Summary Chp. 11



Suddenly Nelly, swept back by old memories of her and Hindley, felt like going to Wuthering Heights, where she found her Hareton at the gate. She was horrified when cursing words came out from the sweet little face. When asked, he told her he learned it from Heathcliff. It seemed Hareton liked the stranger better than he did his own father. As a matter of fact, although Nelly asked him for his father, he brought back Heathcliff.

On Heathcliff’s next visit to Thrushcross Grange, Nelly accidentally saw him in an affair with Isabella. She told Catherine about it. Catherine was enraged at Heathcliff, but Heathcliff was as angry. He yelled at her that she was just torturing him by being nice to him while staying married to Edgar.

Nelly told Edgar about the quarrel, causing him to interfere. Sensing a coming fight, Edgar signaled for her to fetch some men. Catherine wanted the two men to fight fair and square, though, and locked the room. By some luck Edgar managed to choke Heathcliff and efficiently used the short time Heathcliff needed to catch his breath to go through the back door. He came back with a coachman and two gardeners, which made Heathcliff decide to escape for now.

Catherine then had a fit. Edgar was worried, but Nelly convinced him not to, assuring him his wife was just being spoiled. Hearing that, Catherine glared at Nelly and rushed to her room, refusing any food.

Summary Chp. 12



Catherine stayed at her chamber without any food until the third day. She whined to Nelly as she felt Edgar really didn’t care about her after all. He never tried to console her in the three days she locked herself in her room. She also started to believe everyone else hated her as well. In her half-deranged talk, she wished she were back at Wuthering Heights.

Ellen couldn’t take it anymore and finally told Edgar about his wife’s seriously bad condition. He was upset at Nelly for not doing so sooner. He saw that his wife looked very ill. Without wasting another minute, he summoned the doctor Kenneth. While checking up on Catherine, Kenneth mentioned he had seen Isabella and Heathcliff together earlier and heard him persuading her to go with him. He meant for Edgar to take a better care of his sister, knowing Heathcliff was a wicked man.

Instinctively Nelly rushed to Isabella’s room. Another servant had told her it was empty, but she wanted to make sure and see it herself. It was now unmistakable that Heathcliff and Isabella had eloped.

Edgar seemed to be upset, but instead of trying to find his sister, he let her be. He felt it was a decision she had made herself and one he could do nothing about. He felt she had disowned him.

Summary Chp. 13



Edgar nursed Catherine patiently, and gradually her health returned.

Six weeks after Isabella had run away, a letter from her arrived. She wrote to inform her brother about her marriage to Heathcliff. Earning no response, she sent another letter two weeks later to Ellen instead.

She confessed that she regretted having married Heathcliff. She now lived in Wuthering Heights and did not enjoy it there. She had a terrible time since the first day. Her husband’s room, which was supposedly hers as well, was locked and the key was in his pocket. Joseph didn’t give her any room until late at night, after much ridicules of how she could not possibly survive living there, she was used to luxuries all her life. The room turned out to be Catherine’s old room and Heathcliff was annoyed at its being used by Isabella. He stopped his fake loving act and told her bluntly that he never loved and that he was marrying her only to make Edgar suffer.

From the letter, Ellen learned that Hindley, having lost most of his possessions to Heathcliff and drunk too many alcohols, was on the verge of madness, and the child Hareton spoke only in curses Isabella couldn’t begin to understand.

Under this difficult circumstance, Isabella desperately wanted to have Ellen’s company as soon as possible.

Summary Chp. 14



Ellen told Edgar about the letter and wondered, now that she was going to Wuthering Heights, if he would like to write a note to pass to Isabella. He replied he wouldn’t, only because he wanted nothing to do with Heathcliff’s family.

At Wuthering Heights, Ellen found only Heathcliff and Isabella there. Isabella looked like a mess but at the same time eager, hopeful to receive a letter from her brother. She was very disappointed when Nelly repeated to her what Edgar had said.

Heathcliff asked about Cathy. Truthfully Nelly answered that she was still recovering, and if he wanted her to stay so, he should never see her again and even move out of the country if he could. She also warned him to treat his wife better, to which he replied Isabella was nothing but a nuisance to him and he could care less if she hated him—which she did. The only thing mattered to him was her inheritance of Thrushcross Grange as soon as Edgar died.

Before Nelly left, Heathcliff demanded that she arrange to reunite him with Cathy. Unless she agreed to hand a letter to Cathy, he would hold her a prisoner. Nelly had practically no choice.

And now the doctor Kenneth has come to check on Lockwood and Mrs. Dean has to stop.

Summary Chp. 15



During the following week, Mrs. Dean continues her story little by little.

Nelly postponed for three days before she finally read Heathcliff’s letter to Cathy. It was Sunday and Edgar had gone to Church. Cathy didn’t look like she was listening at first, but she perked up when she heard Heathcliff’s name. In his letter, Heathcliff mentioned a place he’d be at. When Cathy saw him at the said place, she gestured for Nelly to let him into her room.

Heathcliff was horrified when he saw the way Cathy’s eyes looked now—dim and simply unlike Cathy. Cathy told him she was dying and blamed him partly for that. The other part of the blame landed on Edgar. She said that Heathcliff would stop loving her once she died, and because he was the cause of her death, she would haunt him forever. Listening to Cathy and her mindset, Heathcliff was very heartbroken. But between dialogues they exchanged many kisses, obviously still in love with each other despite everything.

As soon as the Church bell rang, Nelly warned Heathcliff to leave right away or Edgar would see him. Cathy went hysterical, begging for him to stay. The cry left Nelly such anguish that she volunteered to inform Heathcliff later about her condition.

Summary Chp. 16



That same night Catherine died giving birth to Cathy—the young lady Lockwood saw at Wuthering Heights. Nelly did not know how to feel.

She feared to break the news to Heathcliff, but he seemed to instinctively know already. He was very upset, but his manly pride prevented him from wailing like a baby. In its place, he screamed and dared Cathy to haunt him as she said she would just a few hours earlier. Although Nelly was reluctant to leave him the way he was, he ordered her to.

Before the funeral, Heathcliff sneaked in to see Cathy inside the coffin. A trinket hung around her neck. Heathcliff dumped its content and filled it with his own black lock of hair. When Nelly found some of Cathy’s golden hair on the floor and realized what Heathcliff had done, she enclosed them inside the trinket as well.

Hindley was invited to the funeral, but he never came. Isabella, on the other hand, wasn’t asked at all.

Instead of in the chapel or near her relations, Cathy was buried right at the corner of the yard, where her husband was to be buried later.

Summary Chp. 17



A day after the funeral, Ellen was surprised to find Isabella at Thrushcross Grange. Isabella gave her some explanations. She said that Heathcliff was such a devil she couldn’t understand how Catherine could love him ever.

The night before, Heathcliff came back sooner than usual because of the weather. Isabella was reluctant to let him in and was going to let him outside for five minutes, but Hindley took a more extreme measure: he wanted to kill Heathcliff once and for all.

Isabella didn’t really agree, but Heathcliff’s insult upon her warning changed her mind. She hoped that Hindley and Heathcliff might as well kill each other. However, Heathcliff was more agile than Hindley. Vapid Hindley ended up bleeding and unconscious. He didn’t die, though.

The next morning, Isabella decided to take revenge. Heathcliff was miserable already with Catherine’s death. Isabella took pleasure in torturing him, saying he was the cause of her death. Irritated, Heathcliff told her to go away. Isabella first refused, but she saw that Heathcliff wasn’t afraid to kill her and so did escape to Thrushcross Grange, where she was now.

She stayed only very shortly, but long enough that she earned her brother’s forgiveness. After since they regularly corresponded. When Isabella’s child was born, he was named Linton.

Six months after Catherine’s death, Hindley died. Ellen persuaded Edgar to take Hareton to live with them, but it turned out Hindley owed Heathcliff so much his son belonged to Heathcliff as well.

As for his real daughter, Edgar called her Cathy to differentiate her from his wife. He didn’t want to call his wife Cathy because that’s the way Heathcliff called her.

Summary Chp. 18



Mrs. Dean jumps to twelve years after.

Cathy turned out to be very lovable and nearly perfect. She had high spirits, but not wild like her mother. The only flaw she had was how she was much too spoiled thanks to her overprotective father.

A letter came from Isabella, who realized about her dying from an illness, asking for her brother to come and take care of her son. Edgar left. Cathy was upset at first as her father was not around, but after a few days she found a way to entertain herself. Ellen did not know what she was up to until one day when she was missing for tea. One laborer told Ellen he saw the mistress on the road of Penistone Crags, which would lead to Wuthering Heights. All these years, Cathy had been kept inside Thrushcross Grange, but as she got older, her curiosity about the outside world grew.

Chasing after Cathy, Ellen found her to be with Hareton and a female servant. Heathcliff did not seem to be home, to her relief. It turned out that Cathy did not know Hareton was her cousin and thought him to be a servant until the female servant, fed up with her bossy conduct, told her so. It upset Ellen that the female servant revealed all the things that had been purposely kept secret from Cathy, resulting in Cathy’s revealing about her other cousin’s coming to Thrushcross Grange.

Summary Chp. 19



Isabella died. Cathy, having never seen her, was not sad at all. Rather, she was excited to have her father back and to finally see her “true” cousin. She still couldn’t get over being told that Hareton, brute-looking as he was, was her cousin.

Linton resembled Edgar so much they could’ve been brothers, except for Linton was even more delicate than Edgar was. He had a very weak body and grew up sick almost constantly. Cathy couldn’t get him to play with her.

Later that night under Heathcliff’s order, Joseph came over to take Linton to Wuthering Heights with him. Weary and was aware enough that Heathcliff was the father and had more rights to have Linton, Edgar told Joseph he could come back the next morning, as Linton was very pale and had to have his sleep.

Summary Chp. 20



Edgar felt it was best if Cathy never have a change to get to know her cousin, so he gave an order to Ellen to wake Linton up at five in the morning and take him to Wuthering Heights right away. Ignorant of Cathy’s travel to Wuthering Heights the other day, he still wanted to protect her and planned to tell nothing more but that Linton was with his father.

It did not come as a surprise that Isabella had never told her son about his father Heathcliff; young Linton didn’t even know he had a father.

The generally dark atmosphere in Wuthering Heights did not make Linton very comfortable. He couldn’t even eat the food Joseph gave him, the same food Hareton ate as a child. Joseph sneered, seeing Isabella’s resemblance there, but Heathcliff actually told him to make the kind of food Linton was accustomed to.

Linton never wanted to stay at Wuthering Heights, so Ellen had to sneak out to leave. He saw her anyway and gave a cry, but she knew there was nothing she could do.