Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Quiz

Answer: Catherine and Heathcliff

Catherine and Heathcliff's love is one of the most disturbing and doomed love stories ever to be written. Their passionate natures cannot be contained within the bounds of any human relationship, and it is only at the close of the book that the two are united on another spiritual level way above that of the human condition. Right from the commencement of the novel, the bond between the two is one of dark obsession.

It cannot be broken.

Answer: Hindley

Catherine's brother, Hindley, is a weak man who allows his jealousy for the adopted Heathcliff to poison all his relationships except for his brief marriage to his much loved, but sickly wife, Frances, who dies several months after the birth of their son. Hindley believes that Heathcliff, a stray waif their father brings home late one evening when they are all children, has stolen his place in his father's heart. All Hindley's subsequent actions that eventually lead to his own destruction are a result of this over-whelming jealousy.

Answer: Isabella

On Heathcliff's return to the area, after an absence of three years, he has become a darkly brooding, handsome man. Isabella, whose fate is interwoven by several threads to the two main protagonists in this story, is somewhat empty-headed and has been spoiled as a child.

She thinks Heathcliff is a hero from a romantic novel and falls in love with him, in spite of Catherine warning her of his real nature. She fails to listen and Heathcliff takes advantage of her infatuation, marries her, and subsequently treats her dreadfully.

She manages to escape and flees to London where she gives birth to a sickly male child. She dies some years later when the child is a young boy, and Heathcliff manages to gain possession of the child for his own dark scheme which is revealed throughout the unfolding of the novel.

Answer: Linton

Linton is the sickly and weak child of Heathcliff and Isabella. After Heathcliff regains control of the boy, he takes him back to Wuthering Heights which has now become his as a result of Hindley's drunken, gambling, foolish behaviour. Linton is absolutely terrified of his father and does whatever Heathcliff tells him to.

This includes being nice to Catherine's daughter whom Heathcliff manages to lure to Wuthering Heights before imprisoning her there. Linton is bullied by Heathcliff into marrying her shortly before Linton's death.

Answer: Isabella's brother

Edgar and Isabella Linton meet Catherine and Heathcliff when all four are in their early teens. Catherine is drawn to Edgar, but only on a surface level. Heathcliff will always be her one true obsessive love. Edgar is from a comfortably off background and is socially acceptable.

Heathcliff, though, is a child of the streets and at that stage in their lives, being brutalised and treated cruelly by Catherine's brother, Hindley. Catherine and Hindley's father has died by that time, and Wuthering Heights has become Hindley's.

Answer: He overhears Catherine talking about him to a servant

Heathcliff, by now brutalised dreadfully by Hindley, is little more than a savage. Catherine still loves him dearly however, but knows Edgar is drawn to her. One night Heathcliff overhears Catherine talking to Nelly, their faithful but dour servant. He stays long enough to hear Catherine saying it would debase her to marry him, but not long enough to hear her say if she married Edgar, she could save Heathcliff and raise his standing in life. Grief stricken beyond all measure when she finally realises Heathcliff has left Wuthering Heights, Catherine becomes very ill. On her recovery, and still with no word of Heathcliff, she marries Edgar though she does not love him.

Answer: Shortly after giving birth

Catherine dies very soon after the birth of her child to Edgar. Named after her mother, Cathy grows up to be a beautiful but wilful child, spoiled and adored by her father. One day while riding on the moors on her beloved pony, she meets Heathcliff. Once he realises she is Catherine's child, her fate is sealed. Filled with hatred toward Edgar for marrying Catherine, and blaming her for Catherine's death, he basically kidnaps the girl after luring her to Wuthering Heights.

Then he keeps her prisoner until she marries Linton, his sickly son by Isabella.

Heathcliff's treatment of the girl includes his refusal to allow her to visit her father when Edgar is dying. Shortly after his death, she inherits her father's wealth and property, but lost it all when it passed, by her enforced marriage, to Heathcliff's son.

She remains then at Wuthering Heights, beautiful, rebellious and sulky, and with her spirit unbroken by Heathcliff's brutal treatment of her.

Answer: He is the son of Hindley and Frances

When Hindley marries the frail Frances, whom he loves as dearly as his shallow nature allows, she gives birth to their son, Hareton, but dies shortly afterwards. Hindley, out of grief, promptly sinks into drunken misery for the rest of his life, and eventually gambles his birthright, Wuthering Heights, away to Heathcliff when that dark brooding anti-hero returns to the story after his absence of three years.

Heathcliff, left with the orphaned child, attempts to follow the same behaviour with Hareton that Hindley exhibited towards him.

He brings the little boy up, uneducated and uncivilised, but in spite of all he tries, he becomes roughly fond of him, and, as far as his nature allows, learns to love the boy dearly. Hareton, as well, loves Heathcliff, in spite of his rough treatment of him, and grows up handsome, but uncouth, and only a few years older than Catherine's daughter.

Answer: They eventually fall in love and marry

Cathy is the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton. Hareton is the child of Hindley Earnshaw (Catherine's brother) and his frail wife, Frances. The four parents have all died by the time Cathy and Hareton are young adults. Cathy despises Hareton at first and makes fun of his coarseness and lack of education, but then, in spite of herself, learns to care for him when he is kind to her and tries to protect her from Heathcliff.

She begins to educate him herself, and the two fall deeply in love and eventually marry following Heathcliff's death.

This cementing of true, innocent and pure love is the perfect balance for the tortured and dark love between Heathcliff and Catherine.

Answer: Their ghosts are seen wandering together on the moors

Separated forever in their lives, and with only one brief incredible night of love between them as Catherine is dying - oh my goodness, that scene is a work of pure literary genius - Catherine's ghost haunts Heathcliff until he dies, forever out of his reach and his deep heartbroken longing for her. It is only on his death many years later that their two tortured spirits are united forever, and seen wandering, hand in hand, through the nights on their beloved wild moors.

"Wuthering Heights" is a magnificent work. For anyone who loves passion, romance and a work of incredible poetic literature, it really is a must read. It is hard at first to work one's way through the first couple of chapters, but then it takes hold of its reader, and remains then forever in one's heart. It is brilliant, heartbreaking, disturbing, but ultimately, a glorious testimony to love.