Chapter VIII Practice Quiz — Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter VIII
What major event opens Chapter 8?
The birth of Hareton Earnshaw, the last of the ancient Earnshaw line, on a fine June morning.
What illness does the doctor say Frances Earnshaw has?
Consumption (tuberculosis). Dr. Kenneth says she has been consumptive for months and will likely die before winter.
How does Hindley react to the doctor's diagnosis of Frances?
He refuses to believe it, furiously insisting she is recovering from a mere fever. He tells his wife the same reassuring story.
How does Frances die?
While leaning on Hindley's shoulder and speaking of getting up the next day, she suffers a slight coughing fit, puts her arms around his neck, and dies.
How does Hindley respond to Frances's death?
He grows desperate, neither weeping nor praying. He curses God and man, and gives himself up to reckless dissipation and drinking.
Who remains at Wuthering Heights after Hindley drives away the other servants?
Only Nelly Dean (who stays to care for Hareton) and Joseph (who stays because he relishes having wickedness to reprove).
What "two idols" does Nelly say Hindley worshipped?
His wife (Frances) and himself. He doted on both and adored one.
How old is Catherine in the main action of Chapter 8?
Fifteen. Nelly describes her as "the queen of the country-side" with no peer.
What is Catherine's "double character"?
She is polished and charming at Thrushcross Grange with the Lintons, but wild and unrestrained at Wuthering Heights—adopting different personas without intending to deceive.
What has Heathcliff marked on the almanac he shows Catherine?
Crosses for the evenings Catherine spent with the Lintons, and dots for those she spent with him—a visual record of her increasing absence.
How does Catherine respond when Heathcliff shows her the almanac?
She dismisses it as "very foolish" and cruelly tells him his company is worthless: "You might be dumb, or a baby, for anything you say to amuse me."
How has Hindley's treatment affected Heathcliff by age sixteen?
Continual hard labor has destroyed his education and curiosity. He has developed a slouching gait, ignoble look, and retreated into "unsociable moroseness."
What triggers Catherine's violent outburst during Edgar's visit?
Nelly refuses to leave the room (under Hindley's orders to chaperone). Catherine pinches Nelly, then denies it, then slaps her, shakes Hareton, and finally strikes Edgar on the ear.
What does little Hareton call Catherine during the violent scene?
"Wicked aunt Cathy"—which draws Catherine's fury onto him as she seizes and shakes him.
What animal metaphor does Nelly use to describe Edgar's inability to leave Catherine?
She compares him to a cat that cannot leave a half-killed mouse or a half-eaten bird—suggesting his attraction is instinctive and irresistible.
What is the outcome of the quarrel between Catherine and Edgar?
Rather than driving them apart, it breaks down the barriers of youthful timidity and they confess themselves lovers.
What does Nelly do when Hindley returns home drunk at the end of the chapter?
She hides little Hareton and removes the shot from Hindley's fowling-piece (gun) to prevent harm, as he is fond of playing with it when drunk.
What contrast does Nelly draw between Heathcliff leaving and Edgar arriving?
She compares it to exchanging "a bleak, hilly, coal country for a beautiful fertile valley"—emphasizing the physical and temperamental opposition between the two men.
Why does Mr. Edgar seldom visit Wuthering Heights openly?
He has a terror of Earnshaw's (Hindley's) reputation and shrinks from encountering him.
What theme does the almanac scene symbolize?
Love expressed through possession and surveillance rather than communication. Heathcliff tracks Catherine's time obsessively but cannot articulate his feelings in words.