Key themes
- Destructive obsession
- Class resentment and revenge
- The wild versus the domestic
About this book
A storm of obsession and revenge on the Yorkshire moors; for readers who want their love stories dark and uncompromising.
Emily Brontë's only novel, published in 1847, was initially controversial for its moral ambiguity. It has since become one of the most discussed novels in the language.
Discussion questions
- Heathcliff is one of literature's most contested figures — romantic hero or monster? Where do you fall, and does the novel invite you to take a settled position?
- The novel's framing structure keeps us at several removes from events. What does this narrative distance do — does it create sympathy, irony, or simply uncertainty?
- The two houses — Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange — represent opposing forces. What exactly do they stand for, and does the novel endorse one over the other?
- Catherine's famous declaration that Heathcliff is 'more myself than I am' — what does she mean, and how do you understand a love that seems to erase the self rather than fulfil it?
- The second generation partially heals what the first destroyed. Does this redemptive movement feel earned, or does it soften something that should remain dark?
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Wuthering Heights appears on the following curriculum reading lists.
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