Wuthering Heights

by Emily Brontë

‘Thrushcross Grange is my own, sir,’

Heathcliff’s dwelling. ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather.

Isolation , desolate ,suggestive of the storms that will happen in this house

blaze.

So, from the very beginning, he bred bad feeling in the house; and at Mrs. Earnshaw’s death, which happened in less than two years after, the young master had learned to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his parent’s affections and his privileges; and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries.

‘Hindley was nought, and would never thrive as where he wandered.’

I’d not exchange, for a thousand lives, my condition here, for Edgar Linton’s at Thrushcross Grange—not if I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph off the highest gable, and painting the house-front with Hindley’s blood!’

to Liverpool—a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.”

innocent angels,

A miser who has parted with a lucky lottery ticket for five shillings, and finds next day he has lost in the bargain five thousand pounds, could not show a blanker countenance than he did on beholding the figure of Mr. Earnshaw above. It expressed, plainer than words could do, the intensest anguish at having made himself the instrument of thwarting his own revenge.

Analogy

smashing Hareton’s skull on the steps;

It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.’

growling thunder, and the great drops that began to plash

About midnight, while we still sat up, the storm came rattling over the Heights in full fury. There was a violent wind, as well as thunder, and either one or the other split a tree off at the corner of the building: a huge bough fell across the roof, and knocked down

‘What! the gipsy—the ploughboy?’

I’ll crush his ribs in like a rotten hazel-nut before I cross the threshold! If I don’t floor him now, I shall murder

frenzy.

not because I disown her, but because she has disowned me.’

‘These are the earliest flowers at the Heights,’

He was the only thing there that seemed decent; and I thought he never looked better. So much had circumstances altered their positions, that he would certainly have struck a stranger as a born and bred gentleman; and his wife as a thorough little slattern! She came forward eagerly to greet me, and held out one hand to take the expected letter.

I would have torn his heart out, and drunk his blood!

Two words would comprehend my future—death and hell: existence, after losing her, would be hell.

~this!

‘Oh, Cathy! Oh, my life! how can I bear it?’

I am living; you said I killed you—haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts have wandered on earth. Be with me always—take any form—drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!’

‘He shook me till my teeth rattled,

you are a cunning little fox, and nobody will put faith in you any more.’

she pledged her word, and kept it for my sake. After all, she was a sweet little girl.

sickly peevishness in his aspect that Edgar Linton never had.

‘Very well, if we can keep him, Ellen.

‘It’s Maister Linton I mun spake to,’

he would have pitied the child on his own account;

‘As we shall now have no influence over his destiny, good or bad, you must say nothing of where he is gone to my daughter:

‘He’s as young,’ said I; ‘but he has black hair and eyes, and looks sterner; and he is taller and bigger altogether. He’ll not seem to you so gentle and kind at first, perhaps, because it is not his way: still, mind you, be frank and cordial with him; and naturally he’ll be fonder of you than any uncle, for you are his own.’

puling chicken?’

wicked slut

infernal calf,

whey-faced, whining wretch!’

sheep-dog.

dog.

She bounded before me, and returned to my side, and was off again like a young greyhound;

Heathcliff glanced at me with an ill-meaning smile, expressing his

But there’s this difference; one is gold put to the use of paving-stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver. Mine has nothing valuable about it; yet I shall have the merit of making it go as far as such poor stuff can go. His had first-rate qualities, and they are lost:

colossal dunce?’

‘I will have one, you cruel wretch!’ she screamed, darting her hand into the fire, and drawing forth some half-consumed fragments, at the expense of her fingers.

‘No, I should never love anybody better than papa,’

suffering, and kept it up for a quarter of an hour; on purpose to distress his cousin apparently,

‘I’m sorry I hurt you, Linton,’

That was his most perfect idea of heaven’s happiness: mine was rocking in a rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright white clouds flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but throstles, and blackbirds, and linnets, and cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool dusky dells; but close by great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze; and woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy. He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive; and he said mine would be drunk: I said I should fall asleep in his; and he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish. At last, we agreed to try both, as soon as the right weather came; and then we kissed each other and were friends.

only a feeble tool to his father—I

I never relent in exacting my due from any one.’