Chapter Four
SparkNotes summary: Having rejected human contact the day before,
Lockwood now becomes lonely. When his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, brings
him his supper, he bids her sit and tell him the history of the people at
Wuthering Heights. She attempts to clarify the family relationships,
explaining that the young Catherine whom Lockwood met at Wuthering
Heights is the daughter of the Catherine who was Nelly’s first mistress at
Wuthering Heights, and that Hareton Earnshaw is young Catherine’s
cousin, the nephew of the first Catherine. The first Catherine was the
daughter of Mr. Earnshaw, the late proprietor of Wuthering Heights. Now
young Catherine is the last of the Lintons, and Hareton is the last of the
Earnshaws. Nelly says that she grew up as a servant at Wuthering
Heights, alongside Catherine and her brother Hindley, Mr. Earnshaw’s
children.
Nelly continues by telling the story of her early years at Wuthering
Heights. When Catherine and Hindley are young children, Mr. Earnshaw
takes a trip to Liverpool and returns home with a scraggly orphan whom
the Earnshaws christen “Heathcliff.” Mr. Earnshaw announces that
Heathcliff will be raised as a member of the family. Both Catherine and
Hindley resent Heathcliff at first, but Catherine quickly grows to love him.
Catherine and Heathcliff become inseparable, and Hindley, who continues
to treat Heathcliff cruelly, falls into disfavor with his family. Mrs. Earnshaw
continues to distrust Heathcliff, but Mr. Earnshaw comes to love the boy
more than his own son. When Mrs. Earnshaw dies only two years after
Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights, Hindley is essentially left without
an ally.
Key events:
Nelly become the narrator and the story goes back to when
Heathcliff and Catherine Senior were children
Heathcliff is taken in by Mr Earnshaw who is kind to him,
unlike Hindley
Heathcliff manipulates Hindley into exchanging horses
Key themes/ideas:
Childhood
Isolation
Violence
Nelly:
, Becomes the narrator after Lockwood hoped she would
“prove a regular gossip”
Heathcliff:
There is a sense of mystery surrounding him as people
didn’t know “where he was born, and who were his parents,
and how he got his money”
His arrival creates a battle between heaven and hell, as he
was “a gift of God; though it’s as dark almost as if it came
from the devil” this appears foreboding and acts as a
warning- “possessed of something diabolical”
He is isolated as he spoke “gibberish, that nobody could
understand” and is seen as a “gipsy brat”
He is dehumanised by constantly being referred to as “it”
He is unwanted- “hoping it might be gone on the morrow”
The family gives him a name which appears to integrate him
into the family, however he is like a ghostly substitute as
“they had christened him ‘Heathcliff’: it was the name of a
son who died in childhood”
He appears brave as “he would stand Hindley’s blows
without winking or shedding a tear” although this may be
because he is accustomed to it
When ill, “he was as uncomplaining as a lamb; though
hardness, not gentleness, made him give little trouble” his
patience and stoicism in illness endear Nelly to him and are
the qualities he draws on later when he exacts his revenge
on those around him
He is manipulative as he says Hindley must “exchange
horses with me” or “I shall tell your father of the three
thrashings you’ve given me”
Catherine:
Initially unkind to Heathcliff- “showed her humour by
grinning and spitting at the stupid little thing” however this
quickly changes as a few days later “Miss Cathy and he were
now very thick”
Mr Earnshaw places Catherine below Heathcliff- “petting him
up far above Cathy, who was too mischievous and wayward
for a favourite”
Seems to be a difficult child when ill, unlike Heathcliff-
“Cathy and her brother harassed me terribly”
Hindley:
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