FREE ESSAY ON INTERNET CENSORSHIP

INTERNET CENSORSHIP

In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called
Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour
landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights,
four miles away from the Grange, but otherwise isolated in the moors. In this wild,
stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of
Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood
writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary; those written recollections form
the great majority of Wuthering Heights.
When Nelly was a young girl, she was a servant at Wuthering Heights to Mr. Earnshaw and
his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool, and returns home with an orphan boy
whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children--an older boy
named Hindley and his young sister Catherine--detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff.
Catherine quickly grows to love him, and the two are soon inseparable. They spend their
days playing on the moors. After his wife's death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer
Heathcliff to his own son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr.
Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.
Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns
with a wife, Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff: the once orphan and
now spoiled boy is now to be treated as a common laborer, and forced to work in the
fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with Catherine, however. One night
they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to tease the cowardly, snobbish Linton
children, Edgar and Isabella, who live there. Catherine is bitten by a dog, and is forced
to stay at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs. Linton works
to make her a proper young lady. When she returns, she is smitten with Edgar, and her
relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated. Frances gives birth to a baby boy
named Hareton and then dies; Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves
even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine's desire for
social advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her
overpowering love for Heathcliff; Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, and does
not return for three years, until shortly after Catherine and Edgar's marriage.
When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have
wronged him. Now possessed of a vast and mysterious wealth, he easily wins possession of
Wuthering Heights by loaning the drunken Hindley money to feed his gambling addiction;
when Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places himself in line to
inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly.
Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies; Heathcliff curses her spirit
to remain on Earth and haunt him--anything, as long as she does not leave him alone.
Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff's son, named
Linton after her maiden name.
Thirteen years pass, which Nelly Dean spends as Catherine's daughter's nursemaid at
Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her
temperament is modified by her father's more gentle influence. Young Catherine grows up
at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights, but one day, wandering through the
moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays with him. Shortly thereafter,
Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly,
whining son even more cruelly than he treated his wife.
Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors, and makes a visit to
Wuthering Heights to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted
entirely through letters; when Nelly destroys her letters, she begins sneaking out at
night to spend time with the frail young man, who convinces her that only she can nurse
him back to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Linton is pursuing
Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine
marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange--and his revenge upon Edgar
Linton--will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff
lures Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, and holds them prisoner until
Catherine marries Linton. Edgar dies not long after, and the sickly Linton dies soon
after that. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He
forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents
Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.
Nelly's story to Lockwood ends as she reaches the present. Lockwood, appalled, ends his
tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and returns to London. However, six months later, he pays a
visit to Nelly, and learns of further developments in the story. Though Catherine
originally mocked Hareton's ignorance and illiteracy (in an act of retributive vengeance,
Heathcliff ended Hareton's education after Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton
as they live together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff grows more and more obsessed with
the memory of Catherine, to the extent that he begins speaking to her ghost. Everything
he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking on the moors, Heathcliff
dies. Hareton and Catherine inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and plan to
be married on the next New Year's Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes
to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.