KEY LITERARY ELEMENTS

SETTING

The setting of Wuthering Heights is the wild and rugged moorland country of Yorkshire, in the north of England. The author limits her setting to two houses: Wuthering Heights, the home of the Earnshaws, and Thrushcross Grange, the home of the Lintons. The moors, which lie between the two houses, have importance in terms of the novel's structure and symbolism. The setting is Wuthering Heights in the first nine chapters of the novel. With Catherine's marriage, the setting shifts to Thrushcross Grange. From Chapter 10 to Chapter 28 the setting keeps shifting between the two houses and the moors. The remaining chapters are set in Wuthering Heights.

LIST OF CHARACTERS

Major Characters

Heathcliff

A foundling brought to Wuthering Heights by the elder Earnshaw. He is dark, handsome, morose, and violent. Heathcliff suffers deprivations at the hands of Hindley Earnshaw after old Earnshaw's death. His love for Catherine Earnshaw enables him to accumulate some of the attributes of a gentleman. He is devastated when she marries Edgar Linton, and his passion for Catherine never dies.

Catherine Earnshaw

The daughter in the household to which Heathcliff is brought as a child. Passionate, willful, and self- destructive, Catherine dies an early death from self-induced illness when separated from Heathcliff. She maintains her power over Heathcliff even after her death.

Hindley Earnshaw

The heir of the senior Mr. Earnshaw, who brought Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights. He is jealous of Heathcliff and, therefore, mistreats him, especially after the death of Mr. Earnshaw, senior. Desperate and often intoxicated after his wife's death, he dies six years later trying to kill Heathcliff.

Edgar Linton

A blond, blue-eyed, ineffectual young man. Heathcliff hates him because Catherine Earnshaw marries him. After her death, he devotes himself to their child, Cathy.

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