Nelly remembers her childhood. Earnshaw, and his family. After his wifes death, Mr. Three years later, Mr. He returns with a wife, Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff.

One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live there.

Linton works to make her a proper young lady. See full list on sparknotes. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly. She keeps the boy with her there.

Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the sickly Linton. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies.

Nevertheless, the novel contains enough clues to enable an approximate reconstruction of its chronology, which was elaborately designed by Emily Brontë.

The following chronology is based on those clues, and should closely approximate the timing of the novels important events. A ~ before a date indicates that it cannot be precisely determined from the evidence in the novel, but only closely estimated. But this is a mistake.

Really the story is one of revenge. It follows the life of Heathcliff, a mysterious gypsy-like person, from childhood (about seven years old) to his death in his late thirties.

Chapters to 31Twelve years on, Cathy has grown into a beautiful, high-spirited girl who has rarely passed outside the borders of the Grange. Edgar hears that Isabella is dying and leaves to pick up her son with the intention of adopting him.

Hindley, who finds himself excluded fr. He makes his way there and she fills in the rest of the story. In March, Hareton had had an accident and been confined to the farmhouse.

The setting is central to the novel. Both action and characters can be understood in terms of two households. Wuthering Heights Summary.

Unfortunately, these less passionate mortals are subject to the indifferent forces of nature, dying in childbirth and of consumption too easily. They are subject to Heathcliffs wrath as well, losing all assets and independence to him. In Heathcliffs character, Brontë explores the great destructive potential of unrestrained passion.

In him, human emotion is uncontrollable and deadly. Together, these acts of grace nullify the deadly effects of their keeper, who dies soon afterward.

In the early days of his tenancy, he makes two calls on his landlord. On his first visit, he meets Heathcliff, an abrupt, unsocial man who is surrounded by a pack of snarling, barking dogs.

During his visit, snow begins to fall. It covers the moor paths and makes travel impossible for a stranger in that bleak countryside. The visitor is finally rescued by Zillah, the cook, who hides him in an unused chamber of the house. Thinking that a branch is rattling against the window, he breaks the glass in his attempt to unhook the casement.

As he reaches out to break off the fir branch outside, his fingers close on a small ice-cold han and a weeping voice begs to be let in. Then he throws himself upon the bed by the shattered pane and begs the spirit to come in out of the dark and the storm.

The voice is, however, heard no moreonly the hiss of swirling snow and the wailing of a cold wind that blows out the smoking candle. The housekeeper at Thrushcross Grange, Ellen Dean, is able to satisfy part of Mr. Once, on a trip to Liverpool, Mr. Gradually, the orphan began to usurp the affections of Mr.

Lockwood has a strange dream. A short time later, Mr. The girl confided to Ellen that she really loved Heathcliff, but she felt it would be degrading for her to marry the penniless orphan.

Heathcliff, who overheard this conversation, disappeared the same night and did not return for many years. Summary Read a Plot Overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter Summary and Analysis. He is a gypsy like man who only lived until he was in his late thirties. He rises by his adopted family only to be treated like a servant.

Nature as a stand-in for characters.