emily bronte
Chapter 1-5 Writing in his diary in 1801, Lockwood describes his first days as a tenant at Thrushcross Grange, an isolated manor in the desolate English moor country. Shortly after arriving at the Grange, he has paid a visit to his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, a surly, dark man living in a manor called Wuthering Heights-- "wuthering" being a local adjective used to describe the fierce and wild winds that blow during storms on the moors. During the visit, Heathcliff seems not to trust Lockwood, and leaves him alone in a room with a group of snarling dogs; Lockwood is saved from the hounds by a ruddy-cheeked housekeeper. When Heathcliff returns, Lockwood is angry, but eventually warms toward his taciturn host, and--though he hardly seems welcome in Wuthering Heights--he volunteers to visit again soon. On a chilly afternoon not long after his first visit, Lockwood plans to lounge before the fire in his study; but he finds a servant kicking up dust in the room and putting out the fire, so instead he makes the four-mile walk to Wuthering Heights, and arrives just as a light snow begins to fall. He knocks, but no one appears to let him in, and Joseph, an old servant who speaks with a thick colloquia
Earnshaw continues to distrust Heathcliff, but Mr. Wuthering Heights, obviously, represents a kind of wildness, ungoverned passion, extremity, and doom--even its name comes from an adjective referring to violent storms, and the behavior of the characters associated with Wuthering Heights, Hindley, Catherine, and Heathcliff, bears out the association. Commentary Wuthering Heights is, in many ways, a novel of contrasting, matched pairs: Catherine's two great loves in Heathcliff and Edgar; the two ancient manors of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange; the two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons; Heathcliff's conflicting passions of love and hate. Catherine says that she thinks she has met Hareton before, and though Heathcliff does not know of their meeting, he says that she has certainly met his son before. Nelly, always suspicious of Heathcliff, disapproves of the idea, but Catherine is intrigued by the prospect of meeting Heathcliff's son--she has quite forgotten Linton by now- -and Nelly cannot keep her from going. Catherine and Heathcliff s eem to have been very close, and Hindley seems to have hated Heathcliff-the diary even describes Hindley telling his wife, Frances, to pull the boy's hair. His servants, who believed him dead in the storm, are overjoyed, but Lockwood retreats into his study to escape human company. Catherine and Isabella begin to visit Wuthering Heights quite often, and Heathcliff returns the favor by calling at the Grange. To the surprise of the villagers, Catherine is not buried in the Linton tomb nor near the graves of her relatives. Two days pass in this way, and Edgar warns Isabella that if she pursues Heathcliff, she will be cast out of the Linton family. Cat\herine and Heathcliff have a love that is treated throughout the book as a fact of nature; nothing will alter it or lessen it, and both lovers are consciously aware of that fact, so that Catherine can decide to marry Edgar, knowing that it will have no effect on the feeling that she and Heathcliff share. Terrified by that possibility, Nelly agrees to carry a letter from Heathcliff to Catherine. Edgar arrives, and is shocked to find Catherine in such a weak condition; he sends Nelly after a doctor. At this point, Nelly interrupts her narrative and rises to go, remarking that the night is growing late. And, too, it is important to recognize that though Heathcliff behaves wrongly throughout much of the book, he has also been gravely wronged and mistreated by those who seem, innately, his inferiors; when he seeks revenge on a brute like Hindley, it is difficult not to wish him success.
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Acceptance Essays
