Wuthering Heights explores two parallel love stories set against the backdrop of 19th century English society. The first centers on the intense but doomed passion between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, whose love challenges social conventions. The second depicts the more harmonious love between Catherine and Hareton that restores order. Key themes are the precarious social status of the gentry class and the conflict between the wild, passionate nature embodied by the Earnshaws versus the refinement represented by the Lintons and Thrushcross Grange.