Wuthering Heights: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights the next day. As he arrives, it begins to snow. No one answers his knock at the door, and an old servant with a heavy Yorkshire accent named Joseph tells him that Heathcliff is away.

Eventually a rough young man lets Lockwood in and brings him to a sitting room. In the room also is a beautiful but rather rude and haughty young woman. Soon after, Heathcliff arrives—he scolds Lockwood for coming, then begrudgingly invites him to dinner.

During the meal, Lockwood learns that the young woman (whom he assumed was Heathcliff's wife) is the widow of Heathcliff's son and that the rough young man (whom Lockwood thought was Heathcliff's son) is Heathcliff's nephew.

The meal is awkward—at one point the young woman threatens to use witchcraft on Joseph the servant. The snow also turns to a blizzard, and while discussing how Lockwood will get home, the woman tells Heathcliff that if he lets Lockwood leave alone, she hopes Lockwood's ghost will haunt him.

Fed up with the bickering, and with no one willing to guide him home, Lockwood takes a lantern, promising to return it the next day, and leaves. But Joseph thinks he's stealing the lantern and sends the dogs after him. The dogs pin Lockwood down, which amuses Heathcliff and Hareton. Lockwood then gets a nosebleed and is forced to spend the night at Wuthering Heights. Zillah the housekeeper leads him inside.