Wuthering Heights — CHAPTER XXXII

In September 1802, Lockwood, traveling north, impulsively detours to Thrushcross Grange. Finding the house neglected, he walks to Wuthering Heights. Through an open window he witnesses Hareton, tutored by Catherine, reading while they exchange affectionate reprimands and kisses, a scene that surprises and stirs him.

Lockwood slips into the kitchen where Nelly Dean now serves. She explains she was summoned after his departure and, crucially, that Heathcliff died three months earlier. Invited to drink, Lockwood asks for the story, and Nelly begins her account.

Nelly recalls returning to find Catherine initially content but soon restless, chafing at confinement to the garden and loneliness. Catherine taunted Hareton’s ignorance and idleness, regretting she had once mocked his attempts to learn. She tried to tempt him with books and readings, but Hareton, obstinate and wounded, refused, preferring Joseph’s company or solitary outings. Heathcliff grew more reclusive and had largely banished Hareton from his presence; an accident with a bursting gun forced Hareton to convalesce in the kitchen for a time.

On Easter Monday, Catherine tried to reconcile: she broke Hareton’s pipe to force conversation, admitted remorse, and pleaded for friendship. He rebuffed her angrily, but her persistence and a gentle kiss softened him. She wrapped a fine book as a gift, promising to teach him to read. At last Hareton accepted, and they bent together over the pages, signaling a truce.

Joseph returned, aghast at their intimacy, and threatened to seize Catherine’s books. Despite his disapproval and occasional setbacks, Catherine and Hareton’s friendship deepened around shared reading. Nelly, observing their mutual desire to esteem and be esteemed, hopes for their eventual union, reading it as a healing counterpoint to the years of bitterness under Heathcliff.