Wuthering Heights offers multiple avenues for discussion. A brief overview of Bronte's life can help the group understand the historical context and sensibilities that shape the story. The film adaptations provide unique interpretations of the love story, and comparing one of these films to the novel can spark conversations about the story's meaning. By placing the story within its own historical period, known as "contextualizing," and examining nineteenth-century life, including the roles and lives of different classes and genders, we can better understand Bronte's themes and social concerns. The "reader response approach," where each member shares their personal reaction to the book, can reveal how various aspects of the story resonate with different people.

1. In what ways does Wuthering Heights fit into the tradition of Gothic literature?

2. How would you characterize Heathcliff? What do you actually know about his background? What assumptions can you make about him?

3. Could Heathcliff be the illegitimate son of Earnshaw?

4. Why does Bronte use ghost stories to both begin and end her novel?

5. What instances of class struggle can you identify in Wuthering Heights?

6. If Cathy and Heathcliff had married, how would you imagine their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary? What would their relationship be like?

7. What drives Heathcliff's intense desire for revenge?

8. Why does Cathy wait until Heathcliff returns before becoming pregnant?

9. How does the weather on the moors mirror the atmosphere in the two houses? Why was this setting crucial for Bronte?

10. Why is it significant for both Cathy and Heathcliff to die and be buried near each other? Why do their ghosts haunt the moors?