Wuthering Heights

In 1801, Mr. Lockwood visits his new landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, at Wuthering Heights. Lockwood finds the desolate landscape a perfect misanthrope’s heaven and feels a kinship with the solitary Heathcliff, whose guarded demeanor only increases his interest. When Lockwood introduces himself, Heathcliff interrupts with a wince to assert ownership of Thrushcross Grange and brusquely orders him inside. Though the invitation is uttered with closed teeth, Lockwood accepts, intrigued by a man more reserved than himself.

Heathcliff leads the way, calling for the elderly servant Joseph to tend the horse. Joseph grumbles peevishly about the intrusion. The house, fortified against the storm with narrow windows and jutting stones, bears the date “1500” over the door. Inside, the main apartment serves as both kitchen and parlour, filled with weapons, piles of meat, and aggressive dogs. Lockwood observes that Heathcliff presents a singular contrast to his primitive abode; he is a dark-skinned, handsome gentleman, yet morose and reserved.

Lockwood reflects that this reserve likely stems from an aversion to showing feeling, a trait he recognizes in himself. He recalls a summer at the sea-coast where, despite falling in love, he shrank icily from the girl’s return affection until she doubted her senses. This habitual withdrawal has earned him a reputation for deliberate heartlessness.

Seated by the fire, Lockwood attempts to caress a lurking bitch dog. Heathcliff warns him to leave her alone, but when left alone with the animals, Lockwood makes faces at them. The bitch attacks, rousing the entire pack. Lockwood fends them off with a poker while Heathcliff and Joseph descend slowly from the cellar. A fierce kitchen maid finally quells the melee with a frying-pan.

In the aftermath, Heathcliff blames Lockwood for provoking the dogs, while Lockwood compares the household to a brood of tigers. Heathcliff’s amusement at the outburst shifts the dynamic. He offers wine, admitting that guests are rare, and relaxes enough to discuss the neighborhood. Though Lockwood senses Heathcliff does not truly want him to return, he resolves to visit again, driven by curiosity and a sense of superiority.

Despite resolving to return, Lockwood is driven back to Wuthering Heights by a snowstorm and encounters a hostile reception from the household. After a series of misunderstandings and Heathcliff’s refusal to provide a guide, Lockwood attempts to leave but is attacked by the dogs, forcing him to spend the night there.

A misty, freezing afternoon drove me from my study to escape a servant’s cleaning, sending me on a four-mile trudge through a gathering snowstorm to Wuthering Heights. The earth was hard with frost, and the gate chained fast. Vinegar-faced Joseph shouted from a barn window that the master was away and the mistress would not open until nightfall. Eventually, a young man shouldering a pitchfork appeared and led me through the wash-house into the apartment’s warmth.

There I met the “missis,” a slender girl with a delicate face whose eyes shifted between scorn and desperation. She received my polite attempts with cool silence. When I offered to help her reach the canisters, she snapped that she wanted no assistance. She demanded to know if I had been invited to tea, and when I admitted I had not, she flung the spoon back into the pot in a fit of pique. The rough young man stood by the fire as if nursing a mortal feud against me.

Heathcliff soon entered, shaking the snow from his clothes. I requested shelter, but he refused to spare a guide and ordered tea savagely. We ate in austere silence until I tried to break the ice by praising Mrs. Heathcliff as the presiding genius of his home. Heathcliff interrupted with a diabolical sneer, asking where his amiable lady was. Realizing my blunder regarding their ages, I surmised the rustic youth was her husband. Heathcliff corrected me: Mrs. Heathcliff was his daughter-in-law, and the young man was Hareton Earnshaw, not his son. I felt entirely out of place in their family circle.

The meal ended in silence. I went to the window and saw the night descending prematurely, with wind and snow burying the roads. I exclaimed that I could not get home without a guide. Heathcliff ignored me, commanding Hareton to tend to the sheep. Joseph entered with porridge and launched into a cracked tirade against the household’s idleness, telling the young woman she was a good-for-nothing who would go to the devil like her mother. She retorted that he was a hypocrite who should fear being carried away bodily for mentioning the devil. She threatened to use her proficiency in the Black Art against him, citing the death of a red cow as proof. Joseph hurried out in genuine horror.

I earnestly asked her to point out landmarks, but she ensconced herself with a book, advising me to take the road I came. She refused to persuade Heathcliff to provide a guide. Heathcliff appeared, declaring he kept no accommodations for visitors; I must share a bed with Hareton or Joseph. When I offered to sleep on a chair, he refused, insisting a stranger must not have the range of the place while he was off guard.

My patience exhausted, I pushed past him into the dark yard. I heard Hareton offer to guide me, but Heathcliff forbade it. I seized Joseph’s lantern and rushed to the postern. Joseph shouted that I was stealing it and set the dogs on me. Upon opening the door, two massive beasts sprang at my throat, knocking me down and extinguishing the light while Heathcliff and Hareton laughed. The dogs held me pinned until Zillah, the housekeeper, came out. She dragged me into the kitchen and dashed a pint of icy water down my neck to revive me. Dizzy and bleeding, I was forced to accept lodging under Heathcliff’s roof for the night.

Forced to stay the night, Lockwood is shown to a mysterious chamber where he reads Catherine’s diary and experiences a terrifying nightmare involving a ghostly child. His screams rouse Heathcliff, who is devastated by the mention of Catherine Linton’s name, and the next morning Lockwood finally returns to the Grange, exhausted and frozen.

Zillah led me upstairs with a caution to hide my candle and stay silent, explaining that her master harbored a strange aversion to the specific chamber she was assigning me. Too weary to question her, I secured the door and surveyed the room. It was sparsely furnished, containing only a chair, a press, and a massive oak structure with apertures cut near the top. Upon inspection, I realized this was a unique sleeping arrangement, a built-in bed enclosed by paneling that formed a private closet. I slid the panels shut with my candle inside, feeling safely hidden from Heathcliff’s scrutiny.

The window ledge held a stack of mildewed books, and the painted wood was scarred with writing. I saw only one name repeated endlessly in various scripts: Catherine Earnshaw, occasionally altered to Catherine Heathcliff, and finally to Catherine Linton. I leaned against the glass, tracing the names until my eyes grew heavy. Sleep overtook me, but I soon woke with a start to find the candle wick had charring one of the volumes. After extinguishing the flame, I opened the book to distract myself from my nausea. It was a Testament belonging to Catherine Earnshaw, dated twenty-five years prior. The margins were filled with childish handwriting, a diary detailing a miserable childhood.

One entry described a dreary Sunday where Hindley, acting as a tyrannical master, forced Catherine and Heathcliff to endure a religious service in the freezing garret while he and his wife lounged by the fire. The old servant Joseph preached interminably, and when the children sought amusement, he violently scolded them. In an act of rebellion, Catherine and Heathcliff threw their Bibles into the kennel, prompting Hindley to banish them to the kitchen. A later entry revealed Hindley’s escalating cruelty toward Heathcliff, degrading him to the status of a servant and forbidding Catherine from associating with him.

Drowsiness returned as I read. My gaze drifted to a printed religious text, and I soon fell asleep, plunging into a vivid dream. I imagined trudging through deep snow with Joseph to hear a preacher named Jabez Branderham deliver a sermon divided into four hundred and ninety parts. The tedium was excruciating, and I finally interrupted the minister, denouncing him. The congregation erupted into violence, attacking me with their staves in a chaotic brawl. The noise of the fight woke me, only to reveal that the disturbance was merely a fir branch tapping against the window.

I drifted back into a doze, determined to silence the rattling branch. I tried to open the casement, but the hook was soldered shut. In my frustration, I smashed the glass and reached out to grab the bough, but instead of wood, my fingers closed on a tiny, ice-cold hand. A voice sobbed in the darkness, begging to be let in. I asked who was there, and the voice replied mournfully that it was Catherine Linton, a waif who had lost her way on the moor. I glimpsed a child’s face at the window. Panic seized me; I tried to pull away, but the grip was unbreakable. In my terror, I dragged the wrist across the jagged glass until blood soaked the bedding, but the spectral hand held fast. I finally wrenched my arm free, piled books against the broken pane, and covered my ears.

The weeping continued unabated. I shouted for the spirit to leave, declaring I would never open the window. The voice mournfully replied that it had been a wanderer for twenty years. The books began to shift as if pushed from the other side. Paralyzed with fear, I screamed, bringing the household to life.

Heathcliff burst into the room, looking ghastly pale and trembling violently. I explained that I had cried out during a nightmare, but he was too agitated to listen, demanding to know who had placed me in that forbidden room. I mentioned the ghost of Catherine Linton, and the name seemed to strike him physically. He struggled to compose himself, his breathing ragged. I attempted to explain away the vision as a result of reading her name on the ledge, but he was overwhelmed with emotion. He retreated behind the bed, and I heard him dash away tears. He sent me to wait elsewhere, unable to endure my presence.

I took the candle and left, but lingered in the corridor. Heathcliff threw open the window lattice, weeping with an intensity that was shocking to witness. He implored the empty air for Catherine to return, his voice breaking with grief. The wind blew out the candle, and I retreated to the kitchen to escape the raw anguish.

I spent the remainder of the night in the kitchen with a silent cat. Joseph eventually came down, smoked his pipe with a scowl, and left. Later, Hareton Earnshaw entered, searching for a spade to clear the snow. He ignored me completely, but I followed him indoors. The household was awake; Heathcliff was berating the young woman, Mrs. Heathcliff, for her idleness. She defied him, refusing to work, and he raised his hand as if to strike her. I stepped forward to diffuse the tension, and they both fell into an uneasy silence. I declined breakfast and left at dawn, eager to escape the hostile atmosphere.

Heathcliff guided me across the moors, which were transformed into a treacherous, white ocean where the path was completely obliterated. He steered me through the hidden drifts until we reached the park entrance. I attempted the final two miles alone but quickly lost my way, sinking into deep snow and wandering aimlessly through the lanes. I arrived at the Grange just as the clock struck twelve, frozen to the bone and barely able to stand.

After recovering from his harrowing night at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood seeks to understand the history of his neighbors and asks Nelly Dean to explain their complex relationships. She begins her narrative by recounting Mr. Earnshaw’s adoption of the orphan Heathcliff and the ensuing resentment and cruelty from Hindley.

Shaken by his recent ordeal, Lockwood abandoned his usual solitude and asked Mrs. Dean to sit with him while he ate, hoping her conversation would distract him from his low spirits. Through questioning, he clarified the confusing family connections: Mrs. Heathcliff was the late Mr. Linton’s daughter, Hareton was the last of the Earnshaws, and Heathcliff had married Mr. Linton’s sister. Though Heathcliff was wealthy, he was miserly. Desperate to understand the history of his neighbors, Lockwood pressed Nelly to tell the tale, and she agreed, fetching her sewing and some gruel to begin the narrative.

Nelly recounted that years ago, Mr. Earnshaw left for Liverpool, promising specific gifts for his children: a fiddle for Hindley and a whip for Catherine. He returned exhausted three days later, carrying a dirty, black-haired orphan boy instead of the promised presents. He explained he had found the child starving and houseless in the streets and could not abandon him, viewing the boy as a gift from God despite his dark appearance. Mrs. Earnshaw was furious at the burden of another mouth to feed, and the children were disappointed by their lost toys. The boy was named Heathcliff after a dead son. Nelly, tasked with washing him, initially left him on the stairs out of fear, and the family rejected him.

Hindley hated the usurper immediately, and Nelly admitted to joining in the persecution, pinching and scolding the boy. Heathcliff, however, proved to be a sullen, patient child who endured blows without winking or shedding a tear. This stoicism only made Mr. Earnshaw pity the boy more, and he began to pet Heathcliff above his own son, deepening Hindley’s resentment. When Mrs. Earnshaw died, Hindley viewed Heathcliff as a usurper of his father’s love. Later, when the children fell ill with the measles, Nelly softened towards Heathcliff because he was the quietest patient, though she still could not love him as the master did.

Heathcliff’s true nature emerged during an incident involving a pair of colts. Mr. Earnshaw gave each boy a horse, but Heathcliff’s chosen animal fell lame. He demanded Hindley exchange horses, threatening to tell Mr. Earnshaw about Hindley’s beatings and show his bruised arm. Hindley responded with violence, striking Heathcliff with an iron weight, but Heathcliff used the injury and the threat of exposure to coerce him. Hindley finally relented, cursing Heathcliff as an interloper. Heathcliff calmly took the horse, tended to his injuries, and let Nelly blame the fall on the animal, masking his vindictive nature beneath a deceptive calm.

Following the incident with the horses, Mr. Earnshaw’s health declines, and his increasing favoritism toward Heathcliff drives a wedge between the brothers. After Hindley is sent away to college, Mr. Earnshaw dies quietly by the fire, leaving Catherine and Heathcliff to mourn him together.

Mr. Earnshaw’s health failed suddenly, confining him to the chimney-corner where he grew grievously irritable. He became fiercely jealous for Heathcliff, imagining slights against the boy and threatening violence against Hindley for his scorn. This favoritism nourished Heathcliff’s pride and black temper, while driving a wedge between the brothers. To restore peace, the curate advised sending Hindley to college. Mr. Earnshaw agreed heavily, lamenting that his son was nought and would never thrive, leaving Nelly to hope for quiet.

However, peace was disrupted by Joseph’s religious tyranny and Catherine’s wild mischief. Joseph gained influence over the weakening master, poisoning his mind against the children and flattering Earnshaw’s weakness. Catherine, high-spirited and fond of Heathcliff, delighted in provoking her ailing father. She defied the household with saucy looks, turning Joseph’s curses into ridicule and showing that her will had more power over Heathcliff than her father’s kindness. Her attempts to make peace at night were rejected, hardening her.

On a stormy October evening, Mr. Earnshaw died quietly by the fire. A high wind blustered outside as Catherine, subdued by sickness, leaned on her father’s knee while Heathcliff rested his head in her lap. The master stroked her hair, asking why she could not always be good. Catherine sang him to sleep until his fingers dropped and his head sank. When Joseph attempted to wake him for prayers, he discovered the master was dead. Catherine embraced her father, realized he was gone, and screamed. She and Heathcliff cried out together, while Joseph called them foolish for mourning a saint. Nelly ran for the doctor, but upon returning, she found the children comforting each other with beautiful visions of heaven. Listening to their innocent talk, she felt a deep desire for them all to be safe together, contrasting their spiritual comfort with her own bitter sobbing.

Following Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Hindley returns with a wife and immediately begins a tyrannical reign, degrading Heathcliff to the status of a servant. Despite this degradation, Catherine and Heathcliff remain inseparable until a spying expedition to Thrushcross Grange results in Catherine being injured and welcomed inside by the Lintons. This incident leads to a strict separation between the two, as Hindley forbids Heathcliff from speaking to Catherine.

Mr. Hindley returned for his father’s funeral with a wife of obscure origin, a woman who delighted in the rustic simplicity of Wuthering Heights yet trembled with hysterical fear at the sight of mourning. Her initial affection for Catherine soon cooled, and Hindley, provoked by her dislike of Heathcliff, unleashed a tyrannical reign. He drove Heathcliff from the family circle to the servants, stripped him of the curate’s instruction, and set him to hard labour on the farm. Cathy, sharing what she learned, worked and played alongside him, and together they grew as rude as savages, neglected by the master and finding the punishments for missing church or misbehaving merely laughable. Their chief amusement was to escape to the moors for the day, retreating into a world of their own making.

One Sunday evening, banished from the sitting-room, they vanished. As the household slept, Nelly kept watch at the window and eventually saw Heathcliff returning alone from the road. He revealed that they had gone to spy on the Lintons at Thrushcross Grange, driven by curiosity to see how the “good children” spent their evenings. Peering through the drawing-room window, they had mocked the crimson carpet and silver chains, watching Edgar and Isabella weeping and quarrelling over a lapdog. Heathcliff expressed fierce pride in his own harsh freedom, declaring he would not exchange his condition for Edgar Linton’s luxury for a thousand lives. Their laughter, however, betrayed them. As they fled, the Lintons’ bulldog seized Catherine by the ankle. She bore the pain in scornful silence, while Heathcliff roared curses and tried to force the beast’s jaws open until a servant dragged him away.

Inside the Grange, Heathcliff was treated as a thieving vagabond, threatened with hanging, and finally kicked out the door. He resumed his post as spy, vowing to shatter the glass panes if Catherine was not released. Through the window, he watched the Lintons wash her feet, feed her cakes, and comb her hair, and he noted with a mixture of disdain and worship that she was immeasurably superior to their stupid admiration. The incident brought swift retribution. Mr. Linton visited to lecture Hindley on his management of the family. Heathcliff was spared a flogging but received a grim warning: the first word he spoke to Miss Catherine would ensure his dismissal. Thus, a permanent divide was established, with Mrs. Earnshaw tasked with restraining Catherine by art rather than force, leaving the two soulmates separated by the rigid decorum of the Lintons’ world.

After five weeks away, Catherine returns from the Grange transformed into a lady, while Heathcliff’s degradation deepens, causing a painful rift between them. Their attempted reconciliation is violently disrupted by Hindley and the Lintons on Christmas Eve, leaving Heathcliff imprisoned and plotting revenge.

Catherine remained at Thrushcross Grange for five weeks, returning to Wuthering Heights on Christmas Eve with her ankle thoroughly healed and her manners entirely transformed. Under the Lintons’ tutelage, the wild, hatless savage had evolved into a dignified young lady. She dismounted from a handsome black pony clad in a fine feathered beaver and a grand silk frock, her fingers whitened by idleness. Hindley and his wife were enchanted by her gentility, but Catherine’s first concern was to find Heathcliff. He had sunk even deeper into neglect during her absence, hiding behind the settle with mire-caked clothes and uncombed hair. When she discovered him, she flew to embrace him, but her innocent laughter at his grim, dirty appearance struck him to the core. He rejected her attempt to reconcile, declaring he would not endure being mocked, and dashed from the room in a rage.

Catherine was confounded by his behavior, but Nelly Dean recognized the boy’s misery and sought to repair the breach. On Christmas Eve, she found Heathcliff in the stables and urged him to wash and dress so he could rejoin Catherine. She appealed to his pride, assuring him that he was taller and broader than Edgar Linton and could easily knock him down. Heathcliff’s confidence wavered, however, as he confessed that violence would not make him handsome or rich. He bitterly wished for light hair and a fair skin, envying Edgar’s social advantages. Nelly soothed his insecurity with fanciful tales, suggesting he might be the son of an Emperor of China, and gradually coaxed him into a better spirit.

Their tentative reconciliation was shattered by the arrival of the Linton family for Christmas service. As Heathcliff opened the kitchen door, Hindley intercepted him, shoving him back with brutal force. Determined to keep his promise to Mrs. Linton to separate the children, he ordered Heathcliff to the garret. Edgar Linton, peeping from the doorway, unwisely remarked that Heathcliff’s long hair resembled a colt’s mane. Heathcliff’s violent nature snapped; he seized a tureen of hot apple sauce and dashed it full into Edgar’s face. Hindley dragged Heathcliff away to administer a rough punishment, while Catherine scolded Edgar for his provocation and wept over Heathcliff’s fate.

At dinner, Catherine attempted to maintain an indifferent air, but her distress eventually overcame her. She slipped her fork to the floor and hid under the tablecloth to conceal her tears. During the evening dance, she slipped away to the garret. Finding the door locked, she climbed across the roof and through the skylight to reach Heathcliff. Nelly eventually coaxed her out and, taking pity on the prisoner who had fasted since yesterday, brought him down to the kitchen. He sat by the fire, unable to eat, leaning his elbows on his knees in silent meditation. When Nelly inquired about his thoughts, he answered gravely that he was plotting how to pay Hindley back. He did not care how long he waited, provided he succeeded at last. When Nelly suggested divine punishment and forgiveness, Heathcliff rejected the sentiment, declaring that God would not have the satisfaction he sought. The only relief from his pain was in the meticulous planning of his revenge.

Nelly paused in her storytelling, fearing she was boring Mr. Lockwood, but he insisted she continue. He argued that the intense, isolated lives of the moors held a deeper fascination than the frivolous distractions of town. He explained that people in these regions acquired a value over town dwellers that a spider in a dungeon does over a spider in a cottage. He likened the experience to setting a hungry man down to a single dish, where he could concentrate his entire appetite, rather than introducing him to a table laid out by French cooks where each part was a mere atom in his regard. He demanded she skip no details, and Nelly agreed to proceed, moving the timeline forward to the summer of 1778.

Following Heathcliff’s imprisonment and his grim resolution to seek revenge, Nelly advances the narrative to the summer of 1778. This period brings the death of Hindley’s wife, which sends Hindley into a drunken dissipation and further hardens Heathcliff, while Catherine struggles to reconcile her double life.

On the morning of a fine June day, the last of the ancient Earnshaw stock was born. A messenger came running across the meadow, breathless with news of the finest lad that ever breathed, but also with the doctor’s grim prognosis that the mistress was dying of consumption and would not see winter. Nelly hurried home to find Hindley standing at the door, putting on a brave smile and swearing that Frances was perfectly well, dismissing the doctor’s warnings as the talk of a croaker. He persisted in this denial even as Kenneth warned him that medicines were useless, retorting that her pulse was slow and her cheek cool. Frances seemed to believe him, maintaining a flighty, gay spirit until the very end. One night, while leaning on his shoulder and saying she thought she would rise the next day, a slight fit of coughing took her; she put her hands about his neck, her face changed, and she was dead.

With her death, the infant Hareton fell wholly into Nelly’s hands, for Hindley had room in his heart only for his wife and himself. His sorrow, however, was not lamentation but desperation. He neither wept nor prayed; he cursed God and man, giving himself up to reckless dissipation. The servants, unable to bear his tyrannical conduct, fled until only Joseph and Nelly remained. The master’s bad ways formed a pretty example for Catherine and Heathcliff. Heathcliff, now sixteen, had been degraded by hard labour and the loss of his early education. His curiosity was extinguished, his sense of superiority faded, and he sank into a slouching, moroseness that took a grim pleasure in exciting aversion. He ceased to express fondness for Catherine in words, recoiling from her caresses as if conscious they could bring no gratification.

Catherine, now fifteen and queen of the countryside, had adopted a double character. With the Lintons, she was ingenious and cordial, ashamed to show her rough side where she experienced courtesy; at home, she had no inclination to practise politeness that would only be laughed at. She had gained the heart of Edgar Linton, though she was full of ambition and found it difficult to reconcile her two worlds. One afternoon, Hindley being absent, Heathcliff presumed to give himself a holiday. He found Catherine dressing in a silk frock and learned she expected the Lintons. He refused to leave, pointing to an almanack on the wall where he had marked crosses for the evenings she spent with the Lintons and dots for those spent with him, demanding to know if she always intended to sit with him. Catherine, irritated, retorted that it was no company at all when people knew nothing and said nothing.

Before Heathcliff could reply, Edgar Linton entered. The contrast between the bleak, morose Heathcliff and the sweet, refined Edgar was stark. Catherine, still vexed by Heathcliff’s presence, turned her temper on Nelly, who was tidying the room. She snatched the cloth from Nelly’s hand and pinched her spitefully. When Nelly cried out, Catherine slapped her, then turned her fury on little Hareton, who was crying at the sight of Nelly’s tears. She shook the child until he was livid. Edgar, shocked, laid hold of her hands to deliver the baby; in an instant, Catherine wrung one hand free and boxed Edgar’s ear, a blow that could not be mistaken for jest.

Edgar drew back in consternation, pale and quivering. He attempted to leave, declaring he was afraid and ashamed of her and would not return. Catherine blocked the door, insisting he must not go. When he asked if he could stay after being struck, she dropped to her knees and set to weeping in serious earnest. Edgar lingered at the court, his resolve weakening. Nelly, watching from the kitchen, thought him doomed as a cat to a mouse, and indeed he turned back, shutting the door. The quarrel had merely effected a closer intimacy, breaking down their youthful timorence until they confessed themselves lovers. Their reconciliation was interrupted by the news that Hindley had returned rabid drunk, ready to pull the place about their ears, driving Edgar to his horse and Catherine to her chamber.

After Hindley’s drunken rage nearly kills Hareton and Heathcliff overhears Catherine declare that marrying him would degrade her, he vanishes into the storm. Catherine falls ill with fever, and the Lintons perish while nursing her, leading to her marriage to Edgar and Nelly’s departure for the Grange.

Hindley Earnshaw burst into the kitchen in a state of drunken fury, his entrance marked by terrifying oaths and a wild, threatening demeanor. He discovered Nelly Dean attempting to hide his young son, Hareton, in a cupboard to protect the child from his father’s unpredictable temper. Seizing Nelly by the neck, Hindley accused her of conspiring to murder the boy and brandished a carving-knife, vowing to kill her to satisfy his rage. Nelly, though fearful, maintained her composure and refused to be intimidated by his threats, even spitting out the knife when he tried to force it between her teeth. Hindley’s attention then shifted to his son, whom he viewed with a mixture of perverse affection and sudden violence. He ranted about cropping the boy’s hair to make him fiercer and then demanded Hareton kiss him. When the terrified child refused and began to scream, Hindley’s mood turned dark again. He declared he would break the brat’s neck and carried the struggling, yelling boy upstairs.

Nelly followed in horror, watching as Hindley lifted Hareton over the banister of the stairs. Leaning forward to listen to a noise below, Hindley’s grip on the child loosened. At that critical moment, Heathcliff, whose step Nelly recognized, arrived at the foot of the stairs. Hareton sprang from his father’s careless grasp and fell, but Heathcliff instinctively caught him, saving the child from injury. The rescue, however, brought Heathcliff no satisfaction. Looking up and seeing Hindley, Heathcliff’s face expressed the most intense anguish. By saving Hareton, Hindley’s heir and the last remnant of the family Heathcliff hated, he had inadvertently thwarted his own revenge and preserved the object of his enemy’s affection. Nelly descended to retrieve the child, scolding Hindley for his cruelty and warning him that Hareton would be killed or driven to idiocy if he continued such treatment. Hindley, sobered and slightly abashed by the near-tragedy, blamed Nelly for the incident but eventually retreated to his drinking, pouring himself a large measure of brandy and cursing his own soul. Heathcliff muttered a dark observation that Hindley’s constitution was too robust to be destroyed by drink, and then silently withdrew to a bench in the shadows, where he remained motionless.

Nelly took Hareton to the kitchen to rock him to sleep, humming a lullaby to quiet the child. Catherine soon appeared, looking anxious and disturbed. She asked if Nelly was alone and inquired about Heathcliff’s whereabouts. Nelly replied that he was likely about his work in the stable, though in reality, Heathcliff was sitting silently nearby. Catherine, clearly troubled, eventually confessed her unhappiness to Nelly. She knelt by the older woman, asking her to keep a secret and seeking advice on a dilemma. Edgar Linton, she revealed, had proposed marriage, and she had given him an answer. She wanted Nelly to judge whether she had been right to accept him. Nelly, recalling Catherine’s earlier behavior toward Edgar, suggested that refusal might have been wiser, but Catherine impatiently disclosed that she had indeed accepted Edgar’s proposal.

Nelly questioned Catherine about the nature of her love for Edgar, pressing her to explain why she had chosen him. Catherine’s reasons were superficial: he was handsome, young, cheerful, rich, and he loved her. Nelly critiqued each reason as insufficient, pointing out that Edgar’s wealth and looks would fade and that there were other men in the world with similar qualities. Catherine dismissed these concerns, insisting she only cared for the present. Nelly pragmatically concluded that if Catherine only cared for the present, marrying Edgar was the right choice, as it would allow her to escape the disorder of Wuthering Heights for a wealthy, respectable home. Catherine, however, remained agitated. She struck her forehead and breast, declaring that in her soul and heart, she was convinced she was wrong.

She attempted to explain the depth of her conflict to Nelly, speaking of dreams that had altered her mind and comparing her love for Edgar to the foliage in the woods—changeable and temporary—while her love for Heathcliff was like the eternal rocks beneath the earth, essential and unchanging. She declared that she and Heathcliff were essentially the same being, stating, “I am Heathcliff.” She explained that her intention in marrying Edgar was not to abandon Heathcliff but to use her position and Edgar’s wealth to aid Heathcliff, to raise him out of the degradation Hindley had inflicted upon him. Unbeknownst to Catherine, Heathcliff had risen from the bench and was listening. He heard Catherine say that it would degrade her to marry him, and having heard enough to wound his pride deeply, he slipped away noiselessly before she could explain her strategic reasons or the depth of her enduring love.

Nelly, realizing Heathcliff had departed, tried to warn Catherine, but the girl was too absorbed in her own justification to understand the gravity of the situation. She insisted that Heathcliff could not have overheard and that he must never know her true feelings, believing she could manage the situation to everyone’s benefit. She expressed her conviction that she and Heathcliff could never truly be separated, regardless of her marriage. When Nelly went to call Heathcliff for supper, he was gone. Catherine, realizing his absence, fell into a panic. She sent Joseph out to search for him on the moors, refusing to go to bed while he was missing. A violent storm broke out as the night progressed, with thunder rattling over the Heights and wind tearing branches from the trees. Catherine, heedless of the danger and the pouring rain, paced the floor and eventually stood outside by the wall, calling for Heathcliff and weeping when he did not answer.

The storm raged until midnight, knocking down part of the chimney and sending soot and stones into the kitchen. Joseph, believing the storm was a divine judgment, prayed loudly, while Nelly checked on Hindley, who had slept through the tumult. Catherine remained outside, soaked to the skin and shivering, until Nelly finally persuaded her to come inside. She lay down on the settle, wet and miserable, refusing to move. The next morning, Catherine was still seated by the fire, pale and damp. Hindley, emerging from his room, noted her illness and irritation. Joseph took the opportunity to slander Catherine and Nelly, insinuating that they had been out with Heathcliff and Edgar Linton. Catherine denied the accusations but broke down when Hindley questioned her about Heathcliff’s absence. She sobbed that if Hindley turned Heathcliff out, she would go with him, and then burst into uncontrollable grief, fearing Heathcliff was gone forever.

Hindley, scornful and unsympathetic, ordered Catherine to her room. Once there, her behavior became frantic and terrifying, convincing Nelly that she was succumbing to a fever. Mr. Kenneth, the doctor, was summoned and confirmed that Catherine was dangerously ill. For weeks, Catherine lay delirious, nursed reluctantly by Nelly, Joseph, and Hindley. Old Mrs. Linton eventually came to Thrushcross Grange to nurse her, but the kindness proved fatal to the older woman; both she and her husband caught the fever from Catherine and died within days of each other. Catherine eventually recovered, but her character was altered—she became haughtier, saucier, and more passionate than before. Heathcliff had completely vanished.

In the wake of the Lintons’ death and Catherine’s recovery, the course of her life was set. She married Edgar Linton, believing herself the happiest woman alive, while Edgar was infatuated and blind to the turbulent nature of her love for Heathcliff. Nelly was forced to leave Wuthering Heights to serve Catherine at the Grange. The parting with little Hareton, whom Nelly had begun to teach and loved dearly, was painful. Hindley, indifferent to his son’s upbringing, ordered Nelly away, declaring he wanted no women in the house and that the curate would take charge of Hareton. Nelly kissed the boy goodbye and left, fearing that Wuthering Heights would slide further into ruin and that Hareton would grow up a stranger to her, forgotten in the chaos of his father’s decline.

Following Catherine’s marriage to Edgar and Heathcliff’s subsequent disappearance, a period of peace at the Grange is shattered when Heathcliff returns as a wealthy gentleman. His arrival reignites Catherine’s intense joy and Edgar’s annoyance, while also sparking a dangerous infatuation in Edgar’s sister, Isabella.

Confined to his bed by a severe fever contracted during his disastrous night at Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood endured weeks of misery and boredom. Though Heathcliff had recently paid him a brief, surprisingly civil visit, Lockwood remained too weak to read or engage in most activities. Desperate for distraction to pass the sleepless hours, he summoned Nelly Dean to his bedside. Dismissing the medicine she offered, he begged her to continue the history of Wuthering Heights, specifically asking what had become of Heathcliff after his mysterious disappearance years ago. Nelly, relieved to find him in a cheerful mood, resumed her narrative, picking up the thread of the story where she had left off.

Nelly recounted how she had escorted Catherine to Thrushcross Grange following her marriage to Edgar Linton. Contrary to Nelly’s fears, Catherine behaved with surprising affability, appearing almost over-fond of Edgar and treating his sister, Isabella, with plenty of affection. The household settled into a period of deep and growing happiness, largely because Edgar was terrified of ruffling Catherine’s humour. He concealed his anxiety, but whenever Catherine imperiously ordered the servants or snapped at Nelly, Edgar would show his distress, claiming that seeing his lady vexed caused him more pain than a knife wound. To avoid grieveing her kind master, Nelly learned to be less touchy, and for six months, peace reigned. Catherine’s occasional moods of gloom were respected by Edgar, who attributed them to her lingering illness. However, this idyllic existence was destined to end.

On a mellow evening in late September, Nelly was resting on the kitchen steps after gathering apples when a voice behind her called her name. The tone was deep and foreign, yet strangely familiar. Turning, she saw a tall, dark figure leaning against the porch. The man’s face was half-hidden by black whiskers, his eyes deep-set and singular. To Nelly’s amazement, she recognized the eyes and realized it was Heathcliff, transformed. He was no longer the ragged beggar boy but a tall, athletic, dignified gentleman. He had been waiting for an hour, afraid to enter, and demanded urgently to see Catherine. Nelly, bewildered by the change in him, went to the parlour to deliver the message.

She found Edgar and Catherine sitting together by the window, gazing out at the peaceful, moonlit valley. Nelly hesitated to disturb their serenity but eventually muttered that a person from Gimmerton wished to see Mrs. Linton. Catherine, assuming it was a trivial visitor, asked Nelly to close the curtains and bring tea. When Nelly mentioned the visitor’s name was Heathcliff, Edgar was incredulous, recalling him only as a gipsy ploughboy. Nelly chided him, warning that Catherine would be grieved to hear him speak so of her childhood friend. Edgar, looking out the window, saw them below and called out for Catherine to bring the visitor in. Catherine flew upstairs, breathless and wild, flinging herself upon Edgar and declaring that Heathcliff had returned. Edgar, annoyed by her frantic joy, suggested the kitchen was a more suitable place for such a guest, but Catherine laughed at his fastidiousness and insisted on receiving him in the parlour.

When Heathcliff entered, the transformation shocked everyone. He stood tall and upright, his manner dignified and his dress that of a wealthy man, though a half-civilized ferocity still lurked in his eyes. Catherine sprang forward to greet him, seizing his hands and then crushing Edgar’s reluctant fingers into them. She was ecstatic, drinking in the sight of him, while Heathcliff returned her gaze with undisguised delight. Edgar, pale with pure annoyance, struggled to maintain his composure. Catherine laughed like one beside herself, declaring it felt like a dream, though she scolded Heathcliff for staying away so long. Heathcliff murmured that he had fought through a bitter life for her sake, and that her welcome had dispelled his dark thoughts of suicide and revenge against Hindley.

The tea was a strained affair. Catherine could neither eat nor drink, and Edgar swallowed barely a mouthful, anxious for the guest to leave. Heathcliff stayed only an hour longer, and as he departed, he told Nelly he was returning to Wuthering Heights, as Mr. Earnshaw had invited him that morning. Nelly was troubled by this news, pondering whether Heathcliff was a hypocrite returning to work mischief under a cloak of respectability.

That night, Catherine glided into Nelly’s room, unable to sleep in her excitement. She complained that Edgar was sulky and childish, refusing to share in her joy because he was envious of Heathcliff. Catherine believed she had been reconciled to humanity by Heathcliff’s return and felt like an angel, capable of enduring anything. She resolved to make peace with Edgar immediately, and for the next few days, she was so sweet and affectionate that the house seemed like a paradise again.

Heathcliff began to visit the Grange cautiously, estimating how far Edgar would tolerate his intrusion. Catherine moderated her public displays of affection to avoid provoking Edgar, and Heathcliff gradually established his right to be expected. However, a new source of trouble soon emerged in the form of Isabella Linton. The young sister, eighteen years old and infantile in manners, developed a sudden and irresistible attraction to Heathcliff. Edgar was appalled, knowing Heathcliff’s unchangeable and cruel nature, and dreaded the idea of his sister falling into such a man’s power. He blamed Heathcliff for deliberately designing to entrap her.

Isabella’s behavior grew erratic; she snapped at Catherine and pined away, complaining of neglect. Catherine, eventually losing patience, scolded her for her naivety. Isabella burst into tears, accusing Catherine of being harsh and a “dog in the manger” who wanted no one else to be loved. She confessed that she loved Heathcliff more than Catherine had ever loved Edgar. Catherine was incredulous and then angry. She tried to convince Isabella of her madness, describing Heathcliff as a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man—an unreclaimed creature without refinement. She warned Isabella that Heathcliff was incapable of loving a Linton but was quite capable of marrying her for her fortune. Isabella retorted that Catherine was a poisonous friend and refused to believe her, clinging to the idea that Heathcliff had an honourable soul.

Nelly, observing Isabella’s infatuation, tried to intervene. She recounted Joseph’s gossip about the debauchery at Wuthering Heights—how Hindley and Heathcliff sat up all night drinking and gambling, and how Heathcliff was fleecing Hindley of his money. She warned Isabella that Heathcliff was a bird of bad omen, but Isabella accused Nelly of slander and a desire to rob her of happiness.

The tension came to a head shortly after. Edgar was called away to a justice meeting, and Heathcliff, aware of his absence, arrived at the Grange early. Catherine and Isabella were sitting in the library, on hostile terms. Catherine, in a mischievous mood, saw Heathcliff pass the window and pulled a chair to the fire, insisting he come in. She gleefully told Heathcliff that Isabella was breaking her heart for love of him, teasing her sister-in-law about her “devotion.” Isabella, humiliated and furious, demanded to be released, but Catherine held her fast, mocking her and declaring that Isabella was her rival.

Heathcliff watched Isabella with a look of strange aversion, staring at her as one might look at a repulsive animal. Isabella, desperate to escape his scrutiny, clawed at Catherine’s arms with her nails until Catherine released her, shaking her hand in pain. Catherine laughed and called Isabella a tigress, warning her to hide her “vixen face” and her talons. Once Isabella had fled the room, Heathcliff questioned Catherine’s truthfulness. Catherine assured him she was speaking the truth but admitted she had wished to punish Isabella’s sauciness. Heathcliff replied that he liked Isabella too ill to seize her, except in a “ghoulish fashion,” and remarked cynically on her resemblance to Edgar.

Then, his demeanor shifted. He asked if Isabella was her brother’s heir. Catherine replied that she hoped not, wishing for nephews to erase Isabella’s title. Heathcliff fell silent, but Nelly noticed a grim smile on his face. He dismissed the subject at Catherine’s request, but Nelly felt certain that he was recalling it often in the ensuing silence. She watched him closely, her heart heavy with foreboding. She felt that an evil beast had entered their lives, prowling between the fold and the stray sheep, waiting his time to spring and destroy both Wuthering Heights and the Grange.

Nelly’s visit to Wuthering Heights reveals Heathcliff’s corruption of young Hareton, while her observation of Heathcliff embracing Isabella at the Grange ignites a violent confrontation between Edgar and Heathcliff. This conflict escalates when Catherine locks the door to prevent Edgar’s servants from removing Heathcliff, leading to a physical struggle and Catherine’s subsequent fit of rage.

Sometimes, while meditating on the state of Wuthering Heights, Nelly Dean is seized by a sudden terror and a sense of duty to warn Hindley about the gossip surrounding his conduct. However, she often flinches from re-entering the dismal house, hopeless of benefiting him. On one bright, frosty afternoon, her journey takes her past the old gate where a guide-post marks the way to the Grange, the Heights, and the village. Gazing at the weather-worn stone, she is overcome by a gush of childhood sensations and memories of Hindley. A sudden superstition takes hold, urging her to visit the Heights, and she trembles as she approaches, fearing she may find her old master dead.

At the gate, she is confronted not by Hindley, but by a rough, elf-locked boy she recognizes as Hareton. Delighted to see him, she cries out a greeting, but the boy retreats and raises a flint to strike her. When the stone hits her bonnet, Hareton unleashes a string of practiced curses that distort his baby features into an expression of malignity. Nelly grieves more than she angers and attempts to soothe him with an orange. Through questioning, she discovers the depths of his degradation: he has been forbidden to learn from the curate, whom Heathcliff has threatened with violence, and he reveres his “Devil daddy,” Heathcliff, who encourages him to curse his father. Just as Nelly sends Hareton to fetch Hindley, Heathcliff himself appears at the door. Terrified, Nelly flees down the road, resolving to be more vigilant in protecting the Grange from such bad influence.

The next time Heathcliff visits the Grange, he finds Isabella feeding pigeons in the courtyard. After ensuring the coast is clear, he approaches her, and though she seems embarrassed and tries to leave, he stops her and, believing himself unseen, embraces her. Nelly, watching from the kitchen window, denounces him as a hypocrite and a traitor. Catherine, appearing behind Nelly, demands silence, but the damage is done. Isabella tears herself away and runs into the garden as Heathcliff enters the kitchen.

Catherine confronts Heathcliff about Isabella, but he grows defiant. He declares that he has a right to kiss her if she chooses and asserts that he is not Catherine’s husband, so she need not be jealous. Catherine claims she is jealous for him, not of him, and insists that if he likes Isabella, he must marry her. Heathcliff, however, reveals his true intentions. He tells Catherine that he knows she has treated him “infernally” and warns her not to think she will go unrevenged. He explains his philosophy: the tyrant grinds his slaves, but they crush those beneath them. He intends to use Isabella to torture Edgar, rejecting the idea of marrying for love and vowing to make the most of Catherine’s sister-in-law.

Nelly, disturbed by this exchange, goes to find Edgar Linton. She relates the scene in the courtyard and the subsequent argument, though she softens some details to protect Catherine. Edgar is enraged and humiliated, declaring Catherine’s friendship with Heathcliff insufferable. He orders servants to the kitchen to banish Heathcliff permanently. When they enter the kitchen, Catherine is scolding Heathcliff, who falls silent at Edgar’s approach. Edgar addresses Heathcliff quietly but firmly, calling his presence a moral poison and ordering him to leave immediately or be removed by force.

Heathcliff mocks Edgar, comparing him to a threatening lamb and expressing regret that Edgar is not worth knocking down. Edgar, intending to avoid a personal encounter, signals Nelly to fetch the men. Catherine, realizing the plan, stops Nelly, slams the door, and locks it. She mocks Edgar’s cowardice, declaring she will swallow the key before he can have it, and expresses a bitter reward for her kindness to both men. When Edgar tries to wrest the key from her, she throws it into the hottest part of the fire. Overcome by mingled anguish and humiliation, Edgar leans on a chair, covering his face.

Heathcliff, provoked by Edgar’s weakness, pushes the chair on which Edgar is resting. Edgar springs up and strikes Heathcliff full on the throat, a blow that chokes him. While Heathcliff gasps for breath, Edgar retreats to the yard to summon help. Catherine urges Heathcliff to flee, warning that Edgar will return with pistols and assistants. Heathcliff, furious, vows to crush Edgar’s ribs before leaving. Nelly, desperate to prevent bloodshed, lies and claims that the coachman and gardeners are already approaching with bludgeons. Hearing this, Heathcliff seizes a poker, smashes the lock, and escapes just as the servants arrive.

Catherine, highly agitated, drags Nelly upstairs. She throws herself on the sofa, complaining of a hammering headache and declaring herself nearly distracted. She admits she wishes to frighten Edgar by feigning serious illness to punish him for his jealousy and interference. She reveals that if she cannot keep Heathcliff as a friend and Edgar will be mean, she will try to break their hearts by breaking her own. She asks Nelly to warn Edgar of her passionate temper, which verges on frenzy when kindled. Nelly, however, remains stolid, skeptical of Catherine’s dramatics and unwilling to manipulate Edgar further.

When Edgar attempts to speak to Catherine later, he is calm but sorrowful, asking her to choose between him and Heathcliff. Catherine flies into a rage, stamping her foot and demanding to be left alone. She rings the bell violently until it breaks, then begins dashing her head against the sofa and grinding her teeth. Edgar, terrified, fetches water, but Catherine stretches out stiff, her eyes rolling back and her face assuming the aspect of death. Nelly whispers that there is nothing wrong, hinting that Catherine is performing a fit, but Catherine overhears her. She springs up, hair flying and eyes flashing, and rushes from the room to lock herself in her chamber. She refuses to eat or speak for days, leaving the household in a frozen state of conflict, while Edgar spends his time in the library and Isabella remains evasive about her own dealings with Heathcliff.

While Catherine lies delirious, convinced she is dying and longing for the freedom of the moors, Nelly discovers that Isabella has eloped with Heathcliff. Edgar, absorbed in caring for his wife, reacts to the news of his sister’s departure by coldly severing his ties with her.

While Miss Isabella moped about the park in silent tears and Edgar shut himself away among his unopened books, Catherine fasted pertinaciously in her locked room, convinced that her absence was choking Edgar and that only pride kept him from her feet. Nelly Dean, convinced the Grange possessed but one sensible soul, went about her duties with a grim detachment, waiting for the stalemate to break. On the third day, Catherine unbarred her door, demanding water and gruel because she believed she was dying. Nelly, skeptical of the dramatics but mindful of her duty, brought tea and toast instead. Catherine ate and drank eagerly but soon sank back, groaning that she would die since no one cared. She interrogated Nelly about Edgar’s indifference, horrified to learn he was merely reading while she suffered. She declared that if she were certain it would kill him, she would kill herself directly, and vowed to either starve or leave the country to escape him.

Nelly’s attempt to reason with her only inflamed Catherine’s feverish bewilderment. She began to rave, tearing her pillow with her teeth and then, in a strange, childish diversion, pulling out the feathers and sorting them on the sheet. She murmured about turkeys, wild ducks, and lapwings, associating the feathers with memories of the moors and Heathcliff. She recalled how Heathcliff had set a trap over a lapwing’s nest, and she had made him promise never to shoot one. When Nelly tried to stop her, Catherine’s delirium shifted; she saw Nelly as an old woman gathering elf-bolts and claimed to see a black press against the wall with a face in it. Nelly covered the mirror, but Catherine shrieked that the face remained behind the glass. Terrified, she clutched Nelly, insisting the room was haunted, until the horror gradually gave way to shame and the realization that she had been looking at her own reflection.

Catherine sighed that she thought she was back at Wuthering Heights, begging Nelly not to leave her because her dreams appalled her. She longed for the wind sounding in the firs and pleaded for a breath of air from the moor. Nelly opened the window a crack, letting in a freezing blast that soon subdued Catherine’s spirit into a wailing child. She asked how long she had been shut in, and when told it had been only three days, she expressed disbelief, feeling as if years had passed. She recounted the quarrel with Edgar and how, in her desperation, she had fallen into a trance where the last seven years of her life were wiped clean. She believed she was a child again, recently separated from Heathcliff by Hindley, and waking to find herself an exile in the Grange, married to a stranger. She cried out in her anguish, wishing to be a girl again, savage and free on the hills, and demanded Nelly open the window wide.

When Nelly refused to give her a “death of cold,” Catherine lunged from the bed, threw open the casement, and leaned out into the freezing night. She claimed to see the candle in her old room at Wuthering Heights and Joseph waiting up. She spoke to Heathcliff, daring him to venture to the kirkyard to join her in death, vowing she would not rest until he was with her. Nelly, unable to force her back, was horrified when Edgar entered the room, drawn by the noise. He was struck speechless by Catherine’s haggard appearance and Nelly’s failure to alert him. He took his wife in his arms, but at first, she did not recognize him. When she did, her recognition was filled with bitter anger. She told him he was always found when least wanted and declared she was past wanting him, returning to her books while her soul went to the hill-top. She threatened to leap from the window if he mentioned Heathcliff’s name again.

Edgar turned on Nelly, accusing her of heartlessness in keeping him ignorant and fostering Catherine’s temper. Nelly retorted that she had performed her duty as a faithful servant and that Edgar should have gathered intelligence himself if he wished to control his wife. Edgar dismissed her from his confidence, and Catherine, catching the drift of their argument, erupted in a maniac’s fury, calling Nelly a traitor and a witch. Nelly, deciding to seek medical aid, fled the chamber.

In the garden, Nelly discovered Isabella’s little dog, Fanny, suspended by a handkerchief on a bridle hook, nearly dead. She released the animal and heard, or thought she heard, the beat of horses’ feet galloping in the distance. She hurried to fetch Dr. Kenneth, who was just leaving his home. The doctor was skeptical of Catherine’s chances unless she became more submissive, and he hinted at an extra cause for the illness. He revealed that he had heard reports of Heathcliff and Isabella walking in the plantation for over two hours the previous night, and that he had pressed her to run away with him.

Filled with fresh fears, Nelly outran Kenneth to the Grange. She found Isabella’s room empty. Realizing the elopement was a fait accompli and fearing to distract Edgar with a second grief while he was absorbed in Catherine’s madness, Nelly decided to hold her tongue. She returned with Kenneth to Catherine’s room, where Edgar had succeeded in soothing his wife into a troubled sleep. The doctor warned that the danger was not so much death as permanent alienation of intellect.

The household passed a sleepless night, the servants moving with stealth and exchanging whispers. Everyone was active but Isabella, and Edgar began to ask why she slept so soundly. Before Nelly could be forced to reveal the truth, a servant maid returned from an errand in Gimmerton with the news. She gasped that Heathcliff had run off with their young lady. Edgar rose in agitation, refusing to believe it, but the maid provided details: a milk-lad had told her of a gentleman and lady stopping at a blacksmith’s shop after midnight to have a horse shod. The blacksmith’s daughter had recognized Heathcliff and seen the lady’s face when she drank water. They had seen them riding away from the village as fast as the rough roads allowed.

Nelly confirmed that Isabella’s room was empty. Edgar dropped his eyes, saying nothing. When Nelly asked if they should pursue them, Edgar answered coldly that Isabella had gone of her own accord and had a right to do so. He forbade further trouble on her account, declaring that hereafter she was only his sister in name, not because he disowned her, but because she had disowned him. He gave no further orders on the subject, effectively severing his ties with his sister.

After Isabella elopes with Heathcliff, Catherine recovers from her brain fever under Edgar’s devoted care, though she remains despondent. Meanwhile, Isabella sends a letter to Nelly describing her miserable arrival at Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff’s cruel treatment of her.

For two months, the fugitives remained absent while Mrs. Linton encountered and conquered the worst shock of a severe brain fever. Edgar tended her with a devotion no mother could surpass, watching day and night and patiently enduring the irritability of her shaken nerves. Though the doctor remarked that Edgar was sacrificing his own health to preserve a mere ruin of humanity, he knew no bounds of gratitude when Catherine’s life was declared out of danger. He sat beside her for hours, tracing her gradual return to bodily health and flattering himself with the illusion that her mind would soon settle back into its right balance.

In March, Catherine left her chamber for the first time. Edgar placed golden crocuses on her pillow, and for a moment, her eye shone with delight as she gathered them. She spoke of the soft winds and melting snow at the Heights, but when Edgar suggested the sweet air might cure her, she replied with morbid certainty that she would never be there but once more, and that he would soon be left alone. Edgar tried to cheer her with caresses, but she wept unheeding. To combat her despondency, they moved her to a refurbished room on the ground floor, where the familiar objects, free from the associations of her sick chamber, seemed to revive her. Nelly arranged a bed on the parlour sofa, and eventually, Catherine grew strong enough to move between rooms leaning on Edgar’s arm. Nelly cherished the hope of an heir to secure the family’s future, believing that with such care, Catherine might recover.

During this time, Isabella sent a short note to Edgar announcing her marriage, followed by a long letter to Nelly expressing deep regret. She begged Nelly to come and explain what manner of man Heathcliff was—whether he was a man, a madman, or a devil. Isabella recounted her arrival at Wuthering Heights, where Joseph received her with extreme rudeness. In the kitchen, she encountered a dirty, ruffianly child—Hareton—who threatened to set the dog on her when she attempted to be friendly. Seeking another entrance, she met Hindley, a gaunt, shadow of his former self. He revealed a pistol-knife, confessing that he was tempted nightly to murder Heathcliff, though some devil urged him to thwart his own schemes. Hindley warned Isabella that if Heathcliff ever tried to leave, he was a dead man, for Hindley was determined to regain his lost gold and lands.

Isabella found the house squalid and inhospitable. Forced to wait on herself, she attempted to make porridge, clashing with Joseph, who mocked her efforts. Hareton drank sloppily from a pitcher, and when Isabella objected to the dirtiness, Joseph insulted her pride. She asked for a parlour or bedroom, but Joseph led her through dilapidated garrets filled with corn and refuse, refusing to show her Heathcliff’s locked chamber. When she inquired after better accommodations, Joseph grudgingly showed her a room with handsome but damaged furniture, where the curtains were wrenched from their rings and the chairs were deformed. He announced it was the master’s room, leaving her with nowhere to go but Hareton’s quarters. Exhausted and humiliated, Isabella flung her supper on the floor and wept on the stairs, while Joseph cursed her and predicted Heathcliff’s wrath. Eventually, she cleaned up the mess with the help of a dog and hid in Hareton’s room to avoid Hindley, who passed by in a rage.

Her respite ended when Heathcliff returned. He discovered her and demanded to know why she was not in their room, reacting with violence when she referred to it as “ours.” He told her of Catherine’s illness and vowed to make her suffer as Edgar’s proxy until he could destroy her brother. Isabella ended her letter in despair, confessing she hated Heathcliff and felt wretched, but urging Nelly to keep her secret and visit soon.

Nelly visits Wuthering Heights to deliver Edgar’s cold response to Isabella and finds Heathcliff determined to see Catherine. Despite Nelly’s protests regarding Catherine’s health, Heathcliff coerces her into promising to arrange a secret meeting and act as a spy at the Grange.

After reading Isabella’s letter, Nelly went to Edgar, who responded with icy detachment. He stated he had nothing to forgive her but was sorry to have lost her, firmly refusing to write or visit. He declared that their households were eternally divided unless Isabella persuaded Heathcliff to leave the country. Nelly, depressed by this coldness, traveled to Wuthering Heights, where she found the house in dreary neglect. Isabella looked wan and slatternly, while the transformed Heathcliff appeared the picture of a gentleman. Isabella eagerly approached Nelly, expecting a greeting from Edgar, but Nelly was forced to deliver the painful truth that Edgar offered no message and severed all ties.

Heathcliff, standing by the hearth, questioned Nelly about Catherine’s illness. He extorted details regarding her fragile state and dismissed the idea that Edgar’s care was sufficient. He argued that Edgar relied only on duty and humanity, whereas his own feelings were infinitely deeper. Heathcliff demanded a promise that Nelly would facilitate an interview with Catherine, vowing he would see her one way or another. Nelly protested that another encounter would kill Catherine, but Heathcliff countered that if Edgar caused her trouble, he would be justified in going to extremes. He boasted that he would never have banished himself while Catherine desired him, contrasting his obsessive passion with Edgar’s “duty.”

When Isabella defended the strength of Edgar and Catherine’s bond, Heathcliff scornfully pointed out how easily Edgar had abandoned her. Isabella admitted she had not told her brother the extent of her misery. Heathcliff then brutally detailed his mistreatment of his wife, recounting how he had hung her dog and behaved monstrally to cure her of her romantic delusions. He boasted that she had finally learned to hate him, which he viewed as an achievement. When Nelly suggested Isabella might leave, Heathcliff asserted his legal right to keep her, and Isabella revealed she was too terrified to escape, believing Heathcliff married her solely to torture Edgar.

Heathcliff then seized Isabella and physically thrust her from the room, muttering that he had no pity and that the more she writhed, the more he yearned to crush her entrails. Turning immediately to Nelly, he refused to let her leave until she agreed to assist him. He declared he would haunt the Grange garden nightly and fight his way in if necessary, demanding she act as a spy to let him in during Edgar’s absence to prevent bloodshed. Nelly protested, citing Catherine’s fragility and her loyalty to Edgar, but Heathcliff trapped her at the Heights, arguing that Catherine was miserable in her isolation. He insisted that Edgar’s shallow care was like planting an oak in a flower-pot, incapable of sustaining her. Exhausted and fearing violence, Nelly reluctantly agreed to carry a letter to Catherine and facilitate a secret meeting. She promised to provide intelligence of Edgar’s next absence from home so Heathcliff could enter unobserved. She left the house burdened by guilt and misgiving, fearing her compliance was wrong yet hoping it might prevent a greater explosion.

Taking advantage of the household’s absence at church, Nelly delivers Heathcliff’s letter to Catherine and admits he is waiting in the garden. Heathcliff enters and embraces Catherine, whose fragile health collapses under the strain of their reunion just as Edgar returns.

On a warm Sunday evening, while the household attended church, Nelly Dean seized the opportunity to deliver Heathcliff’s letter to Catherine. She sent the servant away on a false errand to clear the house of witnesses. Catherine sat by the open window in a loose white dress, her appearance altered yet possessing an unearthly beauty. She seemed lost in a trance, her eyes gazing beyond the room, unaware of the book on her lap or the sounds of nature. When Nelly presented the letter, Catherine was too detached to comprehend it until Nelly explained that Heathcliff was waiting in the garden. Hearing his approach, her focus sharpened intensely.

Heathcliff entered the room and immediately grasped Catherine in his arms. For five minutes, neither spoke, but the intensity of their embrace revealed the fatal truth to both: Heathcliff realized there was no hope of recovery, and that she was fated to die. He kissed her frantically, unable to bear the sight of her face, while Catherine accused him and Edgar of breaking her heart. She taunted him with bitter questions, asking if he would forget her and be happy once she was in the earth, and if he would tell his children that she was long ago loved and lost.

Heathcliff cried out in agony, wrenching free and grinding his teeth, telling her not to torture him. He accused her of infernal selfishness, declaring that her words would be branded in his memory eternally while he writhed in hell. Catherine, moaning from the physical strain, insisted she only wished they never be parted and that he was in her soul. She expressed a weary desire to escape her shattered prison and join the glorious world beyond. In her eagerness, she rose and supported herself on the chair, and they collapsed into another violent embrace. Heathcliff accused her of cruelty and falsehood, claiming she had betrayed her own heart and broken both their lives by choosing Edgar. He demanded to know how he could live with his soul in the grave, while Catherine sobbed for forgiveness, begging him to let her alone.

Nelly, watching the sun set and the church service end, grew anxious as she saw the servants returning and Edgar approaching. She urged Heathcliff to flee immediately, but Catherine refused to let him go. She clung to him with mad resolution, shrieking that she would die if he left. Heathcliff resolved to stay and face Edgar, cursing but holding her tight. As Edgar’s footsteps sounded on the stairs, the exertion proved too much for Catherine; her arms fell relaxed and her head hung down as she fainted.

Edgar burst into the room, blanched with rage, but Heathcliff silenced him by placing the unconscious Catherine in his arms. He told Edgar to help her first, as he was not a fiend, and then walked into the parlour. Edgar and Nelly worked to revive Catherine, who was bewildered and knew no one. While Edgar was distracted by his anxiety for his wife, Nelly went to Heathcliff and besought him to depart. He agreed to leave the house but insisted on staying in the garden under the larch-trees, demanding that Nelly keep her word and bring him news of Catherine’s condition the next day.

Catherine dies in childbirth shortly after Heathcliff’s departure, leaving Edgar in grief and their infant daughter friendless. When Nelly informs Heathcliff of her death, he curses her spirit to haunt him and expresses an inability to live without his soul.

Around midnight, Catherine gives birth to a premature, frail daughter and dies two hours later without regaining consciousness. Edgar is consumed by a devastating grief that leaves him without an heir, while the neglected infant begins life as friendless as her mother’s end. The next morning, sunlight fills the silent room, revealing Edgar in exhausted slumber beside Catherine’s corpse. Nelly finds a holy, angelic peace in Catherine’s stillness, a stark contrast to Edgar’s living anguish, and feels a profound sense of divine repose.

Venturing out to the fresh air, Nelly goes to find Heathcliff, discovering him leaning motionless against an ash tree, soaked in dew. He is already aware of the catastrophe and violently rejects Nelly’s tears. When she describes Catherine’s peaceful passing, Heathcliff is enraged, refusing to believe she is at rest. He curses her, praying that her spirit haunt him rather than find heaven, and declares he cannot live without his soul. In a frenzy of ungovernable passion, he dashes his head against the tree, howling like a savage beast until Nelly flees in horror.

During the days before the funeral, Edgar keeps a sleepless vigil by the uncovered coffin. Unknown to him, Heathcliff also watches outside. Moved by his persistence, Nelly opens a window one evening to allow him a final farewell. Heathcliff enters cautiously and replaces a lock of Edgar’s hair in Catherine’s locket with his own. Nelly discovers this and twists the two locks together, uniting the rivals in death. Catherine is buried not in the Linton chapel, but on a green slope in the kirkyard where the low wall allows the heath and bilberry-plants to climb over from the moors, returning her to her wild roots.

Following Catherine’s burial, Isabella flees to the Grange after a violent confrontation with Heathcliff and Hindley, eventually settling near London where she gives birth to a son. Meanwhile, Hindley drinks himself to death, leaving Heathcliff as the mortgagee and master of Wuthering Heights, with young Hareton reduced to a dependent servant in his own home.

The fine weather of Friday broke abruptly, ushering in a dreary month of sleet and snow that buried the early spring blooms. While Edgar Linton secluded himself in his room and Nelly cared for the infant Catherine in the silent parlour, the door burst open to reveal a breathless, laughing figure. Nelly mistook the intruder for a giddy maid, but the voice was familiar. It was Isabella Heathcliff, having run the entire distance from Wuthering Heights. She was a terrifying spectacle: soaked to the skin, dressed only in a thin silk frock and slippers, bleeding from a deep cut under her ear, and covered in bruises and scratches. Though she laughed, her body was trembling with exhaustion and cold. Nelly immediately refused her request for a carriage to Gimmerton, insisting she warm herself and change into dry garments before any further discussion.

Once the fire had thawed her and she was seated with tea, Isabella’s demeanor shifted from hysteria to bitter resolve. She ordered Nelly to remove Catherine’s baby from her sight, then pulled her gold wedding ring from her finger. With childish spite, she smashed the ring and cast it into the coals, declaring she would burn the last thing of Heathcliff’s she possessed. She recounted the events that had driven her to such a desperate escape, painting a picture of Wuthering Heights as a house of madness. Since Catherine’s death, Heathcliff had been absent, praying to dust and ashes in his room, while Hindley had descended into a suicidal drunken stupor. Isabella admitted that she had taken a grim pleasure in Heathcliff’s absence, viewing it as a holiday from oppression, but the peace was shattered the previous evening.

Isabella described how she had sat reading late into the night with Hindley, who was sunk in a melancholy, intoxicated silence. The stillness was broken when Heathcliff returned earlier than usual, finding the doors locked against him. Hindley, roused by the arrival, whispered to Isabella that he intended to kill the intruder. He armed himself with a knife and a pistol, urging her to remain silent while he barred the door. Isabella, however, felt a reckless instinct to warn Heathcliff. She went to the window and taunted him that Hindley stood ready to shoot him, adding a cruel barb that he would be better off stretching himself over Catherine’s grave than surviving her loss. Heathcliff’s response was a look of blighting menace. He demanded entry, but Isabella mocked him, claiming his love was poor if it could not endure a winter storm.

Enraged, Hindley attempted to fire through the window, but the weapon misfired, the springing knife slicing his own wrist open. Before he could recover, Heathcliff smashed through the casement, shattering the wood and bursting into the room. He seized Hindley, beating him senseless and kicking him as he lay, until the blood gushed from an artery. Isabella, terrified, called for Joseph, but Heathcliff held her back with one hand. Finally exhausted, he dragged Hindley’s insensible body to the settle and bound the wound with brutal roughness, cursing the entire time. When Joseph arrived, he began a wailing prayer, which only provoked Heathcliff to shake the old man and Isabella until their teeth rattled. Heathcliff forced Isabella to corroborate his version of events—that Hindley was deliriously drunk and had injured himself—before retiring to his room, leaving Hindley unconscious on the hearth.

The following morning brought a tense, silent breakfast. Isabella, feeling a surge of reckless superiority, sat near the fire and twisted the knife in Heathcliff’s wound. She whispered to Hindley, who was sick and pale, that Heathcliff had trampled and kicked him while he was down, describing him as a fiend. She then turned her attention to Heathcliff, remarking loudly that Catherine would have been alive had it not been for him, and that she was glad to be hated rather than loved by such a monster. Heathcliff, absorbed in his anguish, seemed to shrink under her words, his eyes raining tears among the ashes. However, when Isabella continued, suggesting that if Catherine had lived with him, she would have eventually shown the same disgust and detestation that Isabella felt, Heathcliff’s grief turned to fury. He snatched a dinner-knife from the table and flung it at her head. It struck her neck, stopping her speech. She pulled it out, sprang to the door, and delivered a final, stinging insult before fleeing. Heathcliff rushed to catch her, but Hindley, roused by the scuffle, intercepted him, and the two men fell locked together on the hearth. Seizing the moment, Isabella ran from the house, knocking over Hareton in the kitchen, and fled across the wintry moors to the sanctuary of the Grange.

Having finished her tale, Isabella drank her tea and prepared to leave immediately. Despite Nelly’s pleas, she kissed the portraits of Edgar and Catherine, embraced Nelly, and descended to the waiting carriage. She was driven away, never to return to the neighbourhood, establishing a new life near London in the South. There, a few months later, she gave birth to a sickly son named Linton. Heathcliff, when he learned of the child, smiled grimly and declared he would have the boy when he wanted him, though he did not molest Isabella further, content to wait.

Edgar Linton was deeply relieved by his sister’s escape, though his abhorrence of Heathcliff was so intense that he refused to hear mention of him. Grief and this aversion transformed Edgar into a complete hermit. He abandoned his duties as magistrate, ceased attending church, and avoided the village, spending his days in solitary seclusion within the grounds of the Grange or visiting Catherine’s grave. However, his melancholy was sweetened by the presence of his daughter. The infant Catherine, whom he called Cathy, quickly became the despot of his heart, a living link to the mother he adored.

Six months after Isabella’s flight, Dr. Kenneth brought news of Hindley Earnshaw’s death. He had been found dead, drunk as a lord, having literally drunk himself to death in the night. Nelly, grief-stricken by the loss of her childhood companion, begged Edgar to let her attend the funeral and check on Hareton. Edgar was reluctant but eventually consented, instructing her to speak to his lawyer about the estate. The lawyer, however, offered little hope, revealing that Hindley had mortgaged every yard of land he owned to fund his gambling mania.

When Nelly arrived at Wuthering Heights, she found Heathcliff in command, displaying a flinty gratification rather than sorrow. He spoke of Hindley with contempt, describing how he had broken in that morning to find the man already dead and cold. Heathcliff allowed Nelly to arrange the funeral, provided she remembered that he was paying for it. During the proceedings, he lifted Hareton onto the table and muttered with dark triumph that the boy was now his and that he would see if the tree wouldn’t grow as crooked as the other with the same wind to twist it. Nelly asserted that Hareton belonged with her at the Grange, but Heathcliff demanded if Edgar had ordered it and warned her not to argue the subject, hinting that he would claim the boy as his own.

The lawyer’s fears were confirmed: Heathcliff was the mortgagee and thus the master of Wuthering Heights. Hindley’s reckless debauchery had cost his son everything. Hareton, the rightful heir and the first gentleman in the neighbourhood, was reduced to a state of complete dependence on his father’s inveterate enemy. He lived in his own house as a servant, deprived of wages and too ignorant to know he had been wronged, while Heathcliff reigned supreme over the ruined Earnshaw legacy.

Twelve years of peaceful isolation at the Grange end when Edgar leaves to attend his dying sister Isabella, leaving young Catherine in Nelly’s care. Catherine disobeys orders to stay within the park, riding to Wuthering Heights where she encounters Hareton Earnshaw and is horrified to discover he is her cousin.

For twelve years following the death of the older Catherine, peace reigned at Thrushcross Grange, a period Nelly Dean recalled as the happiest of her life. The young Catherine grew into a beautiful and high-spirited child, combining the Earnshaw dark eyes with the Lintons’ fair skin. Her temperament, though sometimes saucy, was marked by a deep, tender capacity for love that reminded Nelly of her mother, yet Catherine lacked the fierce, wild edges of Catherine Earnshaw. Edgar devoted himself entirely to her education and amusement, treating her with a gentleness that bordered on reverence; he never spoke a harsh word to her. Under his protection, Catherine lived in a state of blissful ignorance. Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff did not exist for her, and she was never allowed to roam beyond the boundaries of the park. From her nursery window, she would gaze longingly at the distant Penistone Crags, dreaming of the “golden rocks” and the Fairy Cave, but Edgar consistently refused to take her near the forbidden hills, fearing the proximity to his enemy.

This idyllic isolation was shattered when news arrived that Isabella was dying near London. Edgar departed immediately to settle her affairs and retrieve his nephew, Linton, entrusting Catherine to Nelly’s care with strict orders that she must not leave the park. For the first few days, Catherine was despondent, but as the summer shone in full prime, her restlessness grew. To amuse herself, she invented elaborate games of pretend. One morning, declaring herself an Arabian merchant preparing to cross the desert, she provisioned a basket of food, took her pony Minny, and set off with her dogs for a day of adventure. When she failed to return for tea, Nelly’s alarm grew. A labourer reported seeing her leap her horse over the lowest part of the hedge and gallop out of sight toward the moors.

Dreading that she had headed for the Penistone Crags, Nelly rushed to Wuthering Heights. There, she found one of Catherine’s dogs injured outside the window. Inside the farmhouse, she discovered Catherine sitting by the fire, chatting happily to Hareton Earnshaw, now a strong lad of eighteen. Catherine was perfectly at home, but her familiarity quickly turned to class-based condescension. When Nelly attempted to usher her out, Catherine treated Hareton as a servant, ordering him to fetch her horse. Hareton, proud and offended, cursed her. The housekeeper then revealed the truth that Hareton was actually Catherine’s cousin. The revelation shattered Catherine’s sheltered worldview; she wept at the idea of being related to such a “clown.” Hareton, attempting to make amends, offered her a puppy, but she recoiled from him in horror.

Nelly observed Hareton with pity. Though he was a well-made, handsome youth, Heathcliff had deliberately degraded him, leaving him illiterate and unprincipled. Joseph had worsened the boy’s condition with twisted flattery, instilling a pride of name while neglecting all moral guidance. Nelly saw a wealthy soil choked by weeds, potential wasted by malice. She collected the injured dogs and a sulky Catherine for the journey home. Catherine was deeply distressed by the day’s events and the insult of being addressed so roughly by a stranger. To protect Nelly from Edgar’s wrath regarding the broken rules, Catherine promised to keep the visit a secret, pledging her word for the sake of the servant who had cared for her all her life.

After Catherine returns from Wuthering Heights and promises to hide her visit, Edgar returns with the news of Isabella’s death and his frail nephew, Linton. Catherine is initially delighted to meet her cousin, but her enthusiasm is dampened by his peevish weakness and the subsequent arrival of Joseph, who demands Heathcliff’s son be returned to him.

A black-edged letter announces Isabella’s death and Edgar’s return with his frail nephew. Catherine, clad in new mourning, runs wild with joy at the prospect of a “real” cousin, idealizing the boy based on a lock of golden hair. She drags Nelly to the gate to meet the carriage, where Edgar and Catherine embrace tenderly. Inside the carriage, however, Linton is a pale, delicate, and peevish child, asleep in a fur-lined cloak. Edgar warns Catherine that her cousin is weak and recently bereaved, urging her to let him rest.

When introduced, Linton shrinks from Catherine’s greeting, weeping and asking to go to bed immediately. He is too exhausted to sit on a chair, lying instead on the sofa. Catherine adapts to his fragility, treating him like a baby, stroking his curls and offering him tea, which coaxes a faint smile. Edgar hopes the child’s company will improve, but Nelly doubts such a weakling can survive at Wuthering Heights.

The peace is shattered when Joseph arrives, demanding to see the master. Nelly tries to intercept him, but the old servant forces his way into the library. Joseph declares that Heathcliff has sent for his son and will take him now, disregarding Isabella’s wishes. Edgar refuses to surrender the sleeping boy tonight, citing his precarious health. He firmly orders Joseph to leave, promising Linton will be sent on the morrow. Joseph departs with a shout, warning that Heathcliff himself will come the next day to thrust the boy out if Edgar dares to keep him.

To prevent Heathcliff from coming to the Grange, Edgar sends Nelly to deliver Linton to Wuthering Heights the next morning. Heathcliff receives the boy with contempt, viewing him only as a tool to gain control of the Grange, while Linton is left terrified and trapped in his new home.

To avoid a violent confrontation, Mr. Linton commissions Nelly to take Linton to Wuthering Heights early on Catherine’s pony. He instructs her to lie to Catherine, claiming the boy was sent for by his father, to prevent her from visiting him. Nelly rouses Linton at five o’clock, finding him confused and frightened by the sudden demand to travel. He refuses to go without his uncle, forcing Nelly to invent delusive assurances that Edgar and Catherine will visit soon. During the ride, Linton struggles to understand why his parents were separated and why he was never told. Nelly offers weak excuses about business and health to avoid the harsh truth. She attempts to soften the blow with vague promises, describing the moors as pleasant and suggesting Hareton will be a guide. She inaccurately paints Heathcliff as a father who will love him if Linton is frank, omitting the man’s stern nature.

Upon arrival, Linton surveys the dark, crooked house with dismay. Heathcliff, Hareton, and Joseph confront them, staring with gaping curiosity. Heathcliff mocks Linton’s delicate appearance, comparing him unfavorably to a creature reared on snails and sour milk. He drags the boy forward, inspecting his frail limbs with disgust and declaring him his property. He curses Isabella for leaving Linton ignorant of his parentage and forces the terrified child to acknowledge him. To Nelly, Heathcliff reveals his cynical motivation: he intends to make Linton a gentleman and the master of the Grange. He views the boy merely as a vessel to disinherit Edgar and Hareton, despising him for himself but keeping him alive for the triumph of seeing his descendant lord of their estates.

Joseph attempts to force Linton to eat rough porridge, mocking him when he refuses. Joseph compares the boy’s daintiness to his mother, Isabella, claiming they were too fastidious to sow corn for their own bread. Heathcliff demands better food, but only to serve his own ends of preserving the heir. Nelly departs, hoping Heathcliff’s selfishness might at least ensure the boy is fed. As she rides away, she hears Linton’s frantic cries from behind the locked door, screaming that he will not stay. The latch falls, trapping him in the hostile environment, and Nelly’s brief guardianship ends.

Although Linton is left trapped and miserable at Wuthering Heights, Cathy eventually discovers his existence and visits him, sparking a secret correspondence that Nelly ultimately discovers and destroys.

Little Cathy’s grief over Linton’s departure was intense, though time eventually dimmed his memory. Reports from the Wuthering Heights housekeeper painted a grim picture of the boy’s existence: he was a sickly, selfish invalid, constantly demanding comfort and nursing imaginary ailments. Heathcliff’s antipathy toward his son grew daily; he could not bear the sound of Linton’s voice and avoided his presence whenever possible. Linton lived a secluded life, often confined to bed or a small parlour, while Hareton, rough but not ill-natured, was the only source of amusement, though their interactions invariably ended in tears and curses. Nelly, hearing these accounts, lost interest in the boy, though she felt a lingering pity for his fate.

Time passed pleasantly at the Grange until Cathy reached sixteen. On the anniversary of her mother’s death, Edgar retired to the library to mourn alone, leaving Cathy to her own resources. On a beautiful spring morning, she persuaded Nelly to walk with her on the moors, ostensibly to hunt for grouse nests. Cathy, full of high spirits, led Nelly far from home, darting over hillocks and banks until they were miles from the Grange and deep within Heathcliff’s territory. Nelly, weary and anxious, insisted they turn back, but Cathy pressed on until she was intercepted by Heathcliff and Hareton.

Heathcliff caught Cathy poaching and, recognizing her, greeted her with a malevolent smile. When she identified her father as Mr. Linton, Heathcliff’s sarcasm deepened. He invited Cathy to rest at his house, claiming she would get home sooner for the ease. Nelly protested vehemently, knowing Edgar’s wishes, but Cathy, tired and curious, insisted on going. Heathcliff revealed his design to Nelly: he intended the two cousins to fall in love and marry to secure the estate, a plan he viewed as a generous provision for Catherine. Despite Nelly’s warnings of his bad intentions, Cathy scampered ahead, and they entered the house.

Inside, they found Linton standing by the hearth. He had grown taller and his features were prettier, brightened by the fresh air, though his movements remained languid. Cathy was delighted to recognize her cousin, and they exchanged affectionate greetings, marveling at the changes time had wrought. Cathy then turned to Heathcliff, calling him uncle and expressing surprise that they had never visited. Heathcliff, feigning a grimace, warned her not to mention the visit to Edgar. He claimed a quarrel existed between them that would cause Edgar to forbid any future meetings. Cathy, crestfallen, questioned the cause of the dispute, and Heathcliff cynically explained that Edgar had thought him too poor to wed his sister.

Cathy declared this wrong and resolved to tell Edgar so, suggesting Linton come to the Grange instead. Linton, however, complained that the walk was too far for him. Heathcliff cast a glance of bitter contempt at his son’s frailty, expressing a twisted preference for Hareton’s brutishness. He noted that while he despised Linton’s weakness, he took pleasure in Hareton’s degradation, seeing in him a reflection of his own past suffering and a tool for revenge. Heathcliff sent the cousins outside, but Linton was too indolent to move, choosing to sit by the fire. Cathy, eager for activity, turned her attention to Hareton, whom Heathcliff had brought in.

Cathy asked if Hareton was her cousin, and Heathcliff confirmed he was her mother’s nephew. When asked if she liked him, Cathy whispered an insult in Heathcliff’s ear. Heathcliff laughed, while Hareton darkened, sensitive to the slight. Heathcliff mockingly ordered Hareton to behave like a gentleman and entertain the young lady, enjoying the cruelty of the situation. As they walked, Hareton averted his face, studying the landscape with an artist’s interest, while Cathy tripped merrily, finding amusement in his strange ways. Heathcliff remarked to Nelly on his satisfaction in Hareton’s coarseness, comparing him to gold used for paving-stones, while Linton was merely tin polished to look like silver. He relished the thought of Hindley’s pride in such a son, should he be alive to see him.

Linton, regretting his missed opportunity, was finally spurred by his father to join the others outside. Cathy asked Hareton about the inscription over the door, but he could not read it. Linton giggled, mocking Hareton’s illiteracy and calling him a colossal dunce. Cathy questioned if Hareton was simple, and Linton taunted him further about his Yorkshire pronunciation. Hareton, enraged and insulted, retreated after a clumsy retort. Heathcliff smiled at Hareton’s departure but looked with singular aversion at Linton, whose spiteful amusement and lack of spirit disgusted him. Nelly found herself disliking Linton more than pitying him.

They stayed until afternoon, and fortunately Edgar remained unaware of their absence. On the walk home, Nelly tried to enlighten Cathy on the characters of the people they had left, but Cathy accused her of prejudice and sided with her “uncle.” The next day, Cathy confessed the visit to Edgar. She recounted the excursion and scolded him for hiding Linton so near, defending Heathcliff’s cordiality and blaming her father for the old quarrel.

Edgar, realizing his vague warnings were insufficient, drew her close and explained the true depth of his hatred. He described Heathcliff as a diabolical man who delighted in ruining those he hated. He sketched Heathcliff’s abuse of Isabella and how he had acquired Wuthering Heights, emphasizing that he would detest Cathy on Edgar’s account. Cathy, whose experience of evil was limited, was shocked by the capacity for such enduring, calculated malice. Edgar deemed it unnecessary to say more, kissing her and asking her to avoid the Heights.

Cathy obeyed outwardly, but that night, Nelly found her weeping by her bed. Cathy claimed she cried for Linton, who would be disappointed by her absence. She begged to write a note explaining why she could not come and to send the books she had promised. Nelly refused sternly, forbidding any correspondence. Cathy, defiant, tried to write anyway, but Nelly extinguished her candle and left her in a peevish mood. Despite this, the letter was finished and sent by a milk-fetcher.

Weeks passed, and Cathy’s behavior grew secretive. She often hid books when Nelly approached and lingered in the kitchen expecting arrivals. Nelly discovered a small drawer in the library which Cathy guarded zealously. Suspecting treachery, Nelly searched the drawer one night and found a mass of letters from Linton. The correspondence ranged from embarrassed notes to copious, foolish love-letters, filled with ardour and flatness. Nelly tied them up and relocked the empty drawer.

Later, Nelly caught Cathy passing a letter to a milk-boy and intercepted it. The note was simple and eloquent, but Nelly was determined to end the intrigue. When Cathy later opened the drawer to find her treasures gone, she let out a cry of despair. She dragged Nelly upstairs, begging for the letters and promising never to write again. Nelly scolded her severely, threatening to show the “trash” to Edgar. Cathy, frantic, implored Nelly to burn them instead. Nelly agreed, on condition that Cathy promise never to send or receive a letter, book, or token again.

Cathy swore she would stop, but as Nelly began to burn the letters, the pain was too great. Cathy tried to snatch a few from the flames, burning her fingers in the process. Nelly took the remaining bundle to show Edgar, forcing Cathy to sacrifice the rest. The letters were consumed by the fire, and Cathy retired to her room with a sense of intense injury. The next morning, Nelly sent a formal note to Linton demanding he cease writing, and thereafter, the little boy came with empty pockets.

Although Nelly burns the letters and forces Catherine to stop the correspondence, Catherine remains despondent during her father’s illness. Heathcliff intercepts them on a walk and claims Linton is dying of a broken heart, a lie that convinces Catherine she must visit him to save her cousin.

Summer fades into a bleak, wet autumn as Edgar Linton catches a severe cold that confines him indoors throughout the winter, leaving his daughter Catherine isolated and melancholy. Deprived of her father’s company and having ceased her secret correspondence with Linton, Catherine grows despondent. On a gloomy October afternoon, Nelly Dean takes her for a formal walk to distract her, but Catherine moves listlessly, pausing to weep and expressing a deep fear of being left alone in the world should her father and Nelly die. Nelly attempts to comfort her, urging her to remain cheerful to avoid causing Edgar further anxiety. She warns Catherine that her wildness and fretfulness could kill him, insisting that she must avoid giving him any distress if she values his life.

Seeking diversion, Catherine climbs a wall to gather rose hips, but her hat falls over the side. While she scrambles down to retrieve it, Nelly finds the gate locked and fails to find a key that will open it. Before they can retreat, Heathcliff appears on horseback, effectively trapping them. He confronts Catherine, revealing he has intercepted her letters to Linton and accusing her of toying with his son’s affections. Heathcliff spins a fabricated tale, claiming Linton is literally dying of a broken heart and will be dead by summer unless Catherine intervenes. He swears he is leaving town and insists she visit Wuthering Heights to save her cousin.

Nelly immediately denounces Heathcliff as a liar and tries to force Catherine away, but the girl is visibly shaken by his performance and believes his account. Nelly manages to get Catherine back inside the Grange, but the girl is consumed by guilt and fear. Nelly attempts to ridicule Heathcliff’s story, but her efforts fail to penetrate Catherine’s distress. Convinced she is responsible for Linton’s supposed decline, Catherine resolves to go to him to explain her loyalty. Unable to bear her mistress’s suffering and hoping Linton himself will expose the lie, Nelly reluctantly agrees to escort her to Wuthering Heights the next day.

Nelly reluctantly agrees to escort Catherine to Wuthering Heights, hoping the visit will expose Heathcliff’s lie about Linton’s health. However, the trip reveals Linton to be peevish and selfish, and though Nelly attempts to end the acquaintance, Catherine’s guilt compels her to continue secret visits while Nelly falls ill.

A misty, frosty morning greets Nelly and Catherine as they arrive at Wuthering Heights, their feet thoroughly wetted by the journey. They find Joseph ensconced by the fire, hostile and unhelpful, while the house itself feels neglected. Inside, they discover Linton reclining in an armchair, peevish and complaining of the cold. He initially mistakes them for servants, then rebuffs Catherine’s affectionate embrace because it takes his breath away. Instead of gratitude, he demands they shut the door and fetch coals, displaying a selfishness that immediately sours the visit. He complains bitterly about Hareton and Joseph, claiming they laugh at him and are odious beings, painting himself as a persecuted victim to garner Catherine’s sympathy.

The conversation soon shifts from sympathy to a bitter argument about their parents. Catherine and Linton quarrel over whether their fathers hated one another, with Linton insulting Edgar and Catherine retaliating by attacking Heathcliff’s character. Enraged, Catherine gives Linton’s chair a violent push, causing him to fall into a suffocating coughing fit that lasts long enough to frighten everyone present. Catherine is instantly remorseful, weeping at the mischief she has done, but Linton uses the opportunity for emotional blackmail. He moans and wails about his suffering, blaming her for his sleepless night and impending agony, refusing to be comforted until she is distraught.

When they attempt to leave, Linton throws a tantrum, sliding from his seat onto the hearth to writhe in perverseness. Nelly sees through the behavior and attempts to drag Catherine away, but Catherine rushes back in terror to soothe him. Linton rejects cushions and demands Catherine support him with her body, converting her shoulder into a pillow. He then forces her to sing ballads to him for hours, exploiting her guilt and desire to help. When Hareton returns, Linton extracts a whispered promise from Catherine to return the next day, ensuring her defiance of Nelly’s authority.

On the journey home, Nelly scathingly criticizes Linton’s character, predicting his early death and declaring him a tedious, selfish slip. Catherine defends him, insisting she is old enough to manage him and help him recover. Nelly delivers an ultimatum, threatening to tell Edgar if Catherine returns to the Heights, but Catherine gives a non-committal answer and gallops home, leaving Nelly to toil behind. The exposure proves too much for Nelly, who falls ill for three weeks. While Catherine acts as a perfect nurse by day, waiting on her father and Nelly with angelic devotion, she uses the unsupervised evenings to visit Linton. Nelly, bedridden and incapacitated, misses the fresh colour in Catherine’s cheeks and the pinkness on her fingers, attributing them to a hot fire rather than the cold rides across the moors, unaware that the secret intimacy has already been revived.

While Nelly is bedridden, Catherine uses the opportunity to resume her secret visits to Wuthering Heights, but her deception is eventually discovered. Nelly reveals the truth to Edgar, who forbids Catherine from returning to the Heights, though he promises to invite Linton to the Grange instead.

After three weeks of illness, Nelly Dean finally regains her strength and attempts to resume her duties, but she immediately notices a strange restlessness in her young mistress. Catherine, usually attentive, now seems impatient and fatigued, frequently leaving the room early or toying with her watch to escape the confinement. One night, when Catherine disappears entirely from the house, Nelly searches the rooms and the grounds, eventually spotting a groom leading Catherine’s pony back from the park. Catherine slips in through the drawing-room window, believing herself unseen, but Nelly reveals her presence and demands the truth. Terrified of Nelly’s anger, Catherine bursts into tears and confesses that she has been riding to Wuthering Heights every evening since Nelly fell ill.

Catherine proceeds to recount the history of this illicit romance, detailing the practical arrangements that made the deception possible. She explains that she bribed the groom Michael with books from her own collection to care for the pony, and while Michael was refastening the lock of the park gate one afternoon, she seized the opportunity to take possession of the key. This allowed her to come and go at will, using the excuse of visiting her sick cousin to justify her absence. Initially, the visits were delightful; she and Linton would spend hours in the clean room, talking, singing, and debating their differing visions of heaven. Linton described his ideal happiness as lying motionless on a bank of heath, listening to bees and larks in a cloudless sky, whereas Catherine craved vibrant life and motion, rocking in a rustling tree with the wind blowing and clouds flitting rapidly above. They eventually agreed to try both experiences, reconciling their philosophical differences through play. They attempted games like blindman’s-buff and ball, though Linton’s frailty and bad temper often curtailed the amusement.

However, the narrative soon darkens as Catherine describes an encounter with Hareton Earnshaw. Arriving one evening, she mocked Hareton’s attempt to read the inscription over the door, wounding his pride deeply. Later, Hareton burst into the room in a fury, seizing Linton and throwing him out, cursing at Catherine and kicking her books. The violence triggered a catastrophic physical reaction in Linton; he shrieked, coughed blood, and collapsed to the floor. While Joseph gloated over the chaos, Hareton carried the invalid upstairs and locked Catherine out. When Catherine attempted to return later, she found Linton cold and accusatory, falsely claiming that Hareton was not to blame for the uproar and that Catherine herself had caused the distress.

Despite the misery and the cruelty of the household, Catherine found herself drawn back by a mix of guilt and affection. She describes a final, tearful reconciliation where the self-pitying Linton declared himself worthless and tormented by his father, begging her to believe in his love despite his distorted nature. Catherine admits that Heathcliff has returned and is cruel to Linton, having overheard their interactions and abused the boy for his conduct. To avoid further detection and punishment, she instructed her cousin to whisper his bitter complaints when they spoke. She concludes by pleading with Nelly not to betray her, arguing that stopping her visits would only inflict misery on two people.

Nelly, however, does not hesitate. She leaves Catherine’s room and goes straight to Mr. Edgar, relating the entire story—though she omits the specific details of the conversations and Hareton’s involvement to spare Edgar some pain. Edgar is alarmed and distressed by the revelation. The next morning, Catherine discovers that her secret is out and her visits are forbidden. She weeps and writhes against the edict, begging her father to pity Linton, but Edgar remains firm. He promises to write to Linton, inviting him to the Grange when he pleases, but he sternly forbids Catherine from ever returning to Wuthering Heights, a decision that might have been even harsher had he known the full extent of his nephew’s condition.

Although Edgar forbids Catherine from returning to Wuthering Heights, he eventually agrees to allow the cousins to meet weekly on the moors under Nelly’s supervision. He hopes to facilitate a courtship that will secure Catherine’s future, unaware that Linton is dying and that Heathcliff is manipulating the correspondence to serve his own avaricious ends.

Lockwood interrupts Mrs. Dean to confess his fascination with Catherine, but she urges him to continue her narrative. As spring advances, Edgar’s health fails, and he confides in Nelly his deep anxiety for Catherine’s future. He asks for her honest assessment of Linton, hoping the boy might be a suitable husband despite his parentage. Gazing toward the churchyard, Edgar expresses a morbid longing to be reunited with his wife, yet he agonizes over abandoning his daughter to the mercy of Heathcliff or a weak heir.

Edgar writes to Linton expressing a desire to see him, but Heathcliff intercepts the response. Under his father’s tyrannical censorship, Linton composes eloquent letters pleading for an interview, arguing that their separation is unjust and that he is more Edgar’s nephew than Heathcliff’s son. Worn down by Catherine’s lobbying and Linton’s persistent, forced entreaties, Edgar agrees to allow the cousins to meet weekly on the moors under Nelly’s supervision. He believes he is facilitating a courtship that will secure Catherine’s return to her family home, unaware that Linton is dying and that Heathcliff is rushing the plot. Nelly dismisses her earlier forebodings, deceived by Linton’s apparent eagerness to ride, not realizing he is being driven by a father who treats a dying child with wicked cruelty to serve his own avaricious ends.

Edgar agrees to allow the cousins to meet weekly on the moors, hoping to facilitate a courtship while unaware that Heathcliff is rushing the plot. However, when the meeting finally takes place, Linton is shockingly weak and fearful, coercing Catherine into deceiving Edgar about his health before she flees in alarm.

Summer was fading when Edgar finally allowed Catherine and Nelly to ride out to meet Linton, though a messenger intercepted them near the guide-stone to redirect the meeting closer to Wuthering Heights. Upon arriving, they found Linton lying on the heath, too weak to stand or greet them properly. His appearance was shockingly altered; he was pale, trembling, and supported himself heavily on Catherine. While he insisted he was better, his haggard eyes and feeble movements contradicted his claims, dampening Catherine’s initial joy into alarm.

Catherine attempted to revive their old connection by speaking of their shared paradise, but Linton was listless and incapable of sustaining conversation. He seemed to endure their presence as a penance rather than a pleasure, prompting Catherine to suggest leaving. This proposition threw Linton into a sudden panic. Begging her to stay, he admitted he feared his father’s anger and coerced Catherine into promising to deceive Edgar about his health. He warned her not to appear downcast before Heathcliff, admitting his father was severe to him.

As Linton dozed fitfully, waking in terror at imagined sounds of his father’s approach, Catherine’s affection turned to disappointment. She realized he regarded the meeting as a task imposed by tyranny. When he suddenly gasped that Heathcliff was coming, Catherine fled, leaving him clinging to her arm in fear. The ride home left her with a softened sense of pity and vague, uneasy doubts about Linton’s true situation, though she remained uncertain how much to reveal to Edgar.

Edgar’s health declines rapidly, prompting Catherine to visit Linton, who coerces her into accompanying him inside Wuthering Heights. There, Heathcliff imprisons them and forces Catherine to agree to marry Linton immediately, leaving Nelly confined as a prisoner while for days.

Seven days slipped away, each marking a terrifying acceleration in Edgar Linton’s decline. The havoc that months had previously wrought was now emulated by the inroads of hours. Catherine sensed the end was near, her spirit divining the dreadful probability that her father’s death was imminent. She grudged every moment spent away from his pillow, her countenance growing wan with sorrow. Edgar, noticing her distress, gladly dismissed her to what he hoped would be a happy change of air, drawing comfort from the idea that she would not be left entirely alone after his death. He clung to the fixed idea that Linton resembled him in person and therefore in mind, a mistake Nelly did not correct to spare his final moments.

They deferred their excursion until a golden August afternoon, where the hills seemed full of enough life to revive even the dying. They found Linton watching at the usual spot, but he received them with an animation that looked more like fear than joy. He spoke with difficulty, exclaiming that it was late and expressing surprise that she had come, given her father’s illness. Catherine demanded to know why he was not candid, accusing him of bringing her there to distress them. Linton shivered, calling himself a worthless coward and begging her to despise him but spare him her anger, as he dreaded his father. Catherine cried out in passion at his foolishness, but Linton, weeping with agony, threw himself on the ground, sobbing that he was a traitor and dared not tell her why. He implored her not to leave him, claiming his life was in her hands.

Catherine, moved by his intense anguish, stooped to raise him, promising to stay if he would be calm. Linton gasped that his father had threatened him and that he dared not tell. Catherine replied with scornful compassion that she was no coward, but her magnanimity provoked fresh tears from Linton, who kissed her hands but still could not speak out. Nelly was cogitating the mystery when she heard a rustle and saw Mr. Heathcliff descending the Heights almost upon them. Heathcliff ignored the young people and hailed Nelly with an assumed hearty tone, asking after the Grange. He then lowered his voice to confirm the rumor that Edgar Linton was on his death-bed, wondering if they exaggerated his illness. Nelly replied that her master was indeed dying, a blessing for him though sad for them. Heathcliff asked how long he would last, and Nelly admitted she did not know.

Heathcliff looked at the two young people, noting that Linton seemed determined to beat him in death, and thanking the uncle to be quick. He mocked Linton for snivelling and ordered him to get up. Linton sank into a paroxysm of helpless fear at his father’s glance, his strength failing him. Heathcliff advanced and lifted him, swearing with curbed ferocity that he was getting angry and demanding the boy command his spirit. Linton panted that he would, begging to be left alone. Heathcliff offered his own hand instead, ordering Linton to stand on his feet. He remarked to Catherine that she would imagine he was the devil himself to excite such horror, and asked her to walk home with him as the boy shuddered at his touch. Catherine whispered to Linton that she could not go to Wuthering Heights as her father had forbidden it, asking why he was so afraid. Linton answered he could never re-enter that house without her.

Heathcliff stopped them, declaring they would respect Catherine’s filial scruples. He told Nelly to take his son in, and he would follow the advice concerning the doctor without delay. Nelly replied that she must remain with her mistress, but Heathcliff threatened to pinch the baby and make it scream to move her charity. He approached Linton again, making as if to seize him, but Linton clung to Catherine in frantic importunity. Despite Nelly’s disapproval, she could not hinder Catherine from accompanying the terrified boy. They reached the threshold, and Catherine walked in, conducting Linton to a chair while Nelly waited outside. Mr. Heathcliff pushed Nelly forward, shut the door, and locked it. He declared his house was not stricken with the plague and that he was minded to be hospitable, inviting them to sit down for tea. He mentioned that the servants were gone and he was used to being alone but preferred interesting company. He offered Catherine Linton as a present, remarking on her stare and confessing a savage feeling toward anything that seemed afraid of him. He struck the table and swore he hated them.

Catherine, unable to hear the latter part, exclaimed that she was not afraid of him. She stepped close, her eyes flashing, and demanded the key, declaring she would not eat or drink there even if starving. Heathcliff looked up, seized by her boldness. She snatched at the key and half succeeded, but he recovered it speedily. He warned her to stand off or he would knock her down. Regardless, she captured his hand again, applying her teeth when her nails failed. Heathcliff glanced at Nelly, keeping her silent. Suddenly, he opened his hand and resigned the key, but as Catherine secured it, he seized her with his liberated hand, pulled her onto his knee, and administered a shower of terrific slaps on both sides of her head. Nelly rushed on him furiously, but a touch on the chest silenced her. The scene was over in minutes. Catherine, released, put her hands to her temples, looking bewildered as if unsure her ears were attached. She trembled like a reed against the table. Heathcliff stooped to repossess the key, declaring he knew how to chastise children. He told Catherine to go to Linton and cry at her ease, announcing that he would be her father tomorrow and she would have a daily taste of his discipline if she showed such a temper again.

Cathy ran to Nelly instead of Linton, kneeling and weeping with her burning cheek on Nelly’s lap. Linton shrunk into the corner of the settle, quiet as a mouse. Heathcliff, perceiving their confusion, rose and made tea himself, handing Nelly a cup and telling her to wash away her spleen. He declared he was going out to seek their horses. Once he was gone, they tried the kitchen door and windows, finding themselves regularly imprisoned. Nelly turned on Linton, demanding he tell them what his father was after or she would box his ears. Catherine added that it was for his sake she came, and it would be wickedly ungrgrateful if he refused. Linton asked for tea, demanding Nelly go away as he did not like her standing over him. He complained Catherine’s tears were falling into his cup. Catherine pushed another cup to him and wiped her face. Nelly felt disgusted at the wretch’s composure, guessing his terror had subsided once he had successfully decoyed them there.

Linton sipped the tea and revealed that his father wanted them to be married immediately. He explained that Edgar would not consent now, and Heathcliff feared Linton would die if they waited. He stated that they were to be married in the morning, and Catherine must stay all night, after which she could return home and take him with her. Nelly exclaimed that the man was mad, asking if he imagined a healthy young lady would tie herself to a perishing monkey like him. She threatened to shake him for his contemptible treachery. She gave him a slight shaking, which brought on a cough, and Linton resumed moaning. Catherine rebuked Nelly but declared she would not stay all night. She said she would burn the door down to get out. Linton was up in alarm again, clasping her and sobbing, begging her to have him and save him, not to leave him. He insisted she must obey his father. Catherine replied she must obey her own father and relieve him from cruel suspense, declaring she loved her papa better than Linton.

The mortal terror of Heathcliff restored Linton’s eloquence. Catherine persisted that she must go, trying to persuade him to subdue his selfish agony. Heathcliff re-entered, announcing their beasts had trotted off. He mocked Linton for snivelling again and ordered him to bed, telling him that in a month or two he would be able to pay Catherine back for her tyrannies. He held the door open, and Linton exited like a spaniel fearing a spiteful squeeze. Heathcliff re-secured the lock and approached the fire where Nelly and Catherine stood. Catherine looked up, instinctively raising her hand to her cheek, but Heathcliff scowled, muttering that her courage was well disguised as she seemed damnably afraid. Catherine replied that she was afraid now because staying would make her father miserable. She promised to marry Linton, as her father would like it and she loved him, asking why Heathcliff wished to force her to do what she would willingly do herself.

Nelly cried out that there was law in the land, but Heathcliff silenced her. He told Catherine he would enjoy himself thinking her father would be miserable. He said she had hit on no surer way to fix her residence under his roof for twenty-four hours than informing him of that event. He vowed she should not quit the place until she married Linton. Catherine wept bitterly, begging him to send Ellen to let her father know she was safe, or to marry her now. Heathcliff answered that Edgar would think she was tired of waiting on him and had run off for amusement. He declared it was natural she should weary of nursing a sick man, even if he was her father. He claimed Edgar’s happiest days were over when Catherine’s began, cursing her for coming into the world as he had. He declared he did not love her and told her to weep away, as it would be her chief diversion unless Linton made amends.

He mocked Edgar’s letters advising him to be careful and kind to his jewel, stating Linton required all his care and kindness for himself. He said Linton could play the little tyrant and torture cats if their teeth were drawn. Nelly remarked that he was right, hoping Catherine would think twice. Heathcliff answered that Catherine must either accept Linton or remain a prisoner with Nelly until Edgar died, claiming he could detain them both concealed. Catherine declared she would not retract her word, offering to marry Linton within the hour if she could go to Thrushcross Grange afterwards. She appealed to Heathcliff, calling him cruel but not a fiend, asking him not to destroy her happiness from mere malice. She asked if he could bear to live if her father died thinking she had left him on purpose.

She ceased crying and knelt at his knee, refusing to get up or look away until he looked back. She insisted she did not hate him and was not angry that he struck her. She asked softly if he had never loved anybody in his life, begging him to look as she was so wretched he could not help but pity her. Heathcliff brutally repulsed her, telling her to keep her eft’s fingers off or he would kick her. He said he would rather be hugged by a snake, asking how she could dream of fawning on him when he detested her. He shrugged his shoulders as if his flesh crept, thrust back his chair, and threatened Nelly with silence when she began to abuse him.

It was growing dark when they heard voices at the garden-gate. Heathcliff hurried out, leaving them behind. He returned alone after a few minutes. Nelly observed she wished it had been Hareton, thinking he might take their part. Heathcliff overheard, revealing it was three servants sent to seek them from the Grange. He mocked that Catherine should have opened a lattice, but swore she was glad she hadn’t. At learning the chance they had missed, they both gave vent to their grief without control. Heathcliff allowed them to wail until nine o’clock, then bid them go upstairs to Zillah’s chamber. Nelly whispered Catherine to obey, hoping they would find a way out, but the window was narrow and the trap fastened. They were imprisoned as before. Neither lay down; Catherine watched anxiously for morning at the lattice, while Nelly sat in judgment on her own derelictions of duty.

At seven o’clock, Heathcliff came to inquire if Miss Linton had risen. Catherine ran to the door and answered yes. He opened it, pulled her out, and turned the lock on Nelly before she could follow. Nelly demanded her release, but Heathcliff replied she must be patient and he would send breakfast. Nelly endured it for hours until she heard a footstep. A voice announced it had brought food, and Nelly beheld Hareton laden with a tray. She begged him to stay, but he cried “Nay” and retired, deaf to her prayers. There she remained enclosed the whole day and the next night, and another, and another. Five nights and four days she remained altogether, seeing nobody but Hareton once every morning, and he was a model of a jailor: surly, dumb, and deaf to every attempt at moving his sense of justice or compassion.

After five days of captivity, Zillah informs Nelly that Edgar is dying and Heathcliff expects her to attend the funeral. Nelly rushes to the Grange to fetch help, but before she can return to rescue Catherine, the girl escapes on her own and arrives just in time to witness her father’s death.

On the fifth afternoon of her captivity, Zillah entered Nelly’s room with a key and a message from Heathcliff. Zillah revealed that the village believed Nelly and Catherine had sunk in the Blackhorse marsh, a tale Heathcliff had encouraged to conceal his kidnapping. She added that Edgar was dying but still alive, and Heathcliff expected Nelly to return to the Grange to attend the squire’s funeral. Horrified, Nelly ignored her weakness and rushed downstairs, intending to free Catherine and return home.

She found Linton lying on the settle, sucking sugar-candy. When Nelly demanded to know Catherine’s location, Linton refused to be soft, declaring she was his wife and would not be allowed to leave because she hated him and wanted his money. Nelly shamed him for his ingratitude, reminding him of Catherine’s past kindness and his own selfishness. Linton admitted he could not stay with her because she cried incessantly, and he had called Heathcliff, who threatened to strangle her if she did not stop. He recounted a violent struggle over a miniature portrait, where Heathcliff struck Catherine and wrenched the locket from her neck, crushing it underfoot. Linton confessed he had been pleased by the violence at first but was now afraid of her pale, wild appearance. He admitted he possessed the key to her room but refused to give it up, keeping it as a secret. Nelly decided to flee to the Grange to fetch help rather than confront Heathcliff directly.

Upon reaching Thrushcross Grange, Nelly found Edgar transformed into an image of sadness and resignation. She whispered that Catherine was alive and coming home. Edgar nearly swooned from the shock and joy, but upon recovering, he realized Heathcliff intended to seize Catherine’s fortune. He immediately decided to alter his will, placing the property in the hands of trustees to prevent it from falling to Heathcliff. Nelly dispatched men to fetch the lawyer and others to rescue Catherine, but both missions failed. The lawyer was delayed, and the men returned empty-handed, claiming Catherine was too ill to move. Nelly vowed to storm Wuthering Heights herself at daylight to ensure Catherine saw her father.

However, before she could leave, a knock at the door revealed Catherine, who had escaped on her own. Nelly revived her and urged her to hide her misery before seeing Edgar. Catherine entered the room and supported her father calmly as he died blissfully, murmuring that he was going to her and that Catherine would follow them. Catherine remained dry-eyed and stoic by the body. The lawyer arrived later, having sold himself to Heathcliff, but Edgar’s will protected the estate. Catherine later explained that she had terrified Linton into unlocking the door and had escaped through her mother’s chamber window before dawn, leaving her accomplice to suffer for his part in the flight.

Following Edgar’s death and Catherine’s escape, Heathcliff arrives at the Grange to claim his mastery over the property and take Catherine back to Wuthering Heights. He reveals his obsession with the late Catherine Earnshaw before forcibly removing the young Catherine, leaving Nelly behind.

The evening after the funeral, Catherine and Nelly mourn in the library, hoping Catherine might remain at the Grange with Linton. Their sombre planning is shattered when Heath Heathcliff enters without knocking, asserting his mastery over the property. He stops Catherine from fleeing and declares he has come to take her home to Wuthering Heights. He reveals that he has psychologically broken Linton, whose nerves are now shattered by his father’s mere presence, and he transfers the burden of the son’s care to Catherine. When Nelly begs him to let Catherine stay, Heathcliff refuses, claiming he needs a tenant for the Grange and intends to turn Catherine out to earn her keep.

Catherine confronts him with surprising boldness. She insists that despite his efforts, she and Linton still love one another, and she defies Heathcliff to hurt them. Twisting the knife, she tells him that his cruelty stems from his own misery and loneliness, declaring that nobody loves him and no one will cry for him. Heathcliff dismisses her triumph and orders her to pack, sending her from the room to speak privately with Nelly.

Left alone, Heathcliff reveals the shocking extent of his obsession. He admits he bribed the sexton to open Catherine’s coffin so he could gaze upon her face once more. He recounts the eighteen years of relentless torture he has endured, haunted by her ghost night and day. He describes digging up her grave years ago in a desperate bid to hold her, only to be stopped by a supernatural sigh and a sense of her presence that finally consoled him. He explains that he has arranged for their coffins to eventually mingle, so that nothing will separate them in death. He details the daily agony of sensing her everywhere but never seeing her, a torture that kept his nerves at a breaking point until he finally found peace.

Catherine returns, announcing she is ready. She whispers a cold farewell to Nelly, her lips like ice, but Heathcliff forbids any future visits. He marches Catherine out, gripping her arm and hurrying her down the dark garden path toward her captivity.

Heathcliff marches Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, where she is forced to nurse the dying Linton alone and is subsequently left destitute by his will. Her interactions with Hareton are marked by mutual resentment, leading Lockwood to resolve to leave the area for six months.

Zillah recounts the harsh welcome Catherine received upon her return to Wuthering Heights. Ignored by Joseph and explicitly forbidden by Heathcliff to receive any aid, Catherine was forced to nurse the dying Linton entirely alone. She pleaded for a doctor, but Heathcliff coldly refused to spend a farthing on his son’s life, leaving her to struggle against death without assistance. When Linton finally died in the night, Catherine announced the news with a bitter relief, declaring herself free while looking like death itself. Heathcliff remained indifferent, having the body removed and leaving Catherine to her grief. She remained in seclusion for a fortnight, rejecting Zillah’s attempts at kindness.

Heathcliff eventually visited Catherine’s room not to comfort her, but to establish his total domination. He presented Linton’s will, revealing that the terrified boy had been coerced into bequeathing every piece of moveable property to his father. Because Catherine was a minor, Heathcliff also claimed the lands in her right, leaving her completely destitute and powerless to challenge his possession.

Catherine eventually descended from her room one Sunday to escape the cold, encountering Hareton, who had cleaned himself up in a shy attempt to be civil. However, Catherine entered with icy pride, rejecting Zillah’s seat and Hareton’s offer to sit by the fire. When she struggled to reach books, Hareton helped her, and for a moment, he was captivated by her hair. He gently stroked a curl, but Catherine reacted with violent disgust, shrieking that she could not endure his touch. Hareton’s confusion turned to resentment when he asked Zillah to request that she read aloud, and Catherine cruelly rebuffed him. She declared that she despised them all for their past hypocrisy and would only remain out of necessity.

This interaction crushed Hareton’s infatuation and hardened Catherine’s pride. Hareton retreated to his gun and muttered curses, while Catherine, forced to stay for warmth, treated the household with increasing venom, snapping even at Heathcliff. Hearing this harrowing history, Lockwood resolves to leave Thrushcross Grange and spend the next six months in London, unwilling to endure another winter in such a gloomy environment.

After resolving to leave the Grange for London, Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights and witnesses a bitter conflict between Catherine and Hareton over books. Heathcliff observes the scene with discomfort, noting Hareton’s resemblance to Catherine, before Lockwood departs for the city.

Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights on a frosty day, escorted inside by the handsome but sullen Hareton, who acts as a reluctant watchdog. Catherine is present but looks sulky and ignores him. When Lockwood attempts to secretly deliver a note from Nelly, Hareton intercepts it, insisting Heathcliff must see it first. After a brief struggle, he throws it down in disgust, allowing Catherine to read it eagerly. She reveals her misery, explaining that Heathcliff has destroyed her library and she has been starved of books. She discovers Hareton has been hiding a secret stock of volumes and accuses him of hoarding them out of envy, mocking his stumbling attempts to read and learn. Lockwood tries to defend Hareton’s desire for self-improvement, but Catherine remains scornful, claiming his mispronunciations profane her favorite works.

Provoked beyond endurance, Hareton gathers the books and throws them into Catherine’s lap, declaring he never wants to see them again. She refuses to touch them, saying she now hates them by association. When she mocks him by reading poorly, Hareton strikes her and then hurls the books onto the fire. Lockwood perceives Hareton’s anguish, realizing the books represented his hope to win Catherine’s approval through education, a hope now destroyed by her cruelty. Hareton retreats to nurse his grief in solitude.

Heathcliff returns and questions the commotion, but Hareton brushes him off. As Heathcliff watches the young man leave, he mutters that Hareton looks more like Catherine every day, a resemblance he finds almost unbearable to behold. Lockwood informs Heathcliff that he is leaving for London and will not return to the Grange. Heathcliff accepts the news, and Catherine is forced to serve a meal before being sent away to eat in the kitchen. Lockwood departs the dreary household, reflecting on the tragedy of the inhabitants and imagining a romantic alternative where he and Catherine might have escaped together into the stirring atmosphere of the town.

After departing for London, Lockwood returns to the neighborhood in September 1802 and finds a transformed atmosphere at Wuthering Heights. He discovers that Heathcliff has died and that Catherine and Hareton have reconciled, ending their feud to study together in peace.

In September 1802, while traveling north to visit a friend, Lockwood finds himself unexpectedly drawn back to the neighborhood of Gimmerton. An ostler’s mention of the nearby village sparks a sudden impulse to visit Thrushcross Grange, hoping to settle affairs and sleep under his own roof. He arrives at sunset to find the house shut up and seemingly deserted, save for a thin wreath of smoke from the kitchen chimney. The new housekeeper is flustered by his unannounced appearance, nearly upsetting her wits at the sight of the master she did not expect. She throws down her pipe and bustles about in confusion, thrusting the hearth-brush into the grates by mistake. Lockwood calms her and asks for a room; she agrees to prepare a corner of a sitting-room and a bedroom, insisting she must sweep and dust despite his request for only a fire and dry sheets. Confiding in her chaotic energy, he steps out for a walk, learning from her that Nelly Dean has left the Grange to reside at Wuthering Heights.

Seizing the opportunity to conclude his business with the landlord, Lockwoodwood decides to walk to the Heights. He enjoys the scenic, lonely beauty of the moors under the rising moon, finding the landscape both sweet and desolate. Upon approaching Wuthering Heights, he notices distinct improvements: the gate yields easily to his hand, and the air is fragrant with the scent of flowers. The doors and windows stand open, and a comfortable fire burns within. Drawn by the sound of voices, Lockwood pauses outside and looks through the window. He witnesses a tender domestic scene where a young woman is correcting a young man’s reading. Catherine playfully slaps Hareton’s cheek when his attention wanders and rewards his diligence with kisses. Lockwood feels a sharp pang of envy at their intimacy and, not wishing to disturb them, slips around to the kitchen entrance.

Inside the kitchen, the atmosphere is lively with contradiction. Nelly Dean sits sewing and singing a cheerful tune, only to be interrupted by Joseph’s harsh ranting from within. The old servant complains bitterly that he cannot open his blessed Bible because of the wickedness surrounding him, lamenting that the poor lad is bewitched. Lockwood interrupts this domestic discord to greet Nelly, who is astonished to see him. Lockwood inquires for the master, only to be stunned when Nelly informs him that Heathcliff died three months prior. She invites him to sit and explains the events that followed his departure. Nelly recounts how she was summoned to the Heights to look after Catherine, who was initially miserable and confined to the garden. Catherine chafed at the restriction and took out her frustration on Hareton, mocking his ignorance and attempting to provoke him, which only deepened his sullen silence and resentment. She compared him to a dog or a cart-horse, lamenting his blank mind, and he responded with clenched fists and obstinate refusals to engage.

The tension between the cousins culminated on Easter Monday. Catherine, desperate for attention, snatched Hareton’s pipe and broke it. He exploded in anger, but Catherine’s persistence and a sudden, gentle kiss broke through his defenses. Realizing her past cruelty, she sought to make amends. She wrapped a handsome book in white paper as a peace offering and asked Nelly to act as an intermediary. She promised to teach Hareton to read if he accepted the gift. Hareton accepted the book, and the two became sworn allies as they studied together, their heads bent over the pages in shared amity.

When Joseph returned and found the cousins sitting in amity, he was horrified by what he considered wickedness. His emotion was revealed only by immense sighs as he solemnly spread his large Bible on the table and overlaid it with dirty bank-notes from his pocket-book. He commanded Hareton to take the money to the master, declaring the house no longer seemly for them, and retreated to his room in despair. Nelly concludes her story by expressing her profound joy at the union of the two young people. She predicts a happy future for them that will finally heal the deep wounds of the past, bringing peace to the storm-tossed heights.

Nelly recounts how Catherine and Hareton’s relationship blossomed into a happy alliance, despite a violent confrontation with Heathcliff over the ruined garden. Heathcliff ultimately spared them, confessing to Nelly that his desire for revenge had vanished and that he felt consumed by a yearning for death.

On the morning following a Monday of idleness, Catherine found Hareton resting in the garden and persuaded him to uproot Joseph’s beloved currant and gooseberry bushes to make space for a flower bed. Nelly Dean, horrified by the devastation wrought on the old servant’s prized plants, warned them that Joseph’s fury would be explosive. Despite the impending trouble, the cousins bonded over their plan to import flowers from the Grange, disregarding the consequences. When they gathered for breakfast, the atmosphere grew tense. Catherine playfully stuck primroses in Hareton’s porridge, teasing him until he nearly laughed. Heathcliff, occupied with his own dark thoughts, noticed the commotion and demanded silence, irritated by Catherine’s defiant stare.

The peace was shattered when Joseph discovered the ruined garden. He burst into the room, quivering with rage, and declared he could no longer serve a household where a “witch” had turned Hareton against him and destroyed his labor. Heathcliff demanded an explanation, and Hareton admitted to pulling up the bushes, though Catherine claimed full responsibility, asserting her right to beautify the land Heathcliff had stolen from her family. She taunted Heathcliff about her new alliance with Hareton, warning that her cousin would defend her. Enraged, Heathcliff ordered Hareton to throw her out and threatened to kill her. When Hareton hesitated, Catherine goaded the master further, insisting that striking her would only bring Hareton’s wrath upon him.

Heathcliff seized Catherine by the hair, seemingly ready to murder her, while Hareton attempted to intervene and begged for her safety. Just as the violence seemed imminent, Heathcliff’s rage abruptly vanished. He stared intently into Catherine’s face, his grip relaxing from her hair to her arm. Covering his eyes, he composed himself and spoke with a strange, assumed calmness. He banished Catherine to the kitchen and warned Hareton that associating with her would reduce him to beggary, then ordered everyone to leave him alone.

In Heathcliff’s absence, the young couple deepened their bond. Hareton sternly forbade Catherine from speaking ill of Heathcliff, comparing such insults to speaking ill of her own father. Catherine, recognizing the depth of Hareton’s ingrained loyalty, ceased her complaints. They spent the afternoon studying together by the fire, and Nelly observed with relief as Hareton’s appearance and intelligence improved under Catherine’s guidance, creating a scene of domestic happiness.

When Heathcliff returned unexpectedly, he stumbled upon this peaceful tableau. He was deeply agitated by the sight of them together, struck by Hareton’s startling resemblance to Catherine Earnshaw. He took the book from Hareton’s hand and dismissed them without violence. Left alone with Nelly, Heathcliff confessed a profound internal shift. He admitted that his lifelong desire for revenge had evaporated; he had the means to destroy his enemies but lacked the will to lift a hand. He felt a strange change approaching, a total lack of interest in daily life where he had to remind himself to breathe. The presence of the young lovers caused him agony, as Hareton was the ghost of his lost love and Catherine a reminder of her. He declared that his entire being was yearning for a single wish, a fulfillment that he felt was imminent, and that he was swallowed up in the anticipation of death and the end of his struggle.

After confessing his yearning for death and the end of his struggle, Heathcliff spends his final days in a state of strange anticipation and physical decline. He dies with a look of exultation, leaving Catherine and Hareton to plan their marriage while the local superstitions about his restless spirit linger.

For several days, Heathcliff shunned the household, eating only once in twenty-four hours and wandering the night. One April morning, he returned after a night outdoors with a terrifying transformation. He was pale and trembling, yet his eyes held a strange, joyful glitter. When offered food, he refused with contempt, breathing rapidly. Later, he sat down to dinner but suddenly lost the inclination to eat, laying down his knife to gaze eagerly out the window. When he returned, his appearance was even more unnatural: a bloodless hue, teeth visible in a ghastly smile, and a frame shivering like a tight-stretched cord.

Nelly asked if he had heard good news. Heathcliff replied that he was animated with hunger but could not eat, banishing Hareton and Catherine to be alone. Pressed about his behavior, he laughed and revealed that the night before he had been on the threshold of hell, but today he was within sight of his heaven, hardly three feet away. That evening, Nelly found him leaning against the open lattice, his face turned to the gloom. The flash of her candle revealed deep black eyes and a ghastly paleness that terrified her. He sent word that he would not eat until morning.

The next day, Heathcliff gave Joseph rapid instructions but continually turned his head aside as if watching something unseen. At breakfast, he stared at the wall with glittering, restless eyes, stopping his breathing for half a minute at a time. Nelly implored him to eat, but he smiled at empty space. It became apparent he was gazing at something within two yards’ distance that communicated both exquisite pleasure and pain. His eyes pursued it with unwearyied diligence, and when he tried to reach for bread, his fingers clenched on the table. Irritated, he left the house and disappeared through the gate.

Another anxious evening passed. Heathcliff returned after midnight and shut himself in the room beneath, pacing restlessly and sighing deeply. Nelly heard him muttering the name of Catherine with wild endearments, as if she were present. Unable to sleep, Nelly stirred the kitchen fire to draw him out. He roamed in a state of distraction, sighing so heavily there was no space for common breathing. He spoke of sending for the lawyer to write his will, expressing a wish to annihilate his property from the earth.

Nelly urged him to take food and rest, noting his hollow cheeks. Heathcliff retorted that he could not rest until he reached the shore, declaring he had done no injustice and repented of nothing. He claimed his soul’s bliss killed his body but did not satisfy itself. When Nelly suggested sending for a minister, he cut her off, reminding her of his burial instructions. He wished to be carried to the churchyard in the evening with no minister present, for he had nearly attained his own heaven. He asserted that if they refused to bury him in the churchyard, she must have him removed secretly, proving the dead are not annihilated.

In the afternoon, he asked Nelly to sit with him, but she declined, frightened by his wild talk. He declared there was one who would not shrink from his company—a relentless presence whose existence was unutterable. He sought no further company. At dusk, he went to his chamber, and through the night, the household heard him groaning. When Hareton and the doctor attempted to enter, Heathcliff locked the door and bade them be damned.

The following evening was stormy. In the morning, Nelly saw the master’s window swinging open, the rain driving straight in. She entered the room to find him laid on his back. His eyes met hers with a keen, fierce gaze, and he seemed to smile, but he was perfectly still. When she touched his cold hand, grazed by the flapping lattice, she knew he was dead. Nelly attempted to close his eyes to extinguish the frightful, life-like gaze of exultation, but they would not shut; they seemed to sneer at her attempts.

Joseph refused to touch the body, crying that the devil had harried off Heathcliff’s soul, yet hypocritically gave thanks that the lawful master was restored. Hareton was deeply affected, sitting by the corpse all night, weeping and kissing the savage face that others shrank from. Heathcliff was buried according to his wishes, scandalizing the neighborhood. Hareton dug green sods and laid them over the brown mould himself until the grave was smooth. Yet the country folks swore he walked, and Joseph affirmed he had seen two figures looking out of the chamber window on rainy nights. Nelly recounted an encounter with a frightened shepherd boy who refused to pass a spot on the moor because he saw Heathcliff and a woman there. Though Nelly dismissed these as idle tales, she admitted she would be glad when the young couple left for the Grange.

Catherine and Hareton were destined to marry on New Year’s Day and take up residence at the Grange, leaving Joseph to guard the empty Heights. As they returned from a walk, stepping into the moonlight, Lockwood felt an irresistible impulse to escape their happiness. He walked toward the kirk and found the three headstones on the slope next the moor: Edgar Linton’s harmonized by the turf, Catherine’s grey and half-buried in heath, and Heathcliff’s still bare. Under the benign sky, watching the moths fluttering among the heath and listening to the soft wind, Lockwood wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.