Wuthering Heights Chapter 12-18 Analysis

Kate Campbell

AP Literature

Judy Goff

20 February 2018

Wuthering Heights QQN 2

Chapters 12-18

Catherine finally eats, but she is still hysterical about Edgar, and she still believes that she is dying. She speaks of her death, and her childhood on the moors with Heathcliff. Catherine tries to open the window, telling Nelly that she is certain that she can see Wuthering Heights. Edgar finally goes to see Catherine, and is very surprised about the seemingly dangerous condition that she is in, physically. Nelly goes to get a doctor, who is cautiously optimistic about Catherine’s recovery. Later that night, Heathcliff and Isabella elope (!!!) and Edgar says that they are only tied by name, and that he will not disown Isabella, because

Heathcliff and Hindley have been acting very violently towards each other, and she was frightened for her life. She tells Nelly that Hindley had been trying to stay sober, but after he decided not to go to Catherine’s funeral, he began to drink heavily. In his drunkenness, he locked Heathcliff out of the house, and told Isabella of his plan to kill Heathcliff and acquire his fortune. Isabella warned Heathcliff, and when Hindley attacked, he ended up injuring himself. Heathcliff then broke a window to get into the house, and beat Hindley. When the men began fighting the next day, Isabella came to Thrushcross Grange in hopes of refuge. After her visit to Grange, Isabella flees to London. It is revealed that she was pregnant and gives birth to a son, Linton, while in London. Heathcliff knows the whereabouts of his son and wife, but doesn’t pursue either of them. Isabella dies when Linton is twelve. Six months after Catherine’s funeral, Hindley dies. Nelly is shocked to learn that Hindley died very deep in debt, and that Heathcliff now owns Wuthering Heights, because he gave money to Hindley. Heathcliff tells Nelly that he plans to keep Hareton, more as a servant than as a son, and that he plans to get his own son, Linton back soon.

We really start to see the wheels turning in Heathcliff’s head in this chapter. His revenge against the Earnshaws and

Up until now, Isabella has been a passive character; she rarely thought for herself and was always under the influence of Edgar or Heathcliff. Her realization of the power she would get from wielding a weapon foreshadows her violent argument with Heathcliff later in the novel. Although Heathcliff wields the knife in that fight, Isabella's choice to leave him is the first instance in which she truly thinks for herself. Isabella's shifting relationship with power reflects the rejection of traditional gender roles––the knife is a very violent object, and Isabella's choice to live alone and raise a son by herself would have been highly unusual in the time period.