Ad-free experience
Study Guides for 1,000+ titles
Full Text content for 250+ titles
No Fear Translations of Shakespeare’s plays (along with audio!) and other classic works
Flashcards
Mastery Quizzes
Infographics
Graphic Novels
AP® Practice & Lessons
Note-taking
Bookmarking
Dashboard
Mr. Hindley came home to the funeral; and—a thing that amazed us, and set the neighbours gossiping right and left—he brought a wife with him. What she was, and where she was born, he never informed us: probably, she had neither money nor name to recommend her, or he would scarcely have kept the union from his father.
In Chapter 6, Nelly Dean describes Hindley’s arrival at Wuthering Heights after a long absence, now with a wife named Frances in tow. Her background and social class are unknown to the reader, making her arrival something of a parallel to Heathcliff’s. Nelly Dean surmises Frances had neither money nor status, or else he would have brought her around and introduced her to his father before his father’s death.
She expressed pleasure, too, at finding a sister among her new acquaintance; and she prattled to Catherine, and kissed her, and ran about with her, and gave her quantities of presents, at the beginning. Her affection tired very soon, however, and when she grew peevish, Hindley became tyrannical. A few words from her, evincing a dislike to Heathcliff, were enough to rouse in him all his old hatred of the boy.
Nelly Dean continues her description of Frances in Chapter 6. Frances dislikes Heathcliff, possibly as a manifestation of her own insecurity about her background and desire to have someone else to look down upon, and her hatred spurs her husband to reignite his own cruelty.
Cathy stayed at Thrushcross Grange five weeks…By that time her ankle was thoroughly improved . . . instead of a wild, hatless little savage jumping into the house, and rushing to squeeze us all breathless, there ‘lighted from a handsome black pony a very dignified person, with brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and a long cloth habit, which she was obliged to hold up with both hands that she might sail in.
The first lines of Chapter 7 describe Catherine’s extended stay at Thrushcross Grange while her ankle heals, and the civilizing effect her time with the Lintons has on her. This passage also marks the beginning of the divide between Heathcliff and Catherine, as her growing class consciousness puts distance between them.
On my inquiring the subject of his thoughts, he answered gravely—‘I’m trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don’t care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!’
In Chapter 7, the Lintons come to Christmas dinner at Wuthering Heights, and Heathcliff is treated as the clear outsider. Though Heathcliff washes himself and dresses suitably, Hindley orders him to be locked in the attic all night, in accordance with Mrs. Linton’s wishes that he be kept away from her children, Edgar and Isabella. When Nelly Dean frees him, Heathcliff ominously declares his intention to get revenge on Hindley, something that will motivate his character for much of the novel.
Our young lady returned to us saucier and more passionate, and haughtier than ever. Heathcliff had never been heard of since the evening of the thunder-storm; and, one day, I had the misfortune, when she had provoked me exceedingly, to lay the blame of his disappearance on her: where indeed it belonged, as she well knew.
In Chapter 9, Heathcliff leaves during a thunderstorm; the weather reflects the turbulence of his feelings of having overheard Catherine say Hindley’s degradation of him has rendered him unmarriageable, and that she intends to marry Edgar Linton. Nelly Dean, who is so often critical of Catherine’s tempestuous behavior, informs her that Heathcliff’s absence is her doing.
