Wuthering Heights & Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë & Emily Brontë
Contents
Wuthering Heights — CHAPTER XVI
Overview
Catherine gives birth to a premature daughter and dies soon after, leaving Edgar shattered and heirless. Nelly informs Heathcliff, who erupts in grief and curses Catherine to haunt him. Before the funeral, Heathcliff secretly visits the bier and replaces Edgar’s hair in Catherine’s locket with his own. Catherine is buried apart from both families.
Summary
Near midnight, Catherine delivers a frail, seven-months child, Catherine (Cathy) Linton, and dies two hours later, never fully recognizing Edgar or Heathcliff. Edgar is devastated, and Nelly laments the loss of an heir through the estate’s settlement. Catherine’s corpse appears serenely beautiful, which soothes Nelly’s thoughts on death.
At dawn, Nelly slips outside to tell Heathcliff. She finds Heathcliff, already aware, rigid with grief. He demands the truth of Catherine’s end; Nelly describes a quiet passing without recognition of him. In a violent outcry, Heathcliff curses that Catherine’s spirit never rest and begs her to haunt him, declaring he cannot live without her.
Before the funeral, Edgar keeps vigil by the coffin while Heathcliff haunts the grounds at night. Nelly secretly opens a window so Heathcliff can bid farewell. He enters silently and replaces a lock of Edgar’s hair in Catherine’s locket with his own; Nelly later twists both together.
Hindley does not attend the funeral; Isabella is not invited. Catherine is interred on a green slope at the kirkyard’s edge, apart from the Lintons’ chapel and the Earnshaws’ graves, a resting place later shared by Edgar.
Who Appears
- Nelly (Ellen) DeanNarrator; witnesses Catherine’s death, informs Heathcliff, enables his secret farewell, and oversees funeral details.
- HeathcliffLearns of Catherine’s death, erupts in agonized rage, begs her to haunt him, and swaps hair in her locket.
- Edgar LintonGrief-stricken husband; keeps vigil by Catherine’s coffin and attends her burial, now without an heir.
- Catherine Earnshaw LintonDies after childbirth; her serene corpse inspires reverence; buried apart from both families.
- Catherine (Cathy) LintonPremature, fragile newborn daughter of Catherine and Edgar, initially neglected then cared for.
- Hindley EarnshawCatherine’s brother; invited to the funeral but pointedly does not attend.
- Isabella LintonEdgar’s sister; excluded from Catherine’s funeral.