Wuthering Heights
passages-chapters 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27

Cathy (II) and Edgar Linton

1. “’I love him better than myself, Ellen; and I know it by this--I pray every night that I may live after him; because I would rather be miserable myself than that he should be--that proves I love him better than myself’” (170).

2. “’Through winter nights and summer days she was a living hope at my side--but I’ve been as happy musing by myself among those stones, under that old church--lying, through the long June evenings, on the green mound of her mother’s grave, and wishing, yearning for the time when I might lie beneath it’” (189).

Linton and Cathy (II)

3. “’Yes,’ said Catherine, stroking his long soft hair; ‘if I could only get papa’s consent, I’d spend half my time with you. Pretty Linton! I wish you were my brother.’
     ‘And then you would like me as well as your father?’ observed he, more cheerfully. ‘But papa says you would love me better than him and all the world, if you were my wife; so I’d rather you were that’” (175). 

4. “One time, however, we were near quarrelling. He said the pleasantest manner of spending a hot July day was lying from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the middle of the moors, with the bees humming dreamily about among the bloom, and the larks singing high up overhead, and the blue sky and bright sun shining steadily and cloudlessly. That was his most perfect idea of heaven's happiness. Mine was rocking in a rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright white clouds flitting rapidly above, and not only larks, but throstles, and blackbirds, and linnets, and cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool, dusky dells, but close by great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze, and woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy. He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. I said his heaven would be only half alive, and he said mine would be drunk; I said I should fall asleep in his, and he said he could not breathe in mine, and began to grow very snappish. At last we agreed to try both, as soon as the right weather came; and then we kissed each other and were friends” (182).

5. “’But he consented to play at ball with me. We found two in a cupboard, among a heap of old toys, tops, and hoops, and battledores, and shuttlecocks. One was marked C. and the other H. I wished to have the C., because that stood for Catherine, and the H. might be for Heathcliff, his name; but the bran came out of H., and Linton didn't like it. I beat him constantly, and he got cross again, and coughed, and returned to his chair’” (182).

Cathy (II) and Hareton

6.  “...as he raised the latch he looked up to the inscription above, and said, with a stupid mixture of awkwardness and elation, -- 
‘Miss Catherine, I can read yon now.’
 ‘Wonderful!' I exclaimed. 'Pray let us hear you; you are grown clever.' 
‘He spelt, and drawled over by syllables, the name, 'Hareton Earnshaw.'
‘And the figures?' I cried encouragingly, perceiving that he came to a dead halt’” (183).

7. “’Get to thy own room!’ he said, in a voice almost inarticulate with passion, and his face looked swelled and furious. ‘Take her there if she comes to see thee--thou shalln’t keep me out of this. Begone, wi’ ye both!’” (184).

Cathy (II) and Heathcliff

8. “’I don’t love you! How should I?’” (202).

9. “’No, don’t turn away! do look! You’ll see nothing to provoke you. I don’t hate you. I’m not angry that you struck me. Have you never loved anybody, in all your life, uncle? never? Ah! you must look once--’” (202).

Consumption  (Tuberculosis)

“I imagined her as little likely to die as myself. She was rather thin, but young, and fresh complexioned, and her eyes sparkled as bright as diamonds...mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick....she coughed troublesomely sometimes...” (32).

“At last, his cries were choked by a dreadful fit of coughing; blood gushed from his mouth, and he fell on the ground” (185).

“To her inexperienced notions, this itself was a sign of convalescence; and then his cheek was often flushed, and his eyes were bright, she felt sure of his recovering” (189).

Symptoms include: cough that is worse in the morning (sometimes with hemoptysis, blood in the sputum), chest pain, breathlessness, night sweats, and signs of pneumonia. In advanced disease, there may be extreme weight loss. Examination with a stethoscope may reveal diminished breath sounds, bronchial breathing, tracheal deviation, and coarse crackles. 

The Bronte Family all died of consumption....
Mother Bronte died 1821 
Reverend Bronte chronic infection 
Maria died 1825
Elizabeth died 1825 
Branwell died 1848 
Emily died 1848 
Anne died 1849 
Charlotte died 1855 

There is evidence that mankind has suffered from tuberculosis for more than 5,000 years, and through crowded living conditions, debilitation, and malnutrition, tuberculosis became epidemic in Western civilization and was a major cause of mortality. Identification of the tubercle bacillus as the causative agent in 1882 firmly established the infectious nature of the disease and the development of sanatoriums soon followed. Before the advent of effective chemotherapeutic agents, treatment involved rest, diet, and various surgical procedures, which were of little or no benefit to the patient. 

Around 1820, Percy Bysshe Shelley tried to comfort fellow poet John Keats, who was dying of tuberculosis. "This consumption," wrote Shelley, "is a disease particularly fond of people who write such good verses as you have done." When Keats succumbed to the disease at the age of 25, his lungs were almost completely destroyed. But his early, brutal death helped secure the notion that tuberculosis was a particularly romantic and artistic illness. The legion of other sensitive souls among its prey included Chopin, Robert Louis Stevenson, D.H. Lawrence, Thomas Mann, Franz Kafka and Katherine Mansfield. Mention of the disease, once known as consumption and the White Plague, still produces that popular image of a languid, delicate artist; pale-skinned with flushed cheeks and glittering eyes.