Characters in Wuthering Heights

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Heathcliff

Mr. Earnshaw brings the orphan Heathcliff to live at Wuthering Heights from Liverpool

He falls into a deep and intensive love with Mr. Earnshaw's daughter, Catherine

Mr. Earnshaw's resentful son Hindley abuses Heathcliff and treats him as a servant after the death of Mr. Earnshaw

Catherine's desire for social prominence leads her to marry Edgar Linton and not Heathcliff

Heathcliff's misery and humiliation lead him to devoting the rest of his life seeking revenge on Hindley and his son Hareton, and his beloved Catherine and her daughter, also named Catherine.

He is a powerful, fierce and often cruel man

He acquires a fortune and uses his extraordinary powers of will to acquire the estates of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Edgar Linton's estate.

Catherine

Daughter of Mr. and Mrs Earnshaw, falls madly in love with the orphan Heathcliff

Catherine's love for Heathcliff is so powerful that she claims they are the same person

Her love for Heathcliff however is deterred by her desire for social advancement and prominence, leading her to marry Edgar Linton and not Heathcliff

Catherine is beautiful, spoiled, free-spirited, often arrogant and is given to fits of temper

She is torn between her passionate love for Heathcliff and her need for social advancement which ends in her making both men who love her miserable.

Edgar Linton

Well brought up but quite spoiled as a boy

Grows into a tender, constant but cowardly man

Catherine accurately describes him as "handsome", "pleasant to be with", "cheerful", and "rich"

He is almost an ideal gentleman

His virtues and gentlemanly characteristics however prove useless against Heathcliff who gains power over his wife, sister and daughter

Ellen (Nelly) Dean

Chief narrator of Wuthering Heights

A sensible, intelligent and compassionate woman

Nelly grew up alongside Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw and is very involved in the story she tells

Her strong feelings towards the characters in the novel complicate her narration

Lockwood

Lockwood's narration is based on that of Nelly Dean

He serves as an intermediary between Nelly and the reader

He is vain and presumptuous and does not deal well with the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights

He is from a far more domesticated region of England, and finds himself at a loss when witnessing the household's disregard for social conventions with which he grew up

Lockwood's vanity and unfamiliarity with the story hinders his narration as he is led to misunderstand events

Young Catherine

Shares the same headstrong tendencies, impetuousness and occasional arrogance

She was calmed by the influence of her father Edgar

More gentle and compassionate than her mother

Hareton Earnshaw

Son of Hindley and Frances Earnshaw and also Catherine's nephew

Heathcliff becomes his guardian after Hindley's death and brings him up as an uneducated field worker, as Hindley had done to him

Heathcliff in this way uses Hareton to seek revenge on Hindley

Hareton is easily humiliated, quick tempered and illiterate

Although he has a good heart and a desire to improve

He marries Young Catherine at the end of the novel

Linton Heathcliff

Heathcliff and Isabella's son

He is raised by his mother in London and only meets his father when he is thirteen

He is weak, demanding and constantly ill

Heathcliff despises Linton and treats him contemptuously

Heathcliff forces Linton to marry Catherine in order to gain control over Thrushcross Grange after Edgar Linton's death

Linton dies shortly after their marriage

Hindley Earnshaw

Son of Mr. Earnshaw and Catherine's brother

When Heathcliff is brought to live at Wuthering Heights, Hindley resents him

After the death of Mr. Earnshaw he inherits the estate and abuses Heathcliff, cutting off his education and forcing him to work in the fields

When Hindley's wife Frances dies after giving birth to their son, he falls into alcoholism and dissipation

Isabella Linton

Edgar Linton's sister. She falls in love with Heathcliff and marries him

Heathcliff is a romantic figure in her eyes, like a character from a novel

She ultimately ruins her life by falling in love with Heathcliff

Heathcliff does not return her feelings and uses him purely on his quest to take revenge on the Linton family

Emily Bronte - A Short Biography

Born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England, on July 30th 1818, Emily Jane Bronte lived with her clergyman fatehr, brother Branwell Bronte and two sisters Charlotte and Anne

At home, Bronte enjoyed her quiet life. She read extensively and began to make up stories with her siblings. The surviving Bronte children, which included her brother Branwell, had strong imaginations. They created tales inspired by toy soldiers given to Branwell by their father

In 1835, the shy Emily tried leaving home for school. She went with Charlotte to Miss Wooler's school in Roes Head where Charlotte worked as a teacher. But she stayed only a few months before heading back to Hawthorn.

She went on to become a teacher at the Law Hill School in September 1837, but left her position the following March. Bronte and Charlotte then went to study in Brussels in 1842, but the death of their aunt Elizabeth forced them to return home.

As "Ellis Bell", Emily wrote Wuthering Heights (1847) - her only published novel. At first, reviewers did not know what to make of Wuthering Heights. It was only after Bronte's death that the book developed its reputation as a literary masterwork.

She died of tuberculosis on December 19th, 1848, nearly two months after her brother, Branwell, succumbed to the same disease. Her sister Anne also fell ill and died of tuberculosis the following May.

Wuthering Heights - Character Descriptions

Characters

Emily bronte