Wuthering Heights & Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë & Emily Brontë
Contents
Wuthering Heights — CHAPTER XXXI
Overview
Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights, secretly delivers Nelly’s note to Catherine, and witnesses Catherine’s scorn of Hareton’s attempts to educate himself. Provoked, Hareton burns his books. Heathcliff returns, strangely disturbed by Hareton’s resemblance to Catherine’s mother. Lockwood announces he will leave and give up Thrushcross Grange.
Summary
On a bright, frosty morning, Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights, carrying a note from Nelly to Catherine. Hareton lets him in and guards him. Catherine is sullen; when Lockwood drops the note on her lap, Hareton seizes it for Heathcliff. Moved by Catherine’s silent tears, Hareton grudgingly tosses it back, and Catherine eagerly reads it, then wistfully longs for her former life at the Grange.
Lockwood tries to converse, learning Heathcliff has destroyed Catherine’s books. Catherine reveals she once found Hareton’s secret stash of Latin, Greek, and poetry; she taunts him for his halting studies and mispronunciations. Lockwood defends Hareton’s efforts, but Catherine persists, turning his favorite pieces into mockery. Humiliated and angry, Hareton first throws the books into Catherine’s lap, then, after further provocation, burns them, sacrificing his own hopes to wounded pride.
As Hareton storms out, Heathcliff arrives, stops him briefly, and then, privately, admits his torment: Hareton’s face recalls Catherine Earnshaw more than his father, which he can hardly bear. Heathcliff appears restless and thinner. Catherine, ordered to the kitchen to eat with Joseph, avoids the room. Lockwood dines uncomfortably between a grim Heathcliff and a silent Hareton.
Lockwood informs Heathcliff he will soon leave for London and won’t renew the Grange tenancy. Heathcliff coolly accepts, confident of securing payment. Lockwood departs, reflecting on the dreariness of the Heights and idly imagining a romantic escape with Catherine that never was.
Who Appears
- Mr. LockwoodNarrator; visits the Heights, delivers Nelly’s note, observes the book quarrel, announces departure from the Grange.
- Catherine Linton HeathcliffSullen and isolated; longs for the Grange; taunts Hareton’s studies; reads Nelly’s letter; banished to the kitchen by Heathcliff.
- Hareton EarnshawAshamed yet striving to learn; mocked by Catherine; in anger burns his books; storms out in distress.
- HeathcliffReturns moody; unsettled by Hareton’s likeness to Catherine Earnshaw; orders Catherine to the kitchen; coolly hears of Lockwood’s departure.