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Summary and Analysis of Chapters 21-25
Chapter 21, SummaryCathy missed her cousin when she woke up that morning, but time made her forget him. Linton grew up to be a selfish and disagreeable boy, continually complaining about his health. On Cathy's sixteenth birthday she and Ellen went out on the moors, and strayed onto Heathcliff's land, where he found them. He invited them to come to Wuthering Heights, telling Ellen that he wanted Linton and Cathy to marry so he would be doubly sure of inheriting the Grange. Cathy was glad to see her cousin, though she was somewhat taken back by his invalidish behavior. Hareton, at Heathcliff's request, showed her around the farm, though he was shy of her and she teased him unkindly. Linton mocked his ignorance also, showing himself to be mean-spirited. Later Cathy told her father where she had been, and asked him why he had not allowed the cousins to see each other (Heathcliff had told her that Edgar was still angry at him because he thought him too poor to marry Isabella). Edgar told her of Heathcliff's wickedness, and forbade her to return to Wuthering Heights. She was unhappy, and began a secret correspondence with Linton. By the time Ellen discovered it, they were writing love letters affected ones on Linton's part. Ellen confronted Cathy and burned the letters, saying she would tell her father if she continued. Analysis:The issue of trespassing is important in this chapter, and recalls the scene in chapter 6, where Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff are caught on the Lintons' land. This chapter is almost an inversion of the other one, especially considering that this Cathy will marry Linton, just as the earlier Cathy married Edgar. In a static world, everyone stays on their own property and the marriages that result from trespassing would not take place. The emphasis on land and privacy might be taken for a metaphor for more emotional intimacy: in order for two people to become close, one must in some way trespass. On the other hand, the marriages that result from trespassing are unhappy, while that which results from exploration (see Cathy Linton's first meeting with Hareton in chapter 18) are happy. The essential point, of course, is that the definition of trespassing versus innocent exploration depends entirely on the attitude taken by the people whose lands are being entered. Often in literature, land and women are identified with one another, so that trespassing could be taken for a metaphor for sex. This hardly seems to be the case in Wuthering Heights: Linton and Edgar remain passively in their places while their future wives come to see them. This is coherent with the general identification of the male Lintons with female characteristics. Isabella, both biologically female and Lintonishly feminine, meets Heathcliff when he unwelcomedly intrudes at the Grange. Chapter 22, SummaryThat fall Edgar caught a cold which confined him to the house all winter. Cathy grew sadder after the end of her little romance, and told Ellen that she was afraid of being alone when her father and Ellen were dead. Taking a walk, Cathy ended up briefly stranded outside of the wall of the park, when Heathcliff rode by. He told her that Linton was dying of a broken heart, and that she would visit him if she were kind. Ellen told her that Heathcliff was probably lying and couldn't be trusted, but the next day she was persuaded to accompany Cathy to Wuthering Heights. Analysis:See the analysis of chapter 20 for a discussion of children left alone in the world Cathy Linton is not the only one to fear a parent's death, nor is her fear unjustified. In her case, she is particularly vulnerable because, as a girl, she will not inherit her father's estate: her father's nephew Linton will. This is a result not of Edgar's lack of regard for his daughter, but of legal conventions. Emily Brontë had good reasons to be especially conscious of the position of orphaned children: although her father outlived her, her mother died when she was very young (like Cathy's) and her older sister Maria who took the place of the mother died in childhood of tuberculosis. See chapter 12 for further evidence of the importance of abandoned children: in her delirium Catherine remembers a nest of baby birds who died of starvation ("little skeletons") after Heathcliff caught their mother. She had been greatly grieved by the sight and made Heathcliff promise never to kill a mother bird again. This may actually be the key to Emily Brontë's continual emphasis on that theme: she was deeply familiar with the natural world, in which orphaned baby animals stand next to no chance of survival. Chapter 23, SummaryCathy and Ellen heard "a peevish voice" calling Joseph for more hot coals for the fire; they went in to see Linton, who greeted them rather ungraciously: "No don't kiss me. It takes my breath dear me!" He complained that writing to her had been very tiring, and that the servants didn't take care of him as they ought, and that he hated them. He said that he wished she would marry him, because wives always loved their husbands, upon which she answered that they did not always do so. Her father had told her that Isabella had not loved Heathcliff. Linton was angry and answered that Catherine's mother hadn't loved her father, but Heathcliff. She pushed his chair and he coughed for a long time, for which she was very sorry. He took advantage of her regret and bullied her like a true hypochondriac, and made her promise to return the next day. When Cathy and Ellen were on their way home, Ellen expressed her disapproval of Linton and said he would die young "small loss." Cathy should on no account marry him. Cathy was not so sure he would die, and was much more friendly toward him. Ellen caught a cold and was confined to her room. Cathy spent almost all her time taking care of her and Edgar, but she was free in the evenings: then, as Ellen later found out, she visited Linton. Analysis:In this chapter Brontë explores the intersections between love and power: to what extent does Linton want Cathy to love him freely, and to what extent does he want to have husbandly control over her? It would appear that for him, love is just another form of control: he uses Cathy's love for him to make her do whatever he likes, without any consideration for her own happiness. Is this form of love/control essentially linked to marriage? That might well be the case: see how the relationship between the older Catherine and her husband Edgar breaks down when he tries to control her friendships. However Edgar unmistakably loved Catherine, whereas Linton seems to care for no one but himself. Marriage in Wuthering Heights is not an unqualified good: it must be accompanied by unselfish love on both sides in order to work. Chapter 24, SummaryThree weeks later, Ellen was much better, and discovered Cathy's evening visits to Wuthering Heights. Cathy told her what had happened: She had bribed a servant with her books, to take care of saddling her pony and not telling about her escapades. On her second visit, she and Linton had had an argument about the best way of spending a summer afternoon: he wanted to lie in the heather and dream it away, and she wanted to rock in a treetop among the birds: "He wanted to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle, and dance in a glorious jubilee." They made up and played ball until Linton was unhappy because he always lost, but she consoled him for that. She looked forward to her next visit, but that day when she arrived she met Hareton, who showed her how he had learned to read his name. She mocked him for it. (Here Ellen rebuked Cathy for having been so rude to her cousin. Cathy was surprised, and went on.) When she was reading to Linton, Hareton came in angrily and ordered them into the kitchen. Shut out of his favorite room, Linton staged a frightening temper tantrum, wearing an expression of "frantic, powerless fury" and shrieking that he would kill Hareton. Joseph pointed out that he was showing his father's character. Linton coughed blood and fainted; Cathy fetched Zillah. Hareton carried the boy upstairs but wouldn't let Cathy follow; she cried and he was sorry for it. She struck him with her whip and rode home. On the third day Linton refused to speak to her except to blame her for the events of the preceding day, and she left resolving not to return. She did, however, and took Linton to task for being so rude. He admitted that he was worthless, but said that she was much happier than he and should make allowances. Heathcliff hated him, and he was very unhappy. He loved her however. Cathy was sorry Linton had such a distorted nature, and felt she had an obligation to be a friend to him. She had noticed that Heathcliff avoided her, and rebuked Linton when he did not behave well to her. Ellen told Edgar about the visits, and he forbade Cathy to return to Wuthering Heights, but wrote to Linton that he could come to the Grange if he liked. Analysis:The contrast between Linton and Cathy's ideas of how to spend an afternoon sums up the differences in their characters. The juxtaposition of Linton's peaceful ideal afternoon with his furious temper tantrum is somewhat disconcerting, however. Are passivity and laziness essentially related to hatred and fury in the novel? This hardly seems possible, considering Edgar's peaceful and generally loving character. However, the juxtaposition serves to remind us that weakness and goodness are not to be carelessly equated. Chapter 25, SummaryEllen points out to Lockwood that these events only happened the year before, and she hints that Lockwood might become interested in Cathy, who is not happy at Wuthering Heights. Then she went on with the narrative: Edgar asked Ellen what Linton was like, and she told him that he was delicate and had little of his father in him Cathy would probably be able to control him if they married. Edgar admitted that he was worried about what would happen to Cathy if he were to die. As spring advanced Edgar resumed his walks, but although Cathy took his flushed cheeks and bright eyes for health, Ellen was not so sure. He wrote again to Linton, asking to see him. Linton answered that his father refused to let him visit the Grange, but that he hoped to meet Edgar outside sometime. He also wrote that he would like to see Cathy again, and that his health was improved. Edgar could not consent, because he could not walk very far, but the two began a correspondence. Linton wrote well, without complaining (since Heathcliff carefully censured his letters)and eventually Edgar agreed to Cathy's going to meet Linton on the moors, with Ellen's supervision. Edgar wished Cathy to marry Linton so she would not have to leave the Grange when he died but he would not have wished it if he knew that Linton was dying as fast as he was. Analysis:The presence of tuberculosis in such a prominent way in the novel is rather disturbing, considering that the illness was soon to be the cause of Emily's own death. Cathy fools herself into thinking that Edgar is getting better, just as Emily (and Frances, Hindley's wife) tried hard to pretend that she was not sick. Death is a mysterious and yet unavoidable presence: you cannot simply expect people to live until they are old. A cold can turn into a fever, which can turn into consumption, ending in the grave. Life is not predictable in Wuthering Heights, just as it was not in Emily Brontë's own world.
ClassicNote on Wuthering Heights
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