Hareton Earnshaw's Degradation and Recovery

Follows Hareton Earnshaw from beloved infant to brutalized captive and finally to restored gentleman through love and education.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Motherless Babe

A Child Given to Servants A Father's Despair With Frances dead, Hindley abandons his son to Nelly's care while he drowns himself in drink. The infant Hareton, once the pride of the household, becomes a pawn in his father's rages, nearly thrown over the banister in a drunken fit. A Guardian's Love Nelly risks her position to protect the child, hiding him in cupboards and shielding him from Hindley's violence. The boy's survival is a small miracle of persistence in a house that seems determined to destroy him.

The Beggar Heir

Now You Are Mine Casually Reared Heathcliff takes the orphan Hareton as his ward, not to nurture but to twist. The new master forbids schooling, encourages bad habits, and tells Nelly he is trying his hand at rearing a young one. Degradation by Design Hareton grows into a strong, rough lad, ignorant and proud of the brutishness he has been taught. His name and his lineage are flattered by Joseph while his substance is stolen by Heathcliff, leaving the heir of the Earnshaws a servant in his own house.

The Taunted Lad

A Mirror of Shame The First Stirrings of Ambition Hareton begins to feel the ignominy of his condition when the refined Catherine Linton (younger) mocks his illiteracy and treats him as a servant. Her contempt awakens in him a hidden desire to rise, and he secretly teaches himself to spell his own name. A Seed of Self-Respect The taunting of a girl he half-admires becomes both a wound and a goad. His clumsy attempts to please her and his rage at her mockery mark the beginning of a long, painful ascent.

The Book Burning

Sacrifice to Spleen A Man's Defeat Hareton, exposed as an enthusiastic but stumbling reader, is tormented by Cathy until he hurls his treasured books into the fire. Nelly sees the anguish in his face, the destruction of every pleasure and hope those volumes had given him. The Wound of Ridicule His retreat into sullenness is the crisis of his recovery, the moment when the cruelty of the old world almost succeeds in finishing what Heathcliff began. What saves him is the persistence of his own nature, too healthy to be wholly quenched.

The Knit of Friendship

A Hand and a Kiss The Armistice Cathy, weary of loneliness, breaks Hareton's pipe and begs his friendship, then offers him a book and presses her lips to his cheek when he refuses her hand. He is won not by gifts but by her evident need of him. The Seed of the New House Nelly sees two radiant faces bent over the accepted book and pronounces the treaty ratified. The unlikely pair begin a courtship conducted through alphabets and gardens, a courtship that will remake the world they inherited.

The Gentleman Restored

A Transformed Face The Reading Heir Mr. Lockwood finds Hareton respectably dressed and seated at a table with a book, his features glowing with pleasure as Cathy corrects his reading. The brute has become a man, and the resemblance to old Catherine Earnshaw in his eyes is now a mark of strength. The Heir of Both Houses The engagement to Cathy on New Year's Day restores the Earnshaw name to the very property Heathcliff stole, and the couple will move to Thrushcross Grange. Hareton's destiny, once so cruelly derailed, arrives at the destination his father's house always intended.

at Frances Earnshaw's death, when Hareton is a few weeks old

after Hindley's death, in 1784

during Cathy's secret visits to Wuthering Heights, 1797-1801

autumn 1801, after Cathy cruelly reads his private books aloud

Easter Monday and after, spring 1802

autumn 1802, when Lockwood returns