Wuthering Heights (novel): Difference between revisions

| image = WHeights_7964Wuthering-heights-abridged-1.jpg

| caption = [[Wrong Hands]] tells it like it is

| central theme = The dangers of all-consumming, unchecked romantic passion

| genre = Gothic Romance

The only novel written by [[Emily Brontë]] (of 'the [[Charlotte Brontë|Brontë]] [[Anne Brontë|sisters]]'), and an archetypal example of a Gothic Romance. Has been filmed several times, most notably [[Wuthering Heights (1939 film)|the 1939 version]] starring [[Laurence Olivier]] as Heathcliff. Also inspired the 1979 [[Kate Bush]] song of the same name ("Heathcliff, it's me, I'm Cathy, I've come home...") as well as an [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqiUGjghlzU adaptation] in ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]''. And perhaps we shouldn't forget [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]]' album ''Wind and Wuthering'', which used a quotation from the book's ending for two of its song titles. And let's not also forget that [[MTV]] also did an adaptation of their own with Heathcliff as a guitar-strumming song-writer pitted against classic cello-playing Edgar.

Dean's story is one of a terrible, unchecked, all-consuming passion --– that between Heathcliff, an orphaned foundling brought to Wuthering Heights as a child by the then-owner, and Catherine Earnshaw, his spoilt, flighty and wild foster sister, who became inseparable friends as children and later fell in love. Their love, though passionate, was cruelly thwarted, however, both by Hindley, Catherine's brother and Heathcliff's sworn enemy, who resented Heathcliff as an interloper in his father's affections and, upon inheriting the estate, spitefully turned Heathcliff into a downtrodden slave, and by Catherine's own desires for social mobility and class, which saw her marry the decent but seemingly weak Edgar Linton even as she insists that her one true love is and always will be Heathcliff.

{{tropelist|page=Wuthering Heights}}

** [[Incest Is Relative]]: There are some hints that Heathcliff is Mr. Earnshaw's illegitimate son: Mr. Earnshaw just ''happens'' to find this orphan on the streets. The streets of the town he just ''happens'' to visit on a regular basis, leaving the rest of his family squarely at home. And Mrs. Earnshaw just ''happens'' to take an instant loathing to Heathcliff the minute he enters their house. [[Your Mileage May Vary|YMMV]] on this, but [[Wuthering Heights (1970 film)|the 1970 version]] with Timothy Dalton certainly believed it was no coincidence.

* [[Evil Gloating]]: Heathcliff seems to relish "[[The Incredibles|monologuing]]" about his [[Evil Plan|Evil Plans]]s to Nelly.

* [[Generation Xerox]]: Heathcliff [[Lampshadeslampshade]]s this about Catherine's daughter Cathy, his and Isabella's son Linton, and Hindley's son Hareton.

* [[Heroic BSOD]]: Heathcliff has a very energetic form of this when he learns that {{spoiler|Catherine has died in childbirth.}} Specifically, he takes his anger out on a nearby tree. By smashing his forehead into it repeatedly.

* [[Love Redeems]]: Averted with Heathcliff, but played straight with {{spoiler|Hareton}}.

* [[The Masochism Tango]]: And HOW''how''.{{context}}

* [[Unreliable Narrator]]: The unreliable Nelly Dean tells most of the story to the equally unreliable (not to mention thick-skulled) Lockwood. Nelly is clearly prejudiced and demonstrates a surprising lack of empathy for most of the central characters, this bias being reflected in her account of the events.

[[Category:National Film Registry{{PAGENAME}}]]