Lit GIFs: Wuthering Heights

 

A story (read: soap opera) of two Catherines and a grumpy, clingy guy named Heathcliff. Also a property war.

Mr. Earnshaw owns a manor called Wuthering Heights. One day he brings home an orphan.

At first, his children, Hindley and Catherine #1, don’t like Orphan Heathcliff much.

Over time, Catherine #1 and Heathcliff become the best of friends, but Hindley remains skeptical. Moreover, when Mrs. Earnshaw dies, Mr. Earnshaw finds that he likes Heathcliff better than Hindley, which doesn’t sit well with Hindley at all.

So when Earnshaw dies and now-married-Hindley gets Wuthering Heights, he sends Heathcliff to work the fields. Because he can.

One night Catherine #1 gets bitten by the dog that lives at nearby Thrushcross Grange. While recuperating there, she gets all proper and falls for Edgar Linton, a resident of Thrushcross. Heathcliff is not so happy about this development.

(He secretly loves Catherine #1, after all.)

Anyway, around this time, Hindley’s wife dies in childbirth and Hindley becomes an alcoholic.

This makes Hindley even more of a jerk, so Heathcliff runs away. By the time he comes back, three years later, Catherine #1 is married to Edgar Linton.

But Heathcliff is now rich, and seeking vengeance. He lends money to drunken Hindley until Hindley falls into debt and dies, leaving Heathcliff to inherit Wuthering Heights—and then he marries Isabella, Edgar’s sister, so that he can inherit Thrushcross Grange, too.

Unfortunately, Catherine #1 then gets sick, has a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff is beside himself.

Meanwhile, Isabella runs away to London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, Linton. For these 13 years, Nelly, the housekeeper at Thrushcross Grange, takes care of Catherine #1’s daughter, Catherine #2.

When Isabella dies, Linton comes to live with Heathcliff, who’s even meaner to his kid than he was to his wife.

Then, three years later, Catherine #2 meets Heathcliff on the moors and goes to Wuthering Heights, where she meets Linton.

She and Linton have a secret affair, but it turns out the kid’s only interested in her because Heathcliff is making him pretend to be. (He wants Catherine #2 to marry his son so he can finally have legal claim over both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.)

Eventually, Heathcliff lures Catherine #2 to Wuthering Heights and holds her captive with Linton until Catherine #2 marries him.

Linton dies. Then Edgar dies. Now Heathcliff owns everything. He keeps Catherine #2 at Wuthering Heights as a servant, having conversations with Catherine #1’s ghost and wandering the moors.

In the very end, Catherine #2 and Hindley’s son (remember him?) plan to marry. Upon Heathcliff’s death, they inherit both properties.