Mr. Earnshaw's death

Mr. Earnshaw's death is the foundational rupture of Wuthering Heights, removing the only authority who protected Heathcliff and unleashing Hindley's tyranny, which sets the entire tragedy in motion. The old master's quiet passing in his chair one October evening, surrounded by his children and servants, marks the end of a fragile order and the beginning of the systematic degradation that will warp every character in the novel.

The Death Scene

Mr. Earnshaw died quietly in his chair one October evening, seated by the fireside. A high wind blustered round the house and roared in the chimney, sounding wild and stormy, yet it was not cold. The family were all together: Nelly Dean, a little removed from the hearth, busy at her knitting; Joseph reading his Bible near the table; Miss Cathy, who had been sick and was therefore still, leaning against her father's knee; and Heathcliff lying on the floor with his head in her lap. Before he fell into a doze, the master stroked Cathy's bonny hair—it pleased him rarely to see her gentle—and said, "Why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?" She turned her face up to his, laughed, and answered, "Why cannot you always be a good man, father?" But as soon as she saw him vexed again, she kissed his hand and said she would sing him to sleep. She began singing very low, till his fingers dropped from hers and his head sank on his breast. Nelly told her to hush and not stir, for fear she should wake him. They all kept as mute as mice a full half-hour, and would have done so longer, only Joseph, having finished his chapter, got up and said that he must rouse the master for prayers and bed. He stepped forward, called him by name, and touched his shoulder, but he would not move; so he took the candle and looked at him. Nelly thought there was something wrong as he set down the light, and seizing the children each by an arm, whispered them to "frame up-stairs, and make little din—they might pray alone that evening—he had summut to do." Catherine, putting her arms round his neck before anyone could hinder her, discovered her loss directly—she screamed out, "Oh, he's dead, Heathcliff! he's dead!" And they both set up a heart-breaking cry. Nelly joined her wail to theirs, loud and bitter, but Joseph asked what they could be thinking of to roar in that way over a saint in heaven. He told Nelly to put on her cloak and run to Gimmerton for the doctor and the parson. She went through wind and rain, and brought the doctor back with her; the other said he would come in the morning. Leaving Joseph to explain matters, she ran to the children's room: their door was ajar, and she saw they had never lain down, though it was past midnight, but they were calmer and did not need her to console them. The little souls were comforting each other with better thoughts than she could have hit on: no parson in the world ever pictured heaven so beautifully as they did, in their innocent talk; and while she sobbed and listened, she could not help wishing they were all there safe together.

Immediate Aftermath and Hindley's Return

Hindley came home to the funeral, and—a thing that amazed the household and set the neighbours gossiping right and left—he brought a wife with him. What she was, and where she was born, he never informed them: probably she had neither money nor name to recommend her, or he would scarcely have kept the union from his father. Young Earnshaw was altered considerably in the three years of his absence: he had grown sparer, lost his colour, and spoke and dressed quite differently. On the very day of his return, he told Joseph and Nelly that they must thenceforth quarter themselves in the back-kitchen and leave the house for him. He drove Heathcliff from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of doors instead, compelling him to do so as hard as any other lad on the farm. The old master's death thus removed the only check on Hindley's hatred, and the systematic degradation of Heathcliff—and, by extension, the poisoning of Catherine's world—began in earnest.

Consequences for the Children

With Mr. Earnshaw gone, the children were left to Hindley's mercy. Heathcliff bore his degradation pretty well at first, because Cathy taught him what she learnt and worked or played with him in the fields. They both promised fair to grow up as rude as savages, the young master being entirely negligent how they behaved so long as they kept clear of him. But the curate might set as many chapters as he pleased for Catherine to get by heart, and Joseph might thrash Heathcliff till his arm ached; they forgot everything the minute they were together again. The old master's death had removed the one person who had cherished Heathcliff and restrained Hindley, and the house descended into a state of neglect and cruelty that would shape the rest of the story.

Thematic Significance

Mr. Earnshaw's death is the event that makes the novel's central tragedy possible. It is the moment when the fragile, benevolent order of the old generation collapses, and the cycle of revenge and degradation begins. The scene itself—the quiet domesticity, the children's innocent talk, the sudden discovery of death—encapsulates the novel's preoccupation with the fragility of love and the violence of loss. The old master's death is not merely a plot point; it is the structural hinge on which the entire narrative turns, unleashing the forces that will destroy both families.