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Emily Bronte's great Victorian novel of passion tells of the havoc wreaked upon the Earnshaw and Linton families by the foundling Heathcliff. Brought home from Liverpool by Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff forms an incendiary attachment to Catherine Earnshaw and usurps the place of Catherine' s brother Hindley, only to be tyrannized in rum by Hindley after his father's death. When Catherine, entranced by the wealthy Lintons who live nearby, decides to marry gentle Edgar Linton, thinking she can have his riches and Heathcliff's passion too, Heathcliff disappears.
He returns three years later, a handsome, wealthy man bent on revenge. He marries Edgar's sister Isabella, wins Hindley's property away at cards, and shares a climactic embrace with Catherine, before she dies in childbirth. Heathcliff brutalizes Hindley, Isabella, Hindley's son, his own son, and Edgar and Catherine's daughter. Though he triumphs in his desire for control of people and property, gaining ownership of the Earnshaw and Linton estates as most of the other characters die off, his triumph is unsatisfactory, and he too dies, yearning only to be reunited with Catherine. The novel ends with the imminent marriage of Hindley's son Hareton and Edgar and Catherine's daughter Cathy, who appear to have survived not just Heathcliff, but the dangerous passions of the previous generation.
There are two distinct settings in Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is located on a hill and is constantly buffeted by wild winds. The trees have been stunted by these winds and the house itself has survived the constant battering only because of its massive, rugged construction. The inhabitants of the Heights also seem creatures of the storm. They are constantly being torn by strong passions, and violence is their natural language. They are farmers; they work the land and their reactions to life are elemental.
In contrast, Thrushcross Grange is set in a well-landscaped park, comparatively sheltered from the wild elements. The style of the house and its furnishings are much more delicate and refined than those of the Heights. The Lintons are not farmers but country squires. They have tenants, they have the political and social obligations of the landed gentry. The people of the Grange are gentle and seek not so much the wild sparkle and dance of life as its repose.
It is very important that the terms "calm" and "storm" not be equated with the ideas of "good" and "evil." Nowhere in her novel does Emily Bronte suggest that the inhabitants of the Heights are all bad or that the people who live at the Grange are all good. Heathcliff and Cathy may be wild and destructive but they are also capable of great sensitivity and love. Also, Edgar may be gentle and responsible, but he is also snobbish and cold. "Calm" and "storm," then, represent the two poles of existence, not value judgments of it. However, when elements from each end of the scale find themselves thrust to the other end, the resulting violence and conflict can only be resolved by discovering a mid-point between the two extremes. When the children of the two houses, Hareton and Cathy, meet and marry, such a resolution is achieved in Wuthering Heights.
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