Discussion Questions and

quotations
• What is the significance of Heathcliff and the servants' reactions to
the dogs attacking Mr. Lockwood in Chapter 1 of Wuthering
Heights?

• As it would be expected for the wealthy owner of two estates to

keep a guest safe, Heathcliff and his servant Joseph's slow and
unconcerned reaction when the dogs attack reveals antipathy,
bordering on cruelty, establishing a sense of danger and chaos. The
dog attack happens just after Mr. Lockwood describes Wuthering
Heights as a wind-and-storm-battered location. This connects to
how the narrator describes the servant quelling the dogs as "the
storm subsided magically ... heaving like a sea after a high wind,"
since the servants, throughout the novel, will continuously attempt
to repudiate (Joseph), shelter (Mrs. Dean), and makes better the
abuse the main characters will bestow upon each other or be
forced to endure.
• What does Heathcliff's reaction to abuse in Chapter 4 of
Wuthering Heights suggest about his character as a child?
• Mrs. Dean says Heathcliff "would stand Hindley's blows
without winking," and when she pinched him he would act
as if it happened "by accident." He does not appear to be
naturally violent, allowing others, including Cathy, who spit
on him, to injure him and refraining from striking back. She
also infer Heathcliff is already used to "ill-treatment" by the
time Mr. Earnshaw brings him to Wuthering Heights. Yet, he
adapts quickly to his new environment and learns to
manipulate to get what he wants. Even though Mrs. Dean
suggests he will become vindictive later, he seems at first to
be struggling to survive in an abusive environment where
he is despised by almost everyone.
• What can be learned from how Mr. and Mrs. Linton treat Cathy
differently from Heathcliff when they are both caught snooping in
Chapter 6 of Wuthering Heights?
• Mr. and Mrs. Linton take pity—in the sense of sympathy and
compassion—on Cathy for being a girl from a wealthy family in
mourning for her father's death. Heathcliff is judged for cursing,
and he is stereotyped by the Lintons as a "gipsy" and a thief for
having dark skin and hair. Heathcliff mentions seeing the Linton
family in church, yet they do not "see" him as a true member of the
Earnshaw family even with prior knowledge of Mr. Earnshaw
adopting him. They judge him by their standards, reserving no pity
for someone below their own station. This moment of humiliation
for Heathcliff leads to all of the major conflicts that follow in
Wuthering Heights, showing just how powerful choosing to judge
rather than seek true understanding can be.
• How does Brontë use the two narrators conversing in the present in Chapter 7 as a
device to reveal character and illustrate bigger ideas in Wuthering Heights?
• There are two distinct parts to Chapter 7: Mrs. Dean's story about Cathy,
Heathcliff, and the Linton children, and Mrs. Dean's conversation with Mr.
Lockwood. The two parts are connected, since they both focus on class
distinctions. In the first part of the chapter Mrs. Dean reveals her true feelings
about the class distinctions of her society. She gives Heathcliff the advice to heal
his injured pride by considering the possibility that he could have come from a
noble bloodline. Then she points out that Heathcliff is physically stronger than
Edgar. This sheds light on her perceptions of privileged children: how she feels
disdain for their physical weakness. In describing Edgar as the type of child who
"cried for mamma at every turn ... and trembled if a country lad heaved his fist at
you ... and sat at home all day for a shower of rain," Mrs. Dean shows what she
values: a strong underdog type like Heathcliff over a pampered privileged child,
leaving the reader to wonder if she too felt the sting of bearing her own low
station in society.
• In the second part of the chapter Mr. Lockwood tells Mrs. Dean she
does not possess the "manners" "peculiar" to her class, signaling to
the reader that (1) servants do not typically show their wisdom to
their wealthy masters, (2) Mr. Lockwood considers himself superior
to Mrs. Dean, (3) it does not occur to Mr. Lockwood that he is being
lofty, or (4) that Mrs. Dean is intelligent enough to know that he is
being condescending. Though she laughs in response, Mrs. Dean
tells Mr. Lockwood she has read all the books in the library and
"sharp discipline" has taught her wisdom. The reader is left to
connect the first part of the chapter to the second part of the
chapter, to come to the conclusion that upper-class members of
society do not necessarily deserve the privilege they enjoy, and
they are not automatically better and smarter than their servants;
they just think they are, and the current society supports the false
notion that they are.
• Is Mrs. Dean an unreliable narrator in Wuthering Heights?
• First, an unreliable narrator, by definition, is untrustworthy due to a
mental condition or a seriously skewed perspective, She is not
obsessed by her subjects, nor does she consistently lie, manipulate,
or skew the truth. Her agenda, if she has one, changes as
circumstances change, in relation to the other characters, which is
very natural and human. Brontë draws her to be a fully developed
character, and because she is human, with biases, opinions, and
preferences, at times she is unreliable. It is only because of her
narration that the reader knows she can be manipulative or
spiteful: she tells Mr. Lockwood her negative feelings, hinting at her
culpability in negative plot events, and she relates how her
perspective changes over 23 years.
• Admitting faults makes her trustworthy more than it
makes her unreliable. However, it is important for the
reader to recognize that Mrs. Dean is not an objective
narrator; her version of the truth is subjective. In
addition, her narration is problematic because Mr.
Lockwood's personality interferes, and it is impossible
for the reader to know to what extent. It's also
problematic because Mrs. Dean reveals hardly any
personal information about her own life outside of her
life as a servant. For instance, the reader only discovers
at the very end of the novel that Mrs. Dean rents her
own cottage.
• The reader will never know when or why she lives
there. Mrs. Dean only hints at her discontent with
being a servant. Without "seeing" her apart from Mr.
Lockwood and the privileged characters, it is
impossible to know if she has a dual nature, acting
differently in different environments. She does slide
different speech styles into the narration when she
describes her conversations with Joseph and Zillah, but
she is still relating the story to Mr. Lockwood, and she
keeps with a certain level of formality in the narration.
In the end it is impossible to categorize her wholly as
an unreliable narrator.
Quotes
• 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 [Edgar’s] is as different as a
moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.
•
Catherine’s speech to Nelly about her acceptance of
Edgar’s proposal, in Chapter IX, forms the turning-point
of the plot. It is at this point that Heathcliff leaves
Wuthering Heights, after he has overheard Catherine
say that it would “degrade” her to marry him.
• Although the action of Wuthering Heights takes
place so far from the bustle of society, where
most of Brontë’s contemporaries set their scenes,
social ambition motivates many of the actions of
these characters, however isolated among the
moors. Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar Linton
out of a desire to be “the greatest woman of the
neighbourhood” exemplifies the effect of social
considerations on the characters’ actions.
• In Catherine’s paradoxical statement that Heathcliff is
“more myself than I am,” readers can see how the
relation between Catherine and Heathcliff often
transcends a dynamic of desire and becomes one of
unity. Heterosexual love is often, in literature,
described in terms of complementary opposites—like
moonbeam and lightning, or frost and fire—but the
love between Catherine and Heathcliff opposes this
convention. Catherine says not, “I love Heathcliff,” but,
“I am Heathcliff.” In following the relationship through
to its painful end, the novel ultimately may attest to
the destructiveness of a love that denies difference.
• My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time
will change it ... as winter changes the trees. My love
for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath ...
Nelly, I am Heathcliff!
• Cathy , Chapter 9
• Cathy discerns between her temporal love for Edgar
and her eternal love for Heathcliff; comparing
Heathcliff to an eternal rock has religious associations,
and in some ways, Cathy and Heathcliff's love has a
religious quality to it. She feels as he feels, and, in her
perception, they share one being.
• He has no claim on my charity. I gave him my
heart, and he took and pinched it to death,
and flung it back to me.
• Isabella , Chapter 17
• Isabella's "delusional love" contrasts with
Cathy's "eternal" love connection with
Heathcliff. This is Isabella's moment of clarity,
as she struggles to free herself from false love.
• However miserable you make us, we shall still have the
revenge of thinking that your cruelty arises from your
greater misery.
• Catherine , Chapter 29
• Catherine has just told Heathcliff she is glad to have a
better nature than Linton because she can use it to
forgive his bad nature. Her use of the word revenge
here actually extends the positive connotation of her
earlier words. Using verbal irony, she is both
sympathizing with Heathcliff and comforting herself
with the knowledge he is miserable and lonely.