Plot Summary
Mr. Edgar Linton, alarmed by Heathcliff's demand for custody, instructs Nelly Dean to deliver young Linton Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights before dawn. He forbids Nelly from telling Catherine where Linton has gone, hoping to sever any connection between the children. Nelly rouses the reluctant boy at five in the morning and, with half-truths and false promises that Edgar and Cathy will visit, coaxes him onto the pony Minny for the ride across the moors.
During the journey, Linton reveals how little he knows of his father—his mother never mentioned Heathcliff, and the boy cannot even picture him. He asks innocent questions about Wuthering Heights and its inhabitants, and Nelly carefully describes Heathcliff in guarded terms, warning Linton that his father may not seem gentle at first. The morning ride through heather-scented air temporarily lifts Linton's spirits, but when they arrive at the farmhouse, the boy surveys its rough exterior with visible dismay.
Heathcliff's Reception
Heathcliff greets his son with open contempt, calling Linton his "property" and mocking the boy's pale, delicate appearance. Joseph compares Linton unfavorably to young Hareton, who ate plain porridge without complaint. When Linton refuses the milk-porridge, Heathcliff impatiently orders something the child can stomach, revealing a pragmatic concern for the boy's survival that belies his scorn.
In a rare moment of candor with Nelly, Heathcliff lays out his true motive: Linton is the "prospective owner" of Thrushcross Grange, and Heathcliff intends to keep the boy alive long enough to inherit it—ensuring that Heathcliff's descendant will lord over the Linton and Earnshaw estates. He has furnished a room, hired a tutor, and ordered Hareton to obey Linton, all calculated to preserve the boy's gentlemanly status. Yet Heathcliff admits he despises Linton for his weakness and hates him for evoking memories of Isabella.
Themes and Analysis
Chapter 20 echoes and inverts the novel's origin story: just as the elder Mr. Earnshaw once brought a mysterious orphan from Liverpool into Wuthering Heights, Nelly now delivers another child—but this time a frail, sheltered boy who is everything Heathcliff was not. The contrast between the two arrivals underscores the novel's cyclical structure and its theme of repetition with reversal. Where Heathcliff was tough and wild, Linton is timid and refined; where Heathcliff was embraced by Mr. Earnshaw, Linton is received with mockery by his own father.
Heathcliff's speech about making his descendant "lord of their estates" crystallizes the theme of revenge through inheritance. His plan to weaponize property law—using Linton as a legal instrument to seize Thrushcross Grange—elevates his vendetta from personal grudge to dynastic strategy. The chapter also highlights the theme of parental failure: Heathcliff views his son purely as a tool, while Edgar, however well-meaning, deceives both Linton and Catherine to maintain control.
The chapter's final image—Linton crying "Don't leave me! I'll not stay here!"—is one of the novel's most poignant moments, underscoring the boy's utter helplessness and foreshadowing the misery that awaits him at Wuthering Heights.