Character guide

Catherine Linton

major

Also known as Cathy, Miss Cathy, Miss Catherine, young Linton, Miss Linton

Cathy grows up at Thrushcross Grange as her widowed father's companion, bright, headstrong, and largely untested by the world beyond the park. When she finally meets her cousins at Wuthering Heights, her warm, impulsive nature collides with Linton's languid self-pity and Hareton's sullen silence, and she must reckon with family ties she never knew she had. Her sheltered confidence and quick sympathies make her the hinge on which the two households' long estrangement begins to turn.

Heathcliff

major

Also known as Mr. Heathcliff, Poor Heathcliff, cruel Heathcliff, bonny lad Heathcliff, young Heathcliff, Master Heathcliff

Brought home from the streets by old Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff grows up half-sibling, half-outsider, adored by Catherine and despised by Hindley. His love for Catherine is absolute and possessive, and when she chooses Edgar Linton's gentility over his wildness, he vanishes and returns wealthy, cold, and patient in his cruelty. His contempt for weakness and his long memory drive the schemes that entangle both families across two generations.

Hareton Earnshaw

major

Also known as Hareton, Earnshaw, Mr. Earnshaw, Poor Hareton, little Hareton, Little Hareton, Mr. Hareton

Hareton is Hindley's son, but Heathcliff has taken the estate and reduced the boy to a field hand who cannot read his own name carved over the door. Sullen, strong, and fiercely loyal to the man who degraded him, he bristles at Cathy's mockery while secretly craving the books and gentleness she represents. His slow, awkward awakening to affection is one of the novel's quiet counterweights to Heathcliff's long revenge.

Joseph

supporting

Also known as Vinegar-faced Joseph, old Joseph

Joseph has served the Earnshaws and then Heathcliff for decades, muttering judgments in thick Yorkshire dialect and finding sin in every pleasure. He scolds Catherine for late rambles, resents her followers, and treats any warmth in the house as scandal. His relentless moralizing and petty cruelties give Wuthering Heights much of its oppressive texture, and his voice is a constant reminder of the grim creed that shapes its inhabitants.

Nelly Dean

major

Also known as Ellen, Nell, Ellen Dean, Dear Ellen, Wicked Ellen

Nelly has watched the Earnshaws and Lintons for most of her life, nursing the sick, minding the children, and quietly disapproving of nearly everyone's choices. She is practical, opinionated, and not always kind, and her account of events is filtered through her own sympathies and resentments. As Lockwood's informant she carries the whole tangled history, and her reliability is one of the novel's most interesting puzzles.

Edgar Linton

major

Also known as Edgar, young Linton, Linton

Edgar is refined, kind, and utterly conventional, the opposite of everything Heathcliff represents. He loves Catherine with steady tenderness, but he cannot comprehend the wildness in her, and his jealousy and pride push him into coldness at the worst moments. His fragility and his devotion make him both sympathetic and, in Heathcliff's eyes, contemptibly weak, and his marriage to Catherine sets the tragedy in motion.

Hindley Earnshaw

supporting

Also known as Mr. Hindley Earnshaw, Mr. Earnshaw, old Earnshaw, young Earnshaw, Earnshaw, Mr. Hindley, old Mr. Earnshaw

Hindley inherits the Heights when his father dies, and he uses that power to demote Heathcliff to a servant and humiliate him at every turn. Grief for his wife Frances and his dependence on drink turn him from a favored son into a tyrant whose own son, Hareton, is left to fend for himself. His cruelty is the engine that drives Heathcliff's long revenge, making Hindley the first link in the chain of grievance the novel refuses to break.

Catherine Earnshaw

major

Also known as Earnshaw, Catherine, Cathy

Catherine rules the Heights as a girl, bossing Heathcliff, mocking Joseph, and provoking her ailing father with the same delight she takes in being scolded. When she returns from Thrushcross Grange polished and laughing at Heathcliff's dirt, the gap between her two selves becomes the novel's central wound. Her divided loyalty between Edgar's refinement and Heathcliff's fierce kinship sets the tragedy in motion and haunts every page that follows.

Linton Heathcliff

supporting

Also known as Mrs. Heathcliff, the late Mrs. Linton, Linton, Mrs. Linton, Linton Heathcliff, Mrs. Linton Heathcliff

Linton arrives at Wuthering Heights as a sickly, complaining boy who has never heard of his father and would rather stay with his uncle Edgar. His frailty and self-pity make him an easy instrument for Heathcliff, who needs him to secure an inheritance and a marriage. His helplessness sharpens the cruelty of the older generation's designs and forces young Cathy into a bond she never chose.

Isabella Linton

supporting

Also known as Isabella, a Linton, Isabella . XIV, Miss Isabella

Isabella grows up cosseted at Thrushcross Grange, imagining Heathcliff as a brooding hero rather than the man her brother warns her against. Her elopement with him becomes a lesson in how little she understood, and her letters home reveal a woman trapped in a house she cannot leave. Her flight and her son Linton carry the consequences of that mistake into the next generation.

Zillah

minor

A servant at Wuthering Heights who assists Nelly and Lockwood.

Mr. Lockwood

supporting

Lockwood arrives from the city expecting a quiet moorland retreat and instead stumbles into a household of surly strangers and a ghostly dream at a latticed window. His curiosity about his landlord and his neighbors gives Nelly Dean the audience she needs to tell the story from the beginning. As an outsider, he frames the tale for the reader and returns at the end to find what time has done to the Heights.

Mr. Linton

minor

Also known as Old Mr. and Mrs. Linton, Mrs. Linton, Master Linton, Every Linton, Old Mrs. Linton, Linton, old Linton

The patriarch of the Linton family at Thrushcross Grange.

Kenneth

minor

Also known as Mr. Kenneth

The local doctor who attends the Earnshaws and Lintons.

Jabez Branderham

minor

Also known as the Reverend Jabez Branderham, Jabez, Branderham

A clergyman who preaches a long sermon in Lockwood's dream.

Frances Earnshaw

minor

Also known as Frances, Fanny

Hindley's wife who dies shortly after giving birth to Hareton.

Michael

minor

A servant at Wuthering Heights mentioned in passing.

Mr. Green

minor

Also known as Green

A lawyer who handles legal matters for the Linton and Earnshaw families.

Robert

minor

A servant at Thrushcross Grange.

Mary

minor

A servant at Wuthering Heights.