Peeking Between the Pages

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Wuthering Heights Wednesday

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Yes, once again I am late but at least it’s still Wednesday and not Thursday. I’m dealing with some issues at home that are taking away from my reading and getting things done but here we are now so let’s discuss the next three chapters of Wuthering Heights. A bunch of us are reading Wuthering Heights which is being hosted by Jill over at Fizzy Thoughts. We’re tackling 3 chapters a week and so far so good.

This week’s reading was Chapters 7 through 9 and wow can a lot happen in three chapters. When we ended last week we had left Cathy at Thrushcross Grange. Well after 5 weeks she returns home to Wuthering Heights with not only a healed ankle, but also with better manners (or so they had hoped). Mr. & Mrs. Earnshaw had hoped that the separation would have pulled Cathy and Heathcliff apart some but when Cathy sees him she gives him a hug and kisses.

Mrs. Dean takes it upon herself to clean Heathcliff up – she tells him he’ll be more presentable to Cathy then. Heathcliff wants nothing to do with it but then eventually relents. I liked Mrs. Dean’s description of Heathcliff’s eyes…

  • ‘…and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil’s spies? Wish and learn to smooth away the surly wrinkles, to raise your lids frankly, and change the fiends to confident, innocent angels, suspecting and doubting nothing, and always seeing friends where they are not sure of foes’ (pg 55, eBook)

So there’s Heathcliff all done up nice and what does Hindley do but degrade him. That man is insufferable. Heathcliff vows to get back at him someday. I’m sure that’s laying the groundwork for something in the pages to come.

Now we’re in the summer of 1778 and Mrs. Earnshaw dies of consumption shortly after giving birth to Hareton (where do they get these names from?). As Hareton grows up he’s terrifed of his father, Hindley (not that I can blame him). At one point Hindley says he’d like to break the brat’s neck and then carries him up the stairs and hangs him off the banister. The man is nuts.

Cathy is one hot tempered woman! It seems it is best to stay clear of her most times especially when she’s mad. Edgar, being blissfully in love, proposes to her and she accepts. She feels that by marrying Edgar she will have the means to help Heathcliff more. She feels that it would degrade her to marry Heathcliff although she loves him. Ok, big problem! Heathcliff hears this conversation. In talking to Mrs. Dean she says this about Heathcliff…

  • ‘…because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.’ (pg 77, eBook)

  • ‘If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem part of it.’ (pg 78/79, eBook)

Unfortunately Heathcliff doesn’t hear this part. The only part he heard before he snuck out was about Cathy demeaning herself to marry him. He disappears and can’t be found. Cathy goes on to marry Edgar but by the end of Chapter 9, Heathcliff is still no where to be found.

So far I’m following what’s going on. I think. Needless to say I’m still confused about the Cathy’s. The one at Wuthering Heights now can’t be the one Heathcliff would have been in love with and I still think that one is dead. I’m anxious to delve further into the story to see how this will all unfold.

You can check out other’s thought on our read-a-long…

Pop back next week for my thoughts on the next few chapters of Wuthering Heights. I’m really enjoying it!

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  2. I loved the passages you quoted. When I read them in the book…I went back and read them again they were so beautiful. I am LOVING this book!

  3. I'll be curious to see if you want to see the movie after you finish! Or during! (It actually helps – but only a little – with keeping the characters straight!) I love your comment about Hareton's name!

  5. Jeez, I really wish I could've started this with y'all. I haven't read Wuthering Heights since high school, and I know then I didn't really absorb it the way I would now. I didn't like reading the classics then. I was a very narrow-minded reader at the time. It's like when I read The Scarlet Letter a second time last summer I loved it, where in high school I didn't care for it. I don't even think I finished reading it. And you know what? I probably didn't even finish reading Wuthering Heights either.

  6. One of the Cathy's is dead because early on Lockwood spends that night browsing through Cathy's "things." I assume that is dead Cathy he was referring to but who knows? Maybe it's one in the same.

    If you look at the family tree Heathcliff doesn't live all that long. I keep forgetting young they all are.

  7. Cool! I am so enjoying this!
    It's kind of like being in grade school and having the teacher read to us each day. That was so fun.

  9. I'm really enjoying this, too. So much happened this week -it took some self-control not to read ahead. Hareton is one strange name, lol!

  10. I won't spoil the cathys for you, but those quotes of cathy's in the kitchen that Healthcliff never overhears are the crux of the story for me. I return to those passages again and again with this novel. I'm glad that you are enjoying the book.

    It's one of my favorites.

  12. Yes, Cathy does indeed have an awful temper. Just wait until you get further in the book! Glad you are doing this Dar! Your recaps are wonderful!

  13. I finally found my old copy and I'm madly reading to catch up. I'll finally have a Wuthering Heights Wednesday on Friday–lol!

  14. I am so bummed that I can't read along Dar. I hope to read sometime and I will definitely check back..I hear so much good about it…and then so much ugh about it..but it is an endearing classic and I know I must give it a shot.