Nelly, however, explains that a person can have more than one cousin. Edgar brings young Linton to the Grange, and Catherine is disappointed to find her cousin a pale, weak, whiny young man. Not long after he arrives, Joseph appears, saying that Heathcliff is determined to take possession of his son. Edgar promises that he will bring Linton to Wuthering Heights the following day. Nelly receives orders to escort the boy to the Heights in the morning. On the way, she tries to comfort Linton by telling him reassuring lies about his father.
Linton pleads with Nelly not to leave him with such a monster, but Nelly mounts her horse and rides away hurriedly. Additionally, the structure of the novel divides the story into two contrasting halves. The first deals with the generation of characters represented by Catherine, Heathcliff, Hindley, Isabella, and Edgar, and the second deals with their children—young Catherine, Linton, and Hareton.
Many of the same themes and ideas occur in the second half of the novel as in the first half, but they develop quite differently. In fact, many readers view the second half of the novel, in which Catherine figures only as a memory, as a sort of anticlimax. While the latter chapters may never reach the emotional heights of the earlier ones, however, they remain crucial to the thematic development of the novel, as well as to its structural symmetry.
Young Catherine grows up sheltered at Thrushcross Grange, learning only in piecemeal fashion about the existence of Heathcliff and his reign at Wuthering Heights. Edgar Linton, however, painfully aware of this threat, searches for a way to prevent Heathcliff from taking the property. These events underscore the symbolic importance of the two houses.
Wuthering Heights represents wildness, ungoverned passion, extremity, and doom. The fiery behavior of the characters associated with this house—Hindley, Catherine, and Heathcliff—underscores such connotations. By contrast, Thrushcross Grange represents restraint, social grace, civility, gentility, and aristocracy—qualities emphasized by the more mannered behavior of the Lintons who live there. The names of the two houses also bear out the contrast.
Thus young Catherine is impetuous and headstrong like her mother, but tempered by the gentling influence of her father. Linton, on the other hand, represents the worst of both of his parents, behaving in an imperious and demanding manner like Heathcliff, but also remaining fragile and simpering like Isabella. Ace your assignments with our guide to Wuthering Heights! SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook.
Why do Cathy and Heathcliff develop such a strong bond? How does Heathcliff die? On her 16th birthday, Cathy ends up at Wuthering Heights on an ill-fated walk with Nelly, during which they encounter Heathcliff, who reintroduces Cathy to her cousin. When Edgar learns about this meeting, he forbids all further contact with the Heights.
That evening, Nelly goes to Cathy's room and finds the girl crying. Believing that Cathy is crying because her father has forbidden her to go to the Heights in fact, the soft-hearted Cathy is crying for her cousin's sake, as he will wait in vain for her promised visit the next day , Nelly tells her:.
Oh, fie, silly child! You never had one shadow of substantial sorrow, Miss Catherine. Suppose, for a minute, that master and I were dead, and you were by yourself in the world - how would you feel, then? Compare the present occasion with such an affliction as that, and be thankful for the friends you have, instead of coveting more.
With this platitude on being 'thankful for the friends you have', Nelly draws on a conventional 19th-century sentiment regarding the importance of family even though she is not related to Cathy and the fear of losing and thereby being separated from loved ones.
The family replaced both the traditional community and the individual of the late Middle Ages and early modern times. The fear of death, born of the fantasies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was transferred from the self to the other, the loved one.
But what the survivors mourned was no longer the fact of dying but the physical separation from the deceased. The fear of loss of members of her nuclear family would be particularly acute for Cathy, who has almost no human contact other than with her father and Nelly. Nelly's exploitation of such concerns to frighten the girl into forgetting about Linton seems particularly cruel - to both children. Nelly's threat is ultimately self-serving: Nelly is afraid of Heathcliff, but does not wish to be put to the inconvenience of having to keep too close a guard on Cathy.
Nelly is also concerned that she may lose her position at the Grange if she evokes Edgar's displeasure by failing to protect Cathy. Moreover, the reader knows that Nelly has not warned Edgar of Heathcliff's scheme. Nelly's duplicity and culpability are compounded when she later fails to alert Edgar about Cathy's clandestine correspondence with Linton.
Presumably, she fails to tell Edgar about the letter-writing not because of Cathy's wishes but, rather, because doing so might land Nelly in trouble - earlier, when Heathcliff secretly paid visits to Catherine, for instance, Nelly did not mind telling Edgar about them, although she had to have known what her tale-bearing would mean for Edgar and Catherine's marriage and the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff, the disintegration of which is the cause of Heathcliff's desire for revenge.
Taking this into account, Nelly may indeed be 'the villain' of Wuthering Heights , as James Hafley asserts - or, at least, a villain, particularly in her unkind and negligent treatment of Cathy. Later, on a walk on a chilly and damp evening with Cathy amongst the reapers who are gathering the last of the year's harvest, Edgar catches a cold that settles on his lungs and forces him to stay indoors for most of the autumn and winter that follow. Soon, Cathy starts to fear that her father will not get better.
Nelly and Cathy discuss Edgar's poor health. When Cathy shows concern for her father and really fears that she will lose him, Nelly's response is again problematic, as well as revealing. The housekeeper recounts their conversation to Lockwood:.
I can't forget your words, Ellen, they are always in my ear. Earlier, Nelly attempted to manipulate Cathy to get her to stop crying about being kept from Linton by presenting the girl's grief as insignificant compared to the misery she would have to endure if she lost Nelly and Edgar and were left alone in the world - she drew on the possibility of Cathy's loss to frighten her.
Now that Edgar actually has fallen ill and Cathy fears that he will die, Nelly dismisses the girl's fear and plays on her guilt by admonishing her to 'be thankful' that her father is not seriously ill, but simultaneously frightens her with the threat that she will invoke harm by 'anticipat[ing] evil'.
Nelly's earlier words haunt Cathy. The housekeeper knows just as well as Cathy that Edgar may indeed die, but she neglects to assist Cathy in coming to terms with her father's impending death. Her rebuke that it is wrong to fear the event adds to Cathy's anxiety, showing that Nelly is as unfeeling now as she was before, when she drew on the girl's attachment to, and fear of, losing her loved ones to get her to forget about Linton.
Nelly's comment, which Lockwood uncritically reports, is typical of the housekeeper's relating her tale in such a way as to present herself as 'the moral, rational hub of the tale, holding everything together' Whitley x.
Presumably, she depicts herself in this light to lend credibility to what she relates to Lockwood: she portrays Cathy as childish, impressionable, overly emotional and demanding, in order to draw Lockwood, as an adult male listener who is possibly less sympathetic to children's concerns, into acquiescing in Nelly's lukewarm support for Cathy later.
Her strategy appears to be successful, as Lockwood, who is 'gullible' and 'weak' Hafley , neither questions the truthfulness of Nelly's remarks about Cathy nor rebukes Nelly for the unsympathetic and unsupportive way in which she admits she reacted to Cathy's grief on this and other occasions.
Cathy disagrees with Nelly, asserting that it is not wrong of her to foresee her father's death, pointing to the death of her aunt, who was younger than her father. In this manner, Nelly reinforces 19th-century emphasis on the value of nursing:. In a characteristically Victorian adaptation of the moral assumptions underlying the previous century's cult of sensibility, the shedding of tears over human distress was not in itself sufficient to attest to one's benevolence but required instead the practical demonstration of compassion that nursing affords.
Bailin By responding in this way to Cathy's observation about Isabella's death, Nelly contrasts Edgar's situation with his sister's: she implies that Cathy need not concern herself over her father's well-being, because, unlike Isabella, he is neither alone nor without loved ones who can perform their duty towards him by nursing him back to health. This is disingenuous: like everyone else in Gimmerton, with the exception of Edgar, Nelly knows little, if anything, about Isabella's illness and final hours.
Moreover, both Frances and Catherine died under Nelly's care and Cathy is too inexperienced to tend Linton and make him a little more comfortable in the last days before his inevitable death from consumption. Nelly thus again attempts to dismiss the girl's fears, which are not unfounded. Nelly mendaciously portrays herself as a reliable and competent nurse and servant, when her record tells a different story. Once again, Lockwood fails to register the inconsistency in Nelly's account, suggesting that he is not astute enough to perceive Nelly's unreliability, self-interest and incompetence when it comes to looking after Cathy and nursing.
Although Nelly might have set Cathy at ease by highlighting this contrast between Isabella's and Edgar's circumstances untruthful though her claim is , she cannot resist a didactic rider in the hope of nipping in the bud any ideas of future visits to Wuthering Heights:.
Instead of comforting Cathy, Nelly threatens that Cathy might kill her father if she were 'wild and reckless' enough to continue to cry over Linton, increasing Cathy's misery, adding to the guilt and anxiety she already experiences at being torn between her love for her father and her affection for Linton.
This manipulation is again intended to protect Nelly's position at the Grange: Nelly's sinister insinuation that Cathy would be to blame if Edgar died diverts Cathy's and Lockwood's attention from Nelly's own inabilities and culpability, reinforcing the illusion of herself as sensible, knowledgeable and irreproachable. This method of ensuring Cathy's compliance with Nelly's wishes amounts to blatant psychological blackmail and exploits Cathy's naivety, as the girl has hitherto been surrounded by love and her father's protection and has little sense that anyone might lie to her or wish her anything but good.
The possibility of losing Linton. Cathy is similarly manipulated by Heathcliff and, to a lesser degree, by Linton, who exploit her affection for Linton for their own objectives. Heathcliff's and Linton's manipulative behaviour and Cathy's and Nelly's responses to it shed some light on the characters of Heathcliff, Linton, Cathy and Nelly. Heathcliff lets Cathy know that Linton is very sick and likely to die soon, hoping that her affection for Linton will compel her to visit the Heights.
Accompanied by a reluctant Nelly, Cathy does what Heathcliff anticipated: she visits Linton. Both women see that Linton is very ill, but they react very differently to his plight. Cathy's response to her cousin's suffering reveals the depth of her youthful capacity for empathy and sympathy. Her response is deeply emotional: she pities him and wishes to comfort him - the loving and humane response that should underpin the conventions surrounding care for the sick and dying.
Nelly's reaction, on the other hand, is far more cynical, even heartless. Having witnessed Linton's tendency to complain and be selfish, Nelly quickly begins to dislike him.
As Nelly later reports to Lockwood, she and Cathy discuss Linton on their way back to the Grange after their visit, and when Cathy asks her whether she likes Linton, she exclaims:. However, instead of tactfully alerting Cathy to these disagreeable qualities in Linton in order to steel her against his emotional blackmail, she horrifies the girl by expressing an utter disregard for Linton's life, describing his imminent death - or 'drop[ping] off' - as a 'small loss to his family'.
Moreover, she contradicts herself, now dismissing the 19th-century duties towards the dying that she herself implied earlier, in unfairly dismissing Cathy's concern about Edgar. She thus alters her stance on issues whenever it suits her. The scene suggests that, at best, Nelly tends to be 'self-contradictory' Tytler , and at worst, colludes, wittingly or unwittingly, in Cathy's future suffering at Heathcliff's hands.
She thus inadvertently reveals that she knows how much her words upset and hurt Cathy, but she does not appear to feel any remorse at her own callous if not vindictive remarks. By her own admission, she bullies Cathy by drawing on her affection for Linton. Again, Lockwood appears to be uncritical of Nelly's narrative, as he does not reprimand her for her cruelty, and uncritically accepts her version of events.
Subsequently, when Nelly's illness keeps her in bed for 3 weeks, Cathy begins to visit Linton. When she finds out about Cathy's visits to Linton, Nelly, angry about being disobeyed, tells Edgar, who forbids Cathy to go and see Linton again.
These symptoms are typical of advanced tuberculosis. It caused fever and cough with slow progression to weakness, weight loss, increasing shortness of breath and, towards the end, coughing up of blood. The consequence of this illness was understood by the physicians and the general public and the inevitability of the outcome was accepted. Considering the prevalence of this disease, Nelly may be assumed to know that the 'coughing up of blood' indicates that the illness is well advanced and that Linton's death is imminent.
Her failing to tell Edgar about this reveals not so much a tendency to be 'slow-witted' or 'uncomprehending', as Tytler supposes, but a lack of feeling. Given that Edgar honoured his dying sister's wishes, acting in keeping with 19th-century thought concerning duty towards the dying and attachment to loved ones, he might have attempted to find a way to let Cathy see her cousin, had he known about Linton's declining health.
By keeping this information to herself, then, Nelly deprives Cathy and Edgar of the chance to support and care for their dying relative. Her actions expose her own hypocrisy again, considering the views she expressed earlier on the importance of caring for the dying. Nelly's failure to alert Edgar to Heathcliff's plan to have Cathy marry Linton, combined with her silence on the imminence of Linton's death, makes her partly to blame for the eventual success of Heathcliff's strategy.
Persuaded both by Cathy and by Linton, with whom he has established a regular correspondence, Edgar agrees to let the cousins meet at some distance from the Heights from time to time, but this well-intended concession allows Heathcliff cynically to exploit Edgar's decency and Cathy's innocent sympathy. Because the boy is dying, Heathcliff has to force the marriage through as quickly as possible if he hopes to gain access to Cathy's future inheritance.
To do this, he terrorises Linton, in ways that are never described in detail, to ensure that his son is so afraid of him that Linton will do whatever he demands.
During one of Cathy's visits to Linton, Heathcliff arrives and Linton is instantly overcome with such terror that he can barely stand up. As a result of her sympathy for her terrified cousin, Cathy cannot bring herself to refuse Heathcliff's request, knowing a refusal will increase Linton's anxiety and subject him to further abuse at Heathcliff's hands.
Once they are at Wuthering Heights, however, Heathcliff imprisons Cathy and Nelly, and tells them that he will let them go only if Cathy marries Linton. In this manner, then, Heathcliff unscrupulously exploits Cathy's affection for Linton. Geerken claims that Heathcliff's:. This may be true, but it is made clear that Heathcliff is willing to abuse his own son if doing so will help him gain possession of the Grange.
The Linton's come over for Christmas, but Catherine is disapproved of the way her brother is treating Heathcliff. After he is locked away in his room for throwing applesauce at Edgar, Catherine scolds her friend for insulting Heathcliff and sneaks up to the attic to see him.
By , she spends most of her time with the Linton's and behaves like a proper woman whenever she is with them, but acts like her normal self when she is with Heathcliff. When she tells him that Edgar and Isabella are invited to visit, he confronts her on being more closer with them, while she retorts that he is dumb and dull.
Catherine is alone in a room with Edgar and Nelly just after Heathcliff storms out. She tells Nelly to leave and when she refuses, she angrily pinches her, shakes her baby nephew Hareton and hits Edgar.
She begs Edgar not to go after he plans to leave, shocked from her sudden outburst. Later, when her brother returns home drunk, both she and Edgar were alone together when she apologizes for what had happened. The two make up and make their love confessions. The following evening, Catherine meets Nelly in the kitchen and informs her that she had just been betrothed to Edgar.
She wasn't sure why she has accepted his engagement, but mainly because he is rich and would like to live a lavish lifestyle like him. She also comments that she had a dream where she was in Heaven and wasn't happy there so the angels had returned her to Earth and back to the Heights. She confesses that she cannot marry Heathcliff for fear that she would degrade herself, but she states that she still loves him so much that they are essentially the same person with kindred spirits.
While she was talking, Heathcliff had been listening to some of her conversation and ran away from the Heights. After finding out he disappeared, Catherine runs outside during a rainstorm and desperately tries to find him. She develops a fever and nursed back to health by the Linton's. But in addition, they would both die from the illness. By now, Nelly also lives at the Grange with the newlyweds.
For the next 6 months after their wedding, everything was fine. One evening, Heathcliff arrives at the Grange, appearing as a well-dressed, proper man. Catherine is frantic and excited to see him after such a long time, but her husband isn't approved of seeing Heathcliff. The three of them have a conversation and Catherine learns that Heathcliff is staying over at the Heights as part of his plan of revenge.
Later that evening, she talks to Nelly, saying that Edgar is jealous of him and doesn't like to hear her talk about the new Heathcliff. Catherine and her sister-in-law Isabella visit the Heights often. She feels worried when Isabella starts to fall in love with Heathcliff and she warns her that he is a bad influence on her. She ends up humiliating her by exposing her crush to Heathcliff the next time he comes over to the Grange. When she sees that her former soulmate embraced Isabella lovingly, she confronts him about his affections for her, and would convince Edgar to let their marriage happen if he really does love Isabella.
But she was told by him that she had wronged him because of her marriage to Edgar and he will extract revenge. After Edgar is brought in to stop the confrontation, Catherine locks them both in the kitchen and throws the key into the fireplace so she could let them stand off against each other alone; even taunting Edgar to fight back. Heathcliff quickly leaves and she is forced to choose by her husband on what man she loves the most. She responds by locking herself in her room and doesn't come out for 3 days.
Catherine finally unlocks the door and lets Nelly come in and offer her some food, since she hadn't eaten while she confined herself. She thinks that she is dying and worries why Edgar didn't come for her. She feels delirious and as she stares at her reflection in the mirror, becomes obsessed with death and rants about her childhood memories with Heathcliff on the moors.
She wants her window opened and when Nelly doesn't do it, Catherine opens it wide herself. Her health begins to worsen and a doctor is called to have a look at her.
She would never fully recover from her illness. For the next two months, she was confined in bed and treated by Nelly and Edgar. She also finds out she is pregnant with her first child. She continues to feel worse when a letter from Heathcliff was delivered to her a few days later. She is so weak she could barely hold the letter in her hand.
Heathcliff arrives as soon as she receives it, and she tells him that both he and Edgar had broken her heart. She cannot bear the thought of her dying while her first love is still living and begs for forgiveness. He does, but tells her that he cannot forgive the pain and heartbreak she allegedly caused herself, and he cannot forgive her "murderer". As Heathcliff prepares to leave, Catherine begs him to stay with her, and he does until Edgar arrives.
She falls from her bed but Heathcliff catches her and places her in her husband's arms before he retreats. Later that evening, at around midnight, Catherine goes into premature labor and gives birth to daughter Catherine Linton. The mother Catherine falls unconscious and dies two hours later. Catherine's body was put on display for Edgar and Heathcliff to pay their final respects to the woman they both loved.
Catherine had a locket with a lock of her and Edgar's hair in it, until Heathcliff replaces Edgar's with his own. Both locks were twined together by Nelly and Catherine's funeral was held shortly afterwards. Hindley was supposed to attend but didn't show up and Isabella wasn't invited. Instead of being interred in the Linton family crypt, Catherine is instead buried in a small churchyard in the moors. After her death, Catherine returns as a spirit to haunt the Heights and her soulmate.
After he finds out she died, Heathcliff demands her to haunt him and drive him insane, and that she won't ever truly leave him.
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