# XXIX explained — Wuthering Heights

> Chapter companion for Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

## What happens

After Edgar Linton's funeral, Heathcliff arrives at Thrushcross Grange to forcibly take Catherine Linton back to Wuthering Heights. He reveals that he has had the sexton open Catherine Earnshaw's coffin and plans to be buried beside her, describing his obsessive love and his belief in ghosts. Catherine defiantly agrees to go, and Nelly Dean is left behind.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Destruction

Heathcliff's obsessive love for Catherine Earnshaw drives him to exhume her coffin and plan their eternal union, demonstrating love as a destructive, consuming force.

### Supernatural and the Ghostly

Heathcliff describes his strong faith in ghosts, his dream of sleeping beside Catherine's corpse, and his belief that her spirit has haunted him for eighteen years.

### Cruelty and Power

Heathcliff exerts his authority by forcing Catherine to leave the Grange, threatening her, and describing his cruel treatment of Linton Heathcliff.

## Character check-ins

### Catherine Linton

Defiantly agrees to return to Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff, declaring her love for Linton Heathcliff and pity for Heathcliff's misery.

### Heathcliff

Forces Catherine to return to Wuthering Heights, reveals he opened Catherine Earnshaw's coffin, and expresses his obsessive desire to be buried beside her.

### Nelly Dean

Pleads with Heathcliff to let Catherine stay at the Grange, but is refused; she witnesses Heathcliff's disturbing confession about the grave.

### Linton Heathcliff

Mentioned as being ill and terrified of Heathcliff, who describes him as weak and calling for Catherine's protection.

### Edgar Linton

Recently deceased; his funeral has just taken place, and his portrait hangs in the library.

## Key lines

> I dreamt I was sleeping the last sleep by that sleeper, with my heart stopped and my cheek frozen against hers.

Heathcliff dreams of lying dead beside Catherine Earnshaw, their bodies frozen together in the grave.

_Reveals Heathcliff's necrophilic longing and his desire for eternal union with Catherine._

> I have a strong faith in ghosts: I have a conviction that they can, and do, exist among us!

Heathcliff declares his absolute belief in the reality of ghosts.

_Highlights the supernatural theme and Heathcliff's haunted psyche._

> You are miserable, are you not? Lonely, like the devil, and envious like him? Nobody loves you— nobody will cry for you when you die!

Catherine tells Heathcliff that his cruelty stems from his own misery and that he is unloved and alone.

_Shows Catherine's defiance and her psychological insight into Heathcliff's character._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se/chapters/xxix
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/wuthering_heights_se/chapters