Wuthering Heights is a revenge story. The central plot of the story is how Heathcliff, an outsider to both the family and the English society, is hurt and unfairly treated by others, and then goes on to torment other people in search of revenge. In this aspect, it works very well and the book is able to tell his story in an engaging way.
The most surprising part of the novel is its sense of humor. Lockwood, the supposed narrator, is a self-centered buffoon and the first chapters of the book feel made specifically to mock him. I could not help but picture Joseph’s accent as the most unintelligible English accent possible and, it seems, other characters barely understood him as well. However, the humor is clearly not the focus of the novel and the actual narrator, Nelly, is a way more serious character.
The pacing of the writing works great for most of it. The novel is fairly long but it does not feel padded despite the large level of details most chapters have. The weakest part is, unfortunately, the ending. The timeskip solving every problem feels a bit abrupt considering the flow of the rest of the story: it spends most of the time in setup only for the payoff to be compressed. This is not helped by the ghost of Catherine playing a major part in it. While I like this supernatural element, it is weird that it appears in the first few chapters explicitly to Lockwood, only to be reused as a plot device in an ambiguous way at the very end.
Heathcliff, the most interesting character of the story, is clearly the driver of the pace and, in some senses, the actual protagonist. To me, the clear parallel is with Edmond Dantès, the Count of Monte Cristo, but with the story being told from a different point of view. Their motivations differ though: while Dantès would see himself as an instrument of divine punishment, Heathcliff is clearly driven out of sheer bitterness. Most importantly, Dantès actually regretted the pain he caused in the wake of his revenge, while Heathcliff does not have a moral redemption, only stopping out of sheer exhaustion and the fact he can’t help seeing Catherine in her daughter and her nephew. This fits his character more but highlights the difference between the two.
That being said, Heathcliff is clearly the villain of the story. His actions and motivations might have a tragic explanation but it does not justify his limitless revenge. It is weird to see him being treated in modern adaptations as some sort of anti-hero with his love for Catherine absolving him of his flaws. This does not read correctly to me as the pain he caused throughout the second half of the story does not feel like the actions of a good man that was wronged but that of a man that is unable to let go at any cost.