Boekverslag : Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1654 woorden.
De taal ervan is Engels en het aantal woorden bedraagt 1654 woorden.
Short summary
Mr. Lockwood hires a house, called Thrushcross Grange, from a man called Heathcliff. One day when he visits this Heathcliff, who lives on a hill on a farm called Wuthering Heights, he feels that there are some very strange things going on in and round that farm and between the people there. He spent the night on the old room from Catherine Earnshaw. He reads her diaries before he goes to bed and at night he sees a ghost knocking on the bedroom-window. When Mr. Lockwood tells this to Heathcliff, he turns becomes curious, and he asks Heathcliff's housekeeper Nelly Dean about the history of the place.
The original inhabitants of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange were the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Heathcliff is a foundling, who whas adopted by Earnshaw, the former owner of Wuthering Heights. He loved this child more than he loved his own son Hindly. After Earnshaw died, Hindly became the master of the house and he didn’t take good care of Heathcliff and degraded him to servant. He was kept dumb and Hindly humiliated him, for he wanted to take revenge, because his father had given more love to Heathcliff than to him. Despite this, Heathcliff had a good relation with Hindly’s sister Catherine. Heathcliff loved Catharine and she loved him. On one night they decide to go to Thrushcross Grange, but Catherine got bitten by one of the dogs there. She stayed there for five weeks and when she returned she was a lady. In the meanwhile Frances, Hindly's wife, dies right after she gave birth to Hareton. Because of this Hindly is depressed and Wuthering Heights is a chaos. A weak man, Edgar Linton asked Cathernine to marry her. Allthough she loves Heathcliff too, she didn't chose for Heathcliff because it would have been bad for her reputation for she had a higher status than him. Because of that Heathcliff left. When he came back 3 years later as rich man, Catharine was still married to Edgar Linton, who now lived on Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff went to Wuthering Heights again where he was most welcome because of his money. On the farm lived Hindly, his son Harethon and his daughter Cathy. Heathcliff was embittered and his resentment, caused by Catharine and the former behaviour of Hindly, controllled his thinking and the way he acted. He stole the properties and the health of Hindly, by gambling with him and by giving him a lot of alcohol. He marries with Linton’s sister Isabella. He didn’t love her and he was very cruel to her, but he just did it to frustrate Hindly. One day Heathcliff had a very emotional meeting with Catharine. Soon after that meeting Catharine died, leaving her daughter Cathy behind. Not long after that Hindly Earnshaw died too, meaning that Hareton had to be rased by Heathcliff. But he treated Hareton like Hindly had treaten him when he was young. Isabella hated her husband and she decided to ran away. She went to Londen where she received a child, who she called Linton. When Linton was twelve years old, Isabella died. Linton and Cathy, Catherine and Edgar's son, became friends. Edgar Linton was too ill to stop that relation. Heathcliff achieved that Cathy married with the very ill Linton. A short period after the wedding the old Edgar Linton died, and because of that Heathcliff had both families’ properties in his hands. When Linton died, Heathcliff forced Cathy to stay on Wuthering Heights. There was nothing but hate on the farm, between Cathy, Heathcliff and Hareton. This is the situation on Wuthering Heights when lockwood sees the place for the first time. Short after, Lockwood leaves the Thrushcross Grange. Then something amazing happens. Hareton and Cathy become friends. Cathy teaches the unknowing boy to read and write. Hareton lives up and very soon Cathy and Hareton are big friends. One day when Lockwood is back for a short period of time, he sees the friendship between the two persons. Nelly Dean tells him the end of the history of Wuthering Heights. He tells him that Heathcliff’s hate was burned out and that his only desire was to be with Catherine again. He died after a short period of being ill, in which he constantly seems to communicate with an invisible person. After his dead people said that they had seen Heathcliff and Catharine as ghosts. He is burried next to his former lover. After this reunion with Catharine there was hope that the two opposite worlds, the stormy Wuthering Heights on the hill and the still Thrushcross Grange down in the vally, managed by the Hareton and Cathy and their future children, would finally become one.
A personal letter to the main character
Dear Catherine,
Why isn't the love for heathcliff bigger than your reputation. You may have a higher status than him, but that shouldn't interfere your relationship with Heathcliff. Now you've lost him for good. He has become a man with money and status, and now you regret that you married Edgar in stead of Heathcliff. By the way, my condolences on your death.
Genre
It is a class-society. It was the Victorian Age it was written in, with it's upcoming industry. You notice the class-differences when you look at Heathcliff (low class) and Edgar (high class). Allthough Catherine chose for Edgar, Heathcliff is the one who gained much succes in stead of Edgar (who didn't do anything special with it). It's romantic but also sort of a thriller.
Main Characters
Heathcliff: He's a foundling and looks like a gipsy. Because Catherine "dumps" him, he is filled with hate and wants to get even.
Hindly: A jealous man because his father loved the foundling Heathcliff more. Later, he loses all his money with gambling and is in a bad state, for Heathcliff made him a drunkard.
Catherine: A very vulnerable woman. She’s a very soft and has a gentle character and she's very intelligent, and everybody loves her, but she’s also very jealous woman. She is constantly dealing with the dilemma of marrying a nice man, who’s rich, or marrying a lowclass man, who she really loves. She chooses for her position.
Nature of the relationships
The nature of the relationships in the book is love & hate. Since Edgar and Heathcliff love Catharine and Catharine can only chose one, which is Edgar, and Heathcliff will feel hate for Edgar. He wants revenge. There’s also the relationship between master & servant, especially between Hindley and Heathcliff. In the childhood of the two, Heathcliff controls Hindly (his father loves Heathcliff more), later Hindly controls Heathcliff (he makes him a servant), and finally Heathcliff has a lot of money and controls him again.
Where does the action take place?
The action takes place at Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross grange and Gimmerton.
How does the book start?
The book starts when Mr. Lockwood visits his new landlord Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights. Mr Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange from him. When he enters, he’s surprised by the dogs, who look at him like they want to attack him.
How does the book end?
In the last scene Mr. Lockwood finds out that Cathy and Hareton are going to live at Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights will remain empty for the ghosts of Catherine and Heathcliff. After that he visits their graveyard.
The theme of the book
Never ending love. Passion and Hate, conflict between individual and society. Jealousy and revenge. Conflict between social classes, loneliness, and the position of a woman in the Victorian Age, Obsession, dark spirits.
Title explanation
It is called "Wuthering Heights", because of the rough and stormy weather. But not only the weather is rough, also the way of life there is full of motion, passion and energy. Literally it means at rough, stormy heights for that's the name of the house where Catherine was born.
Fragments:
Fragment 1: Page 74. Here we see the writer expresses herself. She writes in long sentences with very thourough details to describe the surrounding as good as possible. This makes the book pretty difficult to read, also because she uses a lot of difficult words.
Fragment 2: Page 189. This fragment shows the hard and the vicious character of Heathcliff when he wants to have a word alone with his housekeeper Nelly Dean.
Fragment 3: Page 83. Here we see a description of Catherine Earnshaw. We see her that she always was a very happy child, but she also did everything what they forbid her to do. She always try to get more, to be more and to be more adored and she likes to tease people, also Heathcliff and Edgar. And that has become her death.
Fragment 4: Page 122. This is the climax in the book. Here we see that the love between Heathcliff and Catherine turns into an obsession, because Catherine has decided to marry Edgar. But her love for Heathcliff shall and will be a part of her forever (That’s why she has become a ghost). Catherine thinks like Heathcliff and Heathcliff thinks like her, and because of that they could never be united on earth.
Who tells the story?
The housekeeper Mrs. Nelly Dean tells the actual story to Mr. Lockwood, who tells what she says and tells the rest of the story.
The Chronological order
The story isn’t in chronological order because the beginning is the present and a large part of the story is told with flashbacks. The last part of the story is in the present again.
The best episode
The part, which interested me most, was the part when Heathcliff returns as a rich and wealthy man. He is received at Wuthering Heights for now he has money. He became what the family least expected. I told you I read a book about drugs, but that was for my Germain lesson.
I hope you like the report.
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