What happens in Chapter XXVIII of Wuthering Heights?
On the fifth day of Nelly Dean's imprisonment at Wuthering Heights, Zillah arrives to set her free, passing on Heathcliff's message that Catherine will be sent to Thrushcross Grange in time for Edgar Linton's funeral. Worried that Edgar might be dying, Nelly rushes downstairs and finds Linton Heathcliff alone, sucking on sugar-candy. He tells her that Catherine is locked upstairs and that Heathcliff has claimed all her belongings as his own. He describes how Heathcliff struck Catherine when she tried to keep a locket portrait of her parents, cutting her cheek and crushing the portrait underfoot. Nelly heads to the Grange, where she discovers Edgar is gravely ill but still alive. She reassures him that Catherine is safe, and he manages to instruct her to alter his will so that Catherine's fortune goes to trustees instead of to Heathcliff through Linton. Nelly calls for the lawyer Mr. Green and sends four servants to fetch Catherine, but neither task succeeds: Green is delayed, and Heathcliff refuses to let Catherine go. At three in the morning, Catherine herself arrives at the Grange, having escaped through her dead mother's chamber window using a fir tree. She is reunited with her father, who dies peacefully soon after, whispering that he is going to join his wife. Mr. Green, who has aligned himself with Heathcliff, arrives too late to intervene in Edgar's death but tries to have Edgar buried in the chapel instead of beside his wife; however, the existing will prevents this. Catherine is allowed to stay at the Grange until her father's body is taken away.
Analysis
The chapter is told by Nelly Dean in her typical first-person retrospective style, speaking directly to Mr. Lockwood, as seen in the line, "He died blissfully, Mr. Lockwood." This direct address briefly disrupts the immersive scene, reminding the reader that the story is being relayed through a mediator. The chapter unfolds in a quick succession of reversals — an end to imprisonment, a dying man who revives, a failed rescue, and a successful escape — creating an urgent, almost breathless rhythm that reflects Nelly's own anxiety.
Linton Heathcliff serves as a moral mirror in the chapter's key scene. His physical passivity — lying on the settle, sucking sugar-candy, and closing his eyes — contrasts sharply with the violence inflicted on Catherine. Nelly's appeal to his memories of Catherine's past kindness highlights the depths of his moral decline. The detail of the locket portrait stands out as the chapter's most striking image: the gold case split in two, one half given up, the other crushed underfoot by Heathcliff, symbolizes the destruction of the Linton family line and Catherine's connection to her parents.
Edgar Linton's deathbed scene is portrayed with intentional stillness. The phrase "rapt, radiant gaze" and the description of his pulse stopping "imperceptibly" depict death as a gentle fading away rather than a struggle, creating a stark contrast with the violence at Wuthering Heights. The harvest moon illuminating Catherine's arrival and the fir-tree by her mother's window quietly connect her escape to the natural world, while the detail of her climbing out through her mother's old chamber window deepens the novel's theme of generational repetition.
Key quotes from Chapter XXVIII
“She dared not try the doors lest the dogs should raise an alarm; she visited the empty chambers and examined their windows; and, luckily, lighting on her mother’s, she got easily out of its lattice”
Nelly recounts how Catherine escaped from Wuthering Heights in the early hours before dawn.
“He had sold himself to Mr. Heathcliff: that was the cause of his delay in obeying my master’s summons.”
Nelly explains why the lawyer Mr. Green arrived at the Grange only after Edgar had already died.
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Create an accountSign inVocabulary in Chapter XXVIII
- importunately
- In a persistent, pressing way that will not be ignored; knocking or asking repeatedly and urgently without stopping.