Wuthering Heights

“But Mr. Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of living. He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners, a gentleman.”

Lockwood’s first impressions of Heathcliff’s physical appearance reflect Heathcliff’s outsider status. It is unclear whether Heathcliff is actually Romani, but Lockwood’s description of him centers on the perceived disconnect between his ethnicity/race and his status as a “gentleman.” Heathcliff’s difficult history at Wuthering Heights, a home that never truly belonged to him in an emotional way, supports this interpretation. Later, in Chapter 7, Nelly recalls Heathcliff’s youthful wish for fair hair and blue eyes, which functions as evidence of his own awareness of his being racially “other.”

“Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond, and won’t let him sit with us, nor eat with us anymore; and, he says, he and I must not play together, and threatens to turn him out of the house if we break his orders.”

Catherine Earnshaw laments her older brother Hindley’s abusive treatment of Heathcliff. Hindley has long harbored feelings of jealousy toward Heathcliff, as his father, Mr. Earnshaw, showed great favor toward Heathcliff from the day he found him wandering the streets of Liverpool. Catherine, Heathcliff’s friend and defender, is powerless to protect Heathcliff from her brother’s abuse.

“The intense horror of my nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed, ‘Let me in—let me in!’”

While staying overnight at Wuthering Heights during a terrible snowstorm, Lockwood finds himself in Catherine Earnshaw’s old bedroom. He mistakes a tapping at the window for a branch blowing in the wind, and he screams in fright when he feels himself grasping a small hand outside the window. The ghost of Catherine Earnshaw has appeared to Lockwood, embodying The Dark Side of Enduring Love.

“The master tried to explain the matter; but he was really half dead with fatigue, and all that I could make out, amongst her scolding, was a tale of his seeing it starving, and houseless, and as good as dumb, in the streets of Liverpool.”

Nelly describes Mr. Earnshaw’s return home to Wuthering Heights after a trip to Liverpool. He has brought with him a small boy whom he found on the streets of Liverpool, unhoused and unsupervised. Mr. Earnshaw’s soft heart and compassionate nature motivated him to bring the boy home and to raise him as one of his own. Mr. Earnshaw goes as far as to name the boy Heathcliff, after a son who died in childhood years before, demonstrating his affection for the boy and his intention to make him a family member.

“A wild, wicked slip she was—but she had the bonniest eye, and sweetest smile, and lightest foot in the parish.”

Nelly describes Catherine Earnshaw, suggesting that her headstrong nature compromises her beauty. Despite the heartache Catherine inspires, neither Heathcliff nor Edgar Linton, Catherine’s future husband, can resist her allure and love her dearly.

“We laughed outright at the petted things; we did despise them!”

Heathcliff describes spying on the Lintons at Thrushcross Grange, developing the theme of Nature’s Resistance to Cultivation; Heathcliff and (initially) Catherine show nothing but disdain for the Lintons’ cultured manners. The events of the night change the course of their relationship. While attempting to run home, a guard dog bites Catherine’s foot, and the Lintons nurse her back to health for five weeks. During this time, she learns manners and elegance, and she returns to Wuthering Heights a cultivated-seeming young lady, dressed in fine clothes. At the moment of her return, she is practically a stranger to Heathcliff.

“For himself, he grew desperate: his sorrow was of that kind that will not lament. He neither wept nor prayed; he cursed and defied: execrated God and man, and gave himself up to reckless dissipation.”

After his wife Frances dies, not long after the birth of their son, Hareton, Hindley Earnshaw behaves even more cruelly and angrily toward the servants and residents of Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff receives the brunt of his meanness, so he avoids Hindley as much as possible, distracting himself with hard labor on the estate.

“I saw the quarrel had merely effected a closer intimacy—had broken the out-works of youthful timidity, and enabled them to forsake the disguise of friendship, and confess themselves lovers.”

During Catherine’s convalescence at Thrushcross Grange, Edgar Linton and Catherine develop an attachment to each other, one that Catherine is reluctant to explain to Heathcliff. Catherine does not show her true self to Edgar until this quarrel, when her own tendency toward violence manifests. After hitting Edgar on the head and giving him good reason never to see her again, Catherine becomes emotional, and Edgar cannot resist Catherine. Soon after this quarrel, Edgar proposes marriage to Catherine.

“It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am.”

In the kitchen of Wuthering Heights, Catherine speaks to Nelly thinking they are alone, but Heathcliff is actually within earshot. He hears only the part of Catherine’s confession that concerns the impossibility of a potential marriage to him. He leaves before hearing the loving parts of Catherine’s explanation, and he does not return to Wuthering Heights for over three years. During this time, Catherine marries Edgar Linton, rendering her unavailable to Heathcliff.

“Pray, don’t imagine that he conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior! He’s not a rough diamond—a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic: he’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man.”

In an attempt to discourage Isabella Linton from loving Heathcliff, Catherine criticizes the man. It is ambiguous whether Catherine’s impatience with Isabella’s infatuation springs from a place of competitive possessiveness over Heathcliff or if she actually believes that Heathcliff is an unworthy partner for Isabella.

“Will you give up Heathcliff hereafter, or will you give up me?”

Catherine argues with Heathcliff when she finds out he has been giving Isabella attention and fostering her hope that they will be together. Although Catherine has chosen to marry Edgar and not Heathcliff, she cannot tolerate the idea of Heathcliff choosing another. Catherine’s childhood disregard for Isabella makes his choice even harder for Catherine to bear. When Edgar learns of Catherine’s distress, in frustration, he gives Catherine an ultimatum, which overwhelms Catherine and causes her to collapse.

“Catherine, last spring at this time, I was longing to have you under this roof: now, I wish you were a mile or two up those hills: the air blows so sweetly, I feel that it would cure you.”

After Isabella and Heathcliff run away together, Catherine becomes ill, and Edgar expresses his loving concern for her well-being in this passage. Catherine’s condition is fragile, and Edgar dotes on her all the more once he learns that she is pregnant. Catherine’s connection to the moors is one that Edgar recognizes when he speaks of the healing powers of nature.

“It is out of the question my going to see her, however; we are eternally divided; and should she really wish to oblige me, let her persuade the villain she has married to leave the country.”

Isabella has written to her brother to tell him of her marriage to Heathcliff. In her letter, she describes her disappointment in her new husband, seeking sympathy and support from Edgar. He refuses to give Isabella the response that she desires, emphasizing the rift between the Linton siblings that seems irresolvable.

“You loved me—then what right had you to leave me? What right—answer me—for the poor fancy you felt for Linton?”

Heathcliff visits Catherine on her sickbed, and they share passionate words expressing their true feelings for each other, ironically, in the moments before they must part forever. Here, Heathcliff confronts Catherine about her rejection of him in favor of a seemingly more suitable marriage to Edgar Linton. Catherine eventually faints from the intensity of their exchange, and later, she gives birth prematurely to a daughter, dying two hours later.

“The guest was now the master of Wuthering Heights.”

Mr. Kenneth arrives at Thrushcross Grange to announce to Nelly that Hindley Earnshaw has died. After Hindley’s funeral, it is revealed that he mortgaged Wuthering Heights to Heathcliff in order to fund his gambling addiction. In the event of Hindley’s death, the property rightfully belongs to Heathcliff, who is now the master of the estate. Heathcliff’s financial support of Hindley has nothing to do with compassion; rather, Heathcliff’s control over Hindley is how Heathcliff is eventually able to get revenge on his childhood abuser.

“‘He’s not—he’s not my cousin, Ellen!’ she went on, gather fresh grief from reflection, and flinging herself into my arms for refuge from the idea.”

On a summer’s day, Cathy, Catherine’s 13-year-old daughter, goes to Wuthering Heights. When Nelly goes to find her there, Hareton Earnshaw has been ordered by a servant to accompany Cathy on horseback. Cathy, unaware of the relationship between herself and Hareton, is shocked to learn that the boy is a close relation of hers. This encounter foreshadows later conflict between the two cousins, but eventually, they find love and stability in each other.

“At first, she sat silent; but that could not last: she had resolved to make a pet of her little cousin, as she would have him to be.”

Edgar goes to London to bring her and Heathcliff’s son, Linton, back to the Grange. Cathy is happy to have another child in the house, and while observing Linton’s weak and frightened affect, she tries to make him feel comfortable and to entertain him. These early moments mark the beginning of a genuine attachment between Cathy and her cousin, but soon, Linton is forced to leave the Grange and move to Wuthering Heights to live with his father. Cathy is characterized as spirited like her mother, but more compassionate and gentler to others than Catherine.

“‘My design is as honest as possible. I’ll inform you of its whole scope,’ he said. ‘That the two cousins may fall in love, and get married.’”

Heathcliff encourages Cathy to come to Wuthering Heights, despite her father’s refusal to allow her to do so. To Nelly, Heathcliff arrogantly asserts his desire for Cathy and Linton to become close. He would like them to marry so that Heathcliff may inherit Thrushcross Grange via his son when Edgar Linton dies. Heathcliff’s appetite for property reflects his deep and unresolved need to avenge his childhood misery and to become master and owner of the places and people who hurt him in his past.

“Next morning, I answered the letter by a slip of paper, inscribed, ‘Master Heathcliff is requested to send no more notes to Miss Linton, as she will not receive them.’ And, thenceforth, the little boy came with vacant pockets.”

Nelly has found secret letters from Linton in Cathy’s possession, delivered by a local boy. In an example of her own intervention in the narrative, Nelly burns the letters mercilessly, determined to break the connection between the two cousins. When the next letter from Linton arrives, Nelly sends a note of closure, ending their correspondence. The letters are so beautifully written that Nelly suspects that Heathcliff actually wrote them in order to draw Cathy to Wuthering Heights against her father’s wishes.

“I’ve been to Wuthering Heights, Ellen, and I’ve never missed going a day since you fell ill.”

Cathy confesses to Nelly that she has been visiting Linton during the three weeks of Nelly’s illness. Nelly in turn tells Edgar of Cathy’s deception. He scolds her the next morning for her disobedience, and Cathy’s secret visits to Wuthering Heights end. The animosity between the two families seems interminable, and Heathcliff’s manipulation of the situation grows more egregious.

“I believe an interview would convince you that my father’s character is not mine: he affirms I am more your nephew than his son.”

On the anniversary of Catherine’s death and Cathy’s 17th birthday, Edgar breaks his tradition of visiting Catherine’s grave. He instead writes to his nephew, Linton, expressing a desire to see him. Linton writes back, welcoming the contact with Edgar. He explains that even though Heathcliff has forbidden him to see Cathy, he still desires a relationship with both Cathy and her father, inspiring hope that the trouble between the two houses may soon be resolved. This exchange gives the dying Edgar some comfort, as he feels relief that his daughter will marry a young man of decent character.

“All was composed, however: Catherine’s despair was as silent as her father’s joy.”

In her father’s final moments, Cathy is by his side, after having married Linton Heathcliff under duress. Her devotion to her father is captured here in a few short sentences, which is unusual: Nelly usually describes any sort of emotional situation in effusive detail. Edgar dies peacefully, his daughter at his side, but Cathy’s life is about to turn tumultuous.

“Living among clowns and misanthropists, she probably cannot appreciate a better class of people, when she meets them.”

Lockwood observes Cathy’s behavior while he visits Wuthering Heights, blaming what he perceives as rough edges on the company she keeps; his certainty that he represents a “better class of people” hints at his unreliability. By this point in the novel, Nelly has finished her tale to Lockwood, and Cathy is now living at Wuthering Heights at Heathcliff’s insistence. She has just lost her father, and her life is no longer her own, which the novel implies has more to do with her demeanor than the lack of manners that Lockwood supposes.

“The task was done, not free from further blunders; but the pupil claimed a reward, and received at least five kisses: which, however, he generously returned.”

Cathy and Hareton overcome their conflicted relationship to become friends, embodying The Existence of Hope in a Younger Generation. They eventually plan to marry and bring peace to Wuthering Heights. Cathy teaches the uneducated Hareton how to read, and her loving treatment of him brings joy to Nelly, who hopes for their union more than anything. Their relationship, as well as the death of Heathcliff, brings stability to Wuthering Heights, the setting of so much previous chaos and violence.