff intelligently invites Nelly together with Cathy to Wuthering Heights. The intention is to hold them captive until he finalizes the marriage between Cathy and Linton. After Cathy’s marriage to Luton, Edgar dies. Shortly after, sickly Linton also dies. Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are both under the control of Heathcliff.  Cathy is forcefully directed by Heathcliff to make Wuthering Heights her home. Moreover, she is now just a common servant. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange is rented out to Lockwood.

Lockwood is not happy with the way things are and decides to end his tenancy agreement he had at Thrushcross Grange. After that, he travels back to London. After six months, Lockwood comes back to visit Nelly. On his arrival, he gets new developments on the story. Cathy had originally made a mockery of Hareton’s ignorance. She claimed that he is illiterate. Heathcliff had stopped educating Hareton after the death of Hindley as part of the revenge. Cathy falls in love with Hareton when they are living at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff’s obsession with the memories and the love for Catherine grows. It gets to a point where he begins holding conversations with ghosts. Anything he sets his sight on acts as a reminder of Catherine. One day Heathcliff dies after spending time at moors. It is believed she rejoins Catherine in the Spirit world. Hareton and Catherine, who are both young inherit Wuthering Heights as well as Thrushcross Grange. They agree to get married on New Year Day. At the end of the additional part of the story, Lockwood pays a visit to the graves where Catherine and Heathcliff were buried. This is a detailed summary of the well-known piece.