Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Bronte is a passionate, violent and structurally innovative novel set on the Yorkshire moors of northern England. It tells the story of the intense, destructive love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, an orphan brought into the Earnshaw household as a child. Their bond transcends class, morality and even death, but Catherine's decision to marry the genteel Edgar Linton instead of Heathcliff sets in motion a cycle of revenge that devastates two families across two generations.

The novel is framed by Lockwood, a tenant at Thrushcross Grange, who hears the story from Nelly Dean, the Earnshaw and Linton housekeeper. Through Nelly's account the reader traces Heathcliff's arrival, his bond with Catherine, his humiliation by Hindley Earnshaw, his mysterious three-year absence, Catherine's agonised death, and Heathcliff's relentless campaign of revenge. Only in the second generation, through the love of young Cathy Linton and Hareton Earnshaw, is the cycle of hatred broken.

Wuthering Heights shocked Victorian readers with its raw emotion, moral ambiguity and refusal to offer conventional judgement. It is now recognised as one of the greatest novels in the English language. For the WAEC SSCE examination, candidates should focus on characterisation, thematic development, narrative technique and the symbolic role of the landscape.