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19th-Century Literature Videos 51 videos
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Meet the Lady of Shalott. Not to be confused with the Lady of Shallot, who is frequently in a pickle.
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.
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
Full Transcript
- 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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