## Characters
**Catherine Linton (Cathy)**
- Physical: Pale, bloodless cheeks, heavy eyes, dejected countenance
- Role: Present throughout; main focus of chapter
- Personality: Melancholy, weepy, easily influenced, devoted to her father, stubborn
- Actions: Walks with Ellen, cries frequently, climbs wall to gather rose hips, encounters Heathcliff, decides to visit Linton
- Relationships: Edgar Linton's daughter, object of young Linton's affection
**Ellen Dean (Nelly)**
- Role: Narrator and present throughout as Cathy's companion
- Age: Nearly 45 years old (states "hardly forty-five")
- Personality: Protective, practical, skeptical of Heathcliff
- Actions: Accompanies Cathy on walks, tries to console her, attempts to protect her from Heathcliff's influence
- Relationships: Servant to the Lintons, Cathy's caretaker
- Family: Mother lived to age 80
**Edgar Linton**
- Role: Present but ill, mostly off-scene
- Physical: Suffering from bad cold that settled on his lungs
- Actions: Caught cold during harvest, confined indoors all winter, sleeps when they return
- Relationships: Cathy's father, master of Thrushcross Grange
**Heathcliff**
- Role: Appears suddenly on horseback during encounter at the door
- Personality: Manipulative, claims to care for his son but harsh
- Actions: Intercepts Cathy and Ellen, manipulates Cathy with claims about Linton's illness
- Relationships: Father to young Linton Heathcliff, enemy of Edgar Linton
**Young Linton Heathcliff**
- Role: Mentioned extensively but not present
- Physical: According to Heathcliff, dying/very ill from lovesickness
- Actions: Previously corresponded with Cathy, now allegedly pining away
- Relationships: Heathcliff's son, Cathy's cousin and former correspondent
**Hareton**
- Role: Mentioned only
- Actions: Has been mocking young Linton for six weeks
**Aunt Isabella**
- Role: Mentioned in conversation
- Key fact: Was younger than Edgar when she died
## Timeline & Events
**Season**: Late autumn - past Michaelmas, harvest late, October/early November
**Time span**: Several months have passed since the letter-writing romance ended
1. **Harvest season**: Edgar and Cathy frequently walk among reapers
2. **Edgar's illness**: Catches bad cold during damp evening at harvest time, confined indoors throughout winter
3. **Cathy's melancholy**: Has been "considerably sadder and duller" since abandoning her romance
4. **The walk**: On a "fresh watery afternoon" in October/November, Ellen reluctantly accompanies Cathy on a walk to bottom of park
5. **The encounter**: At a door opening to the road, Cathy climbs wall to gather rose hips, falls over, becomes trapped
6. **Heathcliff appears**: Arrives on horseback while Ellen tries keys
7. **The manipulation**: Heathcliff claims Linton is dying of love, has Cathy's letters, demands she visit
8. **Return home**: They hurry back in the rain; Edgar is already asleep
9. **Evening**: Cathy checks on father, they have tea in library, she weeps
10. **Next day**: Ellen accompanies Cathy to Wuthering Heights
## Key Facts
- The harvest was late that year
- Edgar's cold "settled obstinately on his lungs" and confined him indoors "throughout the whole of the winter, nearly without intermission"
- Ellen can only spare "two or three hours" from daily duties to accompany Cathy
- The door they encounter "opened on the road" and was locked
- Ellen carries "a bundle of keys in my pocket"
- Heathcliff has possession of Cathy's letters to Linton
- The correspondence lasted "two or three months"
- Hareton has been mocking Linton "for six weeks"
- Heathcliff will be "from home all this week"
- Ellen's mother lived to age 80
## Ages, Dates & Arithmetic
- Ellen is "hardly forty-five" years old
- Ellen's mother lived till age 80
- Aunt Isabella was younger than Edgar when she died
- The letter-writing romance occurred "two or three months" prior
- Hareton has been mocking Linton for "six weeks"
- Heathcliff suggests Edgar could live to see sixty, which "would be more years than you have counted, Miss" - implying Cathy is significantly younger than 20
- Ellen mentions "twenty years beforehand" as too far in advance to mourn
## Unexplained Changes
- Cathy has become "considerably sadder and duller" since abandoning her romance
- Edgar's health has deteriorated from a simple cold to a serious lung condition
- Young Linton has allegedly gone from a playful correspondent to someone "dying" of love
## Plot Developments
**New threads introduced**:
- Edgar's serious illness that confines him all winter
- Heathcliff's claim that young Linton is dying of love
**Existing threads advanced**:
- Cathy's melancholy deepens
- The forbidden romance issue resurfaces through Heathcliff's manipulation
**Threads complicated**:
- Heathcliff possesses Cathy's letters as leverage
- Ellen's protective efforts are undermined by Cathy's guilt and credulity
**Threads resolved**:
- The question of whether Cathy will visit Wuthering Heights is decided affirmatively
## Foreshadowing & Setups
- Edgar's serious lung condition suggests potential fatal illness
- Cathy's obsessive worry about death: "How life will be changed, how dreary the world will be, when papa and you are dead"
- The lonely bluebell that Cathy refuses to pick, calling it "melancholy" - mirrors her own isolation
- Ellen's warning: "you might kill him if you were wild and reckless" - foreshadows potential consequences
- Heathcliff's possession of the letters as future blackmail material
- The promise that Ellen will accompany Cathy to Wuthering Heights sets up next chapter's events
- Heathcliff's claim he'll be away "all this week" suggests the timing is deliberate
**Key quote**: "I shall never feel at ease till I know. And I must tell Linton it is not my fault that I don't write, and convince him that I shall not change." - Cathy's determination despite Ellen's warnings.