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.
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.
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