Catherine Earnshaw

* 1939
* 1970
* 1978
* 1992
* 1998
* 2009
* 2011

Wuthering Heights (2011)

Shannon Beer (Young Catherine), Kay Sodelario (2011)

Dame Catherine

Nelly Dean (foster sister/servant)

### Personalities

Beautiful, wilful, free-spirited, lively, naïve, tomboyish, spoiled, childish, wild, mischievous, fiery, impulsive, demented, civilized, sophisticated, noble, restless, independent, brave, sickly, defiant, reckless, rebellious, arrogant, selfish, romantic, passionate

### Appearance

Brown hair, dark brown eyes, wears simple clothes, wears proper lady clothes

### Allies

Heathcliff
Edgar Linton
Isabella Linton

Nelly Dean

### Likes

Wandering around the moors, being with Heathcliff, spying on the Lintons, being with Edgar, ranting about Wuthering Heights and the moors, being spoiled and pampered

### Dislikes

Hindley's cruelty to Heathcliff, forced to choose between Heathcliff and Edgar

### Goal

To always be close to Heathcliff and love him intensely
To marry Edgar and become part of aristocratic society

To haunt Heathcliff in spirit (all succeeded)

### Fate

Dies after giving birth to daughter Cathy, and her spirit haunts Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights until his death.

### Famous quotes

"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure, any more than I am a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.""Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."

> "*She was a wild, wicked slip of a girl. She burned too bright for this world.*"
>
>
>

Catherine Earnshaw, or Cathy, is the secondary protagonist in Emily Brontë's *Wuthering Heights*. She is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, the sister of Hindley Earnshaw, the adoptive sister/soulmate of Heathcliff, the wife of Edgar Linton, and the mother of Cathy Linton.

Having grown up with him as children, Catherine and Heathcliff were also intense lovers. But when she falls in love with Edgar, she finds herself caught in a love triangle, ruining the lives of both men who love her.

## Description

Catherine Earnshaw is often seen as an unusual and unique heroine. She typically has two forms: her wild self, where she loves to run around the Yorkshire moors with her beloved soulmate Heathcliff and acts like a tomboy. And there is her lady self. After encountering the Lintons and being treated by them, she acts more girly and noble, wearing lady dresses and talking in a different tone. She can also switch her forms depending on who she enjoys being with the most.

Catherine is a woman loved by two men. One is Heathcliff, with whom she would rather spend the rest of her life. They love being in the moors, which offers them freedom far from society. The other is Edgar, for she had to live a lifestyle where she couldn't do what she wanted but could be part of a higher social class. Deep down, Catherine loved Heathcliff the most, and towards her death, she wanted to abandon Edgar and be with Heathcliff, hoping she would be forgiven and they would be together for eternity.

After her death, she is not buried in the Linton family crypt or with her immediate family. Instead, she is interred in the corner of a kirkyard in the middle of the moors. Once she becomes a ghost, she can have all her happiness and freedom to be in the place she loves the most. She also desperately wants to see Heathcliff again in Wuthering Heights since her apparition may have been roaming around the area, begging Mr. Lockwood to let her in and appearing before Heathcliff during his final days. Ultimately, she and Heathcliff will forever haunt the moors and make it their permeant home.

## Storyline

### Early life/Relationship with Heathcliff and the Lintons

Catherine Earnshaw grew up in Wuthering Heights in the mid-1770s, along with her brother Hindley and Nelly, a servant whose mother nursed Hindley.

On a summer morning at the start of the harvest season, 6-year-old Catherine is having breakfast with 14-year-old Hindley and Nelly when her father, Mr. Earnshaw, prepares to depart on a business trip to Liverpool.Mr. Earnshaw asks his children what gifts he would bring home for them. Hindley wants a fiddle, and Catherine wants a whip, as she is already good at riding horses. After he promises Nelly he will bring her some gifts, he kisses his children goodbye and leaves.

For the next three days, Catherine constantly asks her mother when her father will come home. Mrs. Earnshaw expects him to be home by supper on the third evening and places their meal on hold. But Mr. Earnshaw still hasn't returned, and the children give up running to the gate to await his arrival. When it gets late, the children beg to stay up late.

At 11 o'clock, Mr. Earnshaw finally arrives home and sits down, laughing and ranting about his journey home. Everyone gathers around Catherine, and they spot a dirty, ragged, dark-haired Gipsy boy who speaks a language they can't understand. Mrs. Earnshaw refuses to keep the child in her house, and Mr. Earnshaw explains he had discovered the boy starving and living on the streets of Liverpool. He couldn't find his owners, and since his time in Liverpool was limited, he took the boy home. He orders Nelly to wash the boy and let him sleep with the children.

Hindley and Catherine search their father's pockets for the gifts he had promised to bring home. Hindley finds his fiddle broken, and Catherine learns her whip was lost on the way home. She spits in the boy's face, and she and Hindley refuse to share their room.

A few days later, the boy was christened and named Heathcliff, after a son who died in infancy. Catherine and Heathcliff become close, but Hindley, Mrs. Earnshaw and Hindley hate him. Hindley hates him the most because of all the affection Heathcliff receives from Mr. Earnshaw.

Heathcliff is a quiet, solitary child who takes Hindley's beatings calmly. Mr. Earnshaw is furious when Heathcliff is being bullied, as he has considered him his favourite child over his daughter. Mrs. Earnshaw dies less than two years after Heathcliff's arrival. When the children fall ill with measles, Nelly is assigned to look after them. Catherine and Hindley often complain about their illness, but only Heathcliff behaves. After all three children recover, Nelly sympathizes with Heathcliff, although she never fully dotes on him.

A few years later, Mr. Earnshaw's health starts failing.He spends most of his time alone, and when Hindley continues to bully Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw sends him away to college.

Catherine and Heathcliff have grown into romantic soulmates. She enjoys causing mischief every day, and the servants try to keep her separated from Heathcliff. She also enjoys ordering Nelly around, and she and Heathcliff would laugh during Joseph's sermons, who is a longtime servant at Wuthering Heights. Mr. Earnshaw would lecture her for her wild behaviour, but she laughs it off when Nelly tells her to repent for her troubles.

One windy night in October, Catherine sits beside Mr. Earnshaw when he rests in his chair, with Heathcliff beside her. Nelly does her knitting, and Joseph reads from his Bible. Mr. Earnshaw strokes Catherine’s hair and asks why she can be a good girl for once. She jokes that he should be a good father, kisses his hand, and sings him to sleep. Nelly then shushes her, and they should be quiet for half an hour. Joseph finishes reading and tries to wake Mr. Earnshaw to recite prayers before bedtime. Mr. Earnshaw doesn’t move, and Joseph urges Heathcliff and Catherine to go to bed. She wants to say goodnight to her father, but when she embraces him, she discovers he is dead and starts crying. Heathcliff and Nelly join her until Joseph urges Nelly to fetch the parson and doctor from Gimmerton. Catherine and Heathcliff console each other inside their room and imagine Heaven as a beautiful place.

Hindley returns home for the funeral and brings home a wife named Frances Earnshaw. During his three-year absence, Hindley has become a polished, wealthy gentleman and claims ownership of Wuthering Heights, ordering all the servants to move into the back kitchen. Frances tries to bond with Catherine by offering her gifts but becomes peevish from her frail health. Hindley cuts off Heathcliff’s education, making him a servant working in the fields.

Despite Heathcliff’s mistreatment, Catherine teaches him everything she has learned and plays or works with him in the fields. They continue to act like savages, and Hindley ignores their behaviour. Joseph and the curate scold Hindley for his negligence and request that they punish the couple by flogging them or not serving them dinner.

Catherine and Heathcliff would spend all day in the moors and laugh at the punishments given to them. One Sunday night, they were dismissed from the parlour for being too loud. They escape from the wash-house and decide to spy on the Linton family and their wealthy lifestyle at Thrushcross Grange, a stately, opulent home about four miles away from Wuthering Heights. They race from the Heights to the Grange, and Catherine loses her shoes in the bog. They pass under a hedge, walk up the path, and stand on some flower pots under the drawing-room window. While clinging onto the window ledge, they can see the curtains are half-opened, and they can look in.

Inside the crimson drawing room, the Linton children, Edgar and Isabella, are crying and arguing over a little dog. Catherine and Heathcliff laugh and gawk at them from the window until the Linton children spot them and run off. A moment later, they called for their parents. Catherine and Heathcliff try to scare them with noises, but when they hear the door opening, they drop from the ledge and decide to flee. Heathcliff holds Catherine’s hand, and they escape, but she falls onto the ground after the Linton’s guard dog, Skulker, bites her ankle. She begs Heathcliff to escape without her, and Heathcliff uses a rock to pry open the dog’s jaws and free her. A servant runs out with a lantern, and the dog runs away. Catherine is injured from being bitten, so the servant picks her up and carries her inside, with Heathcliff following.

Mr. Linton demands from the entrance what has happened. The servant, named Robert, explains that Skulker has caught a girl, and she has a boy with her. He suspects they could have tried to break in to rob the house and then murder everyone in their sleep. After Mr. Linton orders the servants, he pulls Heathcliff under the light. Mrs. Linton and the children are horrified by his appearance. Isabella wants him locked in the cellar and thinks he’s a fortune-teller’s son. Catherine laughs when Heathcliff is examined, and Edgar recognizes her from church. He notices her foot is bleeding, and Mrs. Linton finds it shameful that Catherine is running amok in the moors with a gypsy boy. Mr. Linton is furious at Hindley’s reckless supervision and recognizes Heathcliff as the child his late neighbour brought home from Liverpool. Mrs. Linton is disgusted that her children are being exposed to his native language and orders him to leave.

After Robert leads Heathcliff out, Catherine rests on the sofa, where a servant takes off her cloak she borrowed from the dairy-maid and then brings in a basin of warm water. While the servant washes her feet, Mrs. Linton brings a warm drink. Isabella places cakes onto her lap while Edgar looks on. They dry and comb her hair and put a pair of large slippers on her feet. Then, she is wheeled to the fire, where she eats with Skulker. She is also happy with all the attention from the Lintons.

Catherine stays at Thurshcross Grange for five weeks until Christmas.During that time, she recovers from her ankle injury, and Mrs. Linton teaches her to be a proper, noble lady. She rides home on a black pony, and everyone at Wuthering Heights is surprised to see she has changed. She has curly brown hair and is wearing a fashionable silk dress. Hindley helps her dismount the pony, complimenting her beauty, and Frances helps her inside. The dogs welcome her inside, and Catherine kisses Nelly, who is busy baking. She looks around for Heathcliff, and Hindley orders him to greet her. Heathcliff comes forward, and she embraces and kisses him, mocking his filthy appearance. Hindley orders Heathcliff to shake hands with her, but he refuses. She apologizes for laughing at him, and he says he enjoys being dirty and storms out.

The Earnshaws invite the Lintons to the Heights for a Christmas party. After dinner, Catherine stays up late to prepare some receptions for the Lintons. She goes to talk to Heathcliff, but he is already gone, which concerns her. On Christmas Eve, the Lintons arrive at Wuthering Heights. During the party, Heathcliff tries to impress Catherine after Nelly dresses him. But Hindley mocks him and orders him to be locked in the garret until after supper. Edgar criticizes Heathcliff’s dark hair, and Heathcliff angrily throws hot applesauce at his face. Hindley drags Heathcliff out of the room, and Nelly cleans Edgar’s face. Isabella starts to cry, and Catherine scolds him for insulting him and hates it when he is beaten. Edgar sobs that he promised his mother not to insult him, and she orders him to behave. When Hindley returns, they sit down for supper. Catherine can hardly eat, and when everyone starts dancing, she begs to have Heathcliff released. While everyone joins singing with some local carollers, Catherine sneaks away and heads to the garret, where she calls to Heathcliff until he invites her in, where they converse alone. Afterwards, she returns with Heathcliff and asks Nelly to give him food as he hasn’t eaten since the party.

In June 1778, Frances gives birth to a son named Hareton, but she died a week later from consumption.Hindley becomes an alcoholic, and Nelly is assigned to raise Hareton. Hindley’s violent outbursts from his alcoholism keeps everyone away from Wuthering Heights, except for Edgar who occasionally visits Catherine. While she still spends time with Heathcliff, Catherine has stayed in touch with the Lintons, and becomes close with them. She behaves headstrong and stubborn when she’s with Heathcliff, but acts noble when she’s with Edgar.

One afternoon, Hindley leaves home for the day, and Nelly helps Catherine put on a silk dress. Heathcliff arrives and asks her why she’s wearing her lady dress and what’s she up to. She replies that she isn’t going anywhere because it’s rainy and tells him he should be working. He refuses to work and wants to spend the day with her, and she threatens to tell on Joseph. He replies that Joseph is away working at the Penistone Crags, and won’t return until after dark. She then reveals that Edgar and Isabella are coming over for a visit, and demands Nelly to stop combing her hair.

Heathcliff confronts Catherine about her bond with the Lintons and turning him away, even thinking she doesn’t appreciate his company. Catherine argues that she doesn’t always want to spend time with him, and at that moment, Edgar arrives. Heathcliff immediately leaves and Edgar asks if he hasn’t come too soon. She notices Nelly is still with her and orders her to leave her alone. Hindley has assigned Nelly to chaperone Catherine when she has friends over, and she wants to take the opportunity to do her chores with Catherine even if Hindley is absent. Catherine loses her temper and pinches and slaps Nelly. Hareton sits on the floor beside Nelly and starts to cry, so Catherine shakes him. Edgar tries to restrain her, but she slaps him, too. Nelly grabs Hareton and rushes out of the room, while Edgar backs away pale and quivering.

## Personality/Appearance

Catherine is a free-spirited, lively, mischievous young woman who enjoys being a tomboy and playing out in the moors with Heathcliff. She initially doesn’t fit the genteel stereotype of being a girl and views Heathcliff and the moors as a paradise where she doesn’t have to worry about social class and society. As a child, she was difficult to discipline, as she enjoyed tormenting the servants and always got what she wanted. Mr. Earnshaw would reprimand her for misbehaving, making her wilder and rebelling against the rules. Her intense, passionate love for Heathcliff gives her a sense of meaning, purpose, and direction in her life, as she has clearly stated that she and Heathcliff have shared kindred souls. They would find solace in each other while living under Hindley’s dominant roof and enjoy causing mischief and mocking the punishments given to them. However, they also console each other with deep comfort and solace after losing their father, imagining heaven as a beautiful, peaceful place, which shows how close and inseparable their bond is. Outside in the moors, they never fear the dangers around them and believe their love will last forever.

When she meets the Lintons after she is injured from a bitten ankle, she is introduced to civilization for the first time. Almost immediately, she appreciates the Linton family’s noble lifestyle and the attention she receives from them. After five weeks, she arrives home as a different person but has a split personality. Whenever she’s with Heathcliff, she behaves like her usual wild, passionate self but acts noble and ladylike with the Lintons. She struggles with how exactly she always has to behave, as she often worries about how other people will view or judge her. Despite her close friendship with the Lintons, she still cares about Heathcliff and often feels bad for how she treats him in her civilized self. She openly admits that she would never marry Heathcliff because she doesn’t want to live in a degraded social status. Her beloved Heathcliff being forced to live as an impoverished servant makes it impossible for them to be together. She struggles to answer Nelly’s questions about why she wants to marry Edgar, and her main reason is that she wants to live his lifestyle and see better opportunities for herself. Additionally, she hopes her marriage will build a passionate friendship with Heathcliff. She desires Heathcliff and Edgar to be friends and would be able to help him have his place in upper-class society.

She is also known to easily lose her temper and angrily lash out at those who provoke her, such as when she pokes and pinches Nelly and slaps Edgar because she wants to be left alone. Because of her wilful nature, she dominates Thrushcross Grange in a masculine role, and even those weaker and more passive than her fear her fiery temper, mostly her husband, Edgar and sister-in-law Isabella. Despite Catherine warning Isabella that Heathcliff is a bad influence on her, she cruelly humiliates her by exposing her crush to Heathcliff, locks Heathcliff and Edgar inside a room to have them confront each other, and even taunts Edgar to fight back. She becomes restless when Edgar forces her to choose either him or Heathcliff, and she suffers a fit because she cannot always have what she wants.

Being a wild, restless woman, she often makes reckless, foolish decisions that affect those around her. One example is when she spent the whole night searching for Heathcliff on the moors, only for her to suffer from a fever, and Mr. and Mrs. Linton both died nursing her. Another example is when she locks herself in her room for three days without food after Edgar confronts her about her feelings for Heathcliff, which causes her to slowly waste away rather than try to apologize to Edgar or confess the truth. She is also selfish to the men who love her, as she only married Edgar because he would provide her with a life of prosperity and luxury, and she admitted that she couldn’t marry Heathcliff because of his low social status; therefore, her selfishness indirectly caused Heathcliff’s ruthless cycle of revenge.

During her illness, she becomes obsessed with death and longs to be with Heathcliff and with nature again. She clearly missed being a headstrong, independent tomboy who sought freedom in the moors and deep down, she likely regrets marrying Edgar as her intense passion for Heathcliff consumes her. In her final days, she fears that Heathcliff will forget her after she dies and has even vowed she will never be at peace until she’s reunited with him. She laments to Heathcliff that his conflict with Edgar has broken her heart, and she has never experienced true happiness. There’s no denying that her dramatic illness and stress caused her to go into premature labour and then die from childbirth. But in her death, her ghost torments Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights so she can still be with him as a living spirit, while she seeks eternity with nature by being interred in the corner of the churchyard overlooking the moors she loved so much in life.

Catherine is described as having brown hair and eyes. During her early life at the Heights and her relationship with Heathcliff, she wore plain clothes, and after meeting the Lintons, she wore fashionable dresses.

## Relationships

### Heathcliff

The orphaned foundling Catherine grew up with in childhood and who she would deeply love as an adult. She enjoys exploring the moors with her beloved Heathcliff, but Catherine's romance with him decreases after the Linton family looks after her and meets their children. She ends up being tormented for letting Heathcliff down, even as she begs him for forgiveness. After she dies, she torments Heathcliff herself as a ghost.

### Edgar Linton

Catherine's husband. She became a wealthy aristocrat upon marrying him and chose to love and marry him over Heathcliff so she could be part of high social status than being degraded. Once Heathcliff returns, Catherine is confronted by Edgar, who she loves the most; the dark-haired gypsy or her handsome, well-bred husband. In her last days, she was cared for by Edgar and left the world, leaving a daughter behind for Edgar to raise alone.

### Hindley Earnshaw

Catherine's older brother. Although she has few interactions with her brother, she sees him as a domineering figure towards Heathcliff and has even recalled some of these incidents in a diary entry that she had kept in one of her journals. In addition, she may also have to follow Hindley's strict rules once he inherits the Heights.

### Nelly Dean

Catherine's foster sister and her servant, who also grew up with her alongside Heathcliff. She can be stubborn with her, especially in one scene where she screams and pinches at Nelly because she won't leave the room she's in. But she also seems to be the most loyal and understanding person to Catherine. She told her the whole truth about her marriage proposal to Edgar and her intense love for Heathcliff. Catherine continues to be supported and cared for by Nelly during her marriage and final days.

### Isabella Linton

Catherine's sister-in-law. While she and Isabella have a decent relationship after they first met, Catherine's status and personality are much higher and stronger than hers. She had failed to try to stop Isabella from falling in love with Heathcliff, who would not be the perfect match for her.

## Portrayals

* In the 1939 film adaptation, she is portrayed by Merle Oberson
* In the 1992 film adaptation, she is portrayed by Juliette Binoche, who also portrayed Cathy Linton.
* In the 2009 Masterpiece Theatre adaptation, she is portrayed by Alexandra Pearson as a child and Charlotte Riley as an adult.

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 4
2. ↑ Chapter 5
3. ↑ Chapter 6
4. ↑ Chapter 7
5. ↑ Chapter 8