1. Heathcliff
Name Suggests Nature-
Heathcliff’s name is suggestive of his nature. He is rough as heath and hard as cliff. He was brought to the Earnshaw family as a gipsy orphan. Mr. Earnshaw went to Liverpool on business. There he found a gipsy child wandering about the streets. He was an orphan, and no body claimed him as his own. Mr. Earnshaw taking pity on the child brought him home. That was how Heathcliff was introduced into the Earnshaw family. At first everyone in the house abhorred the child, for he was a dark-skinned gipsy. But the r master, Mr. Earnshaw, was very fond of him and liked him even more than his son, Hindley. The result was that Hindley’s dislike of the gipsy boy was still further aggravated. The more his father petted Heathcliff the greater grew his hatred for him. He began to ill-treat the gipsy orphan, and frequently bear him. But Heathcliff bore the ill-treatment with stoic patience. He was gifted with infinite fortitude, and could quietly bear pain to any extent. He fell severely ill several times, and once came even to the verge of death; but he ever remained calm and uncomplaining. He was hard as cliff from the very beginning.
Ill-Treatment-
After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley, who was now the master, began to ill-treat him still further. He employed him as a labourer on his farm, and made him work like a domestic servant in the house. Above all he spared no opportunity of thrashing him. Excessive ill-treatment roused in Heathcliff a spirit of revenge, which, as we find in the novel, was never extinguished. Once after receiving a sound thrashing from Hindley, he began to contemplate how he could be avenged on him. When Nelly said that it was not his, but God’s business to punish the wrong-doer, he replied: “No, God won’t have the satisfaction that I shall. I only wish I knew the best way! Let me alone, and I’ll plan it out: while I’m thinking of that I don’t feel pain.”
Rejection by Catherine-
After Earnshaw’s death, his daughter Catherine was his sole friend in the world. She kept his company and consoled him in his affliction. Heathcliff began to love her with rare intensity. But soon there appeared a rival in Edgar Linton Catherine decided to marry him for several reasons. He was young, handsome and wealthy and belonged to a respectable family. Heathcliff, on the other hand, was penniless and virtually a domestic servant. He had neither education nor culture. To marry such a man was out of question for Catherine, even though she loved him. And that is what she explained to Nelly when she was engaged to Linton.
Hard, Cruel and Revengeful-
Heathcliff, therefore, is not only ill-treated for no fault of his, he also suffers acute disappointment in love. Prolonged ill- treatment culminating in disappointment in love makes him hard, cruel and revengeful. His nature is distorted; so that he can think of nothing but revenge. After an absence of several years from the Heights during which he earns wealth and acquires education and culture, he returns to take revenge on his enemies. And he does take a very cruel revenge on them. He ruins Hindley and appropriates all his property. He gains absolute control over his son Hareton and denies education and good society to him. Since Edgar Linton has married Catherine, he regards him also as his enemy and avenges himself on him. Being unable to harm him directly he does everything possible to harm his daughter, Catherine. Through fraud and tricks he succeeds in marrying her to his dying son. While he is executing his plot against her, her father is seriously ill and not in a position to prevent his daughter from falling into his trap. His son dies, and poor Catherine is rendered widow while she is only eighteen. Then he treats her as a menial servant, and if she resists his ill- treatment he beats her.
A Primitive-
Heathcliff is presented in the novel more as a beast than a man. He has the physical strength of a beast, and is harmful like a wild animal. He is cruel, remorseless, vindictive and covetous. Only revenge satisfies his mean soul. He loves nobody, not even his son, and nobody loves him. He disallows medical aid to his ailing son, and when he is dying refuses to call in a doctor. He has no moral sense in him, no quality of a Christian. It is doubtful if he has faith in God and church. He is primitive born in the Victorian age, and he displays all the wildness of a primitive man.
Mingling of Good and Evil-
Heathcliff embodies Emily Bronte’s idea of a man frustrated in love. But frustration in his case is overdone. It perverts his entire nature, so that virtually he becomes a beast. It is strange that time has absolutely no effect on him. Things are forgotten with the passage of time, and man develops a tolerant attitude as he advances in years. But Heathcliff forgets nothing, and forgives nobody, and knows not what tolerance . His death is as strange as his life. He sees something, perhaps a ghost, and starves himself to death as a result of it. But inspite of his primitive nature Heathcliff has certain appreciable qualities in him. He is capable of intense and devoted love. He has an indomitable will and tireless energy. He is intelligent enough to make plans and achieve his objective. Had he been kindly treated, he would, perhaps, have been a different man. But ill-treatment and disappointment in love develop the vicious side of his nature and make it dominate the good in him. He had in him the power to do good, but owing to the irony of circumstances that power to do good, hut owing to the irony of circumstances that power was turned into the evil force of ruin and destruction.
“He is probably the blackest character in all English literature. There is nothing false or theatrical about the evil he does; he is genuinely brutal, cruel, fierce, relentlessly vindictive, and utterly ruthless. His horrible treatment of Isabella, a helpless woman who had married him out of sincere love, and of his own fatally ill son is evidence of a thoroughly perverted nature without a spark of humanity in it. A slum child made hard by constant rough treatment and embittered by the loss of his one chance for happiness, he is unyielding in his hatred of those he considers his enemies. Yet Heathcliff is great-souled in his way, and attains a certain primitive nobility because of his huge strength of character. He loves as fiercely as he hates, and his passions are so inhumanly powerful that he is admirable in the same way that a hurricane is admirable. In so far as the terms are applicable at all to Wuthering Heights, he is both the hero and the villain of the piece.”
2. Catherine Earnshaw
Willful and Capricious Catherine Earnshaw has as distinctive a character as Heathcliff. She is more naughty in her childhood than children usually are. Her father does not approve of her ways, and is, therefore, displeased with her. He wants her to be a gentle and obedient child behaving as her father desires her to behave. But since she does not behave according to his wish, he does not like her. She is willful and capricious from her very childhood, and cannot brook opposition. After her father’s death she becomes a neglected child. Her brother Hindley is selfish and self-absorbed and has little family sense in him. He has no sense of responsibility towards his younger sister. In his stupid notion of improving her morally. Joseph, the servant, behaves cruelly towards her. But Hindley does not prevent the servant from doing so.
Intimacy with Heathcliff –
In that state of neglect Heathcliff is her constant companion. In his company she roams over the moors for hours together. One night when a hard, cold wind is blowing she goes across the moor with Heathcliff to Thrushcross Grange. There is some affinity of nature between Catherine and Heathcliff. Both are primitive in certain respects, and both are creatures of stormy, uncontrollable passion. Love and hatred exist in both with an intensity which is not commonly to be found. Seized with jealousy and hatred, Heathcliff ceases to be a civilized man and behaves like a wild beast. Under a fit of temper Catherine is hardly better than a mad woman. As is the case with a primitive person, she has little control over passions. Owing to this temperamental affinity Catherine regards herself as inseparably united to Heathcliff. In a scene in the novel she tells Nelly: “My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great though in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be: and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it. I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath; a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly: I am Heathcliff! He’s always in my mind; not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” This sense of united and inseparable personality is the outcome of temperamental affinity between the two. Nature has created these two creatures of strong and violent passions for each other.
Her Love for Heathcliff-
Catherine’s marriage with Edgar Linton, is more a marriage of convenience than of love. She herself says to Nelly that her love for Linton is like the foliage in the wood which time will change. She knows the difference between her love for Heathcliff and her love for Linton. The former is firm as rock and is unchangeable; time will have no effect on it. The latter is more a liking than love. Linton is rich and handsome and she likes him. She does not marry Heathcliff inspite of the fact that she loves him deeply, because he lacks culture and education, and is penniless. He is virtually one of her brother’s servants, and she cannot marry a domestic servant. So, it is for social status and comforts of life that she marries Linton. She is conscious of his drawbacks, which she dislikes. He lacks the manly spirit of Heathcliff and is a bit too tearful. She does not like his passivity and excessive love of comfort. Still she marries him, perhaps, because she wants to settle in life. But she has not forgotten Heathcliff, and has not ceased to love him. Hence when he returns, her love for him, which lay dormant in her heart during his absence, once again grows deep and strong. She is besides herself with joy when Heathcliff returns to the Heights and comes to see her. She encourages him to repeat his visits, and finds immense delight in his company. When Linton attempts to stop his visits, she gives up food and drinks and behaving like a mad woman shuts herself in her room. Now that Heathcliff has returned to her she cannot separate from him. The result is that she falls seriously ill and ultimately dies.
Primitive Nature-
Catherine is a woman of extremely strong emotions .The intensity of her love for Heathcliff is unique, and equally unique is Heathcliff’s love for her. Besides, she has a violent temper. She is self-willed, and wants always to have her own way. If her wish is thwarted, she passes into a fit of uncontrollable anger. There is a scene in the novel in which Edgar, not yet married to Catherine, visits her at the Heights. Nelly is in the room, and wishing to have a private conference with her lover, she asks her to leave the room. But on finding that Nelly does not instantly obey her, she flares up. “She stamped her foot, wavered a moment, and then, irresistibly impelled by the naughty spirit within her, slapped me (Nelly) on the cheek a stinging blow that filled both eyes with water. On seeing Nelly does shed tears, Hareton, who was then a child, began to cry and complain against ‘wicked aunt Cathy’. That drew her fury on to his unlucky head: she seized his shoulders, and shook him till the poor child waxed livid, and Edgar thoughtlessly laid hold of her hands to deliver him. In an instant one was wrung free, and the astonished young man felt it applied over his own ear in a way that could not be mistaken for jest.”- Nelly’s comment on Catherine when Edgar was leaving the room in anger was perfectly just and correct. “Miss is dreadfully wayward, sir,” she called out. “As bad as any marred child: you’d better be riding home, or else she will be sick, only to grieve us.” It is such scenes as this which reveal a primitive element in Catherine’s nature. In anger she loses self-control and becomes almost wholly an impulsive creature. It is this primitive element in her nature that bears affinity with the primitive nature of Heathcliff.
“She is the daughter of a prominent and fairly prosperous farmer. She is a worthy counterpart to-Heathcliff, strong, extremely passionate, and capable of the deepest emotional attachments. She is also egotistical and vain, and will go to considerable lengths to get her own way. When she is crossed, she flies into a passion and becomes completely unreasonable, ignoring the opinions and rights of others, ignoring even reality itself if possible, and concentrating solely on maintaining her will. Price leads her to betray Heathcliff for the sake of Edgar’s social position, and her passionate temper brings on an illness which kills her when she realizes her error. Her love for Heathcliff is so strong that she contacts him from the next world and induces him to follow her into death as he had always followed her in life. Catherine is by a wide margin the dominant female character in the novel.”
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3. Hindley
Cruel and Merciless-
Obstinacy and violent temper are the outstanding traits of Earnshaw family, and these traits are best illustrated in Hindley Earnshaw. From his very boyhood he is cruel and merciless. He hates Heathcliff because he is a gipsy boy, and never spares an opportunity of mercilessly thrashing him. His father dislikes him for his cruelty. He is sent to a University during his father’s lifetime: but we know nothing of what he did there.
After his father’s death he returns home, but he also brings a wife with him. She is consumptive and silly. The husband and the wife, however, are wholly absorbed in each other’s love, and are least interested in the world around them. Hindley neglects his sister, Catherine, and lets her roam about the moors in Heathcliff’s company. One cold night she visits the Grange with Heathcliff. The Lintons detain her there, and next morning the old Mr. Linton visits Hindley and explains to him the need of his taking greater interest in his family. Hindley realizes his mistake and realizes his duty towards his sister. He begins to take greater interest in her. But soon after his wife dies. and he takes recourse to drink to forget his sorrow. The newly awakened family sense is lost for good.
Hatred for Heathcliff-
Hindley’s hatred for Heathcliff intensifies after his father’s death, and he behaves towards him more cruelly than he ever did before. Now that he is the master, he can treat him in any manner he likes. He forgets that he was the companion of his boyhood, and treats him like a domestic servant. He is employed to do the work fit for a menial, and severely beats him when he gives him real or imaginary offence.
Worse after Wife’s Death –
Hindley’s character which is bad enough grows worse after his wife’s death. He regards her death as an instance of divine injustice, and to avenge himself on God deliberately takes to evil ways. Even before his wife’s death he had little faith in God or human goodness. Faith lends strength to human character,and in the absence of any faith he grew up to be weak and impulsive. He had not the strength of character to bear like a man the loss of his wife. He grows desperate, and in his weakness of character behaves in a despicable manner. He finds consolation for the loss of his wife in wine, gambling and low company. The result is that decent people have stopped coming to his house. He is drunk everyday and creates. riotous scenes in the house. Thus, he turns Wuthering Heights into a veritable hell.
Lack of Will Power-
Heathcliff returning to. the Heights after an absence of three years takes advantage of Hindley’s weakness, or, more property speaking, stupidity. He advances him money so that he may persist in his evil ways, and thus gains full control over him and his property. For his ruin Heathcliff is not to be blamed so much as Hindley himself. When he realizes that he has fallen into the trap laid for him by Heathcliff and that his ruin is certain, he decides to murder Heathcliff, as if by killing him he would solve all-his problems. But he has not the strength of will to execute his decision. One night when Heathcliff is out on the moors he sits with a loaded pistol in his hand waiting for his return to shoot him. Heathcliff comes and easily wrenches the pistol from his hand, and then beats him nearly to death, as if he were a wretched dog and not a human being.
Dies Unnoticed-
At last Hindley drinks himself to death. One night he is found lying unconscious in his room. On his bed there are empty bottles of wine, which suggest that he has drunk excessively. All efforts to bring him back to consciousness fail, and he dies before dawn. Thus ends his short career of stupidity on the earth. He lived a fool, and he died a fool.
“Like his sister Catherine, he is naturally passionate and violent. He too is capable of extremely deep loves and hates. But he does not possess the strength of will which characterizes both protagonists, and his wife’s death breaks his spirit. Hindley is drawn as a direct contrast to Heathcliff. In early life they exhibit the same general traits. Each suffers the same tragedy in love, but while one retains his courage, the other simply gives up. This weakness is fatal to Hindley; in persecuting Heathcliff he makes a formidable enemy, and the stronger man crushes the weaker.”
4. Edgar Linton
Antithesis of Hindley-In several respects Edgar Linton is an antithesis of Hindley. Unlike Hindley is sensible, has faith in God and religion and understands his duty towards his sister, wife and daughter. There are two distinct groups of primitive and civilized persons in Wuthering Heights, and Edgar is head of the later group. Hindley is cruel, stupid and reckless, while Edgar is thoughtful, kind and considerate.
Love for Wife –
Edgar loves his wife, Catherine, sincerely, and is a devoted husband. By nature he is not capable of loving as intensely as Heathcliff is. But it does not mean that he is not true and sincere in his love. His love is calm and gentle like himself and it aims at domestic bliss. It is his misfortune that domestic bliss eludes his grasp. Perhaps it is due to the fact that he marriages a woman whose nature is dissimilar to his own. He does ass that he possibly can to make Catherine happy. During her illness he nurses her with tender care, and his greatest concern and sincere desire is her recovery. When she dies he is overpowered by grief for some time. But the loss of his wife does not make him desperate like Hindley. His faith in God and religion consoles him in bereavement. He realizes that though his wife is dead, those alive in his family have a claim on his care and attention, and that he must overcome his grief and renew again his interest in life for their sake. The elder Catherine is gone, but there is her incarnation, the younger Catherine, a little helpless baby, who has full claim on his attention. So his former love and devotion to the mother is now turned to the daughter. Hindley absorbed in his grief for the dead neglects the living. After his wife’s death he wholly neglects his son, Hareton. But Edgar after his wife’s death does not lose sense of his duty towards his daughter.
Love for Daughter-
A tender love exists between father and daughter. Edgar is anxious not only to provide her all physical comforts. But is equally desirous of her mental improvement. So he takes upon him the responsibility of educating her, and develops in her love for learning. Even during his illness he does not neglect her education. It is constantly her welfare that is present in his mind. If he agrees to her marriage with Linton Heathcliff, he is ignorant of the reality about the young man. Had he not fallen ill and confined to bed, perhaps he would have saved his daughter from falling into the trap of Heathcliff. Edgar dies peacefully like a good Christian. He lived a good life and died a good death.
Weak-
Willed-But in spite of goodness Edgar is weak-willed. He lacks manly qualities, and when annoyed finds relief in shedding tears. There is a scene in the novel in which he visits Catherine whom he has not yet married. Nelly disobeys Catherine with the result that she flares up and in anger strikes Edgar. After that it was impossible for him to stay in the house any longer. So, telling Catherine that he would never return to her, he left the room. He should have done that as a self-respecting man. But he persevered in his resolution only as far as upto the court, where he lingered, lost his determination and returned to Catherine. He has neither Heathcliff’s physical strength nor his strength of will. He can lead a comfortable life, and is unfit for bearing hardships.
5. Catherine Linton
A Strange Creature –
Edger’s daughter Catherine combines in her nature the character of her father and mother. At times she appears to be as capricious and headstrong as her mother. Nelly forbids her to go to the Heights; but she obstinately persists in going there. When Nelly falls ill and is confined to her bed, she visits every night Linton Heathcliff at the Heights. When her visits to the Heights are stopped, she continues to send stealthily letters to Linton.
Bold and Courageous –
The outer world has strange fascination for Catherine. She sees from the window of her room the snow-covered hills in the distance, and eagerly longs to visit them. When Nelly refuses to take her to the hills, she starts for them all alone one morning. She has the spirit and boldness of her mother, and is not afraid of undertaking adventures. She has the courage to stand boldly against Heathcliff, and demand instantaneous release from the Heights. When Heathcliff refuses to give her the key, she tries to wrench it from his hand. She retains her boldness even when oppressed, beaten and ill-treated by Heathcliff. She has inherited some of her mother’s physical traits, particularly her eyes, and also some of the qualities of her character.
Her Love for Linton-
But she has also inherited the gentle, affectionate nature of her father, which is well exhibited in the way she loves her father and Linton Heathcliff. She is a daughter extremely devoted to her father whom she loves most in life. To Linton Heathcliff she says that she loves him next to her father. During Edgar’s illness she nurses him with a rare devotion. When Heathcliff locks the door of his house against her exit and does not allow her to return to the Grange, she is extremely anxious to escape somehow from the Heights and reach the Grange before her father dies. And she does succeed in escaping from her prison and reaching the bed-side of her dying father. She has her mother’s determination and the love and kindness of her father. Her love for Linton is based on pity for a helpless invalid. She tries to help him and to assuage his pain and suffering. Her gentle kindness and warm affection are well revealed in her love and pity for the poor, suffering lad. She not only marries Linton Heathcliff, but also brings to the Heights, where primitive passions prevail- culture, gentleness and warm affection.
Generous and Sincere –
Catherine reveals conceit and haughtiness in her attitude towards Hareton. She is conscious of her superiority over him on account of her culture and education. He is illiterate while she is comparatively well-educated. She has refined manners, while he has been brought up as a boor. But when she realizes that Hareton is trying to improve himself culturally, that he is making sincere efforts to learn reading and writing and acquire the manners of a gentleman, she goes out halfway to meet him. She acts as his tutor and helps him to improve his mind by reading books. Hareton’s effort at self-improvement is an illustration of the fact that love ennobles life. Hareton meets the woman who exerts a good influence on him. She becomes for him a sort of ideal to achieve, a difficult prize to get through diligent effort. He strives hard and ultimately achieves his ideal. His marriage with Catherine Linton is the union of manly vigour with culture and warm affection. It is such a union as ennobles life and makes it happy.
6. Joseph
Humorous Character –
Joseph, the servant, with his eccentricity naturally draws our attention towards him. He is a ‘humorous’ character, and is in tradition of such characters in English fiction. Sir Walter Scott has presented a similar character in his novel, The Bride of Lammermoor. He is Caleb Balderstone.
A Sincere Servant-
Joseph is an old servant at Wuthering Heights. He was a servant in the house in the days of old Mr. Earnshaw, when Hindley, Catherine and Heathcliff were small children. He assumed religiosity, and thereby greatly impressed and pleased the old master. He read the Bible regularly everyday, attended church services and sermons, and himself preached religion to whomsoever he could. But his religiosity was more a nuisance than benefit to the family in which he was employed. On Sundays he insisted on making the children as uncomfortable as he could. He denied them warmth of fire and relief of games, and made them pore over dull religious books, which they hardly understood hours together. That tyranny was exercised over the children for the improvement of their soul. Every night before the family went to their bed he made them say their prayers. Thus he was partly a servant and partly priest in the family.
Loyal to the Family –
But Joseph is loyal to the family in which he is employed as a servant. He was loyal to the old master, and after his death is loyal to his descendants. He loves Hareton, and after the death of his father. Hindley, he is the only person to take care of him. He hates Heathcliff and his son Linton, because they are usurpers of the property that rightfully belongs to Hareton. He takes care of Hareton, because he is the last descendant of an ancient family. When Heathcliff dies he glad. “The devil harried off his soul,” he cried.”and muh hev his carcass intuh t’ bargain, for owlt Aw care! Each what a wicked he looks grinning at death!” Nelly thought that he intended to cut a caper round the bed; but suddenly composing himself, he fell on his knees, and raised his hands, and returned thanks that the lawful master and the ancient stock were restored to their rights.
Source of the Comic –
Joseph is the only source of the humour that exists in the novel. There is no humour in any other character. Excepting Joseph all the characters of the novel are of serious nature. By making Joseph, a servant, the only source of the comic in the novel, Emily Bronte works out Aristotle’s theory that the comic issues from the folly and failure of the lower people; there is little room for humour in the higher persons, whose mind is set on serious purposes. It is the unlettered and ignorant rustic whose ignorance and folly are the true source of the comic. That is why humour in this novel, as in many others, issues from a servant.
“The aged manservant at the Heights is the only character in the ‘story within a story’ who undergoes no development at all. He is exactly the same in 1802 as he was in 1770, a nasty, grumbling old man whose one pleasure in life is to make things as unpleasant as possible for others. He speaks in a broad Yorkshire dialect, and functions in the novel as a sort of comic relief. interpreting the action from his own narrow viewpoint. A supposedly devout Methodist who has no Christian charity for anyone, he is a type of religious hypocrite and thus contributes to Emily Bronte’s “mocking of conventional Christian moral values.”
7. Mr. Lockwood
Mr. Lockwood’s Importance in the Story –
No part is assigned to Mr. Lockwood in the novel. He exists only as a source of information for the reader. He tells the reader what he has learnt from the principal narrator, Mrs. Dean. Emily Bronte’s narrative method is different from the ordinary autobiographical manner in which a character inside the story speaks directly to the reader. Thus, in David Copperfield, David, the narrator, informs the reader directly of what happens in the world to which he belongs. In Wuthering Heights Mr. Lockwood alone speaks directly to the reader. But the principal narrator, Ellen Dean, related to Mr. Lockwood the history of the two families inhabiting Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Mrs. Dean informs Mr. Lockwood, and Mr. Lockwood informs the reader; this is the narrative process which Emily Bronte employs in Wuthering Heights. In this process there must be a person to listen to the story of Ellen Dean. Mr. Lockwood is that person. Hence, when we consider the narrative technique of Emily Bronte in Wuthering Heights Mr. Lockwood does not appear to be a superfluous person. Emily Bronte’s narrative method makes his existence in the novel necessary. He is the man who listen to the story of Mrs. Dean:
Mr. Lockwood as the Tenant-
Mr. Lockwood is Heathcliff’s tenant. After the death of his son, Linton, Heathcliff becomes the master of the Thrushcross Grange, which he lets out to Mr. Lockwood for one year. Having occupied the Grange, Mr. Lockwood pays a visit to his landlord. He finds the entire family a group of eccentrics, and he is curious to know more about them. Hence, on the following afternoon he pays second visit to Heathcliff. But he discovers that his visit is not liked by his landlord, and that he is not a welcome guest in his house. It begins to snow heavily, so that it is impossible for Mr. Lockwood to return to the Grange that evening. Heathcliff reluctantly allows him to spend the night in his house. The housekeeper takes him to a damp, chilly room with an old-fashioned bed. Mr. Lockwood passes a very uncomfortable night. He sees a horrid dream in which the ghost of Catherine knocks at the window of his room eagerly asking for admission. With the break of dawn he leaves Wuthering Heights, the abode of his landlord. But by the time he reaches the Grange he is very ill. The doctor, who examines him, declares that he has caught a severe cold and must remain confined to his bed almost for the rest of the winter.
Mr. Lockwood as the Substitute –
It is in this state of illness that Mr. Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him all that she knows about Heathcliff and the other inmates of Wuthering Heights. Thus requested by Mr. Lockwood Ellen Dean begins her story. She relates her story in several sittings, and ends at the point where Mr. Lockwood comes to Thrushcross Grange as Heathcliff’s tenant. When winter ends and spring comes Mr. Lockwood goes on a tour, but returns to the Grange after a few months. In his absence Nelly Dean has gone to live at the Heights as Heathcliff’s housekeeper. So, Mr. Lockwood goes to Wuthering Heights. He meets Nelly Dean who relates to him the concluding part of the story.
Conclusion
Thus, we see that Mr. Lockwood plays no part in the story. Still for the narrative device adopted by Emily Bronte his existence in the novel is essential.
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