Wuthering Heights

Mr. Lockwood, the new tenant of Thrushcross Grange, calls on his landlord, Heathcliff, at Wuthering Heights. He is struck by the isolation of the place, Heathcliff's guarded manner, and the severe old house, whose entrance bears the name Hareton Earnshaw and the date 1500. Lockwood initially imagines that Heathcliff's reserve resembles his own, but he also acknowledges that he may be projecting his own disposition onto his landlord.

Inside, Lockwood meets the elderly servant Joseph and notices the many dogs guarding the room. After Heathcliff leaves briefly to find Joseph, Lockwood irritates the dogs by making faces at them, and they swarm him until a woman from the kitchen drives them off. Heathcliff shows little urgency during the commotion, then offers Lockwood wine and discusses Thrushcross Grange with him.

Although Heathcliff plainly does not encourage another call, Lockwood is sufficiently interested in his unsociable landlord to announce that he will return the next day.

Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights the following afternoon despite worsening winter weather. He has difficulty gaining entrance until a rough young man leads him inside, where Lockwood meets the young widow known as Mrs. Heathcliff. His efforts at polite conversation repeatedly fail, and both she and the young man respond to him coldly.

When Heathcliff arrives, Lockwood makes several mistaken guesses about the household. Heathcliff explains that Mrs. Heathcliff is his daughter-in-law and that her husband, Heathcliff's son, is dead. The young man then identifies himself as Hareton Earnshaw and is not Heathcliff's son. Lockwood becomes increasingly aware of the hostility among the inhabitants.

As the snowstorm worsens, Heathcliff refuses to provide Lockwood with a guide or ordinary guest accommodation. Lockwood tries to leave with Joseph's lantern, whereupon Joseph calls the dogs after him. They knock Lockwood down, and his agitation brings on a severe nosebleed. Zillah intervenes, gives him brandy at Heathcliff's direction, and takes him to a bed for the night.

Zillah puts Lockwood in a chamber that Heathcliff normally refuses to let anyone use. In the enclosed bed, Lockwood finds the names Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, and Catherine Linton scratched into the wood and reads old books containing Catherine Earnshaw's childhood notes. Her writing describes Hindley's harsh rule after their father's death, Joseph's severe religious discipline, and her alliance with Heathcliff against their treatment.

Lockwood falls asleep and has two disturbing dreams. The first turns a sermon by Jabez Branderham into an endless confrontation over unforgivable sin. In the second, Lockwood dreams that an ice-cold child identifying herself as Catherine Linton reaches through the window and begs to be let in, saying she has wandered for twenty years. Lockwood's real scream wakes Heathcliff.

When Lockwood tells Heathcliff about Catherine and the dream, Heathcliff becomes violently agitated. After Lockwood leaves the chamber, he overhears Heathcliff open the window and plead tearfully for Catherine to come in. At dawn Lockwood finds the household already tense, declines breakfast, and leaves. Heathcliff guides him across the snow-covered moor as far as Thrushcross Park, after which Lockwood struggles through the drifts alone and finally reaches the Grange.

Back at Thrushcross Grange, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Mrs. Dean, about Heathcliff and the family at Wuthering Heights. She explains that the young Mrs. Heathcliff is Catherine Linton, daughter of the late master of the Grange, and that Hareton Earnshaw is her cousin. She then begins the history of Heathcliff's arrival at Wuthering Heights.

Years earlier, Mr. Earnshaw returned from Liverpool carrying a starving, homeless, dark-haired child whose family could not be identified. He brought the boy into his household and later gave him the name Heathcliff, after a son who had died in childhood. Mrs. Earnshaw disliked the newcomer, Hindley resented him, and young Catherine initially rejected him, but Catherine and Heathcliff soon became close. Mr. Earnshaw grew strongly attached to Heathcliff, which intensified Hindley's bitterness.

Mrs. Dean recalls Heathcliff as quiet and enduring under mistreatment. In one incident, after Heathcliff's colt went lame, he demanded Hindley's sound colt and threatened to show Mr. Earnshaw the bruises from Hindley's beatings if Hindley refused. Hindley struck and knocked him down, but Heathcliff persisted until he obtained the horse. Mrs. Dean says that at the time she mistook his refusal to complain for a lack of vindictiveness.

As Mr. Earnshaw's health fails, he grows irritable and increasingly protective of Heathcliff. Hindley's contempt for Heathcliff repeatedly provokes him, and the curate eventually advises sending Hindley to college. Nelly hopes Hindley's absence will bring peace, but Joseph's growing influence over the ailing master keeps the household tense. Joseph presses Earnshaw to rule his children strictly and regularly complains about Catherine and Heathcliff.

Catherine remains high-spirited, mischievous, and especially attached to Heathcliff. Separation from him is one of the few punishments that affects her, and Nelly observes that Heathcliff will readily follow Catherine's wishes. Catherine also continues to provoke her father, whose declining health has made him less patient with her behavior.

One October evening, Mr. Earnshaw dies quietly in his chair by the fire while Catherine leans against his knee and Heathcliff rests with his head in her lap. When Catherine realizes he is dead, she and Heathcliff cry together. Later that night, Nelly finds the two children still awake, comforting each other by talking about heaven.

Hindley returns to Wuthering Heights for his father's funeral with a wife, Frances, whose background he has never explained. Frances is frightened by the funeral and by thoughts of death, and Nelly notices that she becomes breathless on the stairs and sometimes coughs. After the funeral, Hindley reorganizes the household and, encouraged by Frances's dislike of Heathcliff, revives his old hostility toward him. He removes Heathcliff from the curate's instruction and makes him work outdoors like a farm servant. Catherine nevertheless continues teaching and spending time with Heathcliff.

One Sunday evening, Catherine and Heathcliff escape for a ramble, see the lights at Thrushcross Grange, and decide to observe how Edgar and Isabella Linton spend the evening. Looking through a window, they see the siblings quarreling over a little dog. When the Lintons hear them, Catherine and Heathcliff make frightening noises and run, but the bulldog Skulker catches Catherine by the ankle. The Linton household recognizes Catherine, brings her inside for treatment, and sends Heathcliff away after insulting his appearance and language.

Heathcliff returns alone and recounts the episode to Nelly, including the sharp contrast he sees between his bond with Catherine and the Linton children's quarrel. The next day Mr. Linton visits Wuthering Heights and rebukes Hindley over Catherine's upbringing. Hindley then warns that Heathcliff will be expelled if he speaks to Catherine again, while Frances undertakes to keep Catherine under closer restraint.

Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights after five weeks at Thrushcross Grange with more polished manners and dress. She immediately looks for Heathcliff, who has become badly neglected during her absence. Catherine embraces him but then laughs at his dirty, rough appearance. Ashamed and angry, Heathcliff refuses to be laughed at and leaves, while Catherine is distressed by his reaction.

On Christmas morning, Heathcliff asks Nelly to help him make himself presentable so that he can reconcile with Catherine. Hindley prevents the attempt by ordering him kept away from the Linton children. When Edgar innocently remarks on Heathcliff's long hair, Heathcliff throws hot apple sauce in his face and is taken upstairs and punished. Catherine spends the day unhappy about Heathcliff's confinement and later reaches him through the garret skylights during the evening festivities.

Catherine eventually comes down with Heathcliff, and Nelly allows him into the kitchen because he has eaten nothing since the previous day. He is too upset to eat much. When Nelly asks what he is thinking about, Heathcliff says he is trying to decide how to repay Hindley and that he does not care how long he must wait, provided Hindley does not die first.

On a June morning, Frances gives birth to Hareton Earnshaw. The doctor, Kenneth, says she has long been suffering from consumption and is unlikely to survive the winter. Hindley angrily rejects the diagnosis and insists that she is recovering. Frances dies soon afterward during a slight coughing fit while leaning on him. Nelly assumes care of Hareton, while Hindley responds to his wife's death with reckless dissipation and increasingly tyrannical behavior.

By the time Catherine is fifteen, she maintains her attachment to Heathcliff while also attracting Edgar Linton. She behaves with greater politeness among the Lintons than she does at home, without deliberately setting out to deceive them. Heathcliff, meanwhile, has been deprived of education and worn down by hard labor. He notices how much time Catherine spends with the Lintons and records it on an almanac. When Hindley is away and Heathcliff takes an afternoon off, Catherine tries to send him away because she is expecting Edgar, and she and Heathcliff quarrel about the growing distance between them.

Edgar arrives just as Heathcliff leaves. Irritated and trying to make Nelly leave the room, Catherine pinches and then slaps Nelly, shakes young Hareton when he cries, and strikes Edgar when he intervenes. Edgar starts to leave, but after Catherine protests and begins crying, he returns. Nelly later finds that the quarrel has brought Catherine and Edgar closer and that they have acknowledged themselves as lovers.

Hindley returns home drunk and behaves violently toward Nelly and Hareton. When Hareton slips from his father's careless hold over the upstairs banister, Heathcliff instinctively catches the child below. Nelly interprets Heathcliff's expression afterward as anguish that he has unintentionally preserved Hindley's son, while Hindley briefly sobers before returning to drink and threats.

Later, Catherine tells Nelly that Edgar has proposed and that she has accepted him. She says she loves Edgar and names his looks, youth, cheerfulness, affection, wealth, and social position among her reasons, yet she is convinced in her heart that marrying him is wrong. Catherine says it would now degrade her to marry Heathcliff because Hindley has brought him so low, but also insists that Heathcliff is more herself than she is and that she cannot imagine separation from him. She further argues that marriage to Edgar could give her the means to help Heathcliff escape Hindley's power.

Heathcliff has been listening unseen, but he leaves immediately after hearing Catherine say that marrying him would degrade her, before hearing the rest of her declaration. When Nelly later tells Catherine that Heathcliff probably overheard part of the conversation, Catherine searches for him through a violent storm. He has disappeared. Catherine remains outside until she is soaked, becomes seriously ill, and is taken to Thrushcross Grange to recover. The elder Lintons contract the fever while attending her and die. Heathcliff is not heard from, and three years after Mr. Linton's death Catherine marries Edgar; Nelly is required to move with her to the Grange.

Three years after Heathcliff's disappearance, he unexpectedly returns to Thrushcross Grange. Nelly scarcely recognizes him: he is now tall, well formed, better dressed, and composed in manner. Catherine greets him with intense joy, while Edgar receives him reluctantly. Heathcliff tells Catherine that before seeing her he had contemplated settling his score with Hindley and then killing himself, but that her welcome has changed those intentions. He later lodges at Wuthering Heights, where Hindley's gambling and interest in Heathcliff's money make the arrangement possible, while Heathcliff remains within walking distance of the Grange.

Heathcliff begins visiting Thrushcross Grange with increasing regularity. Catherine moderates her displays of pleasure, and Edgar's initial uneasiness subsides somewhat. A new conflict develops when Isabella Linton becomes strongly attracted to Heathcliff. Catherine warns Isabella that she badly misunderstands his character and says that he could not love a Linton, though he might marry for fortune and expectations. Isabella rejects the warning as jealousy and selfishness.

When Heathcliff next visits, Catherine mischievously reveals Isabella's feelings in front of him. Heathcliff initially regards Isabella with aversion and says he likes her too little to pursue her. After learning that she may be Edgar's heir, however, he asks about that inheritance and later falls into what Nelly describes as ominous thought whenever Catherine is out of the room. Nelly resolves to watch him.

On a visit near Wuthering Heights, Nelly encounters young Hareton and is distressed to hear him curse fluently. Hareton says that his father teaches him only to stay out of the way, while Heathcliff encourages him to do as he likes and retaliates against Hindley when Hindley mistreats him. Hareton also says the curate has been threatened away. When Heathcliff appears instead of Hindley, Nelly flees and becomes more determined to oppose Heathcliff's influence at the Grange.

Soon afterward, Nelly sees Heathcliff secretly embrace Isabella in the Grange courtyard. Catherine confronts him and insists that he leave Isabella alone. Heathcliff accuses Catherine of having treated him cruelly and says he will not remain unrevenged, though he explicitly says Catherine herself is not the object of that revenge. He also says he intends to make use of Isabella's disclosed feelings.

After Nelly reports the scene to Edgar, Edgar orders Heathcliff to leave the Grange. Catherine locks the kitchen door to prevent Edgar from summoning servants, mocks his reluctance to fight, and throws the key into the fire. Edgar then strikes Heathcliff in the throat and goes to bring assistance; Heathcliff breaks out before the servants arrive. Catherine afterward tells Nelly that if Edgar forces her to lose Heathcliff as a friend, she will try to break both men's hearts by breaking her own. When Edgar asks her to choose between him and Heathcliff, Catherine flies into a violent fit and locks herself in her chamber, refusing food for the next two days.

On the third day of Catherine's self-imposed seclusion, Nelly finds her physically weakened and increasingly delirious. Nelly had assumed Catherine was fasting in the expectation that Edgar would eventually seek reconciliation, but Catherine is shocked to learn that Edgar has remained in the library. Her condition is no longer merely theatrical: she becomes feverish and confused, mistakes her own reflection for an apparition, imagines herself back at Wuthering Heights, and recalls the childhood separation from Heathcliff as if the intervening seven years had disappeared.

Catherine insists on opening the window to the winter air and, in her delirium, claims to see lights at Wuthering Heights and speaks to Heathcliff as though he were present. Edgar hears the disturbance and enters. He is horrified by her condition and angrily reproaches Nelly for not warning him sooner. Catherine alternates between recognizing Edgar and rejecting him, while Nelly finally leaves to fetch the doctor, Kenneth.

On her way out, Nelly finds Isabella's dog nearly strangled by a handkerchief tied to a garden hook and hears distant hoofbeats. Kenneth returns with her and warns that Catherine is in serious danger, particularly of lasting mental derangement. He also tells Nelly that Isabella and Heathcliff had recently discussed riding away together. Nelly discovers Isabella's room empty, and by morning a servant confirms that Isabella and Heathcliff were seen riding away from Gimmerton. Edgar refuses to pursue her and says that, by leaving voluntarily, Isabella has severed their relationship except in name.

Catherine survives the worst of what is called a brain fever, nursed almost constantly by Edgar. By early March she is physically stronger, though still despondent and mentally fragile. She is moved from her sickroom to rooms on the ground floor, where familiar surroundings seem to revive her somewhat. Nelly also reveals that Catherine is pregnant, giving the household an additional reason to hope for her recovery and for an heir to Edgar's estate.

About six weeks after leaving Thrushcross Grange, Isabella writes Edgar to announce that she has married Heathcliff, but receives no reply. Two weeks later she sends Nelly a long letter from Wuthering Heights. She says that her affection for Edgar and Catherine remains, but that she is miserable with Heathcliff and asks Nelly to visit. Her account of arriving at the Heights describes a filthy, neglected household, Hareton's hostility, Joseph's contempt, and Hindley's unstable behavior.

Hindley shows Isabella a pistol fitted with a knife and tells her that he repeatedly tries Heathcliff's locked door at night, intending to kill him if he finds an opportunity, although he also wants to recover property and money from him. Isabella struggles even to obtain food and a place to sleep. When Heathcliff finally returns, he refuses to regard his room as hers, tells her of Catherine's illness, blames Edgar for it, and promises that Isabella will suffer as Edgar's proxy until he can reach her brother. Isabella closes her letter by saying that she hates Heathcliff, is wretched, and regrets what she has done.

After reading Isabella's letter, Nelly asks Edgar whether he will send his sister any sign of reconciliation. Edgar says he is not angry but will neither visit nor write to her, and he wants communication between the two households to end. Nelly carries this message to Wuthering Heights, where Isabella looks exhausted and neglected while Heathcliff appears composed and well dressed.

Heathcliff questions Nelly closely about Catherine's illness and demands an interview with her. During the conversation he openly says that Isabella's love was entirely one-sided, describes hanging her dog when they left the Grange, and speaks of deliberately testing how much cruelty she will endure. Isabella says she now hates him, that she has previously tried to leave, and that Heathcliff has said he married her to gain power over Edgar. After Isabella speaks of wanting either herself or Heathcliff dead, Heathcliff orders her upstairs and claims authority to keep her in his custody.

Heathcliff then tells Nelly that he will keep trying to enter the Grange until he sees Catherine, using force if necessary. Nelly repeatedly refuses to help, but he threatens to detain her overnight and insists that a planned meeting would avoid a violent confrontation. She finally agrees to carry Catherine a letter from him and, if Catherine consents, to tell Heathcliff when Edgar will next be absent so that he can enter without meeting him.

Nelly Dean recounts the events of a Sunday when she delivered a letter from Heathcliff to Catherine Linton. Catherine, her appearance altered but with an unearthly beauty, sits in the window, her eyes gazing far beyond the physical world. Nelly, aware of Heathcliff's presence, delays delivering the letter, but finally does so on the fourth day. Catherine, initially disoriented, realizes the letter is from Heathcliff and eagerly awaits his arrival.

Heathcliff enters the house, and upon seeing Catherine, he is overwhelmed with a mix of love and despair, recognizing that she is gravely ill. Their reunion is intense and emotional, with Catherine accusing Heathcliff and Edgar of breaking her heart. Heathcliff, equally anguished, accuses her of betraying her own heart. The conversation turns bitter, with Catherine expressing her desire for them to never be parted and Heathcliff struggling with his own pain and anger. Despite their harsh words, they ultimately embrace, their emotions overwhelming them.

Nelly, witnessing their intense and almost violent reunion, becomes increasingly uncomfortable. As the afternoon wears on, she realizes that Edgar Linton will soon return from church. She urges Heathcliff to leave, but Catherine, fearing this might be their final meeting, refuses to let him go. Heathcliff, torn between staying and avoiding a confrontation with Edgar, promises to stay hidden in the garden. When Edgar arrives, he finds Catherine in a state of delirium, and Heathcliff, holding her, forces Edgar to tend to her first. Heathcliff then leaves, vowing to wait in the garden for news of Catherine's condition.

About midnight, Catherine gives birth to a premature seven-month daughter, also named Catherine. Two hours later Catherine dies without having regained enough consciousness to recognize Edgar or miss Heathcliff. Edgar is devastated, and the newborn is initially neglected amid the crisis before the household begins caring for her properly.

The next morning Nelly goes outside to find Heathcliff. He already knows Catherine is dead and asks how she died and whether she mentioned him. When Nelly says Catherine never recovered her senses after he left, Heathcliff violently prays that Catherine will not rest while he lives but will haunt him in any form rather than leave him alone. He then beats his head against a tree until he bleeds and sends Nelly away.

Catherine's coffin remains open in the drawing room until the funeral on Friday. Edgar keeps vigil beside it, while Heathcliff spends nights outside. On Tuesday evening, after Edgar has withdrawn from exhaustion, Nelly opens a window to give Heathcliff an opportunity to enter. Afterward she finds that he has removed a lock of Edgar's light hair from Catherine's locket and replaced it with a lock of his own; Nelly twists the two locks together and puts both inside.

Hindley is invited to the funeral but does not attend, and Isabella is not invited. Catherine is buried not beneath the Linton monument or beside the Earnshaw graves, but on a green slope near the low wall at the edge of the churchyard, with a simple headstone.

On the day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella arrives at Thrushcross Grange soaked, bruised, and cut after running from Wuthering Heights. She refuses to stay because she fears Heathcliff might follow her and trouble Edgar. Isabella explains that Hindley tried to kill Heathcliff with his pistol and attached knife. The weapon discharged in the struggle and cut Hindley's wrist; Heathcliff then broke into the house, beat and trampled Hindley while he was down, and afterward bound his wound. The next day Isabella deliberately taunted the grieving Heathcliff until he threw a knife that cut her beneath the ear, giving her the opportunity to flee.

Isabella leaves the neighborhood permanently and settles near London. A few months later she gives birth to a sickly son, Linton. Heathcliff learns where she lives and about the child but does not pursue them, though he says he will claim the boy when he wants him. Edgar withdraws almost entirely from public life after Catherine's death but gradually finds consolation in caring for his daughter Cathy.

Hindley dies drunk less than six months after Catherine. Nelly goes to Wuthering Heights to help arrange the funeral and learns that Hindley has mortgaged all his land to Heathcliff to finance his gambling. Heathcliff is therefore in possession of Wuthering Heights. When Nelly says Hareton should return with her to the Grange, Heathcliff threatens that if Edgar tries to take Hareton, Heathcliff will claim his own son Linton in exchange. Edgar consequently abandons the attempt. Hareton remains at the Heights, dependent on Heathcliff and ignorant of how his inheritance was lost.

The next twelve years at Thrushcross Grange are the happiest period Nelly recalls. Cathy grows into an affectionate, intelligent, strong-willed girl under Edgar's close care and instruction. Until she is thirteen she knows almost nothing beyond the park, and Edgar avoids taking her near Wuthering Heights. Cathy becomes fascinated by the distant Penistone Crags and repeatedly asks when she will be old enough to visit them.

Isabella, who has lived away from Heathcliff for more than twelve years, becomes fatally ill and asks Edgar to come to her and take charge of her son Linton. Edgar leaves the Grange for three weeks, placing Cathy under Nelly's care. Nelly allows Cathy to roam independently within the estate, believing the gates will keep her from leaving. Cathy instead jumps a hedge and sets out toward Penistone Crags.

After Cathy fails to return for tea, Nelly searches for her and finds her at Wuthering Heights. Cathy explains later that her dogs fought Hareton's dogs when she reached the farm; after the animals were separated, Hareton accompanied her to the Crags and showed her the Fairy Cave and other places. Cathy does not know who Hareton is and initially treats him as a servant. When the housekeeper reveals that he is her cousin, Cathy is humiliated and rejects the connection, while Hareton angrily curses her. He later tries to make peace by offering her a puppy, which she refuses. Nelly persuades Cathy to keep the visit secret from Edgar.

A black-edged letter announces Isabella's death and Edgar's return with her son, Linton. Cathy is delighted at the prospect of meeting the cousin she has long imagined as a playmate. When the carriage arrives, Linton is asleep inside. He is pale, delicate, and frail, and resembles Edgar strongly enough that Nelly thinks he might be mistaken for Edgar's younger brother, though his sickly peevishness is distinct.

Edgar asks Cathy to be gentle because Linton is exhausted and newly bereaved. Linton initially cries and asks to go to bed, but Cathy patiently pets him and offers him tea until he smiles. Edgar hopes companionship with a child his own age may strengthen him, while Nelly privately doubts they will be allowed to keep him.

That same evening Joseph arrives from Wuthering Heights and demands Linton for Heathcliff. Edgar is deeply reluctant because Isabella had wanted her son left in his care, but he can find no way to resist the father's claim. He refuses to wake the exhausted boy that night and says Linton will go to Wuthering Heights the next day. Joseph leaves warning that Heathcliff will come himself if the boy is not sent.

To prevent Heathcliff from coming to the Grange, Edgar sends Nelly with Linton to Wuthering Heights at five the next morning. He instructs her not to tell Cathy where Linton has gone because he does not want her trying to visit him. Linton is shocked to learn he has a father, since Isabella never spoke to him about Heathcliff, and he repeatedly says he would rather remain with Edgar. Nelly coaxes him onto the journey with reassurances and promises of visits that she knows may not be true.

At Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff mocks Linton's frail appearance and calls him his property. Linton has never heard of him and is frightened. After examining the boy, Heathcliff tells Nelly that he intends to keep Linton alive and carefully maintained because Linton is the prospective heir to Thrushcross Grange; Heathcliff wants his own descendant to possess the Linton estate and ultimately wants to succeed to it himself. He says he despises Linton personally but has furnished him a room, hired a tutor, and ordered Hareton to obey him so that Linton will retain a gentleman's status.

Joseph brings porridge, which Linton refuses. Joseph is indignant, but Heathcliff simply orders that the boy be given something he can eat and asks Nelly what food he is accustomed to. Nelly concludes that Heathcliff's self-interest may at least ensure basic care. As she leaves, Linton cries desperately for her not to abandon him, but he is prevented from following her.

After Linton is taken away, Cathy is deeply upset, but over time her memory of him fades. Nelly occasionally hears from the Wuthering Heights housekeeper that Linton remains sickly, demanding, and largely secluded, while Heathcliff increasingly dislikes him. Two years pass. On Cathy's sixteenth birthday, while Edgar spends the day alone as he always does on the anniversary of his wife's death, Cathy persuades Nelly to accompany her onto the moors and leads her farther than promised while searching for grouse nests.

On Heathcliff's land they encounter Heathcliff and Hareton. Heathcliff invites them to Wuthering Heights specifically because he wants Cathy to see Linton. He privately tells Nelly that he intends the cousins to fall in love and marry. He says Cathy has no expectations under the relevant will, that if Linton dies the property would pass to Heathcliff, and that marriage would make Cathy a joint successor with Linton while reducing the possibility of dispute.

Cathy is delighted to rediscover Linton, but she and Linton soon amuse themselves by mocking Hareton's inability to read and his Yorkshire speech. Heathcliff tells Nelly that he has deliberately kept Hareton ignorant and coarse, taking satisfaction in degrading Hindley's son while Hareton remains attached to him. After returning home, Cathy tells Edgar about the visit. Edgar explains Heathcliff's treatment of Isabella and his acquisition of Wuthering Heights, and forbids further contact.

Cathy nevertheless begins a secret correspondence with Linton through a boy who comes for milk. Nelly eventually discovers a cache of nearly daily letters, intercepts another exchange, and confronts Cathy. After Cathy promises to send and receive nothing further, Nelly burns the letters and sends Linton a note saying that Miss Linton will accept no more messages.

After a cold caught during the late harvest settles on Edgar's lungs, he is confined indoors for most of the winter. Cathy, already subdued by the end of her correspondence with Linton, becomes increasingly anxious about her father's health. During an autumn walk with Nelly, she says she fears being left alone after Edgar and Nelly die and insists that she cares for nothing as much as her father and will never knowingly distress him.

Near the edge of the park, Cathy's hat falls outside a locked door in the wall. She climbs down to retrieve it but cannot climb back, while none of Nelly's keys fits the door. Heathcliff rides up while Cathy is stranded on the road side of the wall. He tells her that Linton took their correspondence seriously and claims that the boy is now dying because Cathy abandoned him. Nelly openly calls these statements lies, but Heathcliff repeats that Linton is ill and urges Cathy to visit while Heathcliff will be away for a week.

Nelly manages to force the lock and brings Cathy back inside the park, but Cathy believes Heathcliff's account and spends the evening crying. She says she cannot rest until she knows Linton's condition and can explain that ending the letters was not her choice. Unable to bear her distress, Nelly yields the next day and accompanies her toward Wuthering Heights, hoping Linton's own reception will show how much truth there is in Heathcliff's claims.

Nelly and Cathy go to Wuthering Heights the next morning while Heathcliff is away. They find Linton genuinely feverish, coughing, and weak, as well as fretful about the household's neglect. Cathy tends him with water and wine and tells him that, after Edgar and Nelly, she loves him better than anyone living. Linton replies that Heathcliff says she would love him above everyone if she became his wife.

The visit turns into an argument when Cathy cites Isabella's unhappy marriage and Linton retaliates by saying Cathy's mother hated Edgar and loved Heathcliff. Enraged, Cathy pushes Linton's chair and triggers a severe coughing fit. She is horrified and apologetic. After the fit subsides, however, Nelly judges that Linton deliberately prolongs his moaning and later writhes on the hearth to distress Cathy and keep her from leaving. Cathy continues to soothe him, and eventually he settles against her while she recites ballads.

Linton asks Cathy to return the next day, and she privately agrees despite Nelly's prohibition. Nelly warns that if Cathy visits again she will tell Edgar. On the way home Cathy insists that she can climb the park wall and is old enough to decide for herself. The following morning Nelly becomes ill from the wet journey and remains confined for three weeks. Cathy nurses both Nelly and her ailing father devotedly, but Nelly does not yet realize that Cathy is using her free evenings to continue visiting Wuthering Heights.

Three weeks later Nelly is able to leave her room. She notices that Cathy is restless in the evenings and, after Cathy disappears one night, waits for her return. Cathy admits that she has gone to Wuthering Heights almost every day during Nelly's illness, arranging with Michael to saddle and return her pony in exchange for books. She says the visits have included occasional happy evenings with Linton but have more often been troubled by his illness, selfishness, and temper.

Cathy describes one visit when Hareton proudly tells her that he has learned to read the inscription over the door. She laughs at his incomplete reading, humiliating him. Later, angry over the insult and over being displaced from the room, Hareton seizes Linton by the arm, swings him off the settle, and drives both cousins into the kitchen. Linton's furious screaming brings on a violent coughing fit in which he spits blood. Hareton later tries to apologize to Cathy, but she strikes him with her whip and leaves.

Cathy stays away briefly, then returns. Linton first blames her for the disturbance but later admits that he is often bitter and bad-tempered, says he wishes he could be kinder, and asks her to believe that her kindness has made him love her. Cathy forgives him and resumes nearly daily visits, even after Heathcliff returns. When she finishes her confession, she asks Nelly to keep the visits secret. Nelly instead tells Edgar that night. Edgar forbids Cathy from returning to Wuthering Heights but promises to write Linton and allow him to visit the Grange if he wishes.

Nelly tells Lockwood that these events occurred only the previous winter. Cathy obeys Edgar's prohibition against visiting Wuthering Heights. As Edgar's health continues to decline, he asks Nelly what she thinks of Linton and worries about how to provide for Cathy after his death. He says that he would not object to Linton merely because he is Heathcliff's son, or even because Heathcliff might profit by the marriage, if Linton could comfort Cathy. What Edgar fears is the possibility that Linton may prove unworthy or become only a weak instrument of Heathcliff.

Spring brings little real improvement in Edgar's condition. On Cathy's seventeenth birthday rain keeps him from his customary visit to Catherine's grave. He writes again to Linton, expressing a desire to see him. Linton replies that Heathcliff will not allow him to visit the Grange and asks instead for supervised meetings with Cathy elsewhere. Edgar initially refuses because he is too ill to accompany her, but he continues corresponding with his nephew and offers advice and sympathy.

Heathcliff monitors the correspondence and requires Linton to show him Edgar's letters. Under this pressure Linton repeatedly emphasizes the pain of separation from Cathy and presses for an interview. Cathy also advocates for him at home. By June, with Edgar still declining, the two have persuaded Edgar to permit Cathy and Linton to meet about once a week on the moors nearest the Grange under Nelly's supervision. Edgar also sees marriage to his heir as Cathy's only apparent prospect of retaining or soon returning to Thrushcross Grange. He does not know that Linton is also rapidly failing or that Heathcliff is coercing the boy to pursue the plan.

Late in the summer, Edgar reluctantly allows the first supervised meeting between Cathy and Linton. The meeting is supposed to occur at the guide-stone on the crossroads and remain on Grange land, but a herd-boy reports that Linton is waiting farther toward Wuthering Heights. Cathy and Nelly proceed until they find him only about a quarter-mile from his own door. He has no horse, so they dismount.

Linton is extremely pale, weak, and exhausted, though he repeatedly insists that he is better and asks Cathy to tell Edgar that he is in tolerable health. He can barely sustain conversation and seems to regard the visit as a task rather than a pleasure. When Cathy proposes leaving, however, he becomes frightened, looks toward the Heights, and begs her to remain another half-hour. He also asks her not to appear sad or tell Heathcliff that he has been silent and dull, because Heathcliff will be angry with him.

As Linton dozes and struggles with pain and exhaustion, Cathy becomes disappointed and suspects that his affection for her has weakened. When he wakes in terror, thinking he hears his father, he again insists that his feelings have not changed. Heathcliff's approach finally causes Cathy and Nelly to depart. On the ride home Cathy's disappointment turns to pity and uneasiness about Linton's health and circumstances. She promises to return the following Thursday, while Nelly advises withholding firm conclusions until another visit gives them more evidence.

During the next seven days Edgar declines with alarming speed. Cathy spends nearly all her time beside him and is reluctant to leave for her promised second meeting with Linton, but Nelly obtains Edgar's permission because he hopes the visit may give Cathy some comfort and future companionship. That afternoon they find Linton again at the same place near Wuthering Heights where he had waited before. He is terrified and evasive, admits that Heathcliff has threatened him, and begs Cathy not to leave, though he cannot bring himself to explain what he has been ordered to do.

Heathcliff soon arrives. After learning that Edgar is dying, he pressures Linton to get up and return to Wuthering Heights. Linton clings to Cathy and says he has been ordered not to re-enter the house without her. Cathy finally accompanies him because of his extreme fear, and Nelly follows. Once they are inside, Heathcliff locks the door. When Cathy tries to seize the key, he pulls her onto his knee and repeatedly strikes both sides of her head. He then reveals that he intends to keep Cathy there until she marries Linton, because he fears Linton may die before Edgar and frustrate his plans.

Linton explains that Heathcliff wants the marriage performed the next morning and that Cathy is expected to remain overnight. Cathy pleads to return to her dying father and even promises to marry Linton voluntarily, but Heathcliff refuses specifically because he takes satisfaction in Edgar's distress. That night Heathcliff confines Cathy and Nelly in a room. The next morning he takes Cathy away and locks Nelly back inside. Nelly remains imprisoned for five nights and four days, receiving food only from Hareton, who refuses all her pleas for release.

On the fifth day of Nelly's confinement, Zillah returns and unlocks the room. She tells Nelly that the village believes Nelly and Cathy were lost in Blackhorse Marsh and that Edgar may have only another day to live. Before leaving Wuthering Heights, Nelly questions Linton. He says Cathy is upstairs, that she is now his wife, and that Heathcliff will not allow her to leave. He also describes how Heathcliff struck Cathy and crushed one of the miniature portraits she had tried to keep.

Nelly hurries back to Thrushcross Grange and tells the gravely ill Edgar that Cathy is alive. Edgar realizes that Heathcliff is trying to secure Cathy's personal property as well as the estate through Linton. He orders his will changed so Cathy's fortune will be held in trust for her and any children rather than passing to Heathcliff if Linton dies. Nelly sends for the lawyer, Mr. Green, and dispatches four armed servants to demand Cathy's release, but Green delays and the servants return without Cathy after Heathcliff refuses them access.

Before dawn Cathy reaches the Grange on her own and is reunited with Edgar. He dies peacefully while looking at her, telling her that he is going to her mother and that Cathy will someday come to them. Later Mr. Green arrives after first taking instructions from Heathcliff; Nelly says he has sold himself to Heathcliff. Green tries to assume control of the household and even alter Edgar's burial arrangements, but Edgar's existing will requires that he be buried beside Catherine.

Cathy later explains that hearing the failed rescue attempt finally moved Linton to help her. He secretly obtained the key, unlocked and re-locked the door without fully shutting it, and arranged to sleep with Hareton so his part would be concealed. Cathy escaped before dawn through the window of her mother's old room and climbed down by the nearby fir tree. Linton is punished for helping her.

The evening after Edgar's funeral, Cathy and Nelly hope that Cathy might be allowed to remain at Thrushcross Grange with Linton joining her there. Heathcliff arrives without ceremony as the new master and says he has come to take Cathy to Wuthering Heights. He refuses Nelly's request to let the young couple live at the Grange, saying he is seeking a tenant and wants his children with him. He also refuses Nelly's offer to exchange places with Zillah.

Heathcliff tells Cathy that Linton has been badly frightened since helping her escape and that she must now care for her husband herself. Cathy answers that she will protect and forgive Linton despite his faults and tells Heathcliff that his cruelty cannot prevent them from having someone to love. While Cathy packs, Heathcliff studies Catherine Earnshaw's portrait and tells Nelly what he did at the churchyard the previous day. He had the sexton uncover Catherine's coffin, opened it, saw her face, loosened one side of the coffin, and arranged for that side and his own coffin to be opened when he is buried beside her.

Heathcliff also recounts an earlier episode on the night after Catherine's burial eighteen years before. He began digging toward her coffin himself but stopped after sensing what he believed was Catherine's presence beside him. He says that ever since then he has repeatedly felt or almost seen her at the Heights and on the moors, an experience he describes as prolonged torment. Seeing her face in the coffin has now given him some relief.

When Cathy returns, Heathcliff orders Catherine's portrait sent to Wuthering Heights and makes Cathy walk back with him rather than take her pony. Cathy asks Nelly to visit, but Heathcliff forbids Nelly from coming to his house unless he sends for her. Nelly watches him lead Cathy away from the Grange.

Nelly says she has tried to visit Wuthering Heights since Cathy left the Grange, but Joseph refused to let her enter. Her information instead comes mainly from Zillah, whom she met on the moor about six weeks before speaking to Lockwood. According to Zillah, Cathy spent Linton's final days caring for him almost entirely alone because Heathcliff refused to summon a doctor and ordered the household not to help her. When Linton finally died, Heathcliff inspected the body and left Cathy exhausted and isolated.

Cathy remained upstairs for about two weeks after Linton's death. Heathcliff visited once to show her Linton's will. During Cathy's earlier imprisonment, while Edgar was dying, Linton had been threatened or coaxed into leaving all of his movable property, including what had become Cathy's, to Heathcliff. Linton could not dispose of the lands because he was a minor, but Heathcliff nevertheless claims and holds them through Linton and Cathy's rights. Cathy is left without money or effective means to challenge him.

When cold finally drives Cathy downstairs, Hareton tries awkwardly to make himself presentable and helpful. He gets books down for her, attempts to share the pictures with her, gently touches one of her curls, and later asks Zillah to have Cathy read aloud. Cathy rejects each approach, telling Hareton and Zillah that when she desperately needed kindness they stayed away and that she now wants nothing from them. Hareton becomes angry and abandons the attempt, while Zillah responds to Cathy's contempt by becoming equally cold.

After hearing Zillah's account, Nelly considers leaving the Grange, taking a cottage, and asking Cathy to live with her, but concludes Heathcliff would not permit it. She sees no immediate remedy except the possibility that Cathy might marry again. Nelly's history then ends. Lockwood, now recovering, decides that he will soon ride to Wuthering Heights, tell Heathcliff he intends to spend the next six months in London, and arrange to give up the tenancy after October.

On the day before his narration, Lockwood rides to Wuthering Heights as planned. He has already decided to return to London and end his tenancy after the agreed year, and he carries a note from his Thrushcross Grange housekeeper for Cathy. Hareton admits him and stays close while Heathcliff is absent. Cathy is sullen and initially ignores Lockwood. When he tries to slip her the note, Hareton intercepts it for Heathcliff, but Cathy's tears move him to throw it back to her.

Cathy tells Lockwood that Heathcliff has destroyed her books and that Hareton has secretly gathered some old Latin, Greek, poetry, and tales while trying to teach himself to read. She mocks Hareton's pronunciation and reading attempts. Lockwood defends his effort, but Cathy continues until Hareton, deeply humiliated, strikes her on the mouth. He then gathers the books and throws them into the fire himself, despite the pain the sacrifice causes him.

Heathcliff arrives as Hareton leaves in anger. Looking after Hareton, Heathcliff mutters that although he looks for Hindley in the young man's face, he increasingly finds Catherine Earnshaw there instead and can hardly bear the resemblance. Lockwood notices that Heathcliff looks thinner, restless, and anxious. Lockwood then formally tells him that he will leave for London the following week and does not intend to occupy Thrushcross Grange beyond the rental term. Heathcliff insists that the rent remain due, and Lockwood agrees.

During dinner Heathcliff orders Cathy to eat in the kitchen. Afterward Lockwood leaves without another private exchange with her. Riding back, he reflects on the dreariness of life in the house and briefly imagines the romantic alternative of having formed an attachment with Cathy and taken her away.

In September 1802, Lockwood unexpectedly comes within about fifteen miles of Gimmerton while traveling to visit a friend in the north. He decides to spend the night at Thrushcross Grange and settle any remaining business with his landlord. At the Grange he finds only a replacement housekeeper and learns that Nelly now lives at Wuthering Heights. While a room is prepared for him, he walks to the Heights.

The atmosphere there has changed. The gate and doors are open, flowers grow around the house, and Lockwood overhears Cathy teaching Hareton to read. Hareton is now respectably dressed and studies while Cathy corrects him, and the lesson ends with affectionate kisses. Lockwood avoids interrupting them and instead finds Nelly in the kitchen. She tells him that Heathcliff died three months earlier and that, because Zillah left, Heathcliff had summoned Nelly to the Heights shortly after Lockwood went to London. Nelly now handles Cathy's affairs.

Nelly begins explaining what happened during Lockwood's absence. At first Cathy remained confined largely to the garden and was lonely and restless. She repeatedly mocked Hareton's ignorance, but gradually regretted having discouraged his attempts to learn. After Hareton injured his arm and was forced to spend more time in the kitchen, Cathy tried to make peace. On Easter Monday she apologized, thanked him for having defended her in the past, kissed his cheek when he refused her hand, and offered him a wrapped book together with a promise to teach him to read.

Hareton finally accepts the book and Cathy's friendship. Nelly sees them sitting happily over it together, while Joseph is appalled by their new intimacy. Their friendship then develops rapidly despite occasional quarrels. Nelly tells Lockwood that she hopes their relationship will end in marriage and says their eventual union would fulfill her strongest wish.

The next morning, Joseph discovers that Catherine and Hareton have destroyed a large portion of his beloved currant bushes in the garden, leading to a furious confrontation with Heathcliff. Catherine and Hareton, whose bond has been deepening, are planning to plant flowers from the Grange, but their actions enrage Heathcliff, who is already preoccupied with his own troubled thoughts. His reaction is violent, and he threatens to harm Catherine, but he abruptly releases her and retreats, leaving the room in a state of agitation.

Joseph's outburst and Hareton's attempt to placate Heathcliff reveal the growing bond between Catherine and Hareton. Despite Heathcliff's threats, Hareton remains protective of Catherine, refusing to let her speak ill of Heathcliff but also defending her from Heathcliff's wrath. Catherine, realizing the impact of her actions, begins to avoid speaking ill of Heathcliff in Hareton's presence, showing a newfound sensitivity to his feelings. The two continue their friendship and educational endeavors, with Hareton showing significant improvement.

Later, Heathcliff returns to the house and observes Catherine and Hareton studying together. The sight of them, particularly Hareton's resemblance to Catherine Earnshaw, stirs deep emotions in him. He speaks to Nelly about a strange change approaching, revealing his loss of interest in daily life and his inability to enjoy the destruction of his enemies. Heathcliff is tormented by the constant reminders of Catherine, which he sees everywhere, and he feels a deep, unrelenting pain. He confides in Nelly about his mental state, expressing a sense of futility and a desire for the end to come soon.

For several days Heathcliff avoids the household at meals and eats very little. One night he stays out until morning, then returns pale, trembling, and strangely exhilarated. He tells Nelly that he has been 'on the threshold of hell' and is now within sight of his heaven, but refuses to explain further. He repeatedly tries to eat and then loses interest, stares as though at something no one else can see, and becomes increasingly absorbed in thoughts of Catherine.

After another sleepless night, Heathcliff tells Nelly that he has not deliberately chosen to fast and that he will eat and rest when he can. He considers consulting Mr. Green about a will but abandons the idea, saying he cannot decide how to leave his property. He refuses Nelly's suggestion that he seek religious counsel, says he repents of nothing, and instead repeats his burial instructions: no minister, burial in the churchyard, and the sexton's compliance with his directions concerning his coffin and Catherine's.

Heathcliff withdraws again and refuses Dr. Kenneth admission. After a night of heavy rain, Nelly finds the window of the panelled-bed chamber standing open and discovers Heathcliff dead on the bed, soaked by rain, with his eyes open and an expression she cannot erase. Kenneth cannot identify a definite disorder. Nelly conceals that Heathcliff had eaten nothing for four days because she believes the abstinence resulted from his strange condition rather than caused it. Hareton, despite all Heathcliff did to him, grieves most deeply and keeps vigil beside the body.

Heathcliff is buried according to his instructions beside Catherine and Edgar. Afterwards local people report seeing Heathcliff, sometimes with a woman, near the church, on the moors, and around Wuthering Heights. Nelly dismisses the stories but admits that they have made her uneasy in the dark. Cathy and Hareton, meanwhile, plan to marry on New Year's Day and move to Thrushcross Grange, leaving Joseph to care for Wuthering Heights.

Lockwood departs before Cathy and Hareton return from their walk. On his way back to the Grange he detours to the churchyard and finds the three graves: Catherine's older stone, Edgar's beside it, and Heathcliff's still bare of weathering. He lingers in the quiet landscape and wonders how anyone could imagine unrest for those lying beneath it.