Chapter XXIII Practice Quiz — Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte — tap or click to flip
Practice Quiz: Chapter XXIII
What is the weather like when Nelly and Cathy travel to Wuthering Heights in Chapter 23?
A misty morning with half frost, half drizzle, and temporary brooks crossing the path from the uplands. Nelly's feet are thoroughly wetted.
What is Joseph doing when Nelly and Cathy arrive at Wuthering Heights?
Joseph is sitting alone by a roaring fire with a quart of ale, toasted oat-cake, and his black pipe, ignoring everyone's requests for help.
What does Linton say when he first hears someone approaching, mistaking them for a servant?
"Oh, I hope you'll die in a garret, starved to death!" He thinks it is his negligent attendant rather than Cathy and Nelly.
How does Linton react when Catherine first embraces him?
He tells her not to kiss him because it takes his breath away. He is too ill and feverish for physical affection.
What does Cathy say about her feelings for Linton compared to others?
She tells Linton that next to her papa and Ellen (Nelly), she loves him better than anybody living.
Why does Linton say he would rather Cathy be his wife than his sister?
Because his father (Heathcliff) told him Cathy would love him better than anyone in the world if she were his wife. This reveals Heathcliff has been coaching Linton toward marriage.
What argument does Cathy make against marriage when Linton brings it up?
She says people sometimes hate their wives but never their siblings, and cites Heathcliff's mistreatment of her Aunt Isabella as an example of marital hatred.
What cruel claim does Linton make that enrages Cathy during their quarrel?
Linton claims that Cathy's mother (Catherine Earnshaw) hated her father (Edgar) and loved Heathcliff instead. He repeats "She did! she did!" to provoke her.
What happens when Cathy pushes Linton's chair in anger?
He falls against the arm of the chair and is seized by a violent, suffocating cough that lasts so long it frightens even Nelly.
How does Linton manipulate Cathy after his coughing fit?
He moans and whimpers for a quarter of an hour, deliberately putting "renewed pain and pathos" into his voice whenever he hears Cathy crying, to keep her feeling guilty and attentive.
What does Linton do when Cathy and Nelly try to leave?
He screams and slides from his seat onto the hearthstone, writhing in what Nelly describes as "the mere perverseness of an indulged plague of a child."
How does Linton finally persuade Cathy to stay with him?
He asks her to sit on the settle and let him lean on her knee, saying "That's as mamma used to do, whole afternoons together," and requests that she sing ballads to him.
What does Nelly say about Linton's life expectancy?
She says he will not win (reach) twenty and doubts he will even see spring. She calls it "small loss to his family whenever he drops off."
How does Cathy respond to Nelly's prediction that Linton will die young?
She insists Linton is as strong as when he first came north and that it is only a cold, comparing his condition to her father Edgar's illness and reasoning both will recover.
What threat does Nelly make to try to prevent Cathy from returning to Wuthering Heights?
Nelly threatens to inform Mr. Linton (Edgar) about the visits, saying the intimacy with Linton must not be continued unless Edgar allows it.
How does Cathy respond to Nelly's threat about telling her father?
She defiantly says she is almost seventeen and "a woman," that the Grange is not a prison and Nelly is not her gaoler, and that she can climb over the wall.
What happens to Nelly the morning after the visit to Wuthering Heights?
She falls severely ill from the wet and cold and is bedridden for three weeks, the first time she has ever been incapacitated from her duties.
What clues suggest Cathy is secretly visiting Linton during Nelly's illness?
Nelly notices Cathy has a "fresh colour in her cheeks and a pinkness over her slender fingers" at bedtime, which Nelly mistakenly attributes to sitting by a hot fire rather than riding across the moors.
What is the significance of Nelly's illness as a plot device in Chapter 23?
It removes the only guardian capable of supervising Cathy, giving her unsupervised evenings to secretly visit Wuthering Heights and advancing Heathcliff's plan to bring the cousins together.
How does Chapter 23 parallel the first generation's story?
Cathy is torn between Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, just as her mother was. Linton's manipulation mirrors Catherine Earnshaw's emotional volatility. The quarrel about their parents literally resurrects first-generation conflicts.