After Heathcliff admits that his revenge has lost force, Heathcliff avoids meeting Nelly, Hareton, and Catherine at meals, though Heathcliff will not formally banish Hareton and Catherine. One April morning, after Heathcliff has spent the night outside, Catherine reports that Heathcliff looked strangely bright, wild, and glad. Nelly finds Heathcliff pale, trembling, and exhilarated, but Heathcliff refuses breakfast and tells Nelly to leave Heathcliff alone.

Heathcliff repeatedly tries and fails to eat. At dinner Heathcliff accepts a plate, then abruptly abandons it and wanders in the garden. When Nelly presses Heathcliff, Heathcliff says Heathcliff was on the threshold of hell the previous night and is now within sight of Heathcliff's heaven, with only a little distance separating Heathcliff from it. Heathcliff asks Nelly to keep Hareton and Catherine away and to stop prying.

That night and the next day, Nelly observes Heathcliff in an increasingly unnatural state: Heathcliff stares as if at something close before Heathcliff, smiles with both pain and rapture, and cannot bring food to Heathcliff's mouth. Nelly becomes frightened, imagining Heathcliff as something demonic, but reminds herself that Nelly has known Heathcliff since childhood. Heathcliff later wanders and mutters Catherine's name as though Catherine were present.

Before dawn, Heathcliff tells Nelly that Heathcliff means to consult Mr. Green about legal matters but cannot decide how to leave Heathcliff's property. Nelly urges repentance, rest, and food, but Heathcliff refuses religious comfort, says Heathcliff has committed no injustice, and explains that Heathcliff's soul's bliss is killing Heathcliff's body. Heathcliff gives Nelly burial instructions: Heathcliff is to be taken to the churchyard in the evening, with no minister and no words said, and Nelly must ensure the sexton follows Heathcliff's directions about the coffins.

Heathcliff's condition worsens. Heathcliff asks for company, frightens Nelly and Catherine, then locks Heathcliff in the chamber with the panelled bed. Hareton worries and fetches Mr. Kenneth, but Heathcliff refuses entry. After a wet night, Nelly enters the room and finds Heathcliff dead, rain-soaked, still smiling with a fierce expression that Nelly cannot soften. Joseph rejoices that the rightful old family line has been restored, but Hareton grieves deeply, sitting beside Heathcliff's corpse and mourning the man who wronged Hareton yet also raised Hareton.

Heathcliff is buried according to Heathcliff's wishes, with only Nelly, Hareton, the sexton, and the bearers present. Local people later claim Heathcliff's ghost walks with a woman near the church, on the moors, and at Wuthering Heights, though Nelly rejects the tales uneasily. Nelly tells Lockwood that Hareton and Catherine will marry on New Year's Day and move to Thrushcross Grange, leaving Joseph to watch Wuthering Heights. Lockwood leaves before meeting the couple, visits the graves of Catherine Earnshaw, Edgar Linton, and Heathcliff, and reflects that the quiet earth seems peaceful rather than haunted.