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19th-Century British Literature Videos 19 videos

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Wuthering Heights Summary 58843 Views


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Description:

Heathcliff may not be as much of a romantic hero as Mr. Darcy, but you'll fall in love with him all the same. If you tend to love self-serving and revengeful brooders, that is.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:05

Wuthering Heights, a la Shmoop I don't like you.

00:10

Don't take it personally; I don't really like anyone.

00:13

I’m a pretty angry guy. I think it's because of the ups and downs of my unhappy childhood.

00:19

I was an orphan. Down.

00:21

I was adopted by the rich Mr. Earnshaw, and taken to live at my dream house, Wuthering

00:27

Heights. Up!

00:29

Mr. Earnshaw's son, Hindley, seriously had it in for me. Down.

00:32

My adopted sister Catherine, though, was adorable and loved me. Very up!

00:39

A wealthy heiress and a street kid fall in love. What could possibly go wrong, right?

00:44

Here’s what. Catherine fell in love with our wimpy neighbor, Edgar Linton, and married

00:49

him, even though he was not dark or brooding or as awesomely-named as me.

00:54

I think the socially approved thing would have been for me to wait patiently for Catherine

00:59

to come to her senses, using the time to become a better man.

01:02

But that's not really my style. I'm more of a "hatch an evil plan" sort of guy.

01:07

So I set some reasonable goals: ruin Hindley's life, take over all the local real estate,

01:14

including Wuthering Heights, and make Catherine regret picking that 98 pound weakling over

01:19

me.

01:19

I even married Edgar's sister, Isabel, just to get Edgar's goat.

01:24

I didn't count on Catherine dying, though.

01:26

I went through the 5 stages of grief, including the one where you dig up your dead ex to say

01:31

goodbye…

01:31

…but I never really got over it, and living in Wuthering Heights wasn't all I'd hoped

01:36

it would be.

01:38

Sure, my evil bro Hindley was dead, but now I was stuck with his irritating son, Hareton<<hair-tin>>,

01:44

and my anemic heir, Linton, who moved in with me after his mom died.

01:49

Come to think of it, maybe we all would have been better-adjusted if we still had mothers.

01:57

At least then I wouldn't be surrounded by nincompoops.

02:01

Even worse, I was running out of lives to destroy. Fortunately, Catherine had a daughter

02:06

before she died, and Cathy 2 was Edgar's pride and joy.

02:10

Edgar and his interfering servant, Nelly, tried to keep their innocent pumpkin away

02:14

from me, but my irresistibly pasty son, Linton, lured her like a worm on a hook…

02:20

Ha, suckers! Cathy totally fell for the "surprise attack wedding" maneuver…

02:24

…and I was sitting pretty to inherit Edgar's estate!  Things got even better when that

02:29

good for nothing Linton croaked, and I got to keep Cathy on as free labor. Score!

02:35

I rented out Linton's old house to make some cash money…as if I didn’t have enough!...

02:41

and my tenant, Lockwood, was a seriously nosy parker.

02:45

I bet he had that stool pigeon Nelly telling him all about my checkered past and nefarious

02:50

misdeeds. I decided I definitely didn't like this Lockwood wiseacre.

02:54

But apparently somebody else took a shine to him. When that meddler slept in Catherine's

02:58

old bedroom, she practically climbed through the window to haunt him!

03:01

How do you like that? Her ghost played “hard to get” with me for years, and suddenly

03:06

it’s like we’re in an episode of Ghost Hunters.

03:08

That’s women for you. No loyalty. At least it gave me something else to brood about.

03:13

Still, missing Catherine really took the fun out of life. Even picking on Cathy and Hareton

03:18

lost its appeal.

03:19

Here I was, eating my liver out over my lost love, and those two were as happy as two little

03:24

bunnies in a meadow.  

03:25

I couldn't take it anymore, so I died. And they were still happy. Planning a wedding

03:35

in their awesome house that I bought for them. Sure, they would have inherited it anyway,

03:40

but still.

03:40

Aw, come on, now they're kissing over my grave. Get a room!

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