WUTHERING

HEIGHTS
Chapter 15-18
Synopsis
◦ Narrators: Lockwood, then Nelly. 
◦ Nelly passes on a letter from Heathcliff to Catherine. Heathcliff visits Catherine at Thrushcross Grange but
Edgar discovers them. However, he is more taken up with Catherine’s illness. Heathcliff goes out to wait in
the garden until morning. Catherine is seven months pregnant.
◦ Summary
◦ When Edgar goes to church four days later, Nelly delivers Heathcliff's letter to Catherine, who is so weak that she
can hardly hold it. Heathcliff walks into the room almost as soon as Nelly delivers the letter. Upon seeing him,
Catherine says that he and Edgar have broken her heart, and adds that she can't stand the thought of dying while
Heathcliff is still alive, and wishes that the two of them will never be parted. Then she begs Heathcliff for
forgiveness.
◦ Analysis
◦ Catherine wants everything. The conflict between Heathcliff and Edgar broke her heart because it made having
everything impossible. Yet at the same time her love for Heathcliff seems deeper than her love for Edgar. She never
tells Edgar that she wishes she would never be parted from him.
◦ Summary
◦ Heathcliff responds that he forgives her for what she has done to him, but that he can never forgive her for what
she has done to herself. He says "I love my murderer—but yours? How can I?"
◦ Analysis
◦ Heathcliff's response demonstrates that he not only loves Catherine more than anything else, he loves her more
than he loves even himself.
◦ Summary
◦ Just then Edgar arrives home from church. Heathcliff gets up to leave, but Catherine begs him to stay and he does.
As Edgar approaches, Nelly screams. Catherine collapses and Heathcliff catches her. Edgar rushes into the room.
Heathcliff puts Catherine's body into Edgar's arms and commands Edgar that it is more important for him to take
care of Catherine rather than get angry.
◦ Analysis
◦ Once again Catherine creates a confrontation between Heathcliff and Edgar. But while Edgar seems ready to fight,
Heathcliff again demonstrates the full depth of his love for Catherine by saying that her care comes before any
conflict they might have.
◦ Summary
◦ Nelly ushers Heathcliff from the room, promising to send news of Catherine's health in the morning. Heathcliff
says he'll stay nearby in the garden.
◦ Analysis
◦ Another sign of Heathcliff's complete devotion to and love for Catherine.
Commentary
◦ We are reminded of the passion and intensity of the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine in this
chapter, before Catherine dies. It is worth reading their final meeting carefully, noting the language used and
the way they look towards death. They both claim to be the one who should be ‘pitied’.
◦ Out of this world: the description of Catherine makes her seem ghost-like; if she is gazing beyond death, in
her view is the place where Heathcliff will join her. This is another example of the unorthodox view of death
which Emily Brontë suggests in the novel.
◦ Gimmerton chapel bells…: the two houses are contrasted again in this paragraph
◦ Oh, Cathy! Oh, my life! how can I bear it?: Brontë balances the negative view of Heathcliff from Isabella’s
perspective (Chapter 14) with Heathcliff’s real passion and distress here.
◦ heaven would be a land of exile to her: Nelly makes a conventional judgement about what she perceives as Catherine’s ‘vindictiveness’,
which seems inadequate compared to the depth of what the lovers are expressing.
◦ Teased: the word had a stronger meaning than it does nowadays.
◦ Foamed like a mad dog: vivid animal comparison which creates a bizarre, Gothic image.
◦ Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us: Heathcliff’s words are like
a pagan echo of the apostle Paul’s description of the union of God and believer in the New Testament:
◦ For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. (KJB)

(Romans 8:38-9)
◦ diabolical deed … We are all done for - master, mistress, and servant.: Nelly’s criticism of Heathcliff is partly inspired by her own fear at
being caught.
◦ Far better that she should be dead: a rather harsh-sounding comment from Nelly; it perhaps reflects the constant presence of death at the
time.
CHAPTER 16
Synopsis
◦ Narrator: Nelly (with a short interruption by Lockwood). 
◦ At about midnight, baby Cathy is born, two months early. Two hours later, her mother dies. Heathcliff waits
outside all night and has sensed Catherine’s death before Nelly tells him. His grieving involves cursing Catherine
for leaving him and howling like a dog. Edgar quietly stays at his wife’s side. When he retires to sleep, Nelly
allows Heathcliff a final sight of Catherine. She is buried as she wished in a corner of the churchyard, near the wall.
◦ Summary
◦ At midnight, Catherine gives birth to a daughter, Cathy, two months prematurely. Catherine dies two hours later.
When Nelly brings Heathcliff the news, he seems somehow to already know. He curses Catherine for the pain
she's caused, then begs her to haunt and torment him for the rest of his life, even if it drives him mad, just so they
can be together.
◦ Analysis
◦ Heathcliff's love for Catherine seems to rise to a different plane, from powerful love to something supernatural.
First, he seems to know already when she dies, and then he wishes for a life of torment rather than to be separated
from her.
◦ Summary
◦ Edgar keeps watch over Catherine's body, day and night, while Heathcliff stays out in the garden through the
night. Eventually, exhaustion forces Edgar to leave Catherine's side for a few hours, and Nelly allows Heathcliff to
see the body.
◦ Analysis
◦ Another contrast with Heathcliff. While Edgar eventually succumbs to exhaustion, as any normal person would,
Heathcliff never does any such thing.
◦ Summary
◦ After Heathcliff leaves, Nelly discovers that Heathcliff has replaced a lock of Edgar's hair that Catherine kept in her
locket with his own hair. Nelly finds Edgar's lock of hair and twines the two together in the locket.
◦ Analysis
◦ The combined locks of hair mark the two sides of Catherine's personality, the natural and the civilized.
◦ Summary
◦ Hindley does not attend Catherine's funeral, though he is invited. Isabella is not invited.
◦ Analysis
◦ Once again, Isabella is treated terribly.
◦ Summary
◦ The nearby villagers are surprised when Edgar doesn't bury Catherine in the Linton tomb, but instead by a wall in the corner
of the churchyard, with a view over the moors she loved. Nelly then tells Lockwood that Edgar is buried next to Catherine.
◦ Analysis
◦ Linton's have been buried in their family crypt for generations. It's a "civilized," high-class place to be buried. But Catherine
wants to be buried by the moors.
Commentary
◦ Heathcliff first talks of not wanting to live without Catherine, as the novel moves from the mother to the daughter. 
◦ About twelve o’clock…: Cathy is born at the turn of the date. Does this suggest that she is between two times, not quite
belonging in either (as she is caught between the two houses), or does it suggest that she is a sign of a new start?
◦ Securing… sons: the estate was left to Edgar and his male issue, but not any daughters he might have; on Edgar’s death, it will
now pass to Isabella and her son(s).
◦ Do you believe…in the other world, sir?: Nelly is made to think about life after death, and Lockwood sees this as an unorthodox
question. Brontë seems to be using the ‘normal’ Nelly to open the discussion; Lockwood is a character with whom we seldom
agree.
◦ Ousels: moorland birds rather like blackbirds. Heathcliff has blended so completely into the natural surroundings that the birds
do not notice him.
◦ may she wake as kindly in the other world!: Nelly anticipates a conventional Heaven for Catherine, associated with peace, light
and love.
◦ May she wake in torment!: Heathcliff cannot accept that Catherine might be in heaven, and wants her to remain in torment until
they can be together. To be haunted by her is better than no contact at all. This, of course, links with Lockwood’s experiences in
Chapter 3. The fragile barrier between life and death is shown when Nelly opens a window to let Heathcliff in to see the body.
◦ I twisted the two, and enclosed them together.: Nelly’s action is symbolic of the way in which her narrative and
judgements harmonize the otherwise disparate elements of the novel.
◦ The place of Catherine’s interment…: she is buried as close to the moorland as possible so that she can be in touch
with that beloved area even in death.
CHAPTER 17
Synopsis

◦ Narrator: Nelly, largely recounting Isabella’s story. 

◦ Isabella turns up at Thrushcross Grange. She speaks of life at Wuthering Heights, including how Heathcliff
was locked out and broke in. Isabella runs away and there is mention of the birth of Linton. Six months later,
Hindley dies in debt to Heathcliff, who therefore now owns Wuthering Heights. 
◦ Summary
◦ Just a few days after the funeral, Isabella comes to Thrushcross Grange at a time when she knows Edgar will be asleep in his
room. Disheveled and laughing hysterically, Isabella tells Nelly, who is taking care of the baby Cathy, that she knows Edgar
won't allow her to stay, but that she needs Nelly's help.
◦ Analysis
◦ Isabella's poor treatment at the hands of Heathcliff have clearly unhinged her. Yet she also has the presence of mind to know
that Edgar, always conscience of propriety, will never forgive her for running off with Heathcliff.
◦ Isabella tells Nelly that Hindley desperately tried to stay sober in order to attend Catherine's funeral, but fell apart the morning
of the funeral and started drinking. Then, while Heathcliff was out standing vigil at Catherine's grave, Hindley locked the
doors of Wuthering Heights to keep Heathcliff out and told Isabella that he planned to shoot Heathcliff.
◦ Note how Hindley's plan mirrors what he did when Heathcliff and Catherine, as children, were later to return in chapter 6. It is
as if the characters are endlessly repeating the same pattern as they seek revenge on each other.
◦ When Heathcliff returned, Isabella warned him of Hindley's plans, but didn't let him into the house. Hindley then tried to shoot
Heathcliff from a first floor window, but Heathcliff wrenched away the end of the gun and in the process wounded Hindley in
the wrist with the blade of the gun's bayonet. Heathcliff then broke into the house through that window and beat Hindley. The
next morning, Hindley did not remember what happened, but Isabella reminded him. The two men once again fell to fighting,
at which point Isabella ran to Thrushcross Grange.
◦ The endless back and forth of revenge and recrimination continues.
◦ Nelly then jumps a bit ahead in her story to say that after leaving Thrushcross Grange, Isabella went to live near London,
where she gave birth to a sickly boy, whom she named Linton. Heathcliff eventually learned where Isabella and his son were,
but did not go after them. Isabella died when Linton was twelve.
◦ As a male heir to Isabella, the birth of Linton solidifies Heathcliff's claim on Thrushcross Grange into the next generation.
◦ Hindley dies six months after Catherine, and Nelly goes to Wuthering Heights to look after the funeral and to bring Hareton
back to the Grange. But Nelly is shocked to learn that Hindley died deeply in debt to Heathcliff, who now owns Wuthering
Heights. In addition, Heathcliff refuses to let Hareton leave Wuthering Heights, and implies that he eventually plans to bring
Linton to Wuthering Heights as well.
◦ Heathcliff's revenge against Hindley is complete with the combination of Hindley's death and ownership of Wuthering Heights
passing into Heathcliff's hands. Yet as his continued oppression of Hareton shows, and interest in Linton implies, his plans are
far from finished.
◦ Nelly then adds that Hareton, who should be the master of Wuthering Heights, now is forced to live as a dependant and
servant to Heathcliff.
◦ Though born into a family of high class, Hareton has had his position stolen from him.
Commentary
◦ Isabella brings us up to date with events at Wuthering Heights and the progress of the characters who live there. She is much
changed from when we first met her and speaks of a desire for revenge. Amid the blood and violence which Isabella describes,
it is interesting how much mention of God and praying there is. The concepts of punishment, judgement and personal
responsibility are strongly connected to religious beliefs for Emily Brontë, a clergyman’s daughter. Some early critics saw the
detail of the violence as too graphic in chapters like this.

◦ That Friday made the last of our fine days: Brontë uses the weather to create the mood.
◦ he groaned from this to his dying day, and wept tears of blood for Catherine!: Isabella alludes to Heathcliff’s distress using
imagery that would remind readers of Jesus the night before his crucifixion:

◦ And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
(Luke 22:44)
◦ Pulling out the nerves with red hot pincers: a vivid image; Isabella uses the language of people who have lived at Wuthering
Heights.
◦ Praying like a Methodist: the followers of John Wesley, who had established the Methodist evangelical movement about forty years before this,
devoted much time to extemporary prayers.

◦ God .. was curiously confounded with his own black father!: Isabella asserts that Heathcliff’s ‘God’ is in fact the devil.

◦ Joseph affirms .. that the Lord has touched his heart, and he is saved ‘so as by fire.’: Joseph uses language associated with religious revival meetings,
of sinners saved by suffering. In 1 Corinthians 3:15, the apostle Paul speaks of fire destroying bad things. However, Isabella is skeptical.

◦ Stanchions: upright bars of a window.

◦ Girned: snarled.

◦ Preterhuman: beyond human.

◦ Basilisk: a legendary creature, hatched by cockerel from a toad’s or serpent’s egg and having deadly breath and look. (A cockatrice is from a
cock’s egg, hatched by a serpent.)

◦ 'One might suppose you had never opened a Bible ..’ … ‘An eye for an eye’: Isabella quotes the Old Testament law code that limited vengeance
to the level of damage that had originally been inflicted (Exodus 21:24). However, Nelly reminds her that Jesus had overturned this teaching in
the New Testament (Matthew 5:38–45):

◦ 38 ‘You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the
right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. … 43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44 But I tell
you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
◦ Isabella has sunk to the same level of Heathcliff’s revenge code.

◦ his mouth watered to tear you with his teeth; because he's only half man: not so much, and the rest fiend.: The bestial imagery associated with
Heathcliff is intensified, yet again balanced by our awareness of his overwhelming grief (‘tears ..suffocating sighs’).
◦ I'd go to hell with joy / rather .. perpetual dwelling in the infernal regions: both Hindley and Isabella believe the eternal
torments of hell are preferable to living with Heathcliff.

◦ He was too good to be thoroughly unhappy long: both Edgar and Heathcliff mourn Catherine, but Nelly offers the difference
between them here.

◦ Buried at the crossroads: According to Heathcliff, Hindley had drunk himself to death and was thus a suicide; these were
regarded as criminals and buried in unconsecrated ground. Joseph casts doubt on Heathcliff’s account.

◦ If one tree won’t grow as crooked as another: Heathcliff appears to want Hareton with him simply to destroy him, seeing this
as a type of revenge on Hindley even after his death. Again, death is not seen as the end for Heathcliff.
WUTHERING
HEIGHTS
Chapter 18
Synopsis
◦ Narrator: Nelly. 
◦ Twelve years have passed. We are introduced to Cathy’s lifestyle and character. Edgar visits the dying
Isabella, and agrees to bring her son back to Thrushcross Grange. Cathy (now aged 13) wanders off, and
Nelly finds her at Wuthering Heights with Hareton (now aged 18). Cathy is shocked to hear that the rough
Hareton is her cousin.
Summary & Analysis
◦ Cathy grows into a beautiful, smart, inquisitive, and willful thirteen-year-old. Edgar doesn't allow her to leave Thrushcross
Grange unattended however, so she is entirely unaware of Wuthering Heights or anyone who lives there. One day she hears of
some fairy caves at nearby Penistone Crags and begs Edgar to take her, but Edgar refuses since to get there they would have to
pass Wuthering Heights
◦ Cathy is nearly the spitting image of her mother, impulsive and wild. Yet just as Heathcliff has essentially imprisoned Hareton
at the Heights to keep him un-civilized, Edgar keeps Cathy at the Grange to keep her civilized and a proper young woman.
◦ Soon after, though, Edgar learns that Isabella is dying and rushes
off to London to bring Linton back to the Grange. While he's gone,
Cathy manages to escape Nelly and the grounds of the Grange. She
heads off toward Penistone Crags, but meets Hareton along the way
and immediately likes him. The two spend the day playing
together.
◦ Cathy and Hareton have a natural and mutual affection for each
other, despite their opposite upbringing.
◦ Nelly chases after Cathy and soon finds her at Wuthering Heights. Cathy refuses to leave when Nelly tells her to, however—
she wants to stay with Hareton. Cathy's interest in Hareton turn to contempt, though, when she learns from Nelly that Hareton
isn't the son of the master of Wuthering Heights. Cathy starts to order Hareton around, who much to her surprise and
indignation curses back at her.
◦ Yet Cathy also has been schooled in the ways of civilization, and just as Catherine was taught to look down upon the "rough"
Heathcliff, Cathy is similarly disdainful of anyone who civil society says is beneath her.
◦ A servant of Wuthering Heights then reveals that Hareton is actually Cathy's cousin. Catherine denies it with the argument that
her father has gone to get her real cousin, who is the son of a gentleman, from London. Unhappy that the news of Edgar's trip
to get Linton has been made public, Nelly hushes Cathy by saying that a person can have many cousins of all sorts of stations
in life.
◦ Cathy seems to think that class is set-in-stone reality; that if you are in one class you cannot possibly be related to anyone of
another. But as Heathcliff's and Hareton's lives show, this is not entirely true. Though you are born into a certain class,
circumstances can change things.
◦ Finally Nelly and Cathy leave. On the trip back to the Grange, Cathy agrees not to tell Edgar about her trip to Wuthering
Heights, since the news might anger Edgar so much that he would fire Nelly.
◦ As a member of a lower class, Nelly is dependent on Edgar's goodwill in order to keep her job.
Commentary
◦ The chance meeting between Cathy and Hareton helps Heathcliff to develop his plans of revenge.
◦ A real beauty… yellow curling hair: Cathy has the best features from the two families.
◦ But I know the park and I don’t know those: Cathy wants to explore; she is inquisitive and adventurous, foreshadowing later
events.
◦ Pointers: game dogs.
◦ Galloway: small horses from Galloway in Scotland.
◦ A mind owning better qualities than his father: early hints which prepare us for Hareton’s role later in the novel. Here, though,
he is rough and ignorant.
◦ Good things lost amid a wilderness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far over-topped
their neglected growth; yet, notwithstanding, evidence of a wealthy soil, that might yield
luxuriant crops: Nelly’s view of Hareton would recall for Brontë’s readers Jesus’ parable of
the sower:

◦ A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell … among
thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it
produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (Matthew 13:3-8)
◦ She argues that Hareton’s nature is good, even though his nurture is bad.
◦ Offalld ways: worthless habits.

◦ he allowed that .. [Hareton’s] soul was abandoned to perdition; but then he reflected that Heathcliff must answer for it.:
Perdition is a euphemism for hell. Joseph is never happier than when condemning others and anticipating God’s punishment of
them. (See Rabbi,Pharisee, teacher of the law.)