The Ex

Throughout The Ex, Cassie makes frequent references to Wuthering Heights, a gothic novel written by Emily Brontë and first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. Cassie considers Wuthering Heights the greatest love story ever told, one rivaled only by the real-life love story of her grandparents, Marv and Bea. Through allusions to Wuthering Heights, Freida McFadden’s novel explores Cassie’s tendency to idealize romantic love, searching for a literary fantasy of “true love” rather than facing herself and her relationships as they really are.

Set on the bleak Yorkshire moors, the novel takes its name from the remote farmhouse where the action takes place. The novel explores love, revenge, and the destructive power of obsession through the intertwined lives of two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons. At the heart of the story is the intense and often toxic relationship between the mysterious Heathcliff and the beautiful Catherine Earnshaw. Heathcliff, a dark-skinned orphan brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, grows up facing cruelty and exclusion, which fuels his bitterness and thirst for vengeance. Catherine is a wild and passionate young woman who loves Heathcliff but is pressured to marry the more socially acceptable Edgar Linton, son of her neighbor. This decision sets off a chain of events driven by Heathcliff’s desire for revenge against those who wronged him, including Catherine’s family and his own descendants.

The narrative is told through a frame structure, primarily by the Wuthering Heights housekeeper Nelly Dean, as recounted to Mr. Lockwood, a tenant at a nearby house called Thrushcross Grange. The multiple layers of storytelling that constitute the novel create a mysterious and haunting atmosphere, emphasizing how history and memory shape our understanding of the present.

Major themes in the novel include the pressures of social class, the existence of supernatural forces, and the struggle between nature and civilization. Heathcliff’s ambiguous social status and foreign appearance highlight the rigid class and racial prejudices of the time. Supernatural elements such as ghostly sightings and eerie dreams add to the gothic mood and reflect the characters’ emotional turbulence. The wildness of the novel’s setting on the Yorkshire moors mirrors the untamed emotions of the characters, especially Catherine and Heathcliff.

Although Cassie, the narrator of The Ex, considers Wuthering Heights to be the greatest love story of all time, the novel actually depicts love as a powerful and destructive force. Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship is damaging to them both, leading to Catherine’s death and Heathcliff’s intense struggles with mental health. The fact that Heathcliff’s son Linton marries Catherine’s daughter Cathy reflects the tumultuous, lasting nature of the novel’s central romantic relationship.