Wuthering Heights Ch. 22: Crisis as an Opening

Emily Brontë

Crisis as an Opening for Manipulation

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Summary

Late harvest chill settles on Edgar's lungs and confines him indoors all winter. Cathy, frightened from her little romance and dull since Nelly burned the letters, has lost both father and cousin as steady company; Nelly can spare only two or three hours from household duties and knows she is an inefficient substitute.

On a wet October walk Cathy broods on death after watching a lonely late bluebell, then climbs the park wall for hips and drops her hat outside a locked gate. While Nelly fumbles with keys, Heathcliff arrives on horseback and claims he holds Cathy's love letters, that she dropped Linton into a Slough of Despond, and that the boy is dying literally for her fickleness. Nelly calls it paltry falsehood from inside the wall; Heathcliff flatters, threatens, and swears only Cathy can save his son before riding away in the rain.

That night Cathy weeps in the library, tells Ellen she will never feel at ease until she knows, and resolves to convince Linton the silence is not her fault. Nelly's ridicule fails against Heathcliff's intended effect. Hostile they part at bedtime; next morning Nelly rides with Cathy toward Wuthering Heights, yielding in the faint hope that Linton's reception will prove how little of the tale is true.

In this chapter:Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Recognizing Predatory Timing

A parent's illness is an open door for anyone waiting to claim a child. Edgar's lungs confine him indoors all winter; Heathcliff sends word that Linton is failing and Cathy, believing every word, rides to the Heights where Nelly yields hoping the visit will expose the fiction.

Verify crisis messages through independent witnesses before you let worry override judgment.

This chapter

Inside the Mind: Catherine Linton

Young Catherine rides because a message about a failing cousin feels like a duty she would be cruel to doubt. She was raised where care is proved by going. Heathcliff only needs that habit. Her fear for her father and her fear of being a bad friend are the same opening, and she walks through it believing the crisis is hers to answer.

Continue this thoughtThe Same Injury Is Taught Downward

Coming Up in Chapter 23

On a misty morning Nelly and Cathy will enter the Heights kitchen to learn whether Heathcliff is truly away, only to find Joseph alone by the fire while Linton shouts for coals from the inner room.

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Chapter 22

Crisis as an Opening for Manipulation

Summer drew to an end, and early autumn: it was past Michaelmas, but the harvest was late that year, and a few of our fields were still uncleared. Mr. Linton and his daughter would frequently walk out among the reapers; at the carrying of the last sheaves they stayed till dusk, and the evening happening to be chill and damp, my master caught a bad cold, that settled obstinately on his lungs, and confined him indoors throughout the whole of the winter, nearly without intermission. Poor Cathy, frightened from her little romance, had been considerably sadder and duller since its…

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Crisis as an Opening for Manipulation

Summary

Why This Matters