The War Between Heathcliff and Hindley

Follows the escalating enmity between Heathcliff and Hindley Earnshaw from childhood persecution to the usurpation of the Heights.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Household Rival

The Father's Choice A Jealous Son Old Earnshaw caresses the foundling while scolding his own son, and Hindley's envy hardens into a settled hatred. Heathcliff, in turn, is taught by the father's partiality that he has rights in the house that surpass the heir's. A Powder Keg Laid The old man's death removes the only restraint on the rivalry. The two boys have learned to be enemies before they ever have power to strike.

The Tyrant's Offensive

A Legal Degradation The Whip and the Garret Hindley reduces Heathcliff to the status of a farm boy, forbids him education, and orders him to be flogged for truancy. Heathcliff takes the blows without weeping, and his silence becomes a form of insolent resistance. The Grange's Wound When Heathcliff returns from the Thrushcross Grange expedition, Hindley forbids him even to speak to Catherine. The persecution is systematic and relentless, and each humiliation is recorded in the child's memory for future payment.

The Returned Adversary

The Tables Turned A Guest Who Ruins His Host Heathcliff re-enters Wuthering Heights as a paying guest, wins Hindley's money at cards, and watches with cold pleasure as the master borrows against his land. Hindley, who once boasted he would reduce the foundling to his right place, is now being reduced himself. A Master's Impotence Hindley's violent rages, his quarrels, and his attempted murder of Heathcliff are all signs of his losing grip. The power dynamic has wholly reversed, and Heathcliff's patience is more lethal than any blow.

The Night of the Knife

A Door Held Against the Dead Man Blood on the Hearth Hindley, armed with a knife-pistol, tries to keep Heathcliff out of the house, and in the struggle the weapon's blade slashes his own wrist. Heathcliff breaks in, kicks him, and dashes his head against the flags, leaving him barely alive. The Last Act of a Desperate Man Isabella, who witnesses the scene, sees both men at the extreme of their natures: Hindley as a suicide seeking revenge in hell, Heathcliff as a fiend exercising preternatural self-denial in refusing to finish him. The feud reaches its physical climax.

The Debtor's Death

An Estate Forfeit The Mortgaged Grave Hindley dies drunk and in debt, and Heathcliff, as mortgagee, takes possession of Wuthering Heights and its heir. The man who tormented the foundling is buried, and the foundling stands as master over the corpse's son. Victory by Arithmetic No law rising from the dead can restore Hareton's inheritance; the mortgage is the instrument by which Hindley's cruelty returns upon him. The war ends not with a duel but with the signing of papers, and the loser's child pays the debt.

the period of old Earnshaw's favoritism

the years of Hindley's mastership

the months after Heathcliff's return, before Hindley's death

a week after Catherine Earnshaw's funeral, during a snowstorm

the morning Hindley is found dead, 1784