Wuthering Heights Chapter 19 - 24

 Cathy was especially excited to meet her cousin, Linton, as she had known of him a very long time. Ellen watched as the effeminate and delicate youth was brought out by his uncle, and introduced to the excited Cathy. She took to him almost immediately as she nursed the sickly wretched boy with milk and tea, yet their union was short-lived and its end was marked by the arrival of Joseph. He came to demand Linton as he had been sent for by his master and the boy’s father, Heathcliff. Nelly saw in Edgar’s expression that he had dreaded Heathcliff’s claim and sent the boy on his way the following morning. The frail Linton received a cold welcome at Wuthering Heights, as Heathcliff seemed to be disappointed in the boy’s weak appearance, however, he was resolved to have him in his power to one day raise him to be the owner of both the Grange and the Heights. Heathcliff confessed to Nelly that it was Hareton whom he admired more than his son, and to him, he felt connected for he had raised the boy in a manner similar to one in which Hindley had raised him. The chief difference between Heathcliff and Hareton was that Heathcliff had despised his oppressor whereas Hareton believed that Heathcliff was his only friend in the world.

Cathy was quite upset at being separated from Linton so quickly but she was placated by false promises that she would meet him again, yet the master never wished to expose his daughter to the foul company of Heathcliff.

Eventually, Catherine forgot of her cousin and grew to be a beautiful woman, while Ellen learned that Linton progressed poorly in the company of ruffians like Heathcliff and Hareton. She soon stopped asking about the boy as she began to learn of his terrible indisposition yet she pitied him for she heard that Heathcliff treated the boy poorly and more despicable every day. On Cathy’s sixteenth birthday, Edgar locked himself in isolation for that day marked the death anniversary of his wife as well, so Cathy took to the moors with a now much slowed Ellen at her back. She found Heathcliff and Hareton on the moors and was cordially invited to Wuthering Heights, though Ellen protested vehemently, Heathcliff succeeded in luring Cathy to the house. There she was introduced to her long-lost Linton, who himself had aged quite prettily, but was marked with lethargy and fatigue. Heathcliff confessed to Nelly that his ultimate design would be the marriage of his son to Edgar’s daughter, to ensure that Heathcliff would have both the Grange and the heights to himself.

Heathcliff told Cathy to come see Linton as often as she pleased but to keep the visits a secret from her father who had persevered in keeping the two cousins separate owing to an old enmity that he shared with Heathcliff. Linton and Cathy got together quite well and were particularly mean to their unrefined cousin Hareton, while this seemed to give Heathcliff a malevolent pleasure yet he empathized with the unrefined youth. Cathy returned home to complain to her father for keeping Linton’s residence nearby a secret from her and received a heartfelt argument for securing her from Heathcliff’s company. Nelly observed how despondent Cathy grew at learning of her father’s forbiddance to visit Linton, and pleadingly begged Nelly to send Linton a note but Nelly would not consent. Several days later, Nelly discovered that Linton and Cathy had kept up a regular correspondence which she found and read to horrifically discover confessions of love. She found the boy through whom the letters were exchanged and halted further communication while she made Cathy burn the long love letters under threat of revealing them to Edgar.

Edgar took a cold that reduced him to bed rest for nearly the whole winter, and since Cathy had been used to walking in the evenings with her father, Nelly supplied the missing company. Cathy was quite distressed at her father’s poor health, but Nelly reassured her that Edgar would make a recovery quite soon. On one such walk, they happened to meet Heathcliff, who was making his way to some errand that was certain to keep him away from Wuthering Heights for the next week. He told Cathy that her rejection of Linton had caused him great heartache that caused his delicate health to worsen. He claimed that her refusal to answer his letters would certainly end him, and so entreated her to visit him while Heathcliff himself is away. Nelly sought to prevent this meeting by claiming that Heathcliff was only lying, however, she found herself accompanying Cathy to Wuthering Heights the following cold morning.

Cathy found Linton confined to an armchair while the other members of the household treated him with significant antipathy. The reunion of Linton and Cathy was not completely pleasant as the two of them got into an argument about the character of their parents, and a slight push from Cathy seemed to reduce Linton to an extremely violent coughing fit. Nelly was quite disgusted at the sickly and mean-spirited Linton but Cathy found him to be pretty and interesting. They resolved to see other again soon, while Nelly objected. She was prevented from keeping Cathy locked in the grange by a bout of ill health that confined her to bed for three weeks. In that time, Nelly later discovered, Cathy had been going to visit Linton every evening, as she had arranged a horse with one of the stable boys. Her visits to Wuthering Heights were pleasant at first, but they soon became a source of pain for her. On a particular visit, she made fun of Hareton for not being able to read and he took out his anger by violently throwing Hareton out of a room. Cathy watched how Linton’s face was altered in its manic powerlessness and he fell to another violent cough that brought blood streaming out from his mouth. Cathy was able to ensure that Linton received care from Zillah, the maid at Wuthering Heights, and departed rather reluctantly. On her way back, Hareton attempted to console her and apologize but she feared that he was trying to harm her and so cut him with her whip. The next evening visit was particularly unpleasant since Linton seemed to blame her for the events of the evening and not Hareton. Heathcliff eventually returned but made sure to stay away from Cathy, and Linton told her that his father abused him verbally nearly constantly. This verbal abuse caused him to have ill feelings for her, and so Cathy was now resolved to continue visiting him. She begged Nelly to allow her to continue without informing her father, but she revealed the details to Edgar almost immediately. Edgar forbade Cathy to go to Wuthering Heights but allowed Linton to visit the Grange whenever he pleased.

Analysis

Catherine's death marks the halfway point of the book, as the plot of the book now turns to the love story of Hareton and Catherine. Many scholars have considered the second part of the book to be rather anti-climactic given the passionate and action-filled plot of the first part of the book. However, unlike the love story of Catherine and Heathcliff, the story of Hareton and Catherine has a positive end. It is easy to observe the difference since the love between Hareton and Catherine causes them to both grow and improve while that of Heathcliff and Catherine causes them to both languish in their childhood. The older Catherine is incapable of understanding change in love, for instance she expects her relationship with Heathcliff to remain unaffected even after she marries Edgar. The younger Catherine is quite snobbish when she first meets the brutish and savage Hareton, but by the end of the book, both characters have considerably softened each other's faults.

The younger Catherine exhibits several similarities with her mother, and yet Nelly's descriptions of her are always positive whereas she had been severely critical of the older Catherine. Upon closer inspection, it can be reasoned that Nelly is attempting to have the younger Catherine rescued through a marriage with Mr. Lockwood, and so she attempts to present even her faults as virtues.