Edgar Linton and Catherine Linton's father-daughter relationship

Edgar Linton and Catherine Linton's father-daughter relationship is the emotional anchor of the second half of Wuthering Heights, a bond of profound, protective love that shapes Catherine's character and ultimately determines the course of her life. Edgar's devotion to his daughter is both his greatest earthly consolation after the death of his wife and the source of his deepest anxiety, as he struggles to shield her from the destructive influence of Heathcliff while facing his own mortality.

Identity and Early Bond

After the death of his wife Catherine Earnshaw, Edgar Linton found his sole earthly consolation in their infant daughter, named Catherine but always called Cathy to distinguish her from her mother. The child, born prematurely at seven months on the very night of her mother's death, was a puny, friendless infant who might have wailed out of life unnoticed during those first hours. Edgar's initial coldness toward the baby melted as fast as snow in April, and before the tiny thing could stammer a word or totter a step it wielded a despot's sceptre in his heart. His attachment sprang from its relation to her mother far more than from its being his own child. He took her education entirely upon himself, making it an amusement, and fortunately her curiosity and quick intellect made her an apt scholar who learned rapidly and eagerly, doing honour to his teaching. If a servant chanced to vex her, her immediate recourse was to declare, "I shall tell papa!" and if he reproved her even by a look, she would act as if it were a heart-breaking business.

Protective Seclusion

Edgar's love expressed itself through an intense, almost obsessive protectiveness. Until she reached the age of thirteen, Catherine had not once been beyond the range of the park by herself. Mr. Linton would take her with him a mile or so outside on rare occasions, but he trusted her to no one else. Gimmerton was an unsubstantial name in her ears; the chapel was the only building she had approached or entered except her own home. Wuthering Heights and Mr. Heathcliff did not exist for her; she was a perfect recluse and apparently perfectly contented. When she expressed a desire to visit Penistone Crags, the road to which wound close by Wuthering Heights, Edgar had not the heart to pass it, and so she received as constantly the answer, "Not yet, love: not yet." When Isabella Linton died and her son Linton Heathcliff was brought to Thrushcross Grange, Edgar immediately commissioned Nelly Dean to take the boy home early the next morning, instructing her to say nothing of where he had gone to his daughter, for she could not associate with him hereafter and it was better for her to remain in ignorance of his proximity.

The Strain of Secrecy and Illness

Edgar's declining health placed an increasing burden on the relationship. After catching a bad cold that settled obstinately on his lungs, he was confined indoors throughout the whole of the winter. Catherine, frightened from her little romance with Linton, had been considerably sadder and duller since its abandonment, and her father insisted on her reading less and taking more exercise. She had his companionship no longer, and Nelly Dean esteemed it a duty to supply its lack. When Catherine confessed her secret visits to Wuthering Heights, Edgar was alarmed and distressed, more than he would acknowledge. In vain she wept and writhed against the interdict; all she got to comfort her was a promise that he would write and give Linton leave to come to the Grange when he pleased. Edgar spoke without anger, in the deep tenderness of one about to leave his treasure amid perils and foes, where his remembered words would be the only aid that he could bequeath to guide her.

Final Days and Death

As Edgar's health failed rapidly, Catherine grudged each moment that did not find her bending over his pillow or seated by his side. Her countenance grew wan with watching and sorrow, and her father gladly dismissed her to what he flattered himself would be a happy change of scene and society, drawing comfort from the hope that she would not now be left entirely alone after his death. He had a fixed idea that his nephew Linton resembled him in mind as well as person, and Nelly Dean, through pardonable weakness, refrained from correcting the error. When Heathcliff trapped Catherine at Wuthering Heights and forced her into marriage, Edgar lay dying at Thrushcross Grange, an image of sadness and resignation awaiting his death. He thought of Catherine, murmuring her name. When she finally escaped and returned to him, he fixed on her features his raised eyes that seemed dilating with ecstasy. He died blissfully, kissing her cheek and murmuring, "I am going to her; and you, darling child, shall come to us!" He never stirred or spoke again, but continued that rapt, radiant gaze till his pulse imperceptibly stopped and his soul departed.

Thematic Significance

Edgar's relationship with his daughter stands in stark contrast to the other parental bonds in the novel. Unlike Hindley Earnshaw, who abandoned his post when his ship struck and rushed into riot and confusion, Edgar displayed the true courage of a loyal and faithful soul: he trusted God, and God comforted him. One hoped, and the other despaired; they chose their own lots and were righteously doomed to endure them. Edgar's love for Cathy was a love of protection, education, and gentle guidance, a counterpoint to the violent, consuming passions that dominate Wuthering Heights. Yet his very protectiveness, born of love and fear of Heathcliff, inadvertently left his daughter vulnerable to manipulation when she was finally thrust into the world he had tried so hard to keep from her.