## Characters
**Catherine "Cathy" Linton** (present in scene):
- Young lady, nearly seventeen years old
- Has long hair that she strokes when comforting Linton
- Wearing a frock
- Shows compassion and caring nature, nursing both Ellen and Linton
- Impulsive and passionate - pushes Linton's chair in anger, then immediately feels remorse
- Determined and willful - hints she will continue visiting despite Ellen's warnings
- Claims she's "older than he is, you know, and wiser: less childish"
- Says "Next to papa and Ellen, I love you better than anybody living" to Linton
- Relationship: Edgar Linton's daughter, Linton Heathcliff's cousin
**Linton Heathcliff** (present in scene):
- Young invalid boy, younger than Catherine (she states she's older)
- Physical: has "long soft hair," looks "feverish and ill," has a "tiresome cough"
- Described by Ellen as "The worst-tempered bit of a sickly slip that ever struggled into its teens"
- Manipulative and demanding - performs theatrical suffering to get attention
- Reclines in "the great chair," complains constantly about temperature and comfort
- Says Catherine's mother loved his father and hated Edgar Linton
- Relationship: Heathcliff's son, Catherine's cousin, Isabella Linton's son
**Ellen Dean (Nelly)** (present in scene, narrator):
- The housekeeper/servant who accompanies Catherine
- Gets thoroughly wet feet from the journey
- Described as having "a stirring active body"
- Shows practical, no-nonsense attitude toward Linton's manipulation
- Threatens to tell Mr. Linton about Catherine's visits
- Becomes ill for three weeks after this visit (confined to bed)
**Joseph** (present in scene):
- Elderly servant at Wuthering Heights
- Physical: has a "black, short pipe"
- Sits by roaring fire with "a quart of ale on the table near him, bristling with large pieces of toasted oat-cake"
- Speaks in dialect: "Na—ay! yah muh goa back whear yah coom frough"
- Ignores Linton's calls for service
**Mr. Heathcliff** (mentioned, absent):
- Currently away, goes "on to the moors frequently, since the shooting season commenced"
- Linton says he won't "stay away many days"
- Calls Edgar Linton "a sneaking fool"
- Called Linton "a pitiful, shuffling, worthless thing"
- Relationship: Linton's father, Catherine's uncle by marriage
**Edgar Linton** (mentioned, present at home):
- Catherine's father
- Has a cold similar to Linton's condition
- "Retires early"
- Relationship: Catherine's father, Isabella's brother
**Isabella Linton** (mentioned):
- Referred to as Catherine's "aunt"
- Left Heathcliff (according to Catherine)
- Relationship: Edgar's sister, Heathcliff's estranged wife, Linton's mother
**Hareton** (mentioned):
- Away "at his work" during the visit
- Returns "in the court" at twelve o'clock for dinner
- Linton says "that brute Hareton laughs at me! I hate him!"
- Also mentioned: "Hareton never touches me: he never struck me in his life"
**Zillah** (mentioned):
- Housekeeper who is absent, "constantly gadding off to Gimmerton since papa went"
## Timeline & Events
**Morning**: Misty morning with frost and drizzle following a rainy night. Ellen and Catherine arrive at Wuthering Heights via the kitchen to check if Heathcliff is really absent.
**Upon arrival**: They find Joseph sitting alone by the fire. Catherine and Ellen enter the inner room where they find Linton reclining in a great chair, complaining about the cold and lack of service.
**During the visit**:
- Catherine tends to Linton, getting him water and wine
- They have a pleasant conversation until it turns to family relationships
- Argument erupts when Linton claims Catherine's mother hated her father and loved Heathcliff
- Catherine pushes Linton's chair in anger, causing him to fall and have a coughing fit
- Linton performs theatrical suffering to manipulate Catherine's guilt
- Catherine recites ballads to comfort him until twelve o'clock
- Hareton returns for dinner at twelve
**Departure**: Catherine secretly promises to return despite Ellen's objections.
**Journey home**: They reach home before dinner time. Ellen changes her wet clothes but falls ill.
**Following three weeks**: Ellen is bedridden. Catherine divides her time between nursing Ellen and attending her father, who retires early. Ellen notices Catherine has "fresh colour in her cheeks and a pinkness over her slender fingers" in the evenings.
## Key Facts
- The farmhouse is entered "by the kitchen way"
- Linton sits in "the great chair" in "the inner room"
- There's a pitcher in the dresser and wine bottle on the table
- Shooting season has commenced
- The wall around the Grange can be climbed over
- There's a lock that Ellen threatens to have mended
- Mr. Linton retires early and Ellen needs nothing after six o'clock
- The library has a hot fire
## Ages, Dates & Arithmetic
- Catherine is "almost seventeen"
- Catherine states she is older than Linton: "I'm older than he is, you know, and wiser"
- Ellen predicts Linton "he'll not win twenty" and doubts "whether he'll see spring"
- Linton is described as having "struggled into its teens"
- Ellen has never been incapacitated for duties before this three-week illness
## Unexplained Changes
- Catherine's evening activities during Ellen's illness are mysterious - Ellen notes her flushed appearance and assumes it's from sitting by the library fire, but given Catherine's determination to see Linton, this may indicate secret visits
## Plot Developments
**New threads introduced**:
- Catherine's romantic feelings for Linton are developing (she calls him "a pretty little darling")
- The revelation about Catherine's mother's supposed feelings creates new family tensions
**Existing threads advanced**:
- Catherine and Linton's relationship deepens despite Ellen's disapproval
- Catherine becomes more defiant about continuing the visits
**Threads complicated**:
- Ellen's illness removes her as a watchful guardian
- Catherine's access to Linton becomes easier with Ellen bedridden
## Foreshadowing & Setups
- Ellen's threat: "if you attempt going to Wuthering Heights again, with or without me, I shall inform Mr. Linton"
- Catherine's mysterious evening activities during Ellen's illness strongly suggest secret visits
- Catherine's confident statement "We'll see" and her secretive whisper to Linton promise future clandestine meetings
- Linton's manipulation tactics and Catherine's susceptibility to them set up potential future emotional manipulation
- Ellen's prediction that Linton won't live to twenty foreshadows his early death
- Catherine's comment about climbing over the wall establishes her means of secret access
- The mention that Catherine is "almost seventeen" may be setting up for her coming of age/majority
**Key quote**: "I can get over the wall," she said laughing. "The Grange is not a prison, Ellen, and you are not my gaoler."