Edgar's Devotion to Catherine

Follows the arc of Edgar Linton's love for Catherine Earnshaw, from idealizing worship through humiliation to an undying tenderness.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

The Boy's Ideal

A Quiet Infatuation The Angel in the House Young Edgar Linton, accustomed only to the tame prettiness of his sister, is dazzled by Catherine's wild beauty and spirit. His admiration is worshipful, founded on her difference from everything he knows. The Seed of Devotion He is too timid to pursue her at first, but his heart is fixed, and when he visits the Heights, his patience and gentleness are exactly the opposite of the violence around him. The devotion he offers is sincere and utterly incapable of understanding its object.

The Patient Suitor

A Lamb Among Wolves The Courtship of a Gentle Man Edgar braves Hindley's rages and Heathcliff's sneers to court Catherine, offering her the world she has learned to want: wealth, elegance, and a place as the greatest woman of the neighbourhood. His love is expressed entirely through the gifts of his station. An Unequal Offering Catherine accepts him without the soul-deep attachment she feels for Heathcliff, and Edgar never guesses what he lacks. His devotion is measured by its results, not its depth, and it will prove too shallow to hold her soul.

The Husband's Humility

The Thorn and the Honeysuckle A Yielding Kindness Nelly describes the marriage as one where no mutual concessions are made: Edgar bends to Catherine's moods, fears to vex her, and suffers more from her displeasure than from any ill of his own. His love is a form of self-erasure. A Paradise at a Price The household is happy while Catherine is calm, but the peace is built entirely on Edgar's submission. The mixture of adoration and passivity leaves him defenseless when real conflict arrives.

The Bereaved Guardian

A Widower's Liturgy Visits to the Grave Edgar lives in the shadow of his loss, visiting Catherine's grave at dusk and on the anniversary of her death, and shaping his life around his daughter, who bears her mother's name. His grief is silent, patient, and profoundly personal. A Love Without Anger Unlike Heathcliff, Edgar neither curses God nor seeks revenge; he has learned to love memory itself. Nelly finds his resignation a truer courage than the wilder passions of the other mourner.

The Last Word

Going to Her A Final Cradle With his daughter restored to him, Edgar dies murmuring that he is going to Catherine and that Cathy will come to them both. His last gaze is rapt and radiant, fixed on an ecstasy beyond the room. The Faithful End The quiet man who never possessed his wife's soul as he wished is united with her in his final vision. His love, imperfect and uncomprehending to the last, is honored by the peace of his end.

Edgar's first sight of Catherine during her five weeks at the Grange

the years of secret visits to Wuthering Heights

the early married years at Thrushcross Grange

the years after Catherine's death

Edgar's deathbed, after Cathy's return