Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë
Contains spoilers for the entire book.
Discussion topics
Topic 01 of 08
Stories within stories
How does hearing this story from Lockwood and Nelly Dean, rather than from Catherine or Heathcliff, shape what you believe about them?
Keep the conversation going
- How far did you trust Nelly as a narrator, given her own part in what happens?
- What did the ghost at the window in Lockwood's dream prepare you for?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.
Discussion topics
How does hearing this story from Lockwood and Nelly Dean, rather than from Catherine or Heathcliff, shape what you believe about them?
Keep the conversation going
- How far did you trust Nelly as a narrator, given her own part in what happens?
- What did the ghost at the window in Lockwood's dream prepare you for?
Who is most responsible for what Heathcliff becomes: Hindley, Catherine, or Heathcliff himself?
Keep the conversation going
- How does old Mr Earnshaw's favour change the household when he brings the boy home?
- Did you ever feel sympathy for Heathcliff, and was there a moment you lost it?
What does Catherine mean when she says she is Heathcliff, and can a love like that be lived at all?
Keep the conversation going
- Why does Catherine marry Edgar Linton when she feels this way about Heathcliff?
- How much turns on Heathcliff overhearing only the first half of what she tells Nelly?
What do Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange stand for, and how does each house change the people who live in it?
Keep the conversation going
- What changes in Catherine after her stay at the Grange as a girl?
- Is the Lintons' gentleness a strength or a weakness in this world?
What does Heathcliff's revenge actually win him, and against whom is it really aimed?
Keep the conversation going
- How did you react to his marriage to Isabella and the way he treats her?
- Why does he raise Hareton the way Hindley once raised him?
When Catherine dies, is she a victim of the people around her or of her own will?
Keep the conversation going
- What did you make of Heathcliff begging her to haunt him?
- How does her absence go on shaping the second half of the novel?
In what ways do young Cathy and Hareton repeat their parents' story, and where do they break from it?
Keep the conversation going
- What role do books and reading play in bringing Cathy and Hareton together?
- Why do you think the novel gives the second generation a gentler ending than the first?
At the end, does Heathcliff find peace, defeat, or something else?
Keep the conversation going
- Why does he lose the will to finish his revenge just when it is within reach?
- How do you read Lockwood's closing thoughts beside the three graves on the edge of the moor?
There is no single right answer. Bring your own reading.