Isabella's Marriage and Escape

Traces Isabella Linton's descent from infatuation through brutal disillusionment to her defiant flight from Wuthering Heights.

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The Spoiled Sister

A Fanciful Heart The Dog in the Manger Isabella Linton, indulged and impulsive, develops a sudden passion for the returned Heathcliff, to the horror of her brother and the amusement of Catherine. Catherine warns her, in the plainest terms, that Heathcliff is a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man who would crush her like a sparrow's egg. A Warning Rejected Isabella believes her sister-in-law speaks from jealousy and resolves to win Heathcliff for herself. Her stubborn fantasy makes her an easy prey for a man who has no love to give her.

The Elopement

A Flight in the Dark Stolen and Willing While Catherine Linton lies raving in a fever at the Grange, Isabella rides off with Heathcliff, having pledged her word to meet him. The elopement is both a romantic gesture and a lethal blow to her family, striking Edgar in his moment of greatest vulnerability. The Trap Closes Heathcliff has already told Catherine that he meant to settle his score with Hindley and then himself, but Isabella's fortune and prospects are too useful to waste. The marriage is announced in a dry note that offers no comfort to her brother, and her fate is sealed.

A Bride in Hell

The Letter from the Heights An Education in Cruelty Isabella's long letter to Nelly describes her arrival at Wuthering Heights: the savage Hareton, the glowering Hindley, and Heathcliff's immediate contempt. Her dog Fanny has been hanged by her husband, and she is told that the very first thing he did on leaving the Grange was to wish for the hanging of everyone belonging to her. The Abyss Revealed She asks Nelly plainly whether Heathcliff is a man, a madman, or a devil, and confesses she has been a fool. The letter is a testament to the destruction of illusion and the birth of an enduring hatred that will outlast her love.

The Flight to the Grange

A Bloody Deliverance The Knife-Pistol Night Isabella, pushed beyond endurance, provokes Heathcliff into a murderous fury and then escapes through the storm, bleeding from a cut under her ear and wearing only a thin dress. She has left her wedding ring in the fire and smashed it on the hearth, casting off every token of her marriage. A Home No Longer Home At Thrushcross Grange she bids farewell to Edgar's portraits and refuses to remain, knowing Heathcliff will follow even there. She goes south, to an exile that will last the rest of her life, carrying only her hatred as a possession.

Death in the South

A Long Decline The Mother's Legacy Isabella dies in the south, her constitution never having recovered from the miseries of her marriage. She sends Linton Heathcliff to her brother's care, hoping to save at least her son from the father's influence. A Warning Unheeded Edgar takes in the pale, peevish boy, but Heathcliff soon reclaims him, and Isabella's posthumous hope is crushed. Her brief, bright life and bitter end remain as a cautionary tale embedded in the second generation's story.

the months after Heathcliff's return, while Isabella is eighteen

the night of Catherine's delirium, during the brain fever

two months after the marriage, when Isabella writes to Nelly

the Friday after Catherine Earnshaw's funeral, during a storm

thirteen years after Catherine Earnshaw's death, when Linton Heathcliff is twelve