It's Wednesday again and you know what that means! We're at week 9 and coming in the home stretch of our Wuthering Heights read-along hosted by Jill at Fizzy Thoughts. Chapters 25 - 27 or Volume II chapters 11 - 13 are up for discussion this week. We've ended with a cliffhanger (sort of), so let's get right to it...Summary
- The time frame is finally put into perspective as Mrs. Dean tells Lockwood the preceding events occurred just one winter ago!
- Mrs. Dean wonders if Lockwood might love Cathy.
- Edgar agrees to let Cathy and Nellie meet Linton - but not at Wuthering Heights.
- At the meeting, Linton - disinterested, inattentive, and looking like hell (although claiming to feel better) - becomes quite agitated when Cathy and Nellie threaten to leave. He's obviously afraid of Heathcliff's anger if perceived as "silent and stupid".
- While Edgar's condition continues to deteriorate, a second meeting occurs the following week. Linton is a little more animated, but that seems motivated by fear of his father.
- Heathcliff appears and manages to get Cathy and Nellie to Wuthering Heights, takes them both prisoner, and knocks Cathy around when she tries to escape.
- Heathcliff says Cathy and Linton must be married before she is released... and it turns out Linton is in on this little scheme!
- Cathy is taken away the next morning, but Nellie is kept for 5 nights and 4 days with Hareton as jailer.
Quotes
Mrs. Dean to Lockwood:
"You're too young to rest always contented, living by yourself; and I some way fancy no one could see Catherine Linton and not love her. You smile; but why do you look so lively and interested when I talk about her? and why have you asked me to hang her picture over your fireplace? and why-? (page 247)
Linton to Cathy:
'Oh!' he sobbed, 'I cannot bear it! Catherine, Catherine, I'm a traitor, too, and I dare not tell you! But leave me, and I shall be killed! Dear Catherine, my life is in your hands; and you have said you loved me, and if you did, it wouldn't harm you. You'll not go then? kind, sweet, good Catherine! And perhaps you will consent - and he'll let me die with you!' (page 258)
Heathcliff to Cathy:
"I give you what I have: the present is hardly worth accepting; but I have nothing else to offer. It is Linton, I mean. How she does stare! It's odd what a savage feeling I have to anything that seems afraid of me! Had I been born where laws are less strict and tastes less dainty, I should treat myself to a slow vivisection of those two, as an evening's amusement." (page 260 - 261)
Heathcliff to Cathy:
"He [Edgar] will think you are tired of waiting on him and run off for a little amusement... You cannot deny that you entered my house of your own accord, in contempt of his injunctions to the contrary. And it is quite natural that you should desire amusement at your age; and that you would weary of nursing a sick man, and that man only your father. Catherine, his happiest days were over when your days began. He cursed you, I dare say, for coming into the world (I did, at least); and it would just do if he cursed you as he went out of it". (page 265)
My thoughts
The action has certainly picked up this week - physical abuse, emotional torment, imprisonment - but these people are all horrible, and it's about time to wrap this one up! We have at least a couple of impending deaths. I'm starting to wonder who will be left in the end. Maybe it will be survival of the fittest- the sick die off, the 'winner' will be rid of all enemies... and there's nothing left to write about!
Reading along
Jill at Fizzy Thoughts
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