Wuthering Heights Study Guide

Summary and Analysis of Chapters 26-30

Chapter 26, Summary

When Ellen and Cathy rode to meet Linton they had to go quite close to Wuthering Heights to find him. He was evidently very ill, though he said he was better: "his large blue eyes wandered timidly over her; the hollowness round them, transforming to haggard wildness, the languid expression they once possessed." Linton had a hard time making conversation with Cathy, and was clearly not enjoying their talk, so she said she would leave. Surprisingly Linton then looked frightenedly towards Wuthering Heights and begged her to stay longer, and to tell her father he was in "tolerable health." She half-heartedly agreed, and he soon fell into some kind of slumber. He woke suddenly and seemed to be terrified that his father might come. Soon later Cathy and Ellen returned home, perplexed by his strange behavior.

Analysis:

This chapter reveals an extent of cruelty in Heathcliff which has not been seen before: he has no reason to hate his son beyond the fact that he is a Linton, and yet he is perfectly willing to fill his last moments with terror and despair. Linton's life is singularly hopeless, and the mere fact that Brontë invented it testifies to the real darkness of her vision. Linton is unlikable and dislikes everyone; he will die without ever achieving anything worthwhile or good, and probably without ever having been happy. A more pointless, bitter existence could hardly be imagined. Heathcliff's appears energetic and joyful by contrast.

Chapter 27, Summary

A week later they were to visit Linton again. Edgar was much sicker, and Cathy didn't want to leave him, but he encouraged her relationship with Linton, thinking to ensure his daughter's welfare thereby. Linton "received us with greater animation on this occasion; not the animation of high spirits though, nor yet of joy; it looked more like fear." Cathy was angry that she had had to leave her father, and she was disgusted by Linton's abject admissions of terror. Heathcliff came upon them, and asked Ellen how much longer Edgar had to live: he was worried that Linton would die before him. He then ordered Linton to get up and take Cathy in the house, which he did, against Cathy's will: "Linton... implored her to accompany him, with a frantic importunity that admitted no denial." Heathcliff pushed Ellen into the house as well and locked the door behind them. When Cathy protested that she must get home to her father he slapped her brutally, and made it clear that she wouldn't leave Wuthering Heights until she married Linton. Linton showed his true character: as Heathcliff said, "He'll undertake to torture any number of cats if their teeth be drawn, and their claws pared." Cathy and Heathcliff declared their mutual hatred. Ellen remained imprisoned for five days with Hareton as her jailer: he gave her food but refused to speak to her beyond what was necessary. She did not know what was happening to Cathy.

Analysis:

Further evidence of Linton's bad character. Cathy's pity and kindness are the causes of her misfortunes here: in the presence of Heathcliff's intelligent hatred, her good qualities only serve to leave her vulnerable to his plans.

Chapter 28, Summary

On the fifth afternoon of the captivity, Zillah released Ellen, and said that Heathcliff said she could go home and that Catherine would follow in time to attend her father's funeral. He was not dead yet, but soon would be. Ellen asked Linton where Catherine was, and he answered that she was shut upstairs, that they were married, and that he was glad she was being treated harshly. Apparently he was piqued that she hadn't wished to marry him. He was annoyed by her crying, and was glad when Heathcliff struck her.

Ellen rebuked him for his selfishness and unkindness, and went to the Grange to get help. Edgar was glad to hear his daughter was safe, and would be home soon: he was almost dead, at the age of 39. The men sent to Wuthering Heights to rescue Catherine returned without her, having believed Heathcliff's tale that she was too sick to travel. Very early the next morning, however, Catherine came back by herself, joyful to hear that her father was still alive. She had forced Linton to help her escape. Ellen asked her to say she would be happy with Linton, for Edgar's sake, to which she agreed. Edgar died "blissfully." Catherine was stony-eyed with grief. Heathcliff's lawyer gave all the servants but Ellen notice to quit, and hurried the funeral.

Analysis:

Part of Heathcliff's revenge fails: Catherine manages to escape in time to see her father again, and Edgar dies happy. Given the great importance attached to last words and dying moments, this is a notable victory for Catherine, and an essential one if all of Heathcliff's evil work is to be undone in the end. If Edgar had died miserably, no amount of happy endings could ever have undone that tragedy.

Chapter 29, Summary

Heathcliff came to the Grange to fetch Catherine to Wuthering Heights to take care of Linton, who was dying in terror of his father, and because he wanted to get a tenant for the Grange (Mr. Lockwood, as it turned out). Catherine agreed to go, because Linton was all she had to love, and left the room.

Heathcliff, in a strange mood, told Ellen what he had done the night before. He had bribed the sexton who was digging Edgar's grave to uncover his Catherine's coffin, so he could see her face again ­ he said it was hers yet. The sexton told him that the face would change if air blew on it, so he tore himself away from contemplating it, and struck one side of the coffin loose and bribed the sexton to put his body in with Catherine's when he was dead. Ellen was shocked, and scolded him for disturbing the dead, at which he replied that on the contrary she had haunted him night and day for eighteen years, and ­ "yesternight, I was tranquil. I dreamt I was sleeping my last sleep, by that sleeper, with my heart stopped, and my cheek frozen against hers."

Then Heathcliff told Ellen what he had done the night after Catherine's burial (the night he beat up Hindley). He had gone to the kirkyard and dug up the coffin "to have her in his arms again," but while he was wrenching at the screws he suddenly felt sure of her living presence. He was consoled, but tortured as well: from that night for 18 years he constantly felt as though he could almost see her, but not quite. He tried sleeping in her room, but constantly opened his eyes to see if she were there, he felt so sure she was.

Heathcliff finished his narrative, and Catherine sadly bade farewell to Ellen.

Analysis:

Heathcliff's continued love for Catherine's dead body after 18 years emphasizes the physical, yet non-physical nature of their relationship. It would appear to physical in a way that transcends conventional ideas about sexuality: Heathcliff was pleased to see that Catherine still looked like herself after 18 years, but claimed that if she had been "dissolved into earth, or worse," he would have been no less comforted by the proximity to her body. His idea of heaven is to be utterly and completely unified with Catherine in body, as in spirit ­ and this could just as well mean to disintegrate into dust together as to be joined in the act of love. The difference between these two forms of union is that while people are joined during sexual intercourse, their separate bodies and identities remain clear. But in Heathcliff and Catherine's corporeal and spiritual unity, as envisaged by him, an observer would not be able to tell "which is which." This is like Catherine's statement in chapter 9 that she was Heathcliff.

Chapter 30, Summary

Ellen has now more or less reached the present time in her narrative, and tells Lockwood what Zillah told her about Catherine's reception at Wuthering Heights. She spent all her time in Linton's room, and when she came out she asked Heathcliff to call a doctor, because Linton was very sick. Heathcliff replied: "We know that! But his life is not worth a farthing." Catherine was thus left to care for her dying cousin all by herself (Zillah, Hareton and Joseph would not help her) and became haggard and bewildered from lack of sleep. Finally Linton died, and when Heathcliff asked Catherine how she felt, she said: "He's safe and I'm free. I should feel very well ­ but you have left me so long to struggle against death, alone, that I feel and see only death! I feel like death!" Hareton was sorry for her. Catherine was ill for the next two weeks. Heathcliff informed her that Linton had left all of his and his wife's property to himself. One day when Heathcliff was out, Catherine came downstairs. Hareton made shy, friendly advances, which she angrily rejected. He asked Zillah to ask her to read for them (he was illiterate, but wished to learn) but she refused on the grounds that she had been forsaken during Linton's illness, and had no reason to care for Hareton or Zillah. Hareton said that he had in fact asked Heathcliff to be allowed to relieve her of some of her duties, but was denied. She was in no mood to forgive, however, and thus became the unfriendly Catherine Lockwood had seen at Wuthering Heights. According to Zillah: "She'll snap at the master himself, and as good dares him to thrash her; and the more hurt she gets, the more venomous she grows." Ellen wanted to get a cottage and live there with Catherine, but Heathcliff would not permit it.

Analysis:

See the analysis of the next chapter for a discussion of the roles of education and books in the relationship of Catherine and Hareton.

It is generally considered that difficult and painful experiences are also, in a way, valuable as "growing experiences." If this is the case, Catherine's short marriage to Linton should have caused her to grow a great deal from the happy and innocent girl she had formerly been. Instead, it appears to make her venomous and permanently angry. However, one might make the argument that the humbling she undergoes is necessary because, without it, she never would have bothered to see the good in Hareton. Is the time Catherine spends caring for Linton a complete loss, or does she learn anything valuable from it? This is related to the question of whether Wuthering Heights is a Christian novel: in Christian theology, suffering is usually considered ennobling.