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
I would have asked why Mrs. Dean had deserted the Grange, but it was impossible to delay her at such a crisis, so I turned away and made my exit, rambling leisurely along, with the glow of a sinking sun behind, and the mild glory of a rising moon in front—one fading, and the other brightening—as I quitted the park, and climbed the stony by-road branching off to Mr. Heathcliff’s dwelling.
In Chapter 32, Lockwood returns to Thrushcross Grange looking for Nelly Dean, only to learn she has changed positions and now works once again at Wuthering Heights. Narratively, this indicates a shift, hinting that Heathcliff, once adamantly against Nelly’s presence at Wuthering Heights, has begun to lose his propensity for cruelty and his desire to cause fear.
She returned to the hearth, and frankly extended her hand. He blackened and scowled like a thunder-cloud . . . Catherine, by instinct, must have divined it was obdurate perversity, and not dislike, that prompted this dogged conduct; for, after remaining an instant undecided, she stooped and impressed on his cheek a gentle kiss.
In Chapter 32, Cathy and Hareton’s hard feelings toward one another soften. Cathy, feeling ashamed of how terribly she has treated him, holds out her hand to him. When he doesn’t take it (out of stubbornness rather than hatred, as Cathy realizes), she gives him a kiss on the cheek, telling Nelly Dean this is her way of communicating that she likes him and wants to be his friend.
His honest, warm, and intelligent nature shook off rapidly the clouds of ignorance and degradation in which it had been bred; and Catherine’s sincere commendations acted as a spur to his industry. . . . The red fire-light glowed on their two bonny heads, and revealed their faces animated with the eager interest of children; for, though he was twenty-three and she eighteen, each had so much of novelty to feel and learn, that neither experienced…sober disenchanted maturity.
In Chapter 33, Cathy and Hareton bring out the best in each other. As Cathy teaches him to read, Hareton responds positively to her encouragement, and Nelly notes that it is heartening to see the pair of them so enthusiastic and eager to learn, so unbowed by the misfortunes of their upbringing that they appear almost as innocent as young children.
I sought, and soon discovered, the three headstones on the slope next the moor: the middle one grey, and half buried in heath; Edgar Linton’s only harmonized by the turf and moss creeping up its foot; Heathcliff’s still bare…I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.
In the novel’s final passage in Chapter 34, Lockwood goes to visit the graves of Edgar, Heathcliff, and Catherine. The scene is so quiet that Lockwood dismisses the notion that Heathcliff and Catherine are anywhere but lying peacefully in the ground. However, Lockwood’s unreliability as a narrator leaves the ending ambiguous. Perhaps there is, as Lockwood suggests, nothing supernatural about Heathcliff and Catherine in death. Or perhaps, as the villagers suggest, the two are wandering the moors as ghosts, reunited at last.
