Four Reasons Why Wuthering Heights is NOT a Great Book

1.  The characters: I am aware that for each of the characters’ decisions, people have since found ways to rationalize and explain their behavior. However, some of Cathy, Heathcliff and co’s actions are not just unreasonable, but arguably delirious. Before you write me off as an uneducated philistine – you have to admit that this is definitely true in some scenes. For example, when Isabella elopes with Heathcliff, a man whom she not only knows to be violent (he strangles her dog for god’s sake) but who also quite clearly does not love her the least little bit, and is surprised to find him a dismissive, abusive husband, this proves a certain lack of what I would call common sense. Don’t even get me started on Cathy or Heathcliff, whose only character development seems to consist of the inner complexes and – in Cathy’s case- mental illnesses they accumulate over years.

On top of that, I find it very hard to identify or sympathize with any of the characters, who are perhaps the least lovable creatures you will ever encounter in Victorian literature, making this novel less appealing yet.

2. The names: Admittedly, this is an unconventional aspect of a book to consider. However, I find it particularly bothersome because not only are there two characters in the perfectly identical name of Catherine Linton, but the story also mentions two men, Edgar Linton and Linton Heathcliff, that are both referred to simply as “Linton”. The list continues with, depending on which part of the book you are reading, two different men bearing the title of “Master Earnshaw”.

Of course, Emily Bronte probably had her reasons (i.e. to draw parallels between the characters or something like that) but really, naming everyone the same only adds a superfluous complexity to the already not-too-simple plot.

 

3.The plot: Anyone who read the book, whether they liked it or not, will most likely agree that this story is not exactly an agreeable one. This, in itself, is in no way problematic, we wouldn’t want to read pleasant stories in which everything is just peachy all the time. However, some of the plot turns in Wuthering Heights seem to be slightly absurd and too obviously designed to cause more conflict between the characters, chipping at the story’s credibility.

That being said, the plot is unnecessarily complex at times whereas it over-simplifies other passages the reader might be interested in. For example: How did Heathcliff come to possess his fortune? To this day, we don’t know what he did in the years he was away.

Also, why this novel is repeatedly marked one of the greatest romances of all times, I will never understand,  for the so-called “romance” seems to elude me completely. The relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff is really more one of possessive obsession than one of love. Plus, I can’t help thinking that the unfulfillment and futility of their “love” is to the greatest part due to Cathy’s superficial and naive thinking that led to her marrying Edgar Linton.

 

4. The narration: Just why we absolutely need this narrative frame of Lockwood and his housekeeper to guide us through the story remains a mystery to my humble mind. After all, Lockwood bears no relevance whatsoever to the plot, barely ever interacts with any of the important characters (he has tea with Heathcliff-twice), and spends half of the book lying in bed because he got sick.

 

Conclusion: Having read multiple reviews of Wuthering Heights, it seems to me as if people appreciate this work because and not despite of many of the reasons named above, making me question my understanding of the book. But after re-reading it I must come to the conclusion that- yes, this is a great book if you want to lead lots of snobbishly sophisticated conversations with would-be scholars but is a terrible piece of literature for those who like to read simply for the joy of it. If it is Victorian romance that you seek, you will find a much more pleasant work in Charlotte Brontë‘s Jane Eyre.