The Lintons then take in Catherine and nurse her injuries, and Heathcliff is driven out of the estate and back to Wuthering Heights.

Catherine's most famous speech in the novel comes when she declares her feelings for Heathcliff and Edgar to Nelly Dean, the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights and the novel's main narrator: Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy.

I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there, had not brought Heathcliff so low I shouldn't have thought of it.

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.Unbeknownst to Catherine, Heathcliff was eavesdropping on her conversation with Nelly, but only heard the beginning of her speech.

During Heathcliff's absence, Catherine marries Edgar Linton and moves into Thrushcross Grange, where she lives peacefully, her every desire indulged.

Upon his return, Heathcliff pays a visit to Thrushcross Grange, which causes Catherine great excitement, and Edgar deepest dread: Mr. Linton walked to a window on the other side of the room that overlooked the court.

Ere long, I heard the click of the latch, and Catherine flew up-stairs, breathless and wild; too excited to show gladness: indeed, by her face, you would rather have surmised an awful calamity.In an awkward set of visits to the Grange, Heathcliff begins to exact his revenge, seducing Isabella Linton in order to gain control of Thrushcross Grange at Edgar's death, and trapping her in an abusive and terrifying marriage.

Cathy falls into a state of psychological insanity, although it is partly feigned in her desire to provoke her husband and "break his heart" because of the pain that she feels after being forbidden to see Heathcliff.

She dies a couple of hours after giving birth to a daughter, also named Catherine (but only referred to as Cathy throughout the novel), whose generation forms the basis of the second half of the story.

During Cathy's fatal illness, Nelly notes that Catherine is very frail, and has "a bloodless lip", an image which serves to augment the Gothic undertones of her final days; nevertheless, Nelly describes her in death as divine: "no angel in heaven looked as beautiful as her", and her countenance resembled "perfect peace".

Many film adaptations of the novel have been made, particularly the 1939 version with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, which covers only half of the story, ending with Catherine's death rather than the lives of the younger Cathy, Hareton, and Linton Heathcliff.