Wuthering Heights & Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë & Emily Brontë
Contents
Wuthering Heights — CHAPTER VI
Overview
Hindley returns with a new wife, Frances, and asserts harsh control, demoting Heathcliff to a laborer and neglecting the children. Catherine and Heathcliff’s rebellious visit to Thrushcross Grange ends with Catherine injured and welcomed by the Lintons, while Heathcliff is expelled. Mr. Linton’s reprimand pushes Hindley to separate Catherine from Heathcliff, escalating class and household divisions.
Summary
Hindley Earnshaw comes home for his father’s funeral with an unexpected wife, Frances, whose nervous, fragile manners unsettle the household. Hindley, hardened by three years away, immediately asserts authority, relegating Nelly and Joseph to the back-kitchen and refusing to alter the rough common room because Frances delights in it.
Frances initially showers Catherine Earnshaw with affection but soon grows peevish. At her prompting, Hindley revives his resentment of Heathcliff, expelling Heathcliff from genteel company, ending his lessons with the curate, and forcing him into outdoor farm labor. Catherine compensates by sharing her lessons with Heathcliff, and the pair grow increasingly wild and defiant.
One Sunday, after being banished for noise, Catherine and Heathcliff run to the moors and sneak to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the Linton children. Discovered, they try to flee, but the Lintons’ bulldog, Skulker, seizes Catherine’s ankle. A servant, Robert, rescues her and brings her inside; Heathcliff is seized, insulted as a criminal, and then driven out while Catherine is tended with warmth and luxury.
Watching from outside, Heathcliff sees the Lintons pamper Catherine, washing her feet, feeding her cakes, and admiring her charm, while he is kept from rejoining her. He returns to Wuthering Heights alone and recounts the episode to Nelly, who warns that Hindley will retaliate.
The next day, Mr. Linton visits Wuthering Heights and sharply criticizes Hindley’s mismanagement. Stung, Hindley decrees that Heathcliff will be dismissed if he speaks a single word to Catherine. Frances undertakes to restrain Catherine by guile rather than force, cementing a new household order that separates Catherine from Heathcliff and widens the class divide with the Lintons.
Who Appears
- Hindley EarnshawReturns with wife Frances, asserts tyranny, demotes Heathcliff, and forbids him to speak to Catherine after Linton’s rebuke.
- HeathcliffReduced to farm labor; flees with Catherine to Thrushcross Grange; expelled while Catherine is pampered; then barred from her.
- Catherine EarnshawRebellious companion to Heathcliff; bitten by Skulker at the Grange; receives Linton hospitality, widening her separation from Heathcliff.
- Frances (Mrs. Hindley Earnshaw)Hindley’s timid, excitable wife; initially dotes on Catherine, then fosters Hindley’s disdain of Heathcliff.
- Nelly DeanNarrates events, counsels caution to Heathcliff, and observes the deepening household divisions.
- Mr. LintonMaster of Thrushcross Grange; shelters injured Catherine and rebukes Hindley’s mismanagement.
- Mrs. LintonAssists Catherine at the Grange, distinguishing her from Heathcliff and reinforcing class boundaries.
- Edgar LintonWitnesses Catherine’s injury; begins admiring her during her stay at the Grange.
- Isabella LintonFrightened child at the Grange; helps welcome Catherine after the injury.
- JosephServant whose strictness supports Hindley’s punitive regime over the children.
- RobertGrange servant who frees Catherine from Skulker and ejects Heathcliff.
- SkulkerThe Lintons’ bulldog; bites Catherine’s ankle, precipitating her stay at the Grange.