'Gold put to the use of paving-stones': the green flag in Wuthering Heights

Indian Express discusses Wuthering Heights's 'green flag hero'.

But I put to you that people tend to focus on the wrong couple, and love and hate the book for the wrong reasons.

A popular opinion about Wuthering Heights is that this is a book where no person is a good person. And to a large part, the plot bears this out. All the characters, for most of the book, are horrible to each other. Insults fly thick and fast in that damned house atop a hill, as varied and original as ‘saucy impertinent monkey’, ‘infernal calf’, ‘dog in the manger’ and ‘imp of Satan’.

But buried in this hellhole of abusive parents, cruel brothers, ghost-chasing lovers, love-ditching social-climbers, is a genuinely good, strong, kind, and sweet man, Hareton Earnshaw. Only none of you bother to remember him, so fascinated you are by the grave-digging Heathcliff, the ‘I will kill myself to make you feel bad’ Catherine Earnshaw, the ‘I am too golden to shake a gypsy’s hands’ Edgar Linton, or even the judgemental and smug Nelly.

In fact, the only person who recognises Hareton’s worth throughout the book is Heathcliff, the man who had set out to deliberately stunt and twist him. [...]

Only Hareton, surrounded with nothing but malevolence, holds on to the goodness within, with no incentive to do so, and even tries to improve himself, at the risk of ridicule.

That Hareton is nice and sweet is obvious in his first meeting with Catherine Linton. Even if that were explained away by the fact that she is a beautiful girl — probably the only girl he ever sees — his first impulse towards the annoying Lockwood is kindness; and even Linton Heathcliff says Hareton never hits him.

This one quality, plain simple niceness, is what everyone else in Wuthering Heights lacks, either by nature (Hindley, Joseph), or inadequate nurture (Heathcliff, Cathy Earnshaw, Isabella).

In fact, Hareton is the only proof that the grown-up Heathcliff has any redeeming quality. While Heathcliff degrades him by bringing him up like a ploughboy and not a gentleman (rotten Victorian class politics, yes), he clearly also does something to deserve Hareton’s loyalty and affection. Heathcliff’s interactions with Hareton are the only times we see him behaving at least partially reasonably, like a stern but not unkind employer.

And Heathcliff makes it very clear why — he can’t help praising Hareton’s strength and good sense, telling Nelly that he is “gold put to the use of paving-stones”. (Yashee)

Literary Hub recommends 'Six “reboot” novels to put on your radar,' and one of them is

Jean Rhys’ Wide Sargasso Sea is a postcolonial response to Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

Rhys’ 1966 novel concerns Mr. Rochester’s first wife, the notorious Madwoman in the Attic. Rather than that scrappy little orphan, this “landmark of feminist and postcolonial fiction” centers Antoinette, a Creole woman whose “madness” is situated in the context of a racist, patriarchal society.

When asked about her motivations for writing the book, Rhys said, “she seemed such a poor ghost, I thought I’d like to write her a life.” (Brittany Allen)

Hindustan Times interviews writer Devoney Looser about her latest book on Jane Austen, Wild for Austen.

In your research, what moments or aspects of Austen’s life and writing most clearly reveal this ‘wild’ and subversive streak?

The idea that she lived a boring, sheltered life just isn’t the case; it isn’t the full story. I wanted to highlight the kinds of things that she endured and was exposed to, from her aunt accused of shoplifting to her acquaintance with an international spy and his opera diva wife. In her writings, from her juvenilia to the poem she wrote in the last days of her life, she pushes the envelope.

I’m not arguing that Austen was the wildest writer of her time — there were far wilder authors than even Mary Shelley or Charlotte Brontë! But Austen was carefully leading her readers away from tradition and convention. (Teja Lele)

A contributor to The Westmorland Gazette wonders,

How many stories do you know where the weather reflects the emotions of the characters? 

In horror films no isolated, old house with creaking doors is complete without a violent storm flashing sudden light on a skeletal figure.

Or who can forget how, in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, the raging winds batter Heathcliffe (sic) tortured and alone on the moor?

In literary criticism this is called the ‘pathetic fallacy’ - phrase coined by John Ruskin where natural elements reflect the 'pathos' – atmosphere or theme – of the story. (Andrew Cunningham)

The insight of a Gen Z student in the Irish Examiner:

People love to churn out jokes about the humanities students getting a useless degree in literature or history so they can spend the rest of their days pontificating. 

But I think we could all do with a reminder about the learning that is really happening when you dissect The Wasteland by TS Eliot, published following the First World War. When you wonder why the word ‘nothing’ is used 10 times. 

When the speaker describes the desolation caused by the war, knowing only ‘a heap of broken images’. 

Or the understanding of narrativisation and power you gain from reading Wide Sargasso Sea, as Jean Rhys gives a voice to the voiceless ‘mad woman in the attic’ described in Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë. (Jane Cowan)

Stylist has some advice for people 'struggling to read at the moment'.

Tackle a classic: Cooler weather and longer nights make it a great time of year to finally read those classic books you’ve been meaning to. Gothic tales like Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier, Dracula by Bram Stoker, or Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë feel especially atmospheric this time of year. (Shahed Ezaydi)

According to Vogue, this season you should 'consider dressing like a period drama heroine'.

Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights doesn’t arrive until January, but judging by fashion month, it feels like it’s arrived early. If the spring/summer 2026 collections are anything to go by, the trend of the moment is dressing like a fictional heroine from a Brontë novel, with ruffles, corsetry and visible underpinnings worn in abundance. (Jonah Waterhouse)

The Standard discusses iPhone face using Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights as one example. The Australian Women's Weekly recommends reading Wuthering Heights before watching the film.