Wuthering
Heathcliff descends into madness during these episodes. He has become consumed with rage and vengeance. In Chapter 27, he holds Catherine, Nelly, and Linton hostage and forces Catherine and Linton to marry. Chapter 28 switches its focus from Wuthering Heights to Thrushcross Grange. Naturally, the reader learns more about how Edgar feels as his life is fading. Edgar dies before he has had the chance to change his will so that Linton cannot inherit his property. In Chapter 29, Bronte switches the reader's attention back to the disturbing Heathcliff, who here admits that he has violated Catherine's grave and intends to do so again. His obsession with Catherine has lasted nearly two decades, and he continues to be consumed with anger. Heathcliff takes out some of that anger on Catherine's daughter because she is half Edgars and reminds Heathcliff of Catherine's marriage to another man. However, it is Linton who bears the brunt of Heathcliff's terrible temper. Even Nelly is not spared, as Heathcliff treats her miserably in this chapter. In Chapter 30, Bronte alerts the reader to a major impending shift in the point-of-view of the story. Until now, the reader has learned about Catherine, her daughter, Heathcliff, Edgar, and most other characters through Nelly's eyes. Nelly starts this chapter with a strong narrative voice, which makes Lockwood's entry into the narrative seem enticing as a dramatic change of pace. Yet Lockwood is just as wary as Heathcliff, showing that Nelly is not biased toward Heathcliff, just portraying him honestly and objectively. It is enough to retain some semblance of sympathy for Heathcliff due to his broken heart. Heathcliff wants Catherine and Hareton to suffer for his heartbreak.
Linton dies, and after he does, Nelly wants badly to rescue her from Heathcliff's clutches. As this is undoubtedly impossible, Catherine needs to develop her own strengths in order to extricate herself from the negative situation. Lockwood, now the narrator through which the reader learns of the goings-on at Wuthering Heights, likewise wishes that things could be better. "What a realisation of something more romantic than a fairy tale it would have been for Mrs. Linton Heathcliff, had she and I struck up an attachment,...
She views a union between Catherine and Hareton as a sort of redemption for Catherine senior and Heathcliff. Of course, this is what Bronte is getting at too. Heathcliff finally dies, but before he does, Bronte allows some redemption for his own soul. Unlike the death of Catherine, it seems that Heathcliff has come to a sort of peace with himself and the world. His anger subsides as he draws closer to death, which means to him closer to Catherine. "Nelly, there is a strange change approaching; I'm in its shadow at present. I take so little interest in my daily life that I hardly remember to eat and drink…About her I won't speak; and I don't desire to think," (Chapter 33). Interestingly, Nelly does not view Heathcliff as approaching peace at all. This is one point of confusion in these chapters, as it would seem Nelly would have been cognizant of this all-important shift in Heathcliff's perspective. Instead, she observes, "conscience had turned his heart to an earthly hell," (Chapter 33). As Heathcliff starts to hallucinate, Nelly proceeds to judge him harshly and insinuate that he has not been Christian enough. "that from the time you were thirteen years old you have lived a selfish, unchristian life; and probably hardly had a Bible in your hands during all that period. You must have forgotten the contents of the book, and you may not have space to search it now," (Chapter 34). This is a moment in which Nelly's character comes to the fore, and she is bold and more judgmental than the reader had once believed.
It is confusing as to whether Bronte wants Nelly to be an active character who makes a difference in the lives of the primary protagonists of the book, or whether Nelly is to be merely a vessel through which the story of Catherine, Heathcliff, and their kin is being told. Likewise, it is confusing whether or not Nelly resents her station in life as issues related to class status are salient in the…
