AS SEEN ON TV: "WUTHERING HEIGHTS"

"WUTHERING HEIGHTS"

WRITTEN BY:

Emily Bronte

ADAPTED BY:

The Monty Python troupe

AS SEEN ON:

'Monty Python's Flying Circus'

TV STATUS:

Recastaways

TV LOCATION:

Skitlandia

FEATURING:

HEATHCLIFF

Found, and presumably orphaned, on the streets of Liverpool, he is taken to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw and reluctantly cared for by the rest of the family. He and Catherine later grow close, and their love becomes the central theme of the first volume; his revenge and its consequences are the main theme of the second volume. Heathcliff is typically considered a Byronic hero, but critics have found his character, with a capacity for self-invention, to be profoundly difficult to assess. His position in society, without status (Heathcliff serves as both his given name and surname), is often the subject of Marxist criticism.

AS PLAYED BY:

Terry Jones

CATHERINE EARNSHAW

First introduced in Lockwood's discovery of her diary and etchings, Catherine's life is almost entirely detailed in the first volume. She seemingly suffers from a crisis of identity, unable to choose between nature and culture (and, by extension, Heathcliff and Edgar). Her decision to marry Edgar Linton over Heathcliff has been seen as a surrender to culture, and has implications for all the characters of Wuthering Heights. The character of Catherine has been analysed by many forms of literary criticism, including: psychoanalytic and feminist.

AS PLAYED BY:

Carol Cleveland

From Wikipedia:

'Wuthering Heights' is the only published novel by Emily Brontë, written between October 1845 and June 1846 and published in July of the following year. It was not printed until December 1847, after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel 'Jane Eyre', under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. A posthumous second edition was edited by Charlotte.

The title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors of the story. The narrative centres on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the people around them.

Today considered a classic of English literature, 'Wuthering Heights' was met with mixed reviews when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty. Although Charlotte Brontë's 'Jane Eyre' was generally considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works during most of the nineteenth century, many subsequent critics of 'Wuthering Heights' argued that it was a superior achievement. 

'Wuthering Heights' has also given rise to many adaptations and inspired works, including films, radio, television dramatisations, a musical by Bernard J. Taylor, a ballet, three operas (respectively by Bernard Herrmann, Carlisle Floyd, and Frédéric Chaslin), a role-playing game, and the 1979 chart topping song by Kate Bush.

BCnU!