Wuthering Heights

1. Why does Lockwood call the moors a misanthropist's Heaven and imagine he and Heathcliff will divide the desolation between them before Heathcliff has said more than a nod?

2. Heathcliff says walk in, but Lockwood notes the words were uttered with closed teeth and meant go to the Deuce. Why does Lockwood accept the invitation anyway?

3. Lockwood calls the household wretched inmates who deserve perpetual isolation, then declares he will get in anyway. Why does he push through a chained gate and a hostile reception he has already judged?

4. Lockwood praises happiness in exile with an amiable lady presiding over the home. How does Heathcliff's correction that she is his daughter-in-law change the room?

5. Zillah tells Lockwood to hide his candle and make no noise because Heathcliff never lets anyone lodge willingly in this chamber. Why does Lockwood read Catherine's carved names and childhood diary anyway?

6. The window-ledge repeats Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, and Catherine Linton in every size of hand. What do those three surnames tell us before we meet the adult Catherine?

7. Lockwood calls himself a vain weather-cock who chose the moors for solitude, then strikes his colours by dusk and keeps Mrs. Dean at supper to gossip him awake or asleep. What need is he actually satisfying?

8. Nelly says Heathcliff has nobody knows what money and grows richer every year, yet lives close-handed in a meaner house than Thrushcross Grange. What does that contradiction suggest about his present life?

9. Nelly says the servants humoured Mr. Earnshaw's partiality toward Heathcliff so as not to fret the failing master, and that humouring was rich nourishment to the child's pride and black tempers. What harm does avoiding conflict cause here?

10. The curate advises sending Hindley to college, and Earnshaw agrees while calling him nought who will never thrive. What message does the biological son receive as the foundling stays favored?

11. Hindley returns from college for the funeral with a wife he never told his father about: Frances, poor in name and money, delighted by everything except death and mourners. Why might he have kept the marriage secret?

12. On his first day as master, Hindley quarters Joseph and Nelly in the back-kitchen and, after a few words from Frances, strips Heathcliff of education and sets him to outdoor labour. What is Hindley announcing with these changes?

13. Catherine returns from five weeks at Thrushcross Grange in habit and ringlets, and Hindley exclaims he would scarcely have known her. What has the Lintons' reform actually changed?

14. Catherine kisses Heathcliff, laughs at how black and cross he looks beside Edgar and Isabella, then worries her dress. Why does that moment wound him so deeply?

15. On a June morning Nelly learns Hareton has been born, the finest lad that ever breathed, while Dr. Kenneth says Frances has been in a consumption for months and will not live till winter. How does the chapter open both joy and sentence at once?