WUHTHERING HEIGHTS

- EMILY BRONTE

OVERVIEW

Author - Emily Bronte

Year Published - 1847

Type - Novel

Perspective and Narrator

There are two central narrators in Wuthering Heights. One is framed, or nested, inside the other.
Mr. Lockwood initially narrates the novel, and Mrs. Dean relates a large portion of the story to
him within Lockwood's narration. Both narrators use a first-person point of view.

About the Title

Wuthering Heights is the name of the Yorkshire estate on which much of the novel's action takes
place. Wuthering is an adjective that refers to turbulent weather created by strong winds that
accompany storms. Wuthering Heights signifies the symbolic winds that batter and twist
characters in the novel as they vie to maintain their privilege, wealth, and ancient family estates,
or endure suffering at the hands of other characters.

About the Author

Emily Jane Brontë, born July 30, 1818, spent most of her life in the English countryside of
Yorkshire. Little is known of her brief and isolated life. Brontë lived at the Haworth Parsonage,
where her father, Patrick Brontë, was a curate of the Evangelical strand of the Church of England.
Evangelical Christianity had begun as a movement against spiritual superficiality believed to exist
in the established Church. The Methodist Church had separated from the Church of England before
the Brontë children were born, and like their father, the Brontës scorned Baptists and Methodists,
who are mocked in Wuthering Heights.

The Yorkshire that Emily grew up in was an isolated, rural place. Her mother died when
Emily was just three years old. Two of Emily's elder sisters also died during her childhood. Four
Brontë siblings remained: Emily, Charlotte, Anne, and Branwell, all within a year or two of each
other in age. The Brontë family life was most likely warmhearted and the children's studies,
religious exploration, and theatrical leanings encouraged. Although a curate, Patrick Brontë was
generally against religious indoctrination of children and adults, and the love of God was given
more weight than the fear of hell. According to Charlotte Brontë, Emily, like her father,
wholeheartedly believed in a merciful Godhead and a blissful life after death.

The children were schooled almost entirely at home and became each other's closest
companions and playmates. One of their pastimes was inventing elaborate, highly detailed
imaginary worlds, each with its own characters and storylines, which they turned into tiny,
handwritten books. The pastime did not end with their childhoods, however: all four would become
writers.

The Brontë family was not wealthy, and Emily, along with her siblings, had to find work.
All of them attempted to become teachers or tutors, but Emily, who was by nature introspective,
sensitive, and willful, particularly struggled with the grueling hours and harsh standard of behavior
that was expected of teachers, eventually giving up on it. Nonetheless, the Brontë siblings all
spurred each other to complete writing projects and seek publication. It was Branwell, the only
son, who was expected to achieve literary fame, but he published a handful of poems and then
sank into obscurity, becoming an alcoholic and opium addict.

In 1845 his three sisters joined forces to publish a book of poems. Women writers were
uncommon, so the Brontë sisters posed as men to seek publication under the male pseudonyms
Currier, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Emily Brontë had been discouraged in her writing career by her
teacher, Robert Southey, who admitted she had poetic ability and a mind for logic, but believed
that literature was not a suitable endeavor for a woman. Charlotte later wrote that "we did not like
to declare ourselves women because without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and
thinking was not what is called 'feminine' we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to
be looked on with prejudice."

The sisters' book of poems sold very few copies, but their luck changed when they began
writing novels. Charlotte produced Jane Eyre, Emily penned Wuthering Heights, and Anne
wrote Agnes Grey. All three novels were accepted for publication in 1847, again under the male
pseudonyms of the Bells. Jane Eyre was an immediate success, and Agnes Grey also sold well.
However, Wuthering Heights was neither a commercial nor a critical success. Its first reviewers
recognized Emily Brontë's extraordinary talent but criticized the book for being shocking and
repugnant, full of immoral and dislikable characters. One critic (who assumed the novel's author
was male) wondered that the author did not kill himself before completing the novel, due to its
violent, tortured content.

Wuthering Heights would be Emily Brontë's only novel. Her brother Branwell died of
tuberculosis in September 1848 at age 31. Emily died of the same disease on December 19, 1848,
at age 30. Tuberculosis would claim her twenty-nine-year-old sister Anne, who died in 1849, as
well.

After Emily Brontë's death, her sister Charlotte wrote a biographical note and introduction
for a new edition of Wuthering Heights in 1850, clarifying its authorship, as some critics and
readers believed the book to be an earlier attempt by Charlotte.

Today, Wuthering Heights is considered a masterpiece. It is one of the primary works of

Gothic fiction in English literature, with its combination of romance, horror, feverish passion, and
death, and still has the power to shock readers. Heathcliff and Cathy are often cited among the
greatest lovers in literature. The novel's power has prompted numerous adaptations for film and
television.

CHARACTERS

Heathcliff

An orphan brought to live at Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff falls into an
intense, unbreakable love with Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter Catherine. After Mr. Earnshaw dies, his
resentful son Hindley abuses Heathcliff and treats him as a servant. Because of her desire for social
prominence, Catherine marries Edgar Linton instead of Heathcliff. Heathcliff’s humiliation and
misery prompt him to spend most of the rest of his life seeking revenge on Hindley, his beloved
Catherine, and their respective children (Hareton and young Cathy). A powerful, fierce, and often
cruel man, Heathcliff acquires a fortune and uses his extraordinary powers of will to acquire both
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, the estate of Edgar Linton.
Catherine Earnshaw

The daughter of Mr. Earnshaw and his wife, Catherine falls powerfully in love with
Heathcliff, the orphan Mr. Earnshaw brings home from Liverpool. Catherine loves Heathcliff so
intensely that she claims they are the same person. However, her desire for social advancement
motivates her to marry Edgar Linton instead. Catherine is free-spirited, beautiful, spoiled, and
often arrogant. She is given to fits of temper, and she is torn between her wild passion for Heathcliff
and her social ambition. She brings misery to both of the men who love her.

Edgar Linton

Well-bred but rather spoiled as a boy, Edgar Linton grows into a tender, constant, but
cowardly man. He is almost the ideal gentleman: Catherine accurately describes him as
“handsome,” “pleasant to be with,” “cheerful,” and “rich.” However, this full assortment of
gentlemanly characteristics, along with his civilized virtues, proves useless in Edgar’s clashes with
his foil, Heathcliff, who gains power over his wife, sister, and daughter.

Lockwood

Lockwood’s narration forms a frame around Nelly’s; he serves as an intermediary between

Nelly and the reader. A somewhat vain and presumptuous gentleman, he deals very clumsily with
the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights. Lockwood comes from a more domesticated region of
England, and he finds himself at a loss when he witnesses the strange household’s disregard for
the social conventions that have always structured his world. As a narrator, his vanity and
unfamiliarity with the story occasionally lead him to misunderstand events.

Nelly Dean

Nelly Dean (known formally as Ellen Dean) serves as the chief narrator of Wuthering
Heights. A sensible, intelligent, and compassionate woman, she grew up essentially alongside
Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw and is deeply involved in the story she tells. She has strong
feelings for the characters in her story, and these feelings complicate her narration.

Isabella Linton

Edgar Linton’s sister, who falls in love with Heathcliff and marries him. She sees
Heathcliff as a romantic figure, like a character in a novel. Ultimately, she ruins her life by falling
in love with him. He never returns her feelings and treats her as a mere tool in his quest for revenge
on the Linton family.

Cathy Linton

The daughter of Edgar Linton and the first Catherine. The first Catherine begins her life as
an Earnshaw and ends it as a Linton; her daughter, referred to for clarity's sake in this SparkNote
as Cathy, begins as a Linton and, assuming that she marries Hareton after the end of the story, goes
on to become an Earnshaw. The mother and the daughter share not only a name, but also a tendency
toward headstrong behavior, impetuousness, and occasional arrogance. However, Edgar’s
influence seems to have tempered young Cathy's character, and she is a gentler and more
compassionate creature than her mother.

Hareton Earnshaw

The son of Hindley and Frances Earnshaw, Hareton is Catherine’s nephew. After Hindley’s
death, Heathcliff assumes custody of Hareton, and raises him as an uneducated field worker, just
as Hindley had done to Heathcliff himself. Thus Heathcliff uses Hareton to seek revenge on
Hindley. Illiterate and quick-tempered, Hareton is easily humiliated, but shows a good heart and a
deep desire to improve himself. At the end of the novel, he marries Cathy.

Linton Heathcliff

Heathcliff’s son by Isabella. Weak, sniveling, demanding, and constantly ill, Linton is
raised in London by his mother and does not meet his father until he is thirteen years old, when he
goes to live with him after his mother’s death. Heathcliff despises Linton, treats him
contemptuously, and, by forcing him to marry Cathy, uses him to cement his control over
Thrushcross Grange after Edgar Linton’s death. Linton himself dies not long after this marriage.

Hindley Earnshaw

Catherine’s brother, and Mr. Earnshaw’s son. Hindley resents it when Heathcliff is brought
to live at Wuthering Heights. After his father dies and he inherits the estate, Hindley begins to
abuse the young Heathcliff, terminating his education and forcing him to work in the fields. When
Hindley’s wife Frances dies shortly after giving birth to their son Hareton, he lapses into
alcoholism and dissipation.
Mr. Earnshaw

Catherine and Hindley’s father. Mr. Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff and brings him to live at
Wuthering Heights. Mr. Earnshaw prefers Heathcliff to Hindley but nevertheless bequeaths
Wuthering Heights to Hindley when he dies.

Mrs. Earnshaw

Catherine and Hindley’s mother, who neither likes nor trusts the orphan Heathcliff when
he is brought to live at her house. She dies shortly after Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights.

Joseph

A long-winded, fanatically religious, elderly servant at Wuthering Heights. Joseph is

strange, stubborn, and unkind, and he speaks with a thick Yorkshire accent.

Frances Earnshaw

Hindley’s simpering, silly wife, who treats Heathcliff cruelly. She dies shortly after giving
birth to Hareton.

Mr. Linton

Edgar and Isabella’s father and the proprietor of Thrushcross Grange when Heathcliff and
Catherine are children. An established member of the gentry, he raises his son and daughter to be
well-mannered young people.

Mrs. Linton

Mr. Linton’s somewhat snobbish wife, who does not like Heathcliff to be allowed near her
children, Edgar and Isabella. She teaches Catherine to act like a gentle-woman, thereby instilling
her with social ambitions.

Zillah

The housekeeper at Wuthering Heights during the latter stages of the narrative.
Mr. Green

Edgar Linton’s lawyer, who arrives too late to hear Edgar’s final instruction to change his
will, which would have prevented Heathcliff from obtaining control over Thrushcross Grange.

SUMMARY

In 1801 a gentleman from the city, Mr. Lockwood, rents Thrushcross Grange, an estate
located deep in the wild English countryside of Yorkshire. He sets out to meet his
landlord, Heathcliff, who lives at Wuthering Heights, an estate across the moors. Intrigued by the
odd behavior of the residents at Wuthering Heights, who appear to have no respect for social
customs, Mr. Lockwood returns the next day, arriving as it begins to snow. The weather forces
Mr. Lockwood to spend the night there in a bedroom, which turns out to be haunted by a ghost
named Cathy. Mr. Lockwood's screams bring Heathcliff into the room. Strangely, Heathcliff cries
out for Cathy's ghost to come inside.

The next morning Mr. Lockwood makes his way through the snow back to Thrushcross
Grange. Struck with an illness requiring him to stay in bed, Mr. Lockwood draws Mrs. Dean, a
servant, into telling Heathcliff's life story. Having served at Wuthering Heights since childhood,
Mrs. Dean eagerly launches into the tale, beginning when Heathcliff is first brought home by Mr.
Earnshaw from a trip to Liverpool. Mr. Earnshaw has found the homeless orphan boy on the street
there, taken him to Wuthering Heights, and named him Heathcliff after his son who died. In Mrs.
Dean's narration, Mr. Earnshaw's wife and children, Cathy and Hindley, despise Heathcliff
immediately for being a dark-haired "gipsy" with an ill-natured temperament.

Mr. Earnshaw's favoritism toward Heathcliff drives Hindley to violence and hatred, but
Cathy and Heathcliff become friends, running wild on the moors and playing and studying
together. Hindley is sent to college but returns with a wife when his father dies. As new master of
Wuthering Heights he uses his power to turn Heathcliff into a servant, but Cathy shares her studies
with Heathcliff, and they continue to play together on the moors.

One night Cathy and Heathcliff sneak over to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the wealthy,
blond and blue-eyed Linton children, Isabella and Edgar, curious to see how they live. A dog bites
Cathy, and the children are caught. The Lintons take Cathy in but send Heathcliff home, rejecting
him because of his lower class status and "gipsy" background. When Cathy returns five weeks
later, she has transformed into an upper-class woman, with proper manners and elegant clothes.
She and Heathcliff become distant as Cathy and Edgar grow closer. Cathy accepts Edgar's marriage
proposal even though she confesses her deep love for Heathcliff to Mrs. Dean. Heathcliff overhears
only part of their conversation and runs away in humiliation. Cathy is distraught over his
disappearance. Three years later, right after Cathy marries Edgar Linton, Heathcliff returns. He
has transformed into a wealthy, attractive man with the manners and appearance of a gentleman.

Heathcliff has returned to wreak revenge for all the wrongs done to him in childhood.
Hindley's wife has died, leaving him to raise their child, Hareton. Hindley has cursed God and
become an abusive alcoholic. Through gambling with Hindley, Heathcliff takes control of
Wuthering Heights and manipulates Hareton to love him more than his own father.

Heathcliff visits Cathy at Thrushcross Grange, and they become close friends again,
confessing love for each other, but also respecting Cathy's marriage to Edgar. All seems well until
Edgar's sister, Isabella, develops a one-sided crush on Heathcliff, who uses her to wreak revenge
on Edgar for his childhood snobbery. Heathcliff marries Isabella and spitefully abuses and
degrades her. Cathy is driven to madness when Heathcliff is forbidden to visit her because of a
fight between him and Edgar. Pregnant with Edgar's child, Cathy fades into gloom and darkness.
She and Heathcliff have one last passionate meeting in which they berate each other for not staying
together. Cathy dies later that night after giving birth to her daughter, Catherine.

Soon after Cathy's death, Isabella runs away and has Heathcliff's baby. She raises their son,
Linton, alone, near London. Edgar raises Catherine alone at Thrushcross Grange. Hindley dies,
and Heathcliff raises Hareton alone at Wuthering Heights. Continuing his vengeance even after
Hindley's death, Heathcliff raises Hareton to be an uneducated servant instead of an upper-class
gentleman according to his station, forcing on Hareton the degrading existence that Hindley forced
on Heathcliff as a young man.

As a child, Catherine meets Hareton one day when they are both out on the moors, and
their dogs fight. Catherine likes Hareton until she finds out that he is a servant and her cousin.
When Catherine is almost thirteen, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live at Thrushcross Grange,
but Heathcliff demands to raise his own son and forces Linton to live at Wuthering Heights. Linton
is a sickly, pampered child. Heathcliff uses him to gain control of Thrushcross Grange as Edgar is
dying by forcing Linton and Catherine to marry. Soon after their marriage, Catherine nurses Linton
as he dies.

Afterward, she and Hareton, whom Catherine has always despised, finally become friends.
Haunted by Cathy's memory for eighteen years, Heathcliff loses his will to live and declines into
an early death; he is found lying beside an open window in his room as the rain pours in. Heathcliff
fails to deliver the final blow to make his revenge complete. Catherine and Hareton regain their
estates, Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights respectively. As Mr. Lockwood finds out,
they are now free, have fallen in love, and plan to marry.

THEMES

Brontë's themes slowly build then converge, becoming intrinsically and logically
intertwined midway through the novel. By the end, each logical argument contained within each
theme unravels from the other themes and concludes.

Good versus Evil

An exploration of religious-based ideas of good and evil create the primary theme
in Wuthering Heights, and the themes of judgment versus pity, love and obsession, and violence
and revenge, which are also religiously rooted, support it. The four lesser themes indicate
individual choices, which add up to either good or evil. Pity, humility, love and forgiveness—the
opposite of revenge add up to choosing good; judgment, pride, obsession, and violence add up to
choosing evil. The first half of the novel explores the idea of natural inclinations toward one or the
other good or evil through a repetition and juxtaposition of devil and angel imagery and biblical
references as the narrator, Mrs. Dean, wonders if Heathcliff and Cathy are, or will turn out to be,
good or evil. During this section, Brontë explores how an environment might influence characters
toward good or evil. Ideas of freewill and personal choice to suffer begin in the middle of the
narrative around the time when Hindley renounces God and spirals into villainy. Once Brontë's
complex argument is in place and ideas of natural character tendencies, role of environment, and
freewill are established, the second half of the novel shows individual characters, who lean toward
the good Catherine, Isabella, Hareton, Edgar, and Mrs. Dean—battling evil represented by
Heathcliff. Then the theme culminates with Heathcliff's ultimate choice between good and evil.
His choice locks him out of heaven and casts him into a hellish state, condemned to spiritually
wander the moors with Cathy, who also rejected heaven and religion when she was alive.

Mrs. Dean's character is the representative of the good qualities of love, pity, humility, and
forgiveness. Heathcliff and Cathy represent the evil choices of violence, revenge, pride,
selfishness, judgment, and obsession. Joseph's character stands in the middle, representing
religious hypocrisy, as he believes he is good, but having no qualities of love or the good
established in the novel (pity, humility) serves to create an environment on the side of evil instead
of good.

Judgment versus Pity

Brontë differentiates between biblical judgment, as reserved for the divine, and personal
judgment between individuals, which is always accompanied with a choice between judgment and
pity. Generally, a lack of pity leads to pain, injustice, and suffering for the person judged, making
the thematic statement that to judge others is harmful to them, unjust, and not a right reserved for
human beings. Repeatedly, the reader is provoked to feel pity over judgment for the characters,
even Heathcliff and Hindley, and shown the disturbing results of an absence of pity, such as
Linton's treatment of Catherine and his ensuing horrible death.

Commentary on class distinctions is woven into the judgment versus pity theme. The
servants are always expected to feel sympathy for their masters. Masters are inclined to judge, and
are usually portrayed to lack pity. When servants lack pity at times Zillah toward Catherine
and Mrs. Dean toward Cathy the judged characters devolve into mean-spirited, selfish, or
destructive behavior, demonstrating the ill of judgment and the benevolent power of pity.

Pride versus humility is a thematic extension of judgment versus pity: the prideful are
judgmental and the humble are sympathetic, or in other words, capable of pity. However, the
results are different in that judgment injures the judged individual, the individual acted upon,
whereas pride brings sorrow to the prideful, the individual taking wrong action. Further, humility,
manifested in serving and doing one's duty, brings reward to the humble, whereas pity is not linked
to reward. The conclusion of the theme plays out in Catherine's story line; having completed her
duty in caring for the dying, once she is humble enough to drop her pride toward Hareton, she is
rewarded by having Thrushcross Grange and happiness restored to her with the added bonus of
love.

Violence and Revenge

Through Hindley and Heathcliff's relationship, Brontë begins a complex argument about
the effects of physical violence. Her first point is to show how abuse creates abusive, vengeful
individuals when they do not forgive and turn violent to lessen their pain. Isabella represents the
wise individual who understands the true nature of violence and its consequences. She delivers the
message for the theme when she says violence wounds the person who chooses it. Next, through
Linton's relationship with Heathcliff, Brontë shows how apathy is created by violence and the fear
of violence, again, by a desire to avoid pain. Through Hareton and Linton, Brontë demonstrates
how neglect and apathy can be violent. In this way, attributes, such as the ones Heathcliff hates
duty, compassion, charity, and kindness become opposites of violence, actions with which to fight
the evils of violence and revenge.

Love and Obsession

In the first half of Wuthering Heights, through Heathcliff and Cathy, Brontë suggests that
to go against one's heart and soul is against love and equivalent to death, since Cathy dies for
making the wrong choice. Then she shows how making love an obsession by choosing human love
over Godly, heavenly love becomes love turned evil and idolatrous with several references to
Cathy and Heathcliff making each other an "idol." This is the core of the love and obsession theme;
it requires the entirety of the novel to make its point. However, Brontë explores other facets of
love throughout. Mr. Lockwood represents superficial attitudes toward love, beneath which lurks
cowardice. Isabella represents delusional, false love, also idolatrous, which she escapes by seeing
that what she thought was love was actually violence and hatred. Catherine and Hareton represent
love's power to overcome pride and evil, laden with the idea that to love moderately leads to
happiness.

Belonging

The setting of the two opposing households, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange,
combined with the symbolism of the moors between them and Cathy's wandering ghost highlights
the devastating isolation individuals feel while searching and seeking a sense of belonging. Human
beings, Brontë demonstrates through this theme, must align with their true destinies, whether they
figuratively speaking encounter walls they must climb over, discover windows and doors barred
and locked, or set out on a journey to explore. They innately know where they belong; visions,
presentiments, and dreams will guide them, and the development of a good character will lead
them to the persons and places in which they can at last feel a sense of peace and unity.

THEMES

Brontë uses symbols as clues to help readers grasp the constructs of her extended
metaphors, and, by doing so, interpret the meanings of her symbols. However, with the exception
of the hair symbol, Brontë puts her symbols to dual purpose, using them to serve also as
instruments of pathetic fallacy, which is a literary device that uses inanimate or natural objects to
reflect human moods and emotions.

Ghosts

Ghosts symbolize lost souls, memory, and the past in Wuthering Heights, and Brontë uses
this symbol to support the themes of love and obsession and good versus evil. Cathy's ghost lingers
in Heathcliff's memory, supporting love and obsession, and then it actively and vengefully pursues
Heathcliff in the end, supporting good versus evil.

When alive, Heathcliff and Cathy curse each other, creating spiritual anguish, turning their
love into obsession, so they will not be parted in death, nor lose each other to the traditional heaven
they both reject. When Heathcliff sees Cathy before she dies, and she is angry he will continue to
live when she is gone, he asks her, "Are you possessed with a devil?" and after her death, he cries
out, "May she wake in torment ... I pray one prayer ... Cathy Earnshaw, may you not rest as long
as I am living ... I cannot live without my soul!" In Cathy and Heathcliff's willful desire to haunt
and be haunted, the symbolism of ghosts cannot be extricated from ideas of good and evil in the
novel; by rejecting heaven, both characters become lost souls roaming the earth.

Most of the main characters declare a belief in ghosts: Mrs. Dean, Joseph, Heathcliff, Mr.
Lockwood, and Cathy. The children of the main characters Hareton, Catherine, Linton—never
speak of ghosts. The differentiation in viewpoints leaves doubt of the reality of Cathy's ghost, and
it reinforces the idea of Cathy's ghost symbolizing memories and the past, for youth has no memory
of anguish and loss to haunt the present. Yet, the present is haunted by the past in a sense, unknown
to the youth but openly exposed for the reader, who knows more about the past than they do and
can see how it operates in the present. Through the structure of the novel, Brontë places the reader
alongside the ghost of Cathy, looking in from the outside, aware of the past as she haunts the
present.

Weather, Wind, and Trees

Brontë uses weather to produce tone, reflect the plot, and mirror characters' emotions. The
author's use of pathetic fallacy as a literary device is greatest in her symbolism of the weather,
wind, and trees, though it is used in other symbols as well. Typically, storms and rain symbolize
angry, violent, or passionate emotions, and breezes and calm weather reflect peace, hope, and
goodness. The use of pathetic fallacy is so pervasive, the novel can be opened at almost any point
in the narrative and the weather will reflect perfectly the events and characters' emotions of that
particular chapter.

Wind and trees symbolize how the emotions of one character shape or disfigure the growth
of another character, as much as how the emotional and physical environment plays a role in
shaping or contorting a character's disposition. Heathcliff is used as the mouthpiece to deliver the
meaning of the symbolism of wind and trees in Chapter 17 when he says to Hareton: "Now my
bonny lad, you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same
wind to twist it."

The Moors

A moors are barren strips of land unsuitable for planting. They are used to symbolize the
idea of being between between life and death and between good and evil with Wuthering Heights
acting as the physical manifestation of evil and Thrushcross Grange representing good, and the
moors between them. That being established, for Heathcliff and Cathy, the moors are a place of
freedom from their unhappy home life and from the difference in their social circumstances, which
keep them separate at other times. Ultimately, Heathcliff and Cathy's love of roaming the moors
reflects their rejection of heaven and choice of roaming the between, neither on earth nor in heaven.
Dogs

Dogs are used symbolically and as pathetic fallacy to a lesser degree than weather—to
reflect plot, create tone, and mirror characters' emotions. Dogs represent instincts, often protective
or violent ones, juxtaposed with training and obedience, such as with Hareton, who is turned into
a loyal watchdog first by Heathcliff and then by Catherine. Interactions with dogs also mark vital
transitions either of plot or of a character's perceptions—as when the unfriendly dog at the book's
opening shows Mr. Lockwood that he is in unfamiliar territory.

The core of the dog symbolism in Wuthering Heights is expressed by Isabella when she
calls Cathy a "dog in the manger," alluding to an ancient fable about a dog who guards hay, useless
and inedible to the dog, from a horse or oxen. The message in the fable comments on the type of
person who would rather see someone die than give them something of no value to the person
withholding it, exactly as Heathcliff does to multiple characters, and as Cathy does to Heathcliff.
Heathcliff's revenge is a driving force, and acting as a "dog in the manger" is how he implements
his revenge; and Hindley's original crime against Heathcliff taking away his opportunity to be
educated and have a better life is also like being a "dog in the manger." In this sense, dogs
symbolize individuals treating other individuals as less valuable and less worthy of happiness and
fulfillment and more like possessions to own, control, and abuse.

Hair

Blond hair, or light hair, symbolizes Thrushcross Grange, the Linton family, indulged
privilege, good and angels, weakness, gentleness, education, and the matching dispositions
of Edgar and Isabella, and then later, Catherine and Linton.

Black hair, or dark hair, symbolizes Wuthering Heights, the Earnshaw family, privilege
thwarted or taken down in status, evil and devils, strength, passion, rejection of education, and the
matching dispositions of Heathcliff and Cathy.

The symbol is made complete at the end of the novel in Chapter 32 when Mr. Lockwood,
observing Catherine and Hareton, sees Catherine's blond hair dangling and mingling with
Hareton's dark hair, representing love overcoming good and evil and a restored peace and unity.