Mr. Lockwood, a new tenant at Thrushcross Grange, uncovers the turbulent history of his neighbors, the Earnshaws and Lintons, through the housekeeper Nelly Dean. Her tale recounts the orphan Heathcliff’s degradation and his fierce bond with Catherine Earnshaw, a connection severed by her marriage to Edgar Linton. Heathcliff returns years later to exact a brutal revenge on the families, corrupting the next generation and claiming the estates. Only after his death does the cycle of violence break, allowing the young Catherine and Hareton to heal the wounds of the past.
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.
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