Chapter VI Practice Quiz — Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter VI
What surprising thing does Hindley bring home to Wuthering Heights when he returns for his father's funeral?
A wife. Her background, name, and family are never revealed, and Nelly assumes she had neither money nor name to recommend her.
What physical symptoms does Nelly observe in Hindley's new wife that foreshadow her death?
She breathes very quickly climbing stairs, startles at sudden noises, and coughs troublesomely. She also has a hysterical fear of dying and cannot bear the sight of funeral mourning.
How does Hindley change the household arrangements when he becomes master of Wuthering Heights?
He orders Nelly and Joseph to quarter themselves in the back-kitchen and reserves the main house for himself and his wife.
What does Hindley do to Heathcliff after becoming master?
He drives Heathcliff from the family's company, deprives him of the curate's education, and forces him to labor outdoors as a common farm servant.
What motivates Hindley to degrade Heathcliff?
His long-standing jealousy of Heathcliff, reignited when his wife expresses dislike of the boy—a few words from her are enough to rouse all his old hatred.
How do Catherine and Heathcliff cope with Hindley's tyranny?
They escape to the moors together daily, growing wild and inseparable. Catherine teaches Heathcliff what she learns, and they treat punishments as things to laugh at.
What happens on the Sunday evening when Catherine and Heathcliff go missing?
They are banished from the sitting-room for making noise, run away, and cannot be found. Hindley orders the doors bolted, swearing nobody should let them in that night.
Where does Heathcliff say Catherine is when he returns alone?
At Thrushcross Grange. He says he would have been there too, but the Lintons "had not the manners to ask me to stay."
What do Catherine and Heathcliff see when they peer through the Lintons' drawing-room window?
A splendid crimson-carpeted room with a crystal chandelier, where Edgar and Isabella Linton are quarreling and crying over a small lap dog they have nearly pulled in two between them.
How does Heathcliff react to the sight of Edgar and Isabella fighting over the dog?
He and Catherine laugh outright and despise them. Heathcliff declares he would not exchange his life for Edgar Linton's "for a thousand lives."
What happens when the Linton children hear Catherine and Heathcliff outside?
They cry out for their parents in terror. When Catherine and Heathcliff try to flee, the bulldog Skulker is released and seizes Catherine by the ankle.
How does Catherine react to being seized by Skulker?
She does not yell out—Heathcliff says she "would have scorned to do it, if she had been spitted on the horns of a mad cow," showing her fierce pride and courage.
How do the Lintons treat Catherine versus Heathcliff when they are brought inside?
Catherine is recognized as Miss Earnshaw, washed, fed cakes, given warm slippers, and wheeled to the fire. Heathcliff is called a wicked boy, cursed at, and dragged out to the garden by a servant.
What does Mr. Linton say about Heathcliff's identity when he sees him?
He calls him "that strange acquisition my late neighbour made, in his journey to Liverpool—a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway," revealing the racial prejudice Heathcliff faces.
What does Isabella Linton say when she sees Heathcliff?
"Frightful thing! Put him in the cellar, papa. He's exactly like the son of the fortune-teller that stole my tame pheasant."
What does Heathcliff do after being expelled from Thrushcross Grange?
He watches through the window as Catherine is pampered by the Lintons, then walks home alone in the rain. He refuses to leave until he sees Catherine is safe and content.
What contrast between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange does Chapter 6 establish?
Wuthering Heights represents wildness, poverty, and passionate freedom; Thrushcross Grange represents civilization, wealth, and refined constraint. Catherine is caught between these two worlds.
How does the window motif function symbolically in Chapter 6?
Windows represent social boundaries. Catherine and Heathcliff look in from outside; once Catherine crosses the threshold, Heathcliff is left watching through glass—a visual metaphor for the class divide that will separate them.
What narrative technique does Brontë use in Heathcliff's account of the Grange visit?
A layered narrative: Nelly tells Lockwood what Heathcliff once told her, creating a story-within-a-story that gives the reader Heathcliff's passionate, biased perspective filtered through Nelly's memory.
What is Nelly's warning to Heathcliff at the end of the chapter, and does it come true?
"There will more come of this business than you reckon on." It proves true: Mr. Linton visits the next day to lecture Hindley, Heathcliff is threatened with dismissal, and Catherine is kept under restraint.