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Chapter 1 Summary Mr. Lockwood first visits Wuthering Heights, describing it as “[a] perfect misanthropist’s Heaven” (1). After meeting Heathcliff, Lockwood meets Joseph, “an old man: very old, perhaps, though hale and sinewy” (1). Upon entering the house, Lockwood notices the name Hareton Earnshaw carved over the front door and “requested a short history of the place from the surly owner” (2). As Lockwood walks through the house, he observes that “[t]he apartment and furniture would have been nothing extraordinary as belonging to a homely, northern farmer” (2), but Heathcliff is not such a man. Rather, “he has an erect and handsome figure; and rather morose” (3). Lockwood strays from his descriptions of the house and master to explain that, the previous summer, he had led on “a most fascinating creature,” breaking her heart in the process, which makes him “unworthy of [a comfortable home]” (3). When attempting to stroke one of the many dogs in the house, one dog snarls at Lockwood, but Lockwood disregards Heathcliff’s warnings and makes faces at three of the dogs. They attack him, which inspires six more dogs to join in the fracas, and Joseph and Heathcliff join forces with “a lusty dame, with tucked-up gown, bare arms and fire-flushed cheeks” (4) to beat the dogs off Lockwood. Heathcliff blames Lockwood for the incident but offers him some wine, and they talk. Despite Heathcliff’s unfriendliness, Lockwood decides “to volunteer another visit tomorrow” (5). Chapter 2 Summary When Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights the next day, he climbs over the locked gate, “just in time to escape the first feathery flakes of a snow-shower” (5). Only a young blond woman is home, and Lockwood calls her Mrs. Heathcliff. She observes Lockwood with a “cool, regardless manner, exceedingly embarrassing and disagreeable” (6). Despite her bad-tempered appearance, Lockwood finds her attractive, but “fortunately for [his] susceptible heart” (7), she seems to find him unworthy of positive attention. Lockwood notices a young man looking at him “as if there were some mortal feud unavenged between [them],” and soon, “the entrance of Heathcliff relieved [him], in some measure, from [his] uncomfortable state” (7). While Lockwood drinks tea with Heathcliff, they discuss the snowstorm, and Heathcliff introduces the young woman as his daughter-in-law. The young man reacts badly when Lockwood teases him about “the beneficent fairy,” and demands respect when he introduces himself as Hareton Earnshaw, causing Lockwood to “laugh internally at the dignity with which he announced himself” (9). Meanwhile, the snow worsens, but no one seems willing to advise Lockwood as to how he should get home to Thrushcross Grange, and Lockwood announces that he feels “compelled to stay” (11). Moments later, “two hairy monsters flew at [his] throat” (11), knocking Lockwood over, causing a “mingled guffaw from Heathcliff and Hareton” (12) and an overreaction from Lockwood that brings on “a copious bleeding at the nose” (12) and more humiliating laughter from the men. Heathcliff’s light mood passes quickly, and he orders Zillah, a servant, “to give [him] a glass of brandy” (12) before Lockwood is shown to a bed for the night. Chapter 3 Summary Under Zillah’s guidance, Lockwood stays in an old room littered with furniture and “a few mildewed books” (13) inscribed with the name Catherine. One book appears to be a diary, and Lockwood reads it. In the diary, Lockwood learns about young Heathcliff’s trials as well as about Catherine’s attachment to Heathcliff. Someone named Hindley, “a detestable substitute” (13), runs the house when Catherine’s father is away, and Heathcliff and Catherine “have a scamper on the moors” (15) whenever they can, for fun and for escape. Lockwood falls asleep while perusing another book, and in his dream, he attends a church service. During the service he feels sleepy, until he “was moved to rise and denounce Jabes Branderham as the sinner of the sin that no Christian need pardon” (16). In Lockwood’s dream, the tapping of “the boards of the pulpit” wake him up, but it was “[m]erely the branch of a fir-tree” (17) blowing in the wind. More sounds of the branch tapping at the window annoy Lockwood, and he tries to stop the sound by “stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch” (17).