Maybe he (Lockwood) deserved the scary visitation from Catherine for his being a “player” and misleading the poor lady that he fled from and her mama.
1 Like
I do find it unusual to continue reading a book when I actively dislike (or worse) all of the characters in it. This was one of the rare books I really disliked everyone. I know part of it was circumstances that caused them to grow up isolated and odd, but they were all pretty shallow and some were actively mean, some violent, and most were also pretty selfish and self-absorbed. There is some hope that whatever comes next out of the Grange may be somewhat improved, perhaps.
2 Likes
Need some clarification about Catharine’s change of heart about Hareton.
In one of the many articles I read today, it was suggested that Catharine and Hareton were mirror opposites of Heathcliff and Cathy.
Hareton, the heir to the properties, Catharine poor without options.
But, the second generation would find happiness, overcoming the class and societal discrepancies, what Cathy and Heathcliff couldn’t do.
My question, it occurred to me Catharine’s motivation was to secure her future, she was penniless, and Hareton was her only choice.
Class differences were a major theme of this book, and suddenly this cute, playful, joyful sweet couple is portrayed, ( thank goodness )
Did anyone else wonder if This was Catharine’s only option.
1 Like
Since hardly anyone left WH or the Grange and Hareton was the only single YOUNG man (just a few years older than Catherine), it would seem that they are somewhat a “natural” pairing. If she were to go further afield (though no idea with what assets or servant), since she’s said to be attractive, she might be able to cast her “lures” and see whether she could find something else. Hareton is “the bird in hand,” and seems quite smitten with her attention, once she decided she needed to be nice to him. Since they seem to need one another (he to learn to read from her & because she’s pretty) and her to have property and therefore standing and a servant or more, I think they have a chance.
Because they are nice to one another, they will likely end up being the happiest of anyone we’ve encountered in the book. They don’t lust after anyone else and seem to have developed a friendship. They also don’t appear to have ghosts haunting them.
3 Likes
Great and complicated article about Nelly Dean and her role within the book.
Brontë does a skillful job of making her witness, but flawed, and complicit and aware of her biases against Heathcliff and Cathy.
She is in my opinion, a relatable narrator, because she is transparent about her prejudices.
Thanks for that link
2 Likes
Yes, if Nelly hadn’t gotten Cathy to visit Linton and gotten trapped there & forced to marry, she wouldn’t have lost her inheritance from her father and been penniless and at Healthcliff’s mercy after Linton died. She was a victim of scheming by Heathcliff & Nelly.
2 Likes
Didn’t property always go to the closest male relative ?
Edgar, wanted to change his will on his deathbed but the lawyer, Mr Green was delayed.
Did Edgar want to protect Catharine, but it never happened?
I’m not positive but I’ve read that the lawyer Mr Green was “conveniently” delayed so that Edgar couldn’t have his services. Not quite sure exactly what Edgar planned to do but was prevented from. It would be logical that he might try to figure out how to provide for Cathy, since he was so very fond of her and she of him. I think he may have had more than just property and might have been able to bestow her with some assets that would allow her to live a comfortable life even if it wasn’t real estate.
He must have had enough to provide for his sister, as it was evident Heathcliff wasn’t providing for her and Linton’s care and comfort.
Here’s a citation about inheritance without a will in the UK (but not sure when any law changed about whether women can inherit).
But then you have this:
2 Likes
https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/10-things-you-didnt-know-about-emily-brontë/
5. Emily Brontë once cauterised her own wound
Emily loved dogs, especially large dogs, and her huge mastiff Keeper was said to be so fierce that only she could control it. On one occasion, as revealed by Brontë biographer Elizabeth Gaskell, she was bitten by a rabid dog frothing at the mouth. Not wanting to worry others, Emily took a red hot poker from the fire and seared her own flesh to the bone to cauterise the wound. The incident is repeated in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Shirley, in which the character of Shirley is based upon Emily.
1 Like
Catherine is not penniless. Heathcliff dies without a will and the result is that Catherine ends up with Thrushcross Grange (as the only living descendant of Edgar Linton) and Hareton ends up with Wuthering Heights (as the only living descendant of Hindley Earnshaw).
That’s the short version. If you want the long version and love property law, this article follows the convoluted route of ownership among the Earnshaws, Lintons and Heathcliff (as worked out by legal scholar C.P. Sanger back in 1926):Legal aspects of Wuthering Heights
Also, I wrote in my earlier post that I thought it was an amusing detail that Heathcliff made Lockwood pay for the full year of tenancy. Reading the legal summary, I found out that it was important. Emily Brontë didn’t miss a trick.
Nelly tells Lockwood that Catherine is learning to manage the estate. When he asks about making a rental payment for Thrushcross Grange, she responds:
Oh! then it is with Mrs. Heathcliff you must settle," she observed; “or rather with me. She has not learnt to manage her affairs yet, and I act for her; there’s nobody else.”
I love that Catherine and Hareton start out as equal financial partners. I think Emily Brontë is making a point here.
I don’t think Nelly did any scheming – on the contrary, that was the point at which she was locked into a room for five days (!), so that Heathcliff could force Cathy to marry Linton.
5 Likes
Oops … crossposted with @Mary13
Umm … after Heathcliff died, Hareton inherited Wuthering Heights. Cathy inherited Thrushcoss Grange. Right? It passed to her, not Hareton. So Cathy and Hareton are closer to equals than Catherine and Heathcliff ever were.
Chapter 32 - Lockwood and Nellie:
“From the Grange,” I replied; “and while they make me lodging room there, I want to finish my business with your master; because I don’t think of having another opportunity in a hurry.”
“What business, sir?” said Nelly, conducting me into the house. “He’s gone out at present, and won’t return soon.”
“About the rent,” I answered.
“Oh! then it is with Mrs. Heathcliff you must settle,” she observed; “or rather with me. She had not learnt to manage her affairs yet, and I act for her: there’s nobody else.”
I looked surprised.
“Ah! you have not heard of Heathcliff’s death, I see,” she continued.
3 Likes
@ignatius, we cross-posted! Great minds. 
3 Likes
Tis one of things I like about the ending.
2 Likes
Can I just say that I now have an opinion on Emily Brontë? And no, it has nothing to do with her writing skills. Any woman who is bit by a rabid dog and has the presence of mind to take a red hot poker from the fire and sear her own flesh to the bone to cauterize a wound has my admiration and respect. 
2 Likes
You are not alone. Wuthering Heights generally tops the list of books with unlikeable protagonists. Other classics in this category include Vanity Fair, Madame Bovary, Gone with the Wind and Catcher in the Rye. Don’t worry – I don’t envision any of those making the final cut for our future choices. 
1 Like
love that Catherine and Hareton start out as equal financial partners. I think Emily Brontë is making a point here.
I , also, love this. Unlike her mother, she chose for “ love”, money gave women freedom.
1 Like
This is the only surviving portrait of the Brontë sisters, painted by their brother Patrick. (It is conjectured that Patrick initially put himself in the work, but later painted over his likeness with a pillar.)
The painting was presumed lost, but found in 1914 in the cupboard of a cottage in Ireland. The Pillar Portrait, as it is called, now hangs in the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Such discoveries are always fun. Reminds me of the premise of two of our earlier selections, Possession and The Weight of Ink.
5 Likes
Vanity Fair and Catcher in the Rye are on my top ten of books I hated, but was forced to read. I read Madame Bovary in college and while I didn’t love it, I think by then I was mature enough to appreciate other aspects of it.
Re Hareton and Catherine (and Linton and Catherine), marriage between first cousins was common for the era, usually arranged by families of “pre-industrial propertied classes.”
Cousin marriage was illegal in England until 1540, when Henry VIII abolished the law so that he could marry Catherine Howard. The practice nearly disappeared after World War I.
It’s still legal to marry your first cousin in the UK (recently up for discussion in Parliament): MP calls for first-cousin marriage to be banned
In the U.S., it’s by state, almost evenly divided in terms of legal / illegal.
In Wuthering Heights, Hindley Earnshaw marries for love, to a woman with “neither money nor name to recommend her.” I wonder how different the story would have been had she lived. Hareton would have had an entirely different childhood.
1 Like
This analysis says the Grange escheated to the state rather than returning to Cathy after Heathcliff’s death without a will.
https://www.maths.tcd.ie/~tkachev/wuthering_heights.html
If the analysis is right, only the state has the right the the Grange and their plan to move there after their 1/1 wedding may have to be scuttled.