Mr Lockwood

Mr Lockwood is the frame-narrator in Emily Brontë's 1847 novel Wuthering Heights,[1][2][3][4] and the recorder of the main narrative, which is related to him by Nelly Dean. Dean had worked as a servant at both Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, the two manors featured in the story.

Lockwood is an English gentleman who arrives on the Yorkshire moors for a retreat from city life. The narrative is propelled by Lockwood's interest in Heathcliff, his landlord at Thrushcross Grange.

Narrative

Wuthering Heights begins as Lockwood arrives at Thrushcross Grange, an estate in the moorland that he is renting from Heathcliff. Heathcliff, at the time Lockwood arrives, owns both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, two neighboring estates. Early in the book, Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights, where he is shocked by the behavior of Heathcliff and the other residents of the manor.

Lockwood nevertheless pays a second visit to Wuthering Heights, when, due to the weather, he is forced to spend the night. Without proper lodgings available, Lockwood is taken to a small room by a servant, who instructs Lockwood to not let Heathcliff know that he is there. During the night, Lockwood reads a book wherein he finds the names "Catherine Earnshaw" and "Catherine Linton" written repeatedly. In the course of the night, Lockwood sees a spectre of Catherine; he relates,

The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed,

"Let me in — let me in!"

"Who are you?" I asked, struggling, meanwhile, to disengage myself.

"Catherine Linton," it replied, shiveringly (why did I think of LINTON? I had read EARNSHAW twenty times for Linton). "I'm come home: I'd lost my way on the moor!"

As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking through the window.[5]

Upon waking, Lockwood recounts the vision to Heathcliff, who orders Lockwood to leave Wuthering Heights. Before he leaves, Lockwood observes Heathcliff enter the bedroom and attempt to speak to the ghost of Catherine: "Come in! come in!" he sobbed. "Cathy, do come. Oh, do — once more! Oh! my heart's darling! hear me this time, Catherine, at last!"[6]

Upon returning to Thrushcross Grange, Lockwood inquires about the history of Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights with Nelly Dean. While Lockwood is bedridden with an illness, Nelly recounts to him the story of Heathcliff, the Earnshaws of Wuthering Heights, and the Lintons of Thrushcross Grange. Nelly's retelling makes up the bulk of the novel.

The novel concludes as Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights to notify Heathcliff that he wished to terminate his lease of Thrushcross Grange. Upon arriving at the Heights, Lockwood discovers that Heathcliff had died, and that Heathcliff's niece and nephew were to be married.

The final scene of Wuthering Heights shows Lockwood passing by the graves of Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar Linton at the local kirkyard and commenting on the tranquility of the scene.

References

Notes
  1. Worth, George J. (1958). "Emily Brontë's Mr. Lockwood". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 12 (4): 315–320. doi:10.2307/3044427. ISSN 0029-0564. JSTOR 3044427.
  2. Frangipane, Nicholas (2016-01-02). "Lockwood the Liar: a Call to Reconsider Wuthering Heights as a Metafictional Work on the Limits of Narrative". Brontë Studies. 41 (1): 29–38. doi:10.1080/14748932.2015.1123914. ISSN 1474-8932.
  3. Shannon, Edgar F. (1959). "Lockwood's Dreams and the Exegesis of Wuthering Heights". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 14 (2): 95–109. doi:10.2307/3044162. ISSN 0029-0564. JSTOR 3044162.
  4. Fine, Ronald E. (1969). "Lockwood's Dreams and the Key to Wuthering Heights". Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 24 (1): 16–30. doi:10.2307/2932349. ISSN 0029-0564. JSTOR 2932349.
  5. Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. p. 20.
  6. Brontë 1998, p. 24.
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