Meticulous Study & Analysis of Chapters 2-6 of Wuthering Heights SS2 Civic Education Lesson Note

Chapter Two

Lockwood is annoyed at the type of housework being done in the Grange. He pays his second visit to Wuthering Heights when snow is falling causing cold weather. After shouting at the old servant Joseph to open the door, Lockwood is let in as another young man opens the entrance. The kitchen is warm and Lockwood thinks that the young, beautiful woman he meets there is Heathcliff’s wife. The young lady scornfully refuses to converse with him even when he tries to talk with her. Lockwood feels embarrassed and worst still, she refuses to make tea for him unless Heathcliff says so. When Lockwood and the young man sit for tea, he discovers that the young man suspects him of making advances on the girl by the way he behaves. There also, Heathcliff savagely makes the demand for tea which makes Lockwood not like him. Lockwood gets more confused by taking the lady as Heathcliff’s wife or the wife of the young man whom he takes to be Heathcliff’s son. But her husband is dead and she is Heathcliff’s wife. Lockwood is rudely corrected as he comes to understand that the lady is Heathcliff’s daughter-in-law. The young man is HaretonEarnshaw. Due to heavy snowfall, Lockwood demands a guide so that he can return home safely, but it is denied to him. Heathcliff sees it as more important that Hareton takes care of the horses than going out. Joseph, being a religious fanatic, argues with the girl who pretends to be a witch. In the end, Lockwood is left stranded and ignored by all. When he tries to take a lantern, Joseph accuses him of stealing it and sets dogs on him. Lockwood is humiliated and Heathcliff and Hareton laugh at him. He is taken in by the cook, Zilla, who asks him to spend the night with them.

Chapter Three

Having been ushered into a chamber by Zilla, she discovers that Lockwood does not like it. Being left alone, Lockwood sees some names like Catherine Linton, and Catherine Heathcliff written over the window edge. Reading Through some old books packed inside the room, he comes across Catherine’s childhood diary. He reads some written tips which show the time when Catherine and Heathcliff were playmates living together as brother and sister. The diary also reveals how Joseph bullied them and her older brother, Hindley. Heathcliff by his history was a vagabond (wanderer) rescued by Catherine’s father and raised as one of the family members. Unfortunately, when the father died, Hindley made him a servant and threatened to send him out which Catherine never liked.

After a while, Lockwood falls asleep while reading a religious book. He dreamt about a religious fanatic leading a violent mob. He had his second dream where a little ice-cold hand grabbed his arm and begged him to let him in. The voice introduces herself as Catherine Linton and that she is coming home because she lost her way to the Moor. Therein, Lockwood sees a child’s face and feels afraid. His efforts to draw the child in through the glass window wound the child’s wrist such that the blood stains the sheet before he wakes up screaming. When Heathcliff comes in looking disturbed and confused not knowing that Lockwood is there. He tells Heathcliff what happens and the dream in which Catherine’s name is mentioned. The name worries Heathcliff and makes him angry. Lockwood also overhears Heathcliff pleading to Cathy to come in at last. Somehow, Lockwood is embarrassed by the landlord’s agony. Again, he witnesses the morning argument between Heathcliff and the girl who is reading. She resists Heathcliff’s bullies before she sees Lockwood off.

Chapter Four

Being so bored and weak after his adventure, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Ellen Dean, to tell him what he knows about Heathcliff and the old families of the area. Ellen informs Lockwood that Heathcliff is rich and stingy. According to the housekeeper, he has had no family since his son died. The girl living in Wuthering Heights is Ellen’s former employer’s daughter Catherine Lintons. Ellen worries about the unhappy mood of younger Catherine because she is always fond of her. Also, Ellen says that she grew up in Wuthering Heights where her mother was working as a nurse. She narrated to Lockwood how Mr Earnshaw returned with a dirty-haired child found starving on the street. The boy was named Heathcliff and was adopted into the family but not fully welcomed by Mrs EaMrsaw and Hindley. Catherine and Heathcliff became very friendly and he also became a favourites. Hindley was jealous and unhappy thinking that Heathcliff had taken his place. Even when Earnshaw made clothes for them, Heathcliff chose the finest of them. When Heathcliff claimed that Hindiey threw a heavy iron at him, Heathcliff threatened to import him to Earnshaw.

Chapter Five

When Earnshaw becomes old and sick, he is obsessed with the fear and idea that people do not like his favourite, Heathcliff. Being his spoilt child, Hatley grows more bitter against the situation and he is sent away to college. Worse still, the old Joseph, the self-righteous Pharisee uses his religious influence over Earnshaw to separate him from his children. To Earnshaw, he thinks Hindiey is useless. He also hates Cathy’s playfulness and high spirits. Cathy is too fond of Heathcliff and likes to order people around just like Heathcliff can do anything she requests. Earnshaw is too harsh to her and she remains more hardened to his reproofs. At last, Earnshaw died in one evening. Cathy does not know until she goes to kiss her father good night and discovers that he has died. However, the two children cry without measures:

I shall bid father good-night first, said Catherine

The poor thing discovered her loss directly. She screams out oh, he’s dead Heathcliff, he’s dead [p,30].

Later, they console themselves believing that the old man is in heaven.

Chapter Six

Mr Hindiey comes home for his father’s funeral. Unexpectedly, he returns home with his wife. Hindi also comes back with new rules with strange manners upon which he orders servants to go and live in inferior quarters. He does not spare Heathcliff as he treats him like other servants, stops his education and makes him work in the field like any other farm boy.

Heathcliff does not feel it initially because Cathy teaches him what she learns and helps him to work and also plays within the field. Even Ellen plans to run to the Moors in the morning till the punishment is over.

One day, the servant ran away after being punished till the night when Heathcliff returned. Heathcliff and Cathy run to the Grange (farmhouse) to see how Isabella is doing there. They met Linton’s children Edgar and Isabella crying over who will hold the pet dog. They are amused by the actions of the children who go to call their parents. Cathy and Heathcliff try to escape after making frightening noises and a bulldog bites her on the leg and holds her still. She asks Heathcliff to escape but he comes to her rescue trying to pry the dog’s jaws open. Mr and Mrs Linton take them to be thieves. Surprisingly, Edgar recognizes Cathy as Miss Earnshaw and the parents frown at their wild behaviour especially at Heathcliff for being allowed to keep company with Cathy. The couple treats Cathy with care and drives out Heathcliff. He returns to Wuthering Heights after ensuring that Cathy is in safe hands and alright When Hindley knows what is happening, he accepts the idea of separating Cathy from Heathcliff; As a result, Cathy is to stay for a long time with the Lintons while her dog bite heals. Heathcliff is banned from speaking to her.