Wuthering Heights

Well, despite the language, I am getting the hang of the story, but it's not easy. For example, when Lockwood can't get in the house, he shouts , "Wretched inmates, you deserve perpetual isolation from your species for your churlish inhospitality." I get that he is mad, but the phrasing is so old fashioned. Reading Joseph's dialogue might be the worst of all. It reminds me of the way Mark Twain wrote in Huckleberry Finn where the words are written just as the accent sounds.

It was surprising at first that everyone in Wuthering Heights (the house) is so crabby. Heathcliff is the worst, I think, but his daughter in law sounds like a real witch too. Her name is Catherine which made me wonder if she is related to the "Cathy" we hear about later in the book. And Joseph the servant seems to be able to get away with attitude more than any servant I ever read about. It's like he has some special privileges, but he is always mad about something too. I'm still very confused about how they are all related, even though my book has a family tree at the beginning.

I liked when Lockwood found the diary of Cathy's. At least she sounds like she is a character I would like. A spitfire, though, not a typical sweet little girl. And so far Heathcliff as a kid is almost two sided. One part of him is quiet and the other is trouble. This quote from Nelly sums him up when she said, "he was as uncomplaining as a lamb, though hardness, not gentleness, made him give little trouble." So that means that he was good when he was sick but it's because he was really a hardened person that made him so quiet. She confirms this when she says, "I thought him not vindictive" but "I was deceived completely." So I think he will be sneaky and mean soon, which sounds like the rotten character we have met already. I guess just hearing about his childhood -- how he was brought to their house as an orphan and no one wanted him -- makes me see how he would grow up to be such a bitter man. Or, did something horrible happen during his time living with the Earnshaws that has made him this angry as an adult?