Each character in the novel has the ability to portray an entire group of people. Heathcliff represents the working class hero come good. Bronte skilfully manipulates the reader into sympathising with Heathcliff, despite his appalling and violent behaviour later on. Catherine is reckless, passionate and rebellious, but maintains a clear head; she is aware of the importance of keeping a high status in the world. Bronte presents this with her marriage to Edgar Linton, denying her genuine, but concealed, feelings for Heathcliff. Even with Edgar's laissez-faire attitude to Catherine's close friendship with Heathcliff, this creates a strong contrast between the two men. The reader can discover the shocking lengths that Heathcliff goes to for revenge against his former anguish, in a psychotic way that spans beyond death. His treatment by Catherine's brother Hindley, and his betrayal by Catherine for marrying Edgar causes him to enact a series of events including marriage without love and mistreatment of others in the most terrible way. Interestingly, Bronte allows everything to be observed by the character Nelly in an almost voyeuristic way, despite the fact that she is the narrator of the story; it shows that the idea of narrators being fair and trusting can occasionally be false. Every character is different, and often unconventional, represented in a certain way for a certain reason. The book successfully takes the reader over two generations of characters, each with different ideas, personalities and attitudes. .
Wuthering Heights is very nearly unfilmable - as three major film versions over the last 60 years have admirably proved. For this reason, readers of Emily Bronte's novel initially looked upon the 1998 made-for-television version with its cast of comparative "unknowns- with some scepticism. Surprisingly, this scepticism proved to be falsely based, as the movie is stunningly excellent.