1802

1802 is the year that closes the narrative frame of Wuthering Heights, the season in which Lockwood, returning to the north in September, finds the violent energies of the previous generation spent and a new harmony emerging between Hareton Earnshaw and Catherine Linton. It is the year of Heathcliff's death, of the young couple's engagement, and of Lockwood's final, quiet visit to the three headstones on the moor—a conclusion that transforms the novel's long turbulence into an image of repose.

Lockwood's Return and the Changed Landscape

In September 1802, Lockwood, traveling to a friend's estate in the north, finds himself within fifteen miles of Gimmerton and yields to a sudden impulse to revisit Thrushcross Grange. The journey itself feels dreamlike: his residence in that locality had already grown "dim and dreamy." He arrives at the Grange to find it under the care of a new housekeeper, who is astonished by his unexpected appearance. The house is unprepared, but Lockwood, undeterred, sets out on foot for Wuthering Heights, the true goal of his excursion. The landscape he traverses is transformed by the season: a sinking sun and a rising moon, a fragrance of stocks and wallflowers, and the sight of the old house with its doors and lattices open to the mild air. The gate yields to his hand—an improvement he notes with approval.

The Reconciliation of Hareton and Catherine

Peering through a window before entering, Lockwood witnesses a scene that would have been unimaginable a year earlier. Hareton Earnshaw, respectably dressed, sits at a table with a book before him, laboring to read aloud under the supervision of Catherine Linton, who stands behind him, her light ringlets blending with his brown locks. She corrects him with affectionate impatience—"Con-trary!"—and rewards his efforts with kisses. Lockwood, watching from the shadows, feels a mingled sense of curiosity and envy, and bites his lip at having thrown away the chance of winning her himself. Inside, he finds Nelly Dean, who has been installed at the Heights since Zillah left, and who tells him the sequel of Heathcliff's history.

Heathcliff's Death and Its Aftermath

Heathcliff died three months before Lockwood's visit, in the summer of 1802. Nelly describes his final days as a period of strange, exalted agitation: he refused food, wandered the moors at night, and spoke of being on the threshold of his heaven. He was found dead in the oak-panelled bed, his face and throat washed by rain, his eyes open and gleaming with an expression of exultation that no effort could close. He was buried according to his own instructions, in the evening, with only Hareton, Nelly, the sexton, and six bearers in attendance. The country folk, Nelly reports, swear that he walks—that his ghost and Catherine's have been seen together near the church and on the moor.

The Union of the Young Couple

With Heathcliff's death, the last obstacle to the union of Hareton and Catherine falls away. Nelly tells Lockwood that they are to be married on New Year's Day and will then move to Thrushcross Grange, leaving Joseph to keep house at the Heights. The intimacy that began with Catherine's tentative kiss and the gift of a book has grown rapidly, and Nelly declares that the crown of all her wishes will be their wedding day. Lockwood, watching them return from their evening ramble, reflects that together they would brave Satan and all his legions.

The Final Image: The Three Headstones

Lockwood's walk home is lengthened by a diversion to Gimmerton Kirk. Beneath its decaying walls, he seeks and finds the three headstones on the slope next the moor: the middle one, Catherine Earnshaw's, grey and half buried in heath; Edgar Linton's, harmonized by turf and moss creeping up its foot; and Heathcliff's, still bare. He lingers under the benign sky, watching moths flutter among the heath and harebells, listening to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wonders how anyone could imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth. The novel ends not with revenge or anguish, but with the quiet of the natural world reclaiming the graves of the passionate dead.