I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last.

This utterance, made by Heathcliff to Nelly Dean on Christmas Eve after he had been locked in the garret and denied the family feast, is the first explicit articulation of the revenge plot that structures the second half of Wuthering Heights. It is not a momentary outburst but a cold, patient declaration of intent, and it reveals the core of Heathcliff's character: a will that can defer gratification indefinitely as long as the final satisfaction is assured.

Origin and Context

The words were spoken when Heathcliff was still a boy, probably around the age of twelve or thirteen, after a day of calculated humiliation. Catherine Earnshaw had returned from five weeks at Thrushcross Grange transformed into a lady, and Heathcliff, dirty and neglected, had been mocked by her and then physically shoved back by Hindley when he tried to join the Christmas party. Edgar Linton, his rival, had made a remark about his long hair, and Heathcliff had responded by hurling a tureen of hot applesauce at him. As punishment, Hindley locked him in the garret. Later that evening, Nelly Dean smuggled him down to the kitchen and offered him food, but he was too sick to eat. When she asked what he was thinking about, he replied, "I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last." The scene establishes the key terms of his revenge: it is directed specifically at Hindley, it is calculated rather than impulsive, and it is willing to wait years for the right moment.

The Revenge Plan

This early vow is the seed of the systematic campaign Heathcliff executes after his return three years later, now a wealthy and educated man. He immediately sets about acquiring Hindley's property through gambling and mortgages, reducing Hareton Earnshaw to a dependent servant in his own house. The patience he promised is demonstrated in his treatment of Hareton: he deliberately keeps the boy illiterate and brutish, not out of immediate spite but as a long-term degradation that will outlast Hindley himself. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff mutters over the orphaned Hareton, "Now, my bonny lad, you are mine! And we'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another, with the same wind to twist it!" This is the same patient, almost experimental cruelty he had promised as a child.

Thematic Significance

The expression is a key to the novel's moral structure. Heathcliff's revenge is not a sudden passion but a sustained, almost religious commitment. He tells Nelly, "No, God won't have the satisfaction that I shall," implying that his revenge is a rival to divine justice. The phrase "I don't care how long I wait" marks him as a figure of almost superhuman patience, willing to sacrifice his own present happiness for a future triumph. Yet the novel ultimately shows the emptiness of this victory: when he has destroyed all his enemies and holds both estates, he finds he has "lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction" and is instead consumed by the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw. The revenge he planned so carefully becomes meaningless, and he starves himself to death, finally joining the woman whose loss had motivated his entire campaign.

Narrative Role

Nelly Dean reports this speech to Lockwood as part of her long retrospective narrative, and it functions as a dramatic turning point in the story of Heathcliff's youth. It is the moment when the reader understands that Heathcliff is not merely a sullen, mistreated boy but a conscious agent of future destruction. The speech also contrasts sharply with the romantic, metaphysical language Heathcliff uses about Catherine Earnshaw; here, his voice is practical, almost legalistic—"settle how I shall pay"—grounding his revenge in the concrete world of debts and accounts, even as his love for Catherine transcends it.