On a bright, frosty day, Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights before leaving the district, carrying a note from Nelly Dean to Catherine Heathcliff. Hareton Earnshaw lets him through the locked gate and follows him indoors as a watchful guard while Heathcliff is away.

Inside, Catherine is preparing vegetables and behaves coldly toward Lockwood. When Lockwood tries to slip Nelly’s note to Catherine, Hareton intercepts it, intending to show it to Heathcliff first. Catherine’s silent distress softens Hareton, and he throws the letter down for her to read. After reading it, Catherine asks Lockwood about the Grange and longs aloud for the freedom and pleasures she has lost.

Lockwood learns that Catherine cannot answer Nelly because she has no writing materials and has been deprived of books. Catherine explains that Heathcliff destroyed her books and accuses Hareton of stealing or hoarding others. Lockwood defends Hareton by suggesting that he is trying to educate himself, but Catherine cruelly mocks Hareton’s attempts to read and pronounce poetry.

Hareton, humiliated and enraged, brings Catherine several books and throws them into her lap, declaring he no longer wants them. Catherine rejects the books because she now associates them with Hareton, then taunts Hareton by imitating his poor reading. Hareton strikes Catherine and, in anguish, throws the books into the fire, sacrificing the studies he had pursued partly out of shame at Catherine’s scorn and hope for Catherine’s approval.

As Hareton leaves in distress, Heathcliff arrives and asks what has happened. Hareton says nothing and goes away. Heathcliff watches Hareton and mutters that the young man increasingly resembles Catherine Earnshaw, a resemblance Heathcliff can hardly bear. Lockwood then tells Heathcliff that Lockwood plans to leave for London and will not continue living at Thrushcross Grange beyond the rental term.

Heathcliff responds coldly, making clear that Lockwood must still pay what is owed. Lockwood stays for a cheerless dinner with Heathcliff and the silent Hareton, while Catherine is ordered to eat in the kitchen with Joseph until Lockwood has gone. Leaving the Heights, Lockwood reflects on the dreariness of the household and idly imagines how different Catherine’s life might have been if she had escaped with him to town.