Wuthering Heights Study Guide

Characters

• Mr LockwoodAfter hearing Mrs Dean's account of Heathcliff's death, he avoids meeting Cathy and Hareton and visits the three graves, whose quiet setting makes him question stories of restless dead.First appears: Chapter 1
• Mr HeathcliffIn Mrs Dean's account of his final days, he refuses repentance, speaks of approaching his own heaven and dies after days without food, with the cause of death uncertain.First appears: Chapter 1
• JosephHe gives thanks for the old family's restoration after Heathcliff's death, claims to see two figures at the bedroom window and is to care for the Heights when the others move away.First appears: Chapter 1
• ZillahShe admits refusing to help Cathy nurse Linton for fear of losing her post, yet blames Cathy's pride for the hostility around her.First appears: Chapter 1
• Mrs DeanShe finds Heathcliff dead and conceals his four days without food from Kenneth, later admitting that reported hauntings frighten her despite her belief that the dead are at peace.First appears: Chapter 2
• Catherine HeathcliffShe and Hareton plan to marry on New Year's Day and move to the Grange, and Lockwood sees them returning affectionately together in the moonlight.First appears: Chapter 2
• Hareton EarnshawHe mourns Heathcliff with deep affection and lays turf over his grave at the burial, while Mrs Dean confirms that he and Cathy are to marry and move to the Grange.First appears: Chapter 2
• LintonHe dies with Cathy nursing him after making a will leaving his moveable property, including what had been hers, to his father.First appears: Chapter 2
• Catherine LintonShe dies two hours after giving birth to a daughter named Catherine and is buried near the moor rather than in either family's burial place.First appears: Chapter 2
• Hindley EarnshawHe dies less than six months after Catherine, having mortgaged all his land to Heathcliff to fund his gambling.First appears: Chapter 3
• FrancesShe gives birth to Hareton and dies of the illness Kenneth calls consumption, despite Hindley's insistence that she is recovering.First appears: Chapter 3
• Mr EarnshawIncreasingly weak and irritable, he sends Hindley to college and dies quietly beside Catherine and Heathcliff at the fireside.First appears: Chapter 3
• EMrs EarnshawHindley and Catherine's mother, who objects to taking Heathcliff into the household and does not defend him against ill-treatment before her death.First appears: Chapter 4
• Edgar LintonHe seeks to protect Cathy's fortune by changing his will but dies before the lawyer arrives, comforted by her return to his bedside.First appears: Chapter 4
• Isabella HeathcliffBefore her death, she asks Edgar to come to her and take charge of Linton, hoping that Heathcliff will leave the boy in his uncle's care.First appears: Chapter 2
• LMr LintonHe and his wife catch Catherine's fever and die within a few days of each other after she is brought to recover at the Grange.First appears: Chapter 6
• LMrs LintonAfter helping during Catherine's illness and taking her to recover at the Grange, she and her husband catch the fever and die within a few days of each other.First appears: Chapter 6
• KMr KennethRefused admission by Heathcliff during his final illness, he later cannot determine the disorder that killed him and is not told about his lack of food.First appears: Chapter 8
• HHThe Heights housekeeperA servant employed at the Heights since Hindley's death, who tells Cathy that Hareton is her cousin and refuses to be ordered about by her.First appears: Chapter 18
• MMichaelA groom at the Grange who accepts Cathy's books and pictures in exchange for preparing her pony for secret evening visits to the Heights.First appears: Chapter 24
• GMr GreenThe lawyer summoned to change Edgar's will, who delays until after his death, follows Heathcliff's instructions and gives all the Grange servants except Mrs Dean notice to leave.First appears: Chapter 28
• NGThe new Grange housekeeperMrs Dean's replacement at the Grange is startled by Lockwood's unexpected arrival and sets about preparing rooms for him.First appears: Chapter 32
• BWThe boy with the sheepA crying boy with a sheep and two lambs tells Mrs Dean that Heathcliff and a woman are ahead of him on the moor, though she sees nothing herself.First appears: Chapter 34

Chapter summaries

1. Chapter 1

   Writing in 1801, Lockwood describes his first visit to Heathcliff, from whom he rents Thrushcross Grange. He welcomes the area's isolation and takes his landlord's suspicious reserve as evidence that they have similar temperaments. The exposed house, wind-bent trees and defensive stonework make the setting feel harsh despite his enthusiasm. Heathcliff's gentlemanly dress and manners seem at odds with the farmhouse interior, unsettling Lockwood's expectations about social position. Lockwood admits that he may be projecting his own feelings onto Heathcliff, then recalls retreating from a woman as soon as she returned his affection. After he provokes the dogs, a kitchen woman rescues him while Heathcliff and Joseph are slow to help. His determination to return sits awkwardly with his claim to prefer solitude.

2. Chapter 2

   Driven out of his study by a servant cleaning the fire, Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights as snow begins to fall. A young woman and a roughly dressed young man receive him coldly, and Heathcliff refuses his request for a guide home. Lockwood first assumes the woman is Heathcliff's wife and then the young man's wife, until Heathcliff explains that she is his son's widow and Hareton gives his own name. The abundant meal and warm room offer physical comfort without affection or ease. Mrs Heathcliff mocks Joseph's religious fears by pretending to practise witchcraft, yet says she is not allowed even to reach the end of the garden wall. Hareton offers to guide Lockwood, but Heathcliff stops him, and Lockwood takes Joseph's lantern in an angry attempt to escape. Joseph calls the dogs, Heathcliff and Hareton laugh at Lockwood's fall, and Zillah finally helps the distressed visitor and lodges him for the night.

3. Chapter 3

   Zillah puts Lockwood in a room Heathcliff usually keeps from guests, where he finds three versions of Catherine's name scratched on the window-ledge and diary entries written in old books. Catherine's account describes Hindley's harsh control after their father's death, Joseph's punishing religious exercises and her bond with Heathcliff. The children's plan to escape onto the wet moors makes the outdoors seem preferable to their treatment inside. Lockwood first dreams of a sermon that ends in communal violence, then of a child calling herself Catherine Linton who begs to enter through the window. In his terror he wounds the child's wrist against the broken glass, so violence is part of his own response as well as the household's behaviour. Woken by his scream, Heathcliff is deeply disturbed by the account and later opens the window, weeping and begging Catherine to come back. The morning brings another threat towards the young Mrs Heathcliff, followed by Heathcliff's offer to guide Lockwood across the dangerous, snow-covered moor.

4. Chapter 4

   Lockwood abandons his resolve to avoid company and asks his housekeeper, Mrs Dean, to talk about the household at Wuthering Heights. She gives Catherine Linton as the maiden name of the young widow, her former charge, explains her kinship with Hareton and her dead husband, and says that Hareton has been cheated without explaining how. Her childhood account begins with Mr Earnshaw returning from Liverpool carrying a starving, homeless boy whose parentage remains unknown. The family names him Heathcliff, and Mrs Dean admits that she and Hindley mistreated him, while Catherine soon became his companion. Mr Earnshaw's strong preference for Heathcliff makes Hindley feel displaced in his own family. Heathcliff's quietness during measles and the doctor's praise for her nursing soften Mrs Dean's hostility, though she still interprets his endurance as hardness rather than gentleness. In the quarrel over the colts, Hindley's blows and threats show his cruelty, while Heathcliff uses his protector's authority to secure the better horse and accepts a false explanation for his bruises once he has it.

5. Chapter 5

   Mr Earnshaw's failing health makes him fiercely protective of Heathcliff and increasingly angry with Hindley, who is sent to college on the curate's advice. Joseph gains influence by pressing religious duties on the old man and reporting the children's misconduct, placing most blame on Catherine. Mrs Dean describes Catherine as wilful and commanding, but also affectionate and capable of sharing the distress she causes. Her father's repeated rejection hardens her, while her influence over Heathcliff exposes the limits of his authority. On a windy October evening Mr Earnshaw dies peacefully as Catherine sings beside his chair. Joseph rebukes the household's grief, but Catherine and Heathcliff find comfort in a shared vision of heaven that moves Mrs Dean more than any parson could.

6. Chapter 6

   Hindley returns for his father's funeral with a wife whose background Mrs Dean does not know, and whose cough and fear of death she notices without understanding. Taking charge of the house, he moves the servants into the back-kitchen and deprives Heathcliff of both family company and the curate's teaching. Catherine shares her lessons with Heathcliff, and their escapes onto the moors give them companionship that makes punishment seem bearable. Heathcliff tells Mrs Dean how they look through the Grange window and mock Edgar and Isabella for quarrelling over a dog despite their comfortable surroundings. When the Lintons' bulldog bites Catherine, Heathcliff tries to free her, but the family treats him as a criminal and an outsider while welcoming her as Miss Earnshaw. Their welcome depends on recognising Catherine's family, while their insults about Heathcliff's appearance and possible origins expose their prejudice. Mr Linton's complaint leads Hindley to threaten Heathcliff with dismissal for speaking to Catherine, while Frances undertakes to control her sister-in-law by persuasion.

7. Chapter 7

   Catherine comes home at Christmas visibly changed by her stay at the Grange, and Hindley and Frances hope to separate her from Heathcliff. She embraces him but laughs at his neglected appearance, and he responds with wounded pride. He asks Mrs Dean to make him presentable, yet his wish for Edgar's fair looks and future wealth shows that his shame reaches beyond dirt and clothing. Hindley bars him from the Christmas gathering, and Edgar's remark about his hair provokes him to throw hot apple sauce at the boy. Mrs Dean initially thinks Catherine indifferent to Heathcliff's punishment, then recognises her distress as she cries at dinner and later crosses the roof to visit him in the locked garret. Once brought down to the kitchen, Heathcliff rejects Mrs Dean's appeal to forgiveness and says that planning revenge relieves his pain. The narration returns to Lockwood, whose assumptions about rural life and servants meet Mrs Dean's insistence on her own experience and reading.

8. Chapter 8

   After Hareton's birth, Kenneth warns that Frances is dying, but Hindley insists she is recovering until she dies in his arms. His grief turns into reckless drinking and tyranny, driving away all the servants except Joseph and Mrs Dean, who takes responsibility for Hareton. Hard work and exclusion from education have worn down Heathcliff, while Catherine behaves politely with the Lintons and freely indulges her temper at home. Heathcliff marks her evenings with the Lintons on an almanac, but she dismisses his grievance and complains that he no longer amuses her. Ordered by Hindley to stay during Edgar's private visits, Mrs Dean refuses Catherine's demand to leave; Catherine pinches her and denies it, then slaps her, shakes Hareton and strikes Edgar when he tries to protect the child. Edgar tries to leave but returns to her tears, and Mrs Dean reports that the quarrel ends with their acknowledgement that they are lovers. Hindley's drunken arrival sends Edgar away and prompts Mrs Dean to hide Hareton and remove the shot from his gun, showing how care is organised around the danger he poses.

9. Chapter 9

   Hindley threatens Mrs Dean with a knife and holds Hareton over the banister, but Heathcliff catches the child when he falls. Catherine tells Mrs Dean that she has accepted Edgar, valuing his looks, love and wealth while hoping his money can free Heathcliff from Hindley's power. Heathcliff secretly hears her say that marrying him would degrade her, then leaves before hearing her fuller explanation of their bond. Her dream of returning joyfully from heaven to the heath expresses her earthly sense of belonging, while her images of changing foliage and lasting rock distinguish her two loves. Unable to find Heathcliff, she waits outside in a storm and develops a dangerous fever, which later kills both elder Lintons after Mrs Linton takes her to recover at the Grange. Three years after Mr Linton's death, Catherine marries Edgar, an alliance Hindley welcomes for the honour it brings the family. Mrs Dean is ordered to accompany her despite her devotion to Hareton, showing how the marriage also separates a child from his nurse.

10. Chapter 10

    Catherine and Edgar enjoy a period of married happiness, though Mrs Dean says its peace depends on the Lintons yielding to Catherine. Heathcliff returns after three years, physically changed and more polished, but Mrs Dean cannot explain how he acquired his wealth or improved his mind. Catherine's intense delight unsettles Edgar, whose suggestion that Heathcliff belongs in the kitchen exposes a continuing dispute over his social standing. Heathcliff lodges at the Heights after winning money from Hindley, and Mrs Dean reports that Hindley is borrowing on his land while Joseph describes their nights of gambling. Isabella becomes attached to Heathcliff and rejects Catherine's warning that his harshness conceals no gentle nature. Catherine then reveals Isabella's feelings to him and physically prevents her from leaving until she scratches her way free. Heathcliff speaks of violence towards Isabella and asks about her inheritance, bringing cruelty and property into the conversation about love.

11. Chapter 11

    A childhood memory of Hindley draws Mrs Dean towards the Heights, where Hareton throws a stone at her and describes Heathcliff's encouragement to curse his father. Hareton also reports Heathcliff's threat against the curate, showing how Heathcliff's apparent support for him goes with keeping him from learning to read and write. At the Grange, Mrs Dean sees Heathcliff embrace Isabella and hears him tell Catherine that people who are oppressed crush those beneath them. She reports the encounter to Edgar, who orders Heathcliff out; Catherine locks the kitchen door to keep the servants out and throws the key into the fire when Edgar tries to take it. After Edgar strikes Heathcliff and fetches help, Heathcliff escapes by breaking the lock, and Edgar later insists that Catherine choose between them. Catherine speaks of hurting herself to hurt the two men, but Mrs Dean treats her distress as something she can control even while admitting her own fear. Catherine locks herself away and refuses meals, while Edgar warns Isabella that encouraging Heathcliff would end their family bond.

12. Chapter 12

    Mrs Dean initially treats Catherine's fasting as an attempt to force Edgar to give way and fails to tell him how ill she has become. Catherine's delirium draws her back to childhood memories, and she mistakes her own reflection for a threatening presence before recognising where she is. Imagining herself abruptly changed from a child at the Heights into Mrs Linton, she describes marriage as exile and longs for the moors to restore her sense of herself. Edgar finally enters, is horrified by her condition and blames Mrs Dean for keeping him ignorant. On her way to fetch Kenneth, Mrs Dean rescues Isabella's dog from hanging, without discovering who is responsible. Kenneth's report of Heathcliff urging Isabella to leave prompts Mrs Dean to check her empty room, and after examining Catherine he privately warns Mrs Dean of lasting damage to her mind. Mrs Dean keeps Isabella's departure from Edgar until a maid reveals it, and he refuses to have his sister brought back.

13. Chapter 13

    During two months of Catherine's illness, Edgar nurses her devotedly and rejoices when her life is declared out of danger, though her mental recovery remains uncertain. Crocuses remind her of the Heights, and moving her out of the sickroom helps her, while the household hopes that the child she is carrying will secure Edgar's lands. Isabella announces her marriage and asks Edgar for reconciliation, then sends Mrs Dean a longer letter after arriving at the Heights. Her account of Hareton's threats and Joseph's contempt makes her new home a place where she can find no ally against Heathcliff. Hindley shows her his weapon and describes trying Heathcliff's door every night, although he also insists that Heathcliff must stay until he can recover his losses. Isabella's desire to possess the weapon shows how fear and misery draw her towards the household's violence. Heathcliff rejects her claim to share his room and threatens to make her suffer for Edgar, and she ends by begging Mrs Dean to visit while keeping her distress secret from the Grange.

14. Chapter 14

    Edgar says he has nothing to forgive Isabella, yet refuses to write or visit and demands an end to communication between the households. Mrs Dean softens his message when she delivers it, showing that she shapes the information passing between them. Heathcliff insists that his love for Catherine exceeds Edgar's and rejects Mrs Dean's claim that Catherine has nearly forgotten him. He mocks Isabella for imagining him a romantic hero, admits hanging her dog and describes deliberately testing how much suffering she can bear. His claim that she may leave is contradicted by Isabella's account of an earlier attempt, and he then invokes his position as her legal protector to justify retaining her. Threatening to force his way into the Grange with pistols, he makes Mrs Dean agree to carry a letter and arrange access during Edgar's absence if Catherine wishes to see him. Mrs Dean presents her compliance as a way to prevent worse violence, but admits its possible wrongness, before Lockwood turns the story into a warning about his own attraction to the younger Catherine.

15. Chapter 15

    Lockwood says that he is condensing Mrs Dean's account, reminding the reader that her spoken story reaches us through his editing. After delaying three days, Mrs Dean delivers Heathcliff's letter while Edgar is at church, leaves the doors open and sends the remaining servant away. Heathcliff enters Catherine's room, and their passionate reunion includes physical violence as she pulls his hair and his grip bruises her arm. Catherine blames both men for her broken heart and fears being forgotten, while Heathcliff accuses her of betraying their attachment by choosing Edgar. Her description of a shattered prison presents her body as confinement and death as escape, while his image of his soul in the grave makes her loss seem the destruction of his own being. Catherine asks for forgiveness and Heathcliff says he forgives what she has done to him, yet their exchange remains full of accusation, and she refuses to release him even as Edgar approaches. When she collapses, Heathcliff places her in Edgar's arms, and Edgar's concern for her takes precedence over confronting him; she revives in confusion, and Heathcliff leaves the house but insists on remaining in the garden.

16. Chapter 16

    Catherine dies two hours after the premature birth of her daughter, whom the grieving household initially neglects. Mrs Dean's distress that Edgar lacks an heir connects the baby's unwelcome reception with concern about the family estate. The mother's peaceful appearance leads Mrs Dean to imagine heavenly rest, but her later doubts about Catherine's happiness after death unsettle that assurance. Heathcliff responds to the news by begging Catherine to haunt him rather than leave him alone, then strikes his head against a tree, with blood on his forehead, hand and the bark. Edgar keeps watch beside the body while Heathcliff waits outside, giving their grief a shared sleeplessness despite their separation. Mrs Dean opens a window to let Heathcliff enter secretly, discovers that he has replaced the light hair in Catherine's locket with his own and twists the two locks together. With Hindley absent and Isabella uninvited, Catherine is buried away from both families' usual burial places, beside a low wall crossed by plants from the moor.

17. Chapter 17

    Isabella arrives at the Grange wounded and describes how Hindley's attempt to attack Heathcliff ended in his own injury and a savage beating. Although she refuses to help murder Heathcliff, she delights in tormenting his grief, and he throws a knife at her before she escapes across the moor. Mrs Dean describes Isabella's renewed correspondence with Edgar, the birth of her son Linton and her death when he is about twelve. Edgar becomes a recluse but finds consolation in his daughter, while Mrs Dean contrasts his religious hope with Hindley's despair. Hindley dies less than six months after Catherine, and Mrs Dean questions whether he had fair treatment without establishing an answer. Heathcliff's account attributes the death to drinking, and his possession of mortgages on all Hindley's land leaves Hareton dependent on his father's enemy. Heathcliff compares rearing Hareton to twisting a tree with wind, and his threat to claim his own son if Edgar takes Hareton prevents further intervention.

18. Chapter 18

    Mrs Dean describes twelve happy years raising Cathy, whose eager mind develops under Edgar's teaching while her movements remain closely restricted. The distant crags attract her because they are unfamiliar, and Edgar's reluctance to pass the Heights keeps him postponing a visit. When Isabella asks her brother to come before she dies and take charge of Linton, Edgar leaves Cathy under Mrs Dean's watch. Cathy rides beyond the park, and a fight between her dogs and Hareton's introduces them before she persuades him to accompany her exploring. Mrs Dean finds them at the Heights, where Cathy's assumption that Hareton is a servant offends him and the discovery of their kinship offends her own sense of rank. Mrs Dean compares Hareton's neglected good qualities to plants choked by weeds in rich soil, but admits that her wider knowledge of life at the Heights comes from hearsay. She gains Cathy's promise of silence chiefly by suggesting that Edgar might dismiss her for her negligence, using the child's affection to protect herself.

19. Chapter 19

    Cathy eagerly awaits her father's return with Linton, imagining an ideal playmate and feeling no definite grief for the aunt she has lost. The boy arrives exhausted, pale and tearful, and Edgar asks Cathy to allow for his recent bereavement and poor health. Her affectionate treatment of him like a baby wins a smile, though it also shows her wish to make him fit her own idea of a companion. Edgar hopes that her company will strengthen Linton, but both he and Mrs Dean doubt whether they can keep him. Joseph arrives with Heathcliff's demand for his son and pushes past Mrs Dean to address Edgar directly. Remembering Isabella's wishes, Edgar grieves at giving the boy up but sees no way to prevent it, limiting his resistance to postponing the transfer until morning. Joseph leaves with the threat that Heathcliff will come himself, making the children's brief comfort dependent on an adult struggle over control.

20. Chapter 20

    Edgar sends Linton to his father and orders Mrs Dean to keep Cathy ignorant of how near he will be. Linton knows nothing of Heathcliff and questions the expectation that he should love a parent he has never known. Mrs Dean invents reassuring explanations for his parents' separation and promises visits she knows are unlikely, making deception part of her brief guardianship. Heathcliff greets his son as property, ridicules his frailty and admits that he despises him. His declared reason for preserving Linton's health and status is the prospect of his descendant owning the Linton estates and employing the former owners' children. Mrs Dean hopes that this selfish interest will at least secure the boy's comfort, but his cries and the closed door expose the fear in which she leaves him.

21. Chapter 21

    Reports from the Heights housekeeper describe Linton's continuing illness and isolation, while Mrs Dean's sympathy for him weakens. On Cathy's sixteenth birthday, an outing to look for birds' nests brings her into contact with Heathcliff, who invites her to see Linton despite Mrs Dean's resistance. Heathcliff privately declares his plan for their marriage and says that Linton's property would pass to him if his son died. He takes pride in deliberately degrading Hareton, whose embarrassment and inability to read then become entertainment for Cathy and Linton. Cathy initially sees Edgar's prohibition as an unfair extension of the adults' quarrel, until he tells her about Heathcliff's treatment of Isabella and acquisition of the Heights. Her concern for Linton nevertheless leads to secret correspondence, and Mrs Dean suspects that some of his increasingly elaborate letters draw on a more experienced source. Mrs Dean searches Cathy's locked drawer, intercepts a letter and uses the threat of disclosure to make her surrender the correspondence to the fire and end the exchange.

22. Chapter 22

    After Edgar becomes ill and can no longer walk with her, Cathy fears the loss of the two people closest to her. Mrs Dean's attempt to distract her with a late flower instead reveals how Cathy reads sadness into the landscape. Cathy recalls Mrs Dean's earlier warning about being left alone, and Mrs Dean urges her to cheer Edgar and warns that renewed attachment to Linton could endanger his life. Cathy replies that she loves her father more than herself and would rather outlive him and suffer herself than leave him to grieve. When Cathy climbs outside the park for her fallen hat and cannot get back, Heathcliff uses the encounter to threaten disclosure of her letters and claim that only she can save Linton. He appeals to her compassion by asking her to imagine herself in Linton's place and admitting that his household treats the boy harshly. Mrs Dean denounces his claims but cannot relieve Cathy's distress, and agrees to a visit in the hope that Linton's reception will disprove his father's story.

23. Chapter 23

    With Heathcliff absent, Cathy and Mrs Dean find Joseph ignoring Linton's calls for fuel and the boy feverish and coughing. Linton reports his father's pressure to win Cathy's affection, then repeats Heathcliff's claim that marriage would make her love him above everyone else. Their discussion of affection becomes a quarrel over their parents, and Cathy's violent push to his chair brings on a coughing fit that alarms both visitors. Mrs Dean interprets his subsequent behaviour as calculated to distress Cathy, while Cathy responds with guilt, cushions and recited ballads. Linton insists she must return because she has hurt him, and Cathy imagines she can improve his health and temper through affectionate care. She challenges Mrs Dean's attempts to restrict her movements, while Mrs Dean's claim that Linton's death would be little loss exposes the harshness of her judgement. Mrs Dean's ensuing illness removes her from her duties for three weeks, and her praise of Cathy's devoted nursing ends with an admission that she never considered how the girl spent her free evenings.

24. Chapter 24

    Once Mrs Dean recovers, Cathy's impatience with her company leads to the discovery of her secret evening rides, arranged with Michael in exchange for books and pictures. Cathy recalls a happy visit when she and Linton described sharply different visions of a summer paradise, his still and peaceful, hers full of movement and sound. Her contempt for Hareton's attempt to read his name provokes Mrs Dean's rebuke, which links his difficulties to his upbringing rather than his intelligence. In Cathy's account, Hareton then drives the cousins violently from the room, Linton coughs blood, and Hareton carries him upstairs before trying to approach Cathy in regret. Linton later blames Cathy for the disturbance, but his confession that Heathcliff's contempt makes him feel worthless renews her sympathy. Cathy presents continued visiting as a duty even though most evenings bring suffering or quarrels. Mrs Dean reports the visits to Edgar while withholding the cousins' conversations and Hareton's involvement, and Edgar forbids further trips without fully knowing Linton's character or health.

25. Chapter 25

    Mrs Dean reminds Lockwood that these events happened little more than a year ago and questions his interest in Cathy, while he insists that he must return to the busy world. Returning to the past, she describes Edgar's conflict between longing to join his wife in the grave and fearing for their daughter's future. He would accept losing Cathy to Linton if the boy could comfort her, but fears handing her to an instrument of Heathcliff. Mrs Dean reassures him about her own loyalty and the reward of duty, although Cathy mistakes signs of his continuing illness for recovery. Linton's letters appeal against the cousins' separation, while Heathcliff watches the correspondence and prevents his son from giving his own suffering priority. Edgar eventually allows supervised weekly meetings near the Grange, hoping that marriage to his heir could preserve Cathy's connection to her ancestral home. Mrs Dean acknowledges that even she began to believe Linton was recovering, before explaining that Heathcliff was forcing his dying son to appear eager.

26. Chapter 26

    A messenger redirects Cathy and Mrs Dean from the agreed meeting place, taking them beyond Edgar's boundary and close to Wuthering Heights. They find Linton so weak that their planned excursion becomes a rest on the heath. Cathy tries to revive their earlier conversation about ideal summer days, but his lack of interest leaves her hurt and disappointed. He becomes agitated when she proposes leaving, asks her to report good health to Edgar and warns that his father will be angry if she describes his silence. He wakes from sleep in terror, believing he has heard Heathcliff's voice. Cathy recognises that the meeting seems like a task imposed on him, yet still thinks he may be healthier because he complains less than before, while Mrs Dean thinks him worse. Their shared uncertainty becomes another gap in Edgar's knowledge when they return with little explanation of what they have seen.

27. Chapter 27

    As Edgar declines rapidly, Mrs Dean withholds her doubts about Linton so that he can keep his hope that Cathy will not be left alone. At the next meeting Linton calls himself a traitor but cannot explain his father's threats, and his anguish overcomes Cathy's impatience. Heathcliff openly uses the boy's fear to draw Cathy into the Heights, then pushes Mrs Dean inside and locks the door. When Cathy tries to take the key, he beats her and stops Mrs Dean's attempt to intervene. With his own immediate fear eased, Linton explains that Heathcliff wants a wedding before Linton dies; Mrs Dean threatens and shakes him, bringing on a cough. Cathy offers immediate marriage in exchange for returning to Edgar, but Heathcliff relishes her father's suffering and refuses her appeal to his own experience of love. After a night spent blaming herself, Mrs Dean is separated from Cathy and kept confined for five nights altogether, receiving food from Hareton, who rejects her appeals for help.

28. Chapter 28

    Zillah unlocks Mrs Dean's room after hearing a village rumour of a marsh accident and Heathcliff's false account of her confinement as care. Linton confirms that Cathy is now his wife, claims ownership of her belongings on his father's authority and describes Heathcliff striking her and destroying Edgar's portrait. Mrs Dean returns to the Grange and softens her account for Edgar, who orders a lawyer summoned to put Cathy's fortune in trustees' hands; she also sends men to demand Cathy's release. The men return without Cathy and the lawyer delays, but Cathy later explains that her distress drove Linton to fetch the key, allowing her to escape through her mother's window by the fir-tree. Before entering Edgar's room, Cathy agrees not to complain of her marriage, and he dies peacefully with her beside him, believing he will rejoin her mother. Mr Green arrives after the death, having taken Heathcliff's instructions, and gives all the other servants notice to leave, though Edgar's existing will and Mrs Dean's protests preserve his burial beside his wife. Cathy remains at the Grange until her father's body leaves for burial, and her account reveals that Linton was punished for helping her escape.

29. Chapter 29

    Heathcliff interrupts Cathy and Mrs Dean's hope of remaining together at the Grange, insisting that Cathy must return to Linton and that he intends to let the house. He describes terrifying his son as punishment for helping her escape, then makes her responsible for the boy's care. Cathy refuses to be frightened and claims that their mutual love gives them something Heathcliff lacks, though Mrs Dean sees her beginning to take pleasure in an enemy's suffering. After refusing Mrs Dean's request to exchange posts with Zillah, Heathcliff describes opening Catherine's coffin and bribing the sexton to remove its side and his own when he is buried beside her. His wish for their bodies to mingle extends his rivalry with Edgar beyond death. He also recalls attempting to reach the coffin on the night Catherine was buried, then abandoning the effort because he felt her nearby, a presence that has repeatedly seemed almost visible without becoming so. He claims Catherine's portrait for himself and leads Cathy away on foot, forbidding Mrs Dean to visit.

30. Chapter 30

    Unable to see Cathy herself, Mrs Dean relies on a conversation with Zillah to describe life at the Heights. Zillah reports that Heathcliff refused a doctor for Linton and that she herself avoided helping Cathy, admitting that she feared both pity and losing her post. When Linton dies, Cathy calls herself free but says that the struggle has left her feeling only death, and she remains upstairs for a fortnight. Mrs Dean explains that Linton's will gave his moveable property to Heathcliff under pressure, while distinguishing that property from lands he was too young to dispose of and admitting uncertainty about Heathcliff's legal claim. In Zillah's account, Hareton tries to welcome Cathy downstairs and helps her reach books, but his touch on her hair and a request that she read aloud bring angry rejection. Cathy's accusation that everyone abandoned her challenges Zillah's account of her as merely proud, while Hareton says he offered to sit up for her. Mrs Dean sees no present way to remove Cathy from Heathcliff's control, and Lockwood closes the account by planning a return to London as his health improves.

31. Chapter 31

    Lockwood carries Mrs Dean's letter to the Heights, where Hareton first confiscates it but relents when Cathy cries. Cathy reads it eagerly and explains that she cannot reply because she has no writing materials, while Heathcliff has destroyed her books. She accuses Hareton of hoarding books out of envy, although Lockwood recognises his desire to learn and argues against mocking a beginner. After she mimics his reading, Hareton strikes her, a blow Lockwood partly excuses, and burns his books while the visitor imagines the anguish of abandoning his studies. Heathcliff then remarks that Hareton increasingly resembles Catherine rather than Hindley, making the young man's appearance painful to him. Lockwood announces his intended departure and dines with the men while Cathy is ordered to remain in the kitchen. His final fantasy of rescuing her through an attachment to himself exposes how readily he turns her unhappiness into a story about his own possible importance.

32. Chapter 32

    An unexpected visit in September brings Lockwood back to the Grange and then to the Heights, where an unfastened gate, flowers and open windows contrast with his earlier receptions. He watches Cathy teaching Hareton and exchanging kisses with him, responding with envy before finding Mrs Dean in the kitchen. She says that Heathcliff died three months earlier and that she now manages Cathy's affairs, then returns to the months after Lockwood's departure to explain the cousins' reconciliation. Summoned to replace Zillah, she brought Cathy books, but confinement and loneliness still made the girl restless, and her early attempts to interest Hareton failed after her earlier ridicule. His injured arm keeps him indoors, and on Easter Monday Cathy learns that he has defended her, thanks him and asks forgiveness. A kiss and the gift of a book, with an offer to teach him, finally lead them to sit reading together despite his fear that she will remain ashamed of him. Mrs Dean describes their affection as a mutual wish to esteem and be esteemed, while treating their marriage as her hope rather than an event already accomplished.

33. Chapter 33

    The morning after their reconciliation, Cathy and Hareton clear part of Joseph's garden for flowers, provoking his complaint and Heathcliff's anger. Cathy challenges Heathcliff over both cousins' lost property and assumes that Hareton will turn against him, but Hareton urges her to leave and refuses to hear her speak against Heathcliff. When Heathcliff seizes her hair, Hareton tries to release it, and Heathcliff himself suddenly relaxes his grip and studies her face. Later Hareton refuses to hear Cathy condemn Heathcliff, comparing that loyalty with her feelings for her own father, and she recognises the hurt her attacks cause him. Mrs Dean admires their renewed lessons and Hareton's developing abilities, then suggests that their resemblance to Catherine Earnshaw disarms Heathcliff when he returns. He describes his revenge as a demolition for which he has assembled every tool but lost the will to act, expressly denying that this is generosity. He says that Hareton recalls both Catherine and his own youth, that the whole world reminds him of her loss, and that one consuming wish leaves him struggling to attend to ordinary life, though he denies feeling ill or expecting death.

34. Chapter 34

    Mrs Dean describes Heathcliff withdrawing from the household and returning from a night outside in strange excitement, increasingly unable to eat or rest. He denies deliberately starving himself, refuses to repent of his cruelty and rejects a minister's help because he believes he is approaching his own heaven. After he refuses Kenneth admission, Mrs Dean eventually finds him dead in the panelled bed, with the window open and rain soaking his body. Hareton weeps beside the corpse and lays turf over the grave, showing his continued devotion to the man who wronged him. Kenneth cannot determine the cause of death, and Mrs Dean admits concealing Heathcliff's four days without food while insisting that his fasting followed his illness rather than caused it. She reports supposed hauntings and admits her fear of being alone at the Heights, even as she announces Cathy and Hareton's planned marriage and move to the Grange. Lockwood leaves without greeting the couple and visits the three graves, where the soft wind and fluttering moths suggest peace without disproving the reported hauntings.

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