“Wuthering Heights” begins with the coming of Lockwood, a town gentleman, to the country house Wuthering Heights, in order to negotiate the letting of a nearby property he is interested in, Thrushcross Grange. He is placed in the middle of an especially bad domestic situation and, curious about the place’s history, has related to him the story of how things came to be as they were. The story deals with two wealthy families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, the master of the Earnshaw household adopted a young dark skinned
boy during a trip to Liverpool; he named him Heathcliff after a child of his own who had died years before. Heathcliff became very good friends with his daughter, Cathy, but the eldest of his children, his son Hindley developed a strong antipathy towards the boy. This led to him direly mistreating Heathcliff when his father died and he became the new head of the household, denying him an education and the previous benefits he had been entitled to as a member of the family, forcing him to work the same way as a hired hand and eat with the other servants. Cathy and him remained close, despite Hindley’s efforts.
However, Heathcliff’s lack of schooling and social graces prevented Cathy from seeing him as an equal, or a potential lover the way she might otherwise have done. Instead she married the wealthy Edgar Linton, Heathcliff overheard her explaining why she had chosen Edgar over him and left the house, not to be seen again until after Catherine was married.
When he did return he was entirely altered, having acquired money and a gentleman’s manner, he was determined to have revenge upon those who had wronged him in the past and stood in the way of his being with Catherine, Hindley and Edgar. From Hindley he took Wuthering Heights, from Edgar he took his sister Isabella. Their child, Linton Linton, together with Edgar and Cathy’s, the second Catherine and Hindley’s, Hareton come of age and form a second love triangle, the satisfactory conclusion of which is hindered by Heathcliff’s vengeful manipulations of his enemies’ children.
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