Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontë · a graph of the novel, not a recap from memory

This page is backed by the temporal graph of the book. The assistant answers only from those facts: two Catherines stay two people, the house is not the man, and a date on the story clock hides what has not happened yet.

Ask who owns the Heights in 1797, what Lockwood knows at the opening, or what is true of Catherine Earnshaw before Heathcliff returns.

From the graph

A house off the stir of society

Wuthering Heights stands in a beautiful country completely removed from the stir of society. Ellen Dean later sets it against Thrushcross Grange: not so buried in trees, not quite so large, with healthier, fresher, drier air.

Chapter I scene 1 · 1801-11-01 · Chapter XX scene 1 · 1797-10-02

Heathcliff, owner and guardian

By 1797 Heathcliff is owner of Wuthering Heights and guardian of Hareton Earnshaw. At the 1801 opening he is Lockwood’s landlord; Lockwood walks four miles to the garden-gate just before a snow shower. Thrushcross Grange, Heathcliff says, is his own.

Chapter XVIII scene 3 · 1797-06-01 · Chapter II scene 1 · 1801-11-01

Two Catherines

Catherine Earnshaw dies two hours after giving birth to Catherine Linton, never recovering enough consciousness to miss Heathcliff or know Edgar. The first Catherine is not the second; the graph keeps them apart.

Chapter XVI scene 1 · 1784-03-20

A name only, on a stone

Heathcliff dies at Wuthering Heights three months before Lockwood’s return. His headstone in the kirkyard bears only the word Heathcliff and the date of his death: he had no surname, and his age was unknown.

Chapter XXXII scene 2 · Chapter XXXIV

Story clock

  1. 1771-08-01 — Heathcliff arrives
  2. 1780-08-01 — Heathcliff leaves
  3. 1783-03-01 — Catherine marries
  4. 1783-09-01 — Heathcliff returns
  5. 1784-03-20 — Catherine dies
  6. 1801-11-01 — Lockwood arrives (opening)
  7. 1801-11-03 — the ghost
  8. 1802-04-01 — Heathcliff dies
  9. 1802-09-01 — Lockwood returns