Analysis of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Analysis of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Wuthering Heights is, in many ways, a novel of juxtaposed pairs:

Catherine’s two great loves for 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. Additionally, the structure of the novel divides the

story into two contrasting halves. The first deals with the generation

of characters represented by Catherine, Heathcliff, Hindley, Isabella,

and Edgar, and the second deals with their children—young Catherine,

Linton, and Hareton. Many of the same themes and ideas occur in the

second half of the novel as in the first half, but they develop quite

differently. While the first half ends on a note of doom and despair

with Catherine’s death and Heath-cliff’s gradual descent into evil,

the novel as a whole ends on a note of hope, peace, and joy, with

young Catherine’s proposed marriage to Hareton Earnshaw.

In the first of the chapters in this section, we witness the event

that marks the di...