"Wuthering Heights"

"Wuthering Heights"

Tragedy strikes when Heathcliff falls in love with Catherine Earnshaw, a woman from a wealthy family in 18th-century England.

6.520262h 16mRomanceDrama

Come undone.

Summary

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In 18th-century England, Mr. Earnshaw returns to his estate of Wuthering Heights on the Yorkshire Moors with a young boy he rescued off the Liverpool streets, who he introduces to his daughter, Cathy, and her companion, Nelly Dean. Cathy becomes protective of the boy and names him "Heathcliff". As time goes on, the pair become inseparable.

By the time Cathy and Heathcliff have reached adulthood, Wuthering Heights has fallen into disrepair due to Mr. Earnshaw's worsening alcoholism and gambling habits. Cathy plans to court her new neighbour, wealthy textile merchant Edgar Linton, to escape Wuthering Heights' bleak environment and help bring the lowly servant Heathcliff into high society, though Heathcliff is jealous and disapproves. The situation becomes more complicated when Cathy and Heathcliff begin to realise that they have fallen in love with each other, although Cathy initially shuns the idea of becoming romantically involved with Heathcliff and continues to pursue Edgar.

One day, Cathy sprains her ankle while spying on Edgar and his ward, Isabella, and is taken in at their home for six weeks to heal. Edgar is smitten by Cathy and proposes marriage, which she accepts. While expressing to Nelly her guilt over choosing Edgar over Heathcliff, the latter overhears Cathy's words about how it would degrade her to marry him. However, Heathcliff leaves before he hears Cathy confess her love for him and her belief that their souls are made of the same thing. Wrongly believing that Cathy does not care for him, a bitter Heathcliff then leaves Wuthering Heights, riding away on horseback into the sunset. By the next day, Cathy has changed her mind about marrying Edgar, but it is too late as Heathcliff has already left. Cathy is devastated by his departure and initially refuses to accept that he could have left her.

A year later, Cathy has given up hope that Heathcliff will come back and decides to go through with the marriage to Edgar after all. After the wedding, she lives a lavish lifestyle with her husband at their home, Thrushcross Grange, but secretly longs to be reunited with Heathcliff again. As the years go by, Cathy eventually becomes pregnant with Edgar's child. Soon after Cathy learns of her pregnancy, Heathcliff finally returns, five years after his departure, and is now well-groomed and wealthy. Rather than being happy to see Cathy, he is bitter and angry over her decision to marry Edgar and considers marrying Isabella to make Cathy jealous. He purchases Wuthering Heights from Mr. Earnshaw, who dies soon after. Following this, Heathcliff consoles Cathy and they reconnect, beginning an intense romantic and sexual affair.

After Cathy realizes Nelly knew Heathcliff was listening when Cathy said marrying him would degrade her, she tries to banish Nelly from the Grange. Nelly then reveals the affair to Edgar, who forbids Cathy from seeing Heathcliff. Cathy later reveals her pregnancy to Heathcliff, who claims to not mind before having sex with her. He offers to kill Edgar, which Cathy rejects, and she dismisses him. Furious, Heathcliff enters into a loveless, BDSM relationship with Isabella, who understands Heathcliff's motivations and agrees to elope with him. Following the marriage, Heathcliff degrades Isabella and treats her like a dog, which Nelly witnesses when she visits them at Wuthering Heights.

Depressed over Heathcliff marrying Isabella, Cathy locks herself in her room and starves herself. Heathcliff tries to stay connected to Cathy by secretly sending her love letters while she is isolated and growing weaker, but Nelly deliberately intercepts them, letting Cathy think Heathcliff has abandoned her. Her pregnancy eventually results in a miscarriage which becomes septicemic. When Nelly realizes how serious Cathy's situation is, she returns to Wuthering Heights to rescue Isabella and to reveal to Heathcliff that Cathy is dying. Heathcliff frantically rides to the Grange on horseback, only to find when he arrives that Cathy has already died. Heathcliff then holds Cathy's dead body and begs her to drive him mad and not give him peace as long as he should live.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0)