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Wuthering Heights Chapter 3
Zillah leads Mr. Lockwood upstairs, urging him to be quiet, because Mr. Heathcliff did not like to let guests stay in this room. She was a new servant, and did not know why the room was off limits. The bed is enclosed, and complete with a closet and window ledge. The ledge holds several books, and in the wood names are scratched: Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Heathcliff, Catherine Linton. Troubled by and curious of these names, Mr. Lockwood is unable to sleep. He examines the books on the ledge. They all belong to Catherine Earnshaw, and are full of writings in the margins, like a makeshift diary. Mr. Lockwood begins to read. The first one he reads describes the cruelty of Hindley, Catherine's older brother. Their father is recently dead, and Hindley does not treat Catherine and Heathcliff well. They are subjected to a three-hour church service in the damp attic, and cannot play, as Hindley demands perfect quiet. Frances, Hindley's wife, joins in the tyranny. The children try to play quietly, but Joseph finds them and gets angry. He presses some religious books on them, but Catherine and Heathcliff throw them across the room. Joseph, who thinks the devil will come for such rotten children, yells for Hindley. While awaiting punishment, Catherine writes this entry. Catherine writes the next day, complaining that Heathcliff has been reduced to a servant, and forbidden from playing with her.
Mr. Lockwood starts to doze. He sees a book title, "Seventy Times Seven, and the First of the Seventy First. A Pious Discourse delivered by the Reverend Jabes Branderham, in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough", and in his dream he and Joseph are walking to a chapel to hear Jabes Branderham preach this sermon. The snow is deep, but Joseph has a pilgrim stick to help him get into the chapel. Mr. Lockwood thinks that he, Joseph, or Branderham have committed that "First of the Seventy First," and are going to be revealed as sinners and thrown out of the church. The church is in disrepair, because the townspeople are too cheap to fix it, but in his dream it is full of people. The sermon has four hundred and ninety parts, each for a different sin. Sleepy and bored, at the mention of the "First of the Seventy First," Mr. Lockwood "was moved to rise and denounce Jabes Branderham as the sinner of the sin that no Christian need pardon." Chapter 3, pg. 20 He yells that all this preaching is too much, and Branderham preaches that Mr. Lockwood has committed the "First of the Seventy First." The preacher orders the congregation to punish Mr. Lockwood, and they begin to attack him with their pilgrim sticks. Branderham taps on the pulpit, and Mr. Lockwood awakens, realizing the tapping is only a fir tree at the window, and he is in the bed.
Half awake and determined to quiet the fir tree, Mr. Lockwood breaks the glass when the window won't open. He reaches out to grab the tree and grabs a small cold hand! It would not let go, and the hand's owner, a child calling herself Catherine Linton, begs to be let inside. But "Terror made me cruel; and finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes..." Chapter 3, pg. 22 He finally tricks her into letting go, pulls his hand inside, and piles books before the window. When they begin to move, and her cries still continue, Mr. Lockwood screams in terror.
Topic Tracking: Supernatural 1
The scream brought Mr. Heathcliff, who was shocked and angry to see Mr. Lockwood in this room. Mr. Lockwood tells him angrily about Branderham, and the evil little ghost, Catherine Linton. Remembering Heathcliff's name in her diary, he regrets this admission. While Heathcliff tries to calm his rage, Mr. Lockwood leaves the room. It is near morning, and he will leave for home shortly. As he is leaving, he sees Mr. Heathcliff throw open the window and call for the ghost to return.
Mr. Lockwood waits in the kitchen, and is nodding off when Joseph comes downstairs. Hareton escorts him to the room where the master is, reprimanding Zillah for letting Lockwood sleep in that room. Mr. Heathcliff and Catherine are arguing bitterly. They stop a few moments after he enters, and after breakfast, Mr. Heathcliff walks Mr. Lockwood home through the moors. They are covered deep with snow, and the path has vanished. He only leads him to the gate of the Grange. With two more miles to walk until the house, Mr. Lockwood falls into a snowdrift, and it is several hours before he arrives home.
