Summary: Chapter XV
Four days after visiting Wuthering Heights, Nelly waits
for Edgar to leave for church, and then takes the opportunity to
give Heathcliff’s letter to the ailing Catherine. Catherine has
become so weak that she cannot even hold the letter, but nearly
as soon as Nelly tells her that it is from Heathcliff, Heathcliff
himself enters the room. Heathcliff and Catherine enter into a dramatic,
highly charged conversation during which Catherine claims that both
Heathcliff and Edgar have broken her heart. She says that she cannot
bear dying while Heathcliff remains alive, and that she never wants
to be apart from him. She begs his forgiveness. He says that he
can forgive her for the pain she has caused him, but that he can
never forgive her for the pain that she has caused herself—he adds
that she has killed herself through her behavior, and that he could
never forgive her murderer.
The church service over, Edgar reaches the house, but
Catherine pleads with Heathcliff not to leave. He promises to stay
by her side. As Edgar hurries toward Catherine’s room, Nelly screams,
and Catherine collapses. Heathcliff catches her, and forces her
into Edgar’s arms as he enters the room, demanding that Edgar see
to Catherine’s needs before acting on his anger. Nelly hurries Heathcliff
out of the room, promising to send him word about Catherine’s condition
in the morning. Heathcliff swears that he will stay in the garden,
wanting to be near her.
Summary: Chapter XVI
At midnight, Catherine gives birth to young Catherine
two months prematurely. She dies within two hours of giving birth.
Nelly solemnly declares that her soul has gone home to God. When
Nelly goes to tell Heathcliff what has happened, he seems to know already.
He curses Catherine for the pain she has caused him, and pleads
with her spirit to haunt him for the rest of his life. She may take
any form, he says, and even drive him mad—as long as she stays with
him. Edgar keeps a vigil over Catherine’s body. At night, Heathcliff
lurks in the garden outside. At one point, Edgar leaves, and Nelly permits
Heathcliff a moment alone with the body. Afterwards, Nelly finds
that he has opened the locket around her neck and replaced a lock of
Edgar’s hair with a lock of his own. Nelly twines Edgar’s lock around Heathcliff’s,
and leaves them both in the locket.
Hindley is invited to Catherine’s funeral but does not
come, while Isabella is not invited at all. To the surprise of the
villagers, Catherine is not buried in the Linton tomb, nor by the
graves of her relatives. Instead, Edgar orders that she be buried
in a corner of the churchyard overlooking the moors that she so
loved. Nelly tells Lockwood that now, years later, Edgar lies buried
beside her.
Summary: Chapter XVII
Not long after the funeral, Isabella arrives at Thrushcross
Grange, out of breath and laughing hysterically. She has come at
a time when she knows Edgar will be asleep, to ask Nelly for help.
Isabella reports that the conflict between Hindley and Heathcliff
has become violent. Hindley, she says, tried to stay sober for Catherine’s
funeral, but could not bear to go. Instead, he began drinking heavily
that morning. While Heathcliff kept a vigil over Catherine’s grave,
Hindley locked him out of the house and told Isabella that he planned
to shoot him. Isabella warned Heathcliff about Hindley’s plan, and when
Hindley aimed his knife-gun out the window at Heathcliff, the latter
grabbed it and fired it back at its owner’s wrist, wounding Hindley.
Heathcliff forced his way in the window, then beat Hindley severely.
The next morning, Isabella reminded Hindley what Heathcliff had
done to him the previous night. Hindley grew enraged, and the men
began fighting again. Isabella fled to Thrushcross Grange, seeking
a permanent refuge from Wuthering Heights.
Soon after her visit to Nelly, Isabella leaves for London,
where she gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, Linton. Isabella corresponds
with Nelly throughout the following twelve years. Heathcliff learns
of his wife’s whereabouts, and of his son’s existence, but he doesn’t
pursue either of them. Isabella dies when Linton is twelve years
old.
