Hindley returns home drunk and violent while Nelly hides Hareton from him. Hindley accuses Nelly of conspiring to harm the child, threatens her with a carving knife, then seizes Hareton in a grotesque mixture of affection and rage. When Hindley lifts Hareton over the banister, the child slips from his grasp and falls, but Heathcliff catches him below. Heathcliff’s face reveals bitter disappointment that he has accidentally saved Hindley’s son and thwarted a possible revenge.

After Hindley retreats to more drinking and threats, Catherine enters the kitchen distressed and asks Nelly for advice. Catherine reveals that Edgar Linton has proposed and that she has accepted him, though she feels in her heart that the choice is wrong. Under Nelly’s questioning, Catherine admits that Edgar’s beauty, wealth, affection, and social standing attract her, yet she insists that her deeper bond is with Heathcliff.

Catherine explains that marrying Heathcliff would now degrade her because Hindley has lowered him so far, but she believes marriage to Edgar could help her raise Heathcliff out of Hindley’s power. Heathcliff, hidden nearby, overhears only the statement that it would degrade Catherine to marry him and leaves before hearing Catherine declare that Heathcliff is more herself than she is and that separation from him is impossible. When Nelly later realizes Heathcliff is gone, Catherine panics and searches for him.

Heathcliff cannot be found, and Catherine waits outside through a violent thunderstorm, calling for him until she is drenched and exhausted. The next morning Hindley, Joseph, and Nelly discover that Catherine has remained up all night. When Hindley suggests sending Heathcliff away if he returns, Catherine breaks down, and her grief develops into delirium and a dangerous fever.

Mr. Kenneth treats Catherine, and Mrs. Linton later helps nurse her and takes her to Thrushcross Grange during recovery. Mrs. Linton and her husband catch the fever and die soon afterward. Catherine returns more imperious than before, while Heathcliff remains missing. Three years after Mr. Linton’s death, Catherine marries Edgar Linton and moves to Thrushcross Grange; Nelly, unwilling to leave young Hareton, is nevertheless ordered by Hindley and persuaded by Catherine and Edgar to accompany her. Nelly ends her night’s narration to Lockwood at half-past one.