Ruiz 1

Journal Entries
March 22
Chapters 1-2
Pages Read: 7-21
- Mr. Lockwood, the narrator of the story, is renting a house next to Wuthering Heights.
He is attacked by multiple dogs. There are multiple mentions of dogs in these two
chapters so I’m assuming that dogs are a symbol, though I’m not sure what they might
symbolize. Lockwood says Heathcliff’s wife and wants to converse with her, but she
doesn't reciprocate the same energy. Overall, his expectations are not met. Here, I see that
Mr. Lockwood is a man who looks down on the servants and everyone one around him
(cocky) and believes he deserves the best and all the attention in the world. So far, I am
very confused and this was hard to understand and a lot of characters for me to fully keep
up on what was going on.
March 24
Chapters 3-8
Pages Read: 22-71
- Mr. Lockwood needs to stay a night in Wuthering Heights as he is injured. He stays in a
room Heathcliff does not allow anyone to go to. There, he finds three names, they are all
names of a Catherine but they have different last names (Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and
Linton). He reads some journal entries and he has 2 nightmares. The first is that he goes
to a chapel in which he speaks up and then gets beat up by the priest and the other was
that there was a ghost grabbing his hand out of the window. Mr. Lockwood goes to
Thrushcross Grange and meets a servant named Nelly Dean. There, she begins to aid him
and narrates the story of the Earnshaw and the Linton families. Right off the bat,
Heathcliff is treated poorly for looking different. For most of the narration, Catherine
Earnshaw and Heathcliff have a nice friendship in which they go to Thrushcross Grange
to see the Linton kids and how their lives were different. I feel like this is an introduction
to good vs. evil as they feel like the Linton kids and being treated well in comparison.
One day, one of the dogs gets Catherine and she is injured. This leads to her having to
stay in Thrushcross Grange to recover. This, I feel, is leading to a huge shift in Heathcliff
and Catherine’s relationship as now, they will be even more separated. In a way, she is
now entering the rich society that she once criticized while he is still unable to enter this
society. This may spark some anger in him and lead to deep consequences if he lets his
emotions drive him. Once Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley takes over Wuthering Heights and
mistreats Heathcliff and the rest of the servants. He becomes an alcoholic and Heathcliff
enjoys seeing his downfall which may foreshadow his own downfall in the future.
Catherine has this double-sidedness to her as she acts one way to Heathcliff and another
way to the Lintons. Her wild side shows she pinches Nelly and then lies about it.
March 26
Chapter 9-13
 Ruiz 2

Pages 72-140
- Although it seems that Heatcliff and Catherine love each other, she decides to marry
Edgar as she feels as there would be more stability in her life since he is rich and comes
from a rich family. He degrades Heathcliff and says that it would be a shame to marry
him. I’m a bit confused as to why she would say that, but at the same time, I understand
that she grew up in an upper class ambiance that maintains that mindset. Nelly knows that
he is eavesdropping yet doesn’t tell Catherine until he tells. This is when she grows to be
upset and tells her that they are both the same soul and are made for each other. I am a bit
conflicted in what I should believe because it’s such a toxic mindset, yet I feel like they
do love each other (it is definitely more toxic than a loving healthy relationship). It is
clear that Catherine craves and desires a romantic relationship. Upset, Heathcliff flees for
three years. Catherine waits outside in the rain waiting, but must come inside as she
develops a fever and almost dies. She does, however, pass on the fever to Mr. and Mrs.
Linton leading to their deaths. Three years after their deaths, Edgar and Catherine marry
and force Nelly to move to Thrushcross Grange After six months, Heathcliff returns and
Nelly tells Edgar upon his return. Catherine feels the need to entertain in the parlor.
When she finds out about his return, she is overwhelmingly excited which surprises
Edgar. They clearly love each other. It is clear that Catherine is bored and not satisfied
with her marriage. This can be symbolized with the number six and how that is when
Heathcliff returns. Six, having a biblical meaning of being imperfect. What she once
thought was important, that being power and class, does not seem important to her the
moment she sees Heathcliff. It seems as though it is a “you don’t know what you lost
until it's found”. I feel like there's a beginning to a theme of regret and also betrayal.
More toxicity is being brought to the home as Catherine actively betrays her own
husband. She should have trusted her emotions and instincts from the start. She knew
from the beginning that she loved Heathcliff and had second thoughts about her marriage
with Edgar. She let her pride get in the way of her true happiness. What comes from this
is consequences that may affect others around them. Now, especially with a new jealousy
between Heathcliff and Edgar. A new obstacle just came into the picture as Catherine and
Isabella visit Wuthering Heights. Isabella becomes very fond of Heathcliff. He is not
interested in her, but he is interested that she is her brother’s heir. This is where his value
power is evident. I feel like this is not entirely his fault since he grew up in this sort of
setting in which he had to have money and power to be seen and respected. Since as a
kid, he did not have that (literally not his own fault, he just grew to be there). Nelly says
that she is worried for him and wants to keep a watchful eye on him. It is a little annoying
that Mrs. Dean tries to picture herself as a saint or this savior yet she just gives off this
vibe that she wants to see the world burn. She seems to know everything and feels that
she needs to picture herself as the hero. Yet does not really do much about it? Like she
takes action, but does not make a clear impact on anything or anyone. This is further
showing the good vs. evil aspect in one character. She wants to be good, but is she truly
good? She has an evil aspect to her and secrecy to her. It is a bit selfish in a way. These
 Ruiz 3

aspects are present in Heathcliff too since his true intentions are unknown. Will he also
put his pride in the cost of his true emotions? Is this his way of getting revenge on
Catherine for marrying Edgar? It is also confusing why he would want to be under the
same room as Hindley whom he hates. This makes me think that he does want to make
some sort of intent for revenge and I feel like him wanting to go after Isabella for her
money may be foreshadowing to him wanting to cause more chaos between the two
worlds. I think this is interesting in that, instead of wanting to combine the two worlds, he
wants to create more division between the two showing the greed and how far he is
willing to go for his anger and revenge. When Catherine sees that Heathcliff hugs
Isabella, she is upset, but he tells her that he isn’t her husband so she should not be
jealous or upset. Here is further showing his anger and greediness. I feel like this is his
form of getting back at her for Edgar, but also when they were kids and how she chose
the Lintons over him. Even when criticizing their lifestyle, she chose to be with that
ambiance. Edgar and Heathcliff then have a physical and violent fight. Heathcliff leaves
knowing that he cannot take more than one man by himself (especially if they have
weapons). As their actions continue to happen, the more the toxicity and negativity grows
at Wuthering Heights. It seems as though it is a snowball effect in which one thing leads
to another but even causes a bigger event. As the snowball rolls down the hill, the more it
grows and grows. Catherine, unable to choose between Edgar and Heathcliff when asked
by Edgar who she wants, locks herself in her room. Her locking herself represents this
isolation from society and what all of these characters seem to do when they are faced
with a situation that they do not want to be with. Always running away from their
problems by causing more of them. Edgar then tells Isabella that if she were to marry
Heathcliff, their relationship would end. Edgar striking first shows the length he will go
for the woman that he loves. Catherine finally agrees to eat after three days. This shows
her battle between physical and mental illness and is showing that there is a possibility
that her downfall may be near (why is it her downfall and not Heathcliff? Must he suffer
greatly before he dies?). Upon nursing Catherine, Edgar finds out that she is pregnant and
wishes that it is a male so that he may be the heirloom of Thrushcross Grange rather than
it being Heathcliff. Six weeks after escaping to London, Isabella sends a letter to Edgar
essentially apologizing and saying that her and Heathcliff are married. He doesn't reply
back which makes her send a letter to Nelly. There, she questions Heathcliff’s humanity.
She soon pays Wuthering Heights a visit, but everyone treats her poorly. She realizes her
error but realizes it is too late. She can't even find a private place to sleep. When
Heathcliff returns, he informs her that Catherine is ill, that he blames Edgar, and that he
intends to make her suffer in Edgar's place.
March 27
Chapter 14-26
Pages 140-248
- Isabella wants to marry Heathcliff, and for that he cannot forgive her. Heathcliff on the
other hand, is frantic and wants to know more about Catherine and how her health is
 Ruiz 4

(unlike Edgar). He tells Nelly that he needs to see her and wants to meet with her, but she
refuses which prompts him to go to Wuthering Heights alone. Slowly, this is beginning a
new source of conflict I can assume. Nelly tries to deliver Heathcliff’s letter but
Catherine is so weak in health that she cannot even hold the letter to read it. Before we
know it, Heathcliff is wandering around the Grange and storms in to see Catherine.They
embrace after she tells him how he has broken her heart. This prompts him to tell her that
she deserved this and that she was the one responsible for her health. This is showing
how he is letting his angered emotions take over him. He is obsessed with her and seems
to want to control her. This is not true love in my opinion. It is filled with toxicity and
revenge. Catherine sobs to him begging for forgiveness. She begs for forgiveness, but
why now? Why not before? She had all that time to repent, but now she feels as though
she must get forgiveness right before her death. Heathcliff believes that she is the one
responsible for killing both of them. At the end of the chapter, all the events start to rush
in and the tensity quickens. Edgar coming home, Heathcliff staying with Catherine.
Heathcliff hands her weak body to Edgar. Nelly tells Heathcliff that she will give him an
update. Cathy, the daughter of Catherine is born, but Catherine shortly dies from weak
health. Heathcliff surprisingly is already aware of the situation. Edgar watches
Catherine’s body at day while Heathcliff does so at night. (there is still a battle between
who gets who). Heathcliff places strands of Edgar’s and his hair around Catherine’s body
and Nelly finds them and intertwines them together. I feel like this represents how she
wants to fix the separation between the two worlds and sort of play God? She wants to be
the peacemaker but she cannot as she is only a servant and must stay in her place (she
could only dream). In the next chapter, Isabella returns and knows that she will not be
welcomed at the home, yet she still stays. Hindley stayed sober for the funeral but goes
back to drinking for his sorrows are too grand. He then locks Heathcliff outside the house
which represents how the family rather close off and isolate themselves. All of the
toxicity stays in the house and builds up there. This also shows that Heathcliff once again
is unable to integrate himself into the upper class society. He ends up going through the
window (showing his extent of how far he will go to get revenge) to beat Hindley up. As
the two fight, Isabella escapes and goes off to London where she gives birth to her son
Linton. Thirteen years later, she dies and Linton must go to Thrushcross Grange
Heathcliff threatens to take in possession of Linton once again showing his greediness
and how he feels the need to destroy both families. As the chapters past, Heathcliff ends
up getting ownership of Linton where he essentially treats him like a servant. Except, he
feels as though he is better than his own son Hareton. As Cathy grows up, she begins to
have fondness over her cousin Linton in which they both write letters to each other. This
reminds me of Romeo and Juliet in a way as the two are separated yet try to build a
loving relationship. In my opinion, their relationship is very toxic as Linton degrades her
in a way. He feels like he is the king of the world and that Cathy must do everything for
him. I think it is a bit funny since he is living in such a violent household and their house
is everything BUT class if that makes sense. Why act like you live in a mansion and have
 Ruiz 5

so much power when you can not even stand up against your father/guardian/uncle? As
their love continues, they meet each other in private. Edgar’s health is slowly decreasing
as well as Linton’s.
March 28
Chapter 27-34
Pages 248-316
- It seems as though Heathcliff knows more than the readers as he happens to always be
around. Edgar’s health is worsening which might mean that he will die before Linton.
Cathy is lured to Wuthering Heights as she has to “take care” of Linton, but she ends up
being trapped. They are able to escape just in time to see Edgar’s death. He is happy as he
thinks his daughter is in a happy relationship. Heathcliff comes and tells Cathy that she
must work for him since he needs her help after Linton dies. He is able to legally do that
so with that, she has no choice but to obey. Cathy is clearly closed up and all the cheery
nature to her has gone away. Here, it is evident the power difference she has with
Heathcliff and feels as though that it is her duty to obey. She submits all her power to
him. Perhaps she feels as though that she has no purpose in life anymore now that her
father is gone. Romance will definitely start between Cathy and Hareton as he has this
fondness for her (and also they met when they were younger and seemed to take a liking
to each other). Mr. Lockwood decides that Heathcliff should find a new tenant which
angers him because he thinks that Lockwood will pay him. This further shows his value
for power and money. I feel like this further relates to his infancy and how from the start
of his life, power and money was always an important value and stopped him from fully
integrating himself into society. Because of this, he wants to gain revenge for all of those
in the past treating him poorly. He uses his children as puppets and makes them suffer.
Back to the story, Lockwood pays a visit to Wuthering Heights to tell Heathcliff about
him needing to find a new tenant. He has a note for Cathy in which he tries to give, but
Hareton finds it first. He obviously can’t read it well so he can’t tell Heathcliff about it.
Cathay tells Lockwood that she is unable to write back as she does not have any paper
nor books to write from. When Heathcliff returns, he remarks that Hareton is growing
more fond of Catherine by the day. This is something Heathcliff did not expect and
appears to bother him. Heathcliff must now deal with Hareton's resemblance to his Aunt
Catherine, in addition to his memories of his lost love. Heathcliff is beginning to feel the
effects of both the memories and the physical reminders. After Lockwood comes back
after a few months, Nelly updates him on what has happened since he was gone. It is so
gross that he gets jealous that he sees Cathy kiss Hareton. Go away you creep. Anyways,
Nelly explains that he will have to pay the rest to either Cathy or herself as Heathcliff
died three months ago. Before she explains how he died, she explains how Cathy and
Hareton became friends. Two weeks after he left, she was summoned to Wuthering
Heights to take care of Cathy since Zillah left. There, she tells her that she was wrong for
making fun of Hareton and attempts to get closer to him. She gives him a book and if he
accepts it, she vows to never tease him again. This shows how the “evilness” and
 Ruiz 6

isolation is coming to an end with the new generation. Cathy puts her pride away to teach
Hareton how to read (doors, windows, and gates now open). Cathy and Hareton anger
Joseph as they destroy one of his trees in order to build a flower garden. He complains to
Heathcliff and even calls her the devil. Heathcliff gets in a fight with Cathy and she
reclaims that he tools all of her money. She also exclaims how Hareton is by her side now
and will defend her. Heathcliff admits to Mrs. Dean that before he felt a deep desire for
revenge and to destroy both families, but now, he doesn’t feel like striking first and that
he felt strange. I feel like this is because Catherine basically haunts him all the time and
the inescapable truth disarms Heathcliff’s final act of revenge and softens him. The love
being present in such a toxic and negative atmosphere allows Heathcliff to see beyond his
own selfish warped love. Some sort of sickness came over Heathcliff that didn’t allow
him to eat and completely changed his personality (he was cheerful). “Last night, I was
on the threshold of hell. Today, I am within sight of heaven. I have my eyes on it: hardly
three feet to sever me!” Mrs. Dean later has a dream about Heathcliff’s headstone which
he later died a few days later (lol). She found him talking to himself which made her
worried. Then, she found him dead in Catherine’s childhood bedroom (rain all over his
corpse). Only Hareton grieved the death. There are rumors of sightings of Heathcliff’s
and Catherine’s ghosts.Overall, this chapter shows that Heathcliff chooses his
love/obsession over Catherine’s ghost over redemption. Heaven for him means being
with Catherine and she even made the same choice when she was alive. This is kind of an
interesting ending since it seems like even if they are not in heaven, they may have
created this sort of happiness in Wuthering Heights which they couldn’t before. Or, this
could be interpreted as eternal damnation since they are not in heaven.
 Ruiz 7

Character Timeline
● Summer 1757: Hindley Earnshaw is born
● 1762: Edgar Linton is born
● 1764: Heathcliff is born
● Summer 1765: Catherine Earnshaw is born
● Late 1768: Isabella Linton is born
● Spring/Summer 1773: Mrs. Earnshaw dies
● October 1777: Mr. Earnshaw dies
● Late 1778: Frances dies
● Fall 1780: Mr. & Mrs. Linton die
● March 1783: Catherine and Edgar marry
● 1783: Heathcliff flees
● January 1784: Heathcliff and Isabella marry
● March 1784: Cathy is born
● March 1784: Catherine E dies
● September 1784: Linton is born
● September 1784: Hindley dies
● July 1797: Isabella dies
● September 1801: Cathy and Linton Marry
● September 1801: Edgar dies
● September 1801: Linton dies
● May 1802: Heathcliff dies
● January 1803: Hareton and Cathy marry
 Ruiz 8

Common Themes/Big Ideas

- Good vs. Evil
- Seen when Wuthering Heights (evil) is described in comparison to Thrushcross
Grange (good)
- Fiddle (good) and the whip (evil)
- Hareton (evil) vs. Linton (good)
- Goes with social class difference + families
- One poor with no manners, one rich with manners and education
- Social Class
- Since the beginning, when Heathcliff was introduced in Mrs. Dean’s story, there
was an immediate separation between him and the Earnshaws as he is a gypsy
- + dark hair, tan skin, dark eyes
- Social class and the way you looked go hand in hand
- Hareton is constantly teased for not being able to read even when it is not his fault
- Looked down upon from Cathy and Linton even when they were younger
than him
- His accent/way he spoke made him looks more low class
- Servants constantly know their place
- Prime example is how the “masters” would immediately order the servants
to do something even when they did not live in that home
- Servants never argued about it (yes they were afraid of Mr. Earnshaw
when his wife died but they still obeyed him)
- Mr. Lockwood believes to be this powerful, well educated man and feels that he
must have the best at all times
- When he visits Wuthering Heights, he needs the best bedroom and service
- After hearing the whole life story, he visits Wuthering Heights and still
feels as though Cathy should treat him nicely and with the utmost respect
(like boy, she is basically trapped in a toxic house where she has been
abused and her father literally died while she was gone.
- Religion
- I feel like this is more of a criticism of religion since all of the “good” characters
are hypocritical when it came to Christianty
- Nelly paints herself as the hero/victim of the whole story, criticizes
characters when she believes they are being sinful yet she continuously
lies and does nothing to stop bad situations from happening
- “...beseeching the Lord to remember the patriarchs Noah and Lots, and, as in
former times, spare the righteous, though he smote the ungodly. I felt some
sentiment that it must be a judgment on us also. The Jonah, in my mind, was Mr.
Earnshaw; and I shook the handle of his den that I might ascertain if he were yet
living.” (pg 83)
- Story Noah
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- Very obedient man to God (didn’t care what others thought)

(blindly followed God’s)
- Kept believing and saved his family
- Waited the right time
- Story of Lot
- There's a right time and place for everything
- Offspring can ultimately bring harm to the rest of the family
- Story the Jonah
- He was a profit
- God told him to tell a village that they are sinful
- Didn’t want to because he hated them and wished them to
die
- Went on boat and went opposite direction
- Storm happened and he threw himself off the boat and big
fish ate him (took him to the village) (finally told the
village to repent)
- God will always find a way
- “‘Fie, fie, Miss!’ I interrupted. “One might suppose you had never opened a Bible
in your life. If God afflict your enemies, surely that ought to suffice you. It is both
mean and presumptuous to add your tortue to his!’” (pg 172)
- Hypocrisy of Nelly
- Pages 314-315
- Multiple references to the bible
- six men
- Imperfection, evil (relating to Heathcliff)
- “A boy with a sheep and two lambs”
- Shepard
- Lamb = christ
- three animals (three being significant number)