Lockwood's Frame Story

Follows the outsider narrator Mr. Lockwood whose two visits to the moors open and close the novel, and whose curiosity draws Nelly Dean's entire history into the light.

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The Hermit's Tenant

A Misanthropist's Welcome The Solitary Landlord Mr. Lockwood, a city-bred gentleman seeking solitude, calls upon his landlord Heathcliff and is received with barely concealed hostility. The house itself, with its grotesque carvings and snarling dogs, presents a picture of savage hospitality that fascinates and repels him. A Dangerous Curiosity Despite the rebuff, Lockwood resolves to revisit, confessing that he feels a strange sociability compared with his host. The impulse to penetrate the mystery of the Heights launches the entire narrative frame.

Snowbound at the Heights

A Night of Nightmares The Haunted Chamber A sudden snowstorm forces Lockwood to spend the night in the oak-panelled bed where the names Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, and Catherine Linton are scratched into the window ledge. He reads old Catherine's diary, falls into a feverish sleep, and dreams of the preacher Jabez Branderham. The Ghostly Hand Waking into a second dream, Lockwood rubs a ghostly child's wrist against broken glass until the blood runs, and the phantom cries that it has been a waif for twenty years. His scream brings Heathcliff, who then rails at the empty window, begging Catherine to come in.

The Housekeeper's Tale

An Audience for the Past The Story Unfolds Ill and confined to Thrushcross Grange, Lockwood begs Ellen Dean to entertain him with the history of his neighbours. The housekeeper, a sharp and reflective woman, launches into a chronicle that spans three generations. A Frame Within a Frame Lockwood's role shifts from troubled tenant to attentive reader of a tragedy he can influence only by listening. The long winter sessions at the Grange allow Nelly's voice to dominate, and Lockwood's romantic interest in young Catherine Linton adds an ironic edge to his curiosity.

Departure and Return

An Altered Landscape The Second Arrival After a long absence in London, Lockwood journeys north again, moved by a sudden impulse to see the old places. Gimmerton Kirk looks greyer and the churchyard lonelier; he finds the Grange in the hands of strangers and walks out to Wuthering Heights. A Surprising Peace He discovers Wuthering Heights transformed: Hareton and Catherine are at their books, Nelly is housekeeper, and Heathcliff is dead. The menacing house of his first visit has become a home, and Lockwood's own romantic speculations are quietly dismissed.

The Last Stroll

Three Headstones The Peace of the Dead Leaving the Heights, Lockwood lingers among the graves and finds the three headstones on the slope next to the moor: Catherine's half-buried in heath, Edgar's softened by turf, and Heathcliff's still bare. He wonders how anyone could imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth. Closing the Frame The narrator's final meditation releases the story into stillness. Lockwood, who began as a meddler in a haunted house, ends as a pilgrim who has learned to read the landscape as a text of passion and rest.

1801, early autumn, on Lockwood's first visit to Wuthering Heights

1801, late autumn, on Lockwood's second visit

winter 1801 to spring 1802, during Lockwood's illness at Thrushcross Grange

1802, September, when Lockwood visits Gimmerton again

the evening of Lockwood's second visit, after the young couple's walk