logo

94 pages 3 hours read

Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1847

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Chapters 23-27Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 23 Summary

The next morning, Cathy and Nelly go to Wuthering Heights and enter through the kitchen, where Joseph and Linton bicker over the fire. Cathy and Nelly help tend the fire while Linton complains about the lack of attentiveness he is experiencing. Cathy tells Linton she loves him “better than anybody living” (173), stroking Linton’s hair, but soon they begin to argue about their parents. In frustration and anger, Cathy pushes Linton’s chair over and “caused him to fall against one arm” (174), which inspires Linton to “distress his cousin[...]for whenever he caught a stifled sob from her he put renewed pain and pathos into the inflexions of his voice” (174). Cathy apologizes, and Nelly suggests they leave. After they exit, “Linton had slid from his seat on to the hearthstone, and lay writhing in the mere perverseness of an indulged plague of a child” (175). Cathy helps him, and Linton agrees they are friends again. When Cathy promises to come back to Wuthering Heights, Nelly, in dismay, promises to lock the gate so Cathy can’t get out. The following morning, Nelly falls ill, which means Cathy is free to do what she likes for several weeks.

Chapter 24 Summary

After three weeks of illness, Nelly learns that Cathy has gone to Wuthering Heights during her illness. Cathy tells Nelly all about her visits, during which she and Linton talked cheerfully, until one visit when “[they] were near quarrelling” (180) about their preferred manner of spending a free day in nature. She describes an encounter with Hareton in which he tries to impress her with his writing abilities. When she describes how she laughs at Hareton for not being educated, Nelly scolds her for her “bad breeding” (181). Cathy continues to explain that Hareton, in his anger, abuses Linton, causing him to have “a dreadful fit of coughing” (182) and distressing Cathy, who “sobbed and wept so much that [her]eyes were almost blind” (183). When Linton recovers, Cathy tries to explain to him that it was her fault Hareton was so angry, but Linton is sullen, believing her to be a liar. Cathy suggests she never come again, which inspires Linton to speak sensibly, so they talk as friends again.

Cathy attempts to persuade Nelly to allow her to go to Wuthering Heights. Because her visits make Linton happy, he doesn’t provoke the anger of his father: “I can’t be prevented from going to Wuthering Heights except by inflicting misery on two people; whereas, if you’ll only not tell papa, my going need disturb the tranquility of none” (185). Nelly tells Edgar, and once again, Cathy is forbidden to go to Wuthering Heights ever again, but Edgar agrees to write to Linton to invite him to the Grange whenever he likes.

Chapter 25 Summary

Nelly explains to Lockwood that all of these events happened about a year ago. They discuss Cathy, whose obedience to her father reflects the fact that “[h]er affection for him was still the chief sentiment in her heart” (186). Nelly continues with her story, describing a time when Edgar asked about Linton and his frail health, reflecting on “the approach of what is coming” (186) for him soon. He worries about Linton and Cathy marrying, especially as he knows he will die soon. On Cathy’s 17th birthday, Edgar decides not to go to his wife’s grave, and instead he writes to Linton, begging him to come to Thrushcross Grange. Linton responds explaining he has been forbidden to do so by Heathcliff and his own health is poor, so they correspond by letter.

Chapter 26 Summary

Edgar allows Cathy to go to Wuthering Heights to see Linton, accompanied by Nelly. Linton “walked so feebly, and looked so pale” (189). Linton tries to minimize the concern of the two women, but “he had evidently great difficulty in sustaining any kind of conversation” (189), and Nelly notices a new sort of weakness and apathy in Linton. He complains of Heathcliff’s harshness, just as he seems to fall asleep, and Cathy suggests to Nelly that they go home, despite the fact that she was “might eager to set off” (191) to see Linton in the first place. As Heathcliff arrives to Wuthering Heights, Cathy and Nelly leave and tell Edgar as little as possible of their visit.

Chapter 27 Summary

Edgar’s health deteriorates, and Cathy’s “countenance grew wan with watching and sorrow” (193). Edgar takes comfort from the fact that “she would not now be left entirely alone after his death” (193), believing that there is a possibility she and Linton will marry. Meanwhile, Linton is acting oddly towards Cathy when she goes to see him. They visit outdoors, but he finally reveals that if they don’t marry, he will die: “But leave me and I shall be killed!” (194). Linton won’t explain what he means by these mysterious words, especially as Heathcliff appears on horseback as Linton speaks. Heathcliff agrees to call a doctor, but “Linton clung to his cousin, and implored her to accompany him” (195). Heathcliff locks the door once Cathy and Nelly are inside Wuthering Heights, and in a rage, she bites Heathcliff’s hand holding the key. With his free hand, Heathcliff gives her “a shower of terrific slaps on both sides of the head” (196). This scene of violence somehow calms Linton, who explains that Heathcliff wants them to marry:“And he knows your papa wouldn’t let us marry now; and he’s afraid of my dying” (197). He explains that if Cathy will stay the night, they will marry the next morning. Then Linton can go with her to the Grange the next day. Cathy exclaims that she loves her father more than Linton, so she would rather “break or burn a way out of the house” (198). She promises Heathcliff she will marry Linton if he lets her go home, begging him to “[s]end Ellen then, to let papa know [she’s] safe” (199). He forces Cathy to stay the night,and Nelly stays as well:“Five nights and four days I remained, altogether, seeing nobody but Hareton” (201).

Chapters 23-27 Analysis

The idea that physical manifestations reflect personality characteristics, or physiognomy, is in play in the character of Linton Heathcliff, as his physical weakness reflects the ease with which Heathcliff manipulate him. Linton’s feebleness, both physical and psychological, reminds the reader of his mother, Isabella, who was also easily out-maneuvered by the scheming Heathcliff, as well as his uncle, Edgar, whose health is weakening with every chapter. Clearly, the Linton stock is not florid and is rather prone to illness.

Both Edgar and Isabella’s parents died while nursing Catherine Earnshaw back to health in an earlier chapter of the book.

Cathy, like Linton, also grows more like her mother, as she also displays violence as a gateway to talk of love; first Catherine hit Edgar Linton to invite a marriage proposal, and now history repeats itself when Cathy turns over Linton’s chair as a pre-cursor to her emotional expression of affection. Cathy’s resemblance to Catherine is also evident in her pattern of flouting the rules; Cathy is repeatedly forbidden to go to Wuthering Heights, but the allure of the place and its residents proves too strong to resist.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text