What occurs at the end of Wuthering Heights?
The ending of Wuthering Heights is bittersweet. Heathcliff, realizing that all he wants is to be with Catherine, stops caring for himself. While his death was not directly a suicide, it could be argued that it was nevertheless self-inflicted, since he had stopped eating.
When Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights, he is surprised to learn of Heathcliff's death. He gets another surprise when he learns that Cathy and Hareton are in love and planning to marry. Heathcliff's death, tragic as it may seem, leaves the next generations of the Earnshaw and Linton families free to live their lives in peace. Hareton and Cathy inherit both Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights and plan to marry on New Year's Day.
It also seems that while not fated to be together in life, death has finally brought Heathcliff and Catherine together. When Lockwood goes to look at the graves of Catherine, Heathcliff, and...
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Edgar, he feels sure that they are all at peace. In addition, in the aftermath of Heathcliff's death, several villagers report sightings of Heathcliff and Catherine's ghosts wandering around the moors. Given how complicated their situation in life was, it could be argued that since they were fated to be together, they find peace and contentment in the afterlife.
What is the conclusion of Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte?
In the conclusion of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, the tragedies, the
wrong-headed decisions, the remorseless cruelties, the cowardice and judgmental
rejection of past life at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are reversed
and subsumed in the renewal of heart, mind and soul of young Catherine, Hareton
and Heathcliff.
Catherine and Hareton, cousins, reconcile their ill will and unkindness to each
other and become devoted to one another. Catherine, inspired by the presence
and response of Lockwood, says she does not want to hinder Hareton's attempts
to learn to read. She later says she is sorry for having teased him. This
choice of young Catherine's symbolically represents remorse from her
remorseless mother for cruelty to Heathcliff.
Hareton accidentally shoots himself and is confined indoors which gives him and
Catherine a chance to reconcile their hateful ways toward each other. This
reconciliation leads to devotion and a marriage between them (it was still
common and legal for cousins to wed in the 1800s). Their reconciliation and
marriage symbolically represents reconciliation and unity between the elder
Catherine and Heathcliff.
Brontë concludes Wuthering Heights by giving peace and rest to the troubles of
the manor of Wuthering Heights, which will be Hareton's inheritance (with the
name of Hareton, which was born by his ancestor, inscribed above the entry),
and Thrushcross Grange. Heathcliff also finds peace by abandoning his plans for
revenge to be taken out upon Hareton and young Catherine and by his experience
of a vision on the moors. He seems to Nelly to have seen an apparition to which
he continues to talk. He excitedly gives Nelly instructions for his funeral,
then she finds him peacefully dead and believes that he is reunited with his
beloved Catherine.