#edgar probably eventually becomes edgar earnshaw

[ailelie]

Wuthering Heights, modern!AU, ...Edgar/Catherine/Heathcliff

This is based purely on the Wise Children's musical version of Wuthering Heights which does use quotes from the original novel, but is, of course, a musical

...this now apparently has a sex scene. So. Be warned for that. I've put asterisks on either side of it for those who prefer to avoid. The scene involves people goading one another into things they're perhaps not quite ready for, but everything is consensual. Is it on the edge of problematic? Yes, but please refer to the ship and source material. What did you expect?

First, we are shortening the time span and aging up the characters. Heathcliff is probably adopted when in middle school. English is his second language and Earnshaw sends him to the same uppity private school as his other two children. This school is ahead of his other school material-wise, plus Heathcliff is behind because his former school lacked resources for ESL students and instead over-assigned them to special education. It takes a couple years at the new school for Heathcliff to prove his only special need is that English isn't his first language. He doesn't shake the stigma, though. After one too many fights, Earnshaw sends Hindley to military school. (Hindley meets Francis who works near the military compound and they start a sweet romance; she is charmed by the idea of her military man protector. Earnshaw dies before Hindley ever formerly enlists and so he goes home instead of going into the military after school).

Before his death, Earnshaw sets up funds for Catherine and Heathcliff to go to college. Heathcliff is more interested in going than Catherine is. She ultimately goes because he does. When not in class, the two explore the city, breaking into locked and abandoned buildings to see what has been barred from them. Why should they, of all people, be denied access to anywhere?

(Note: Their school is not in the same town as their home. Catherine convinces her father to rent them an apartment near campus so that they don't have to stay in a dorm).

Then, the summer after their freshman year, Earnshaw dies and Hindley returns to their hometown. He turns Heathcliff out and revokes his college funding, claiming he needs it for Francis, his sickly wife.

I'm not sure how I feel about Francis. On the one hand, I think she genuinely loved Hindley and maybe even Catherine and would have been a good mother. On the other, she got spooked just looking at Heathcliff, which suggested to me that Hindley had brought her solely for an excuse to get rid of Heathcliff and reminds me too much of white women calling the police on black men existing. However, Hindley may have filled her head with stories of Heathcliff and how devilish he was and she may have been reacting more to those than to his presence. She was certainly of weak enough constitution to get caught up like that. So, perhaps, she would have come to love Heathcliff as well had she had continued exposure to him to learn that Hindley's tales were untrue.

Heathcliff suddenly has to find a place to live and a way to continue his education. Plus, Catherine still wants to spend time together and continue their urban exploration. I think Heathcliff ends up juggling two or three jobs and sleeping out of his car. He and Catherine explore in his infrequent off-hours.

Then, one night, the place they're exploring turns out to have guard dogs. Catherine gets bitten. While she and Heathcliff are escaping, they run into a pair of siblings out for a late evening walk. The siblings see Catherine bleeding and immediately want to help. Catherine tells Heathcliff to go and lets herself by treated by the Lintons.

Catherine requests no hospitals, so Edgar, who wants to be a doctor, but is only pre-med currently, puts his limited knowledge to the test to help her. She doesn't want to go home to her brother, as that could also get Heathcliff in trouble, so she stays with the Lintons. She learns that Edgar actually attends the same university as her and Heathcliff and will be a senior in the fall.

Edgar is charmed by Catherine's artlessness and daring. She shows him her videos from her urban exploration. (Catherine takes videos and does a running commentary; Heathcliff takes photographs. He has the control she lacks).

Isabella is still in high school and a bit of a dreamer. She probably aspires to be a novelist and decides to cast Catherine as her next protagonist, which flatters Catherine greatly.

Catherine spends a lot of time with the Lintons. Heathcliff is always working anyway, but now she is canceling on urban exploration with him to stay with the Lintons. She enjoys being doted on. Isabella takes her shopping and, of course, everything looks amazing on Catherine. Edgar likes how happy Isabella is with Catherine to spend time with and appreciates that Catherine is nice to his sister (of course, she's only nice because of how Isabella dotes on her, but Edgar doesn't know that). Edgar and Catherine have long, winding conversations. He never really challenges her, but he does make her think. (His persuasion is slow as the river cutting through stone and very different to Heathcliff's vehemence). He's a bit of a geek about medicine, which Catherine appreciates. It is a pale shadow of the passion she and Heathcliff share for abandoned spaces and each other, but it is familiar.

Heathcliff despises Catherine's new clothes and points out how impractical they are for breaking into abandoned buildings. He hates how Edgar has convinced Catherine to upload some of her videos online since they were supposed to be only for the two of them. Their exploration isn't for others to gawk at; it is for their interest and reign. They're the masters of the world against no door may be barred; not content creators for the greedy masses.

The more Catherine and Heathcliff argue, the more Catherine appreciates Edgar's willingness to go along with her. Then Edgar asks Catherine on a date and so she cancels a planned break-in with Heathcliff to spend time with him instead. For Heathcliff, strung out on the lack of sleep from working too much and sleeping in his car and furious by Catherine's betrayal, this is too much.

Heathcliff doesn't have Edgar's family money, fancy manners, or future career and riches. He and Catherine have one final fight and he leaves.

Catherine ends up dating Edgar off and on throughout the rest of undergrad and they may even share an apartment. He's older, but the university does have a medical program so he can stay on campus. Catherine does not graduate on time, but flits from major to major as it suits her. When Isabella graduates, she applies to the same college to be near them. She lives on campus, though.

During this time Francis gets pregnant and dies giving birth to Hareton. Hindley grieves too deeply to care for his son and hires a nanny to tend to him. As Hindley falls deeper into despair, drink, and gambling, his funds wither away and the nanny becomes his only expense. When Heathcliff returns, Hareton is just-turned three. Hindley makes sure he has food, but that's about it. He changes diapers infrequently and forces Hareton to potty-train early so that he can stop dealing with the diapers.

Catherine is a fifth-year senior and Edgar is in his second year of medical school when Heathcliff returns. He is back by invitation from the university as he has, in his absence, become known as an artist for his photography. (Catherine may even throw that in his face at some point--he's just another content creator for the greedy masses). His photos sell for high prices and, while he isn't wildly wealthy, he is comfortable and supplements his funds with portraiture and commissions. (He does both traditional photos and photo collages and sculptures). He is known for his command of light and shadow and his creativity.

(Heathcliff didn't get a lucky break so much as made a lucky break through a bit of snooping and blackmail. Still, he only made opportunities and still got lucky in that others decided to pay him for his work).

When Catherine learns that Heathcliff is staying in a hotel, she immediately invites him to stay with her and Edgar instead. Heathcliff initially declines, but then he notices how relieved Edgar is at his refusal and changes his mind. He'll gladly stay with them.

When Edgar is away at class, Heathcliff turns on Catherine, demanding to know why she is still with this milksop. He doesn't understand what she gets from her relationship with him. He is so inferior to her.

Catherine bites back that Edgar debates ideas and listens to her like Heathcliff never could.

Heathcliff is also furious that Catherine has chosen a career other than art. She has decided to become a nurse, which is a gross betrayal of her very essence and clearly Edgar's fault.

The argument ends with them inches apart and about to kiss when Edgar returns to the apartment. He immediately clocks the weird atmosphere, but says nothing. After all, Heathcliff is Catherine's dearest friend and is only here for a single gallery show. He can swallow his objections down in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Heathcliff can't bring himself to leave Catherine again. He wants to steal her from Edgar and punish Edgar for ever tainting her spirit. He doesn't understand how Catherine could bear to love the weak-willed reed of a man.

Heathcliff works on charming the college gallery owner and gets a partial scholarship to enroll in some business and management courses. He has decided to open a gallery in town to display his own work and showcase students.

During the summer, Heathcliff returns home to where Hindley and Hareton are living. Heathcliff pays off Hindley's debts and gets the deed to the family home in exchange. He then sells the family home to fund the purchase of a gallery in the city where Catherine is still in school.

He allows Hindley and Hareton to join him in the college town, provided Hindley agrees to be his employee. He'll help with the gallery, clean the house, and other sundry tasks in exchange for a place to sleep and pittance wage.

The gallery has a small apartment above it, but Heathcliff wants something more grand. He just wants Catherine to pick it with him. To his utter dismay, Catherine brings Edgar househunting as well. Then, to his even greater dissatisfaction, Edgar is helpful.

(By this time, Isabella has developed a terrible crush on Heathcliff and has been making noises about moving off campus and into her brother's apartment, which the family is paying for. Catherine's jealousy is great and she has decided that both Edgar and Heathcliff are hers and Isabella can have neither of them.)

Edgar, upon being invited by Catherine to the house-hunting (and eager to not live with Heathcliff again), did some cursory research online about choosing a good house and neighborhoods in the city.

They find a place that's a bit big and just on the edge of what Heathcliff can afford. Catherine pronounces it as perfect for "us."

Heathcliff and Edgar both look askance at her and Heathcliff repeats "us" slowly.

"The three of us," Catherine confirms. Both men are immediately against this, but Catherine won't be moved. "I'll not choose between you," she tells them. "I love you both and that's the truth of it."

She wheedles Edgar and points out how Isabella is ready to move off campus and she could have the apartment. Does he really want to live with his sister?

She argues loudly with Heathcliff, each accusing one another of betrayal and refusing to see or understand. Heathcliff yells that he doesn't understand what Catherine sees in Edgar and Catherine throws a cup or something breakable at the wall by Heathcliff's head and demands, "Try!"

When she's a bit calmer again, she points out that the house's mortgage would be more affordable with three incomes rather than one because, if Heathcliff and Edgar force her to choose, she'll go off on her own and leave them both.

The men, so cornered, finally agree. Catherine, pleased, kisses them both on the mouth, one after the other, and then darts upstairs to claim her preferred room while the other two handle contacting the realtor and submitting the offer.

Meanwhile, Hindley and Hareton live in the small apartment over the gallery.

Catherine flaunts her refusal to choose. She makes out with Heathcliff on the couch and then, when Edgar returns home, grabs his wrist as he passes the couch and pulls him down for a long kiss before he can leave the room. She sits in Edgar's lap to eat breakfast, wearing only his shirt and boxers, but then talks the entire time to Heathcliff.

Meanwhile, Edgar and Heathcliff continue to despise one another. Catherine becomes a competition between them. Every minute spent with her is a point against the other. (By mutual and unspoken agreement, every minute spent all three together is a point scored to Catherine).

Heathcliff and Catherine start doing urban exploration together again. Then, one night, Catherine tricks Edgar and Heathcliff into going together. (Promised Heathcliff to show and then told Edgar to meet her at the same place). Heathcliff goads Edgar into breaking into the building with him.

At first it all meanness and spite, but then both grow quiet, enchanted by the ruin. Heathcliff starts taking some quick photos and planning other, more intensive shots. He's not paying attention to Edgar anymore, but then he hears him talking in the other room.

He goes to the room and finds the roof caved in and stars overhead and Edgar in the midst of the rubble quoting a poem. Edgar's back is to him and his face upturned to the sky visible amidst cracks and missing tiles. Starlight and the ambient city light of too many street lamps illuminate him and the scant, scraggly weeds poking up through the rubble.

Heathcliff watches and listens before raising his camera on instinct alone and composing a shot: Edgar in the chapel ruins. Edgar flinches as the camera clicks and whirls around, locking eyes on Heathcliff. For a moment neither moves nor breaths nor speaks. Then, Edgar resumes his recitation, his gaze never wavering:

"Clasp me to your life, to your death, to your submissive materials, to your dead, neutralized doves, and let us make fire, and silence, and sound, and let us burn, and be hushed among bells."

The instant his mouth falls still, Heathcliff snaps another photo. Then Edgar looks away and the moment breaks, but something has shifted. "It's Neruda, by the way," Edgar says.

"I don't care," Heathcliff responds, but the last line is still echoing around his head. Let us burn, and be hushed among bells.

After that, they explore the rest of the church together, not speaking, but not separate either.

"Well?" Catherine asks them, expectantly, when they return home. Edgar kisses her on the cheek and says it was interesting. Heathcliff merely grunts in agreement and goes to his room to start processing his photos. When he reaches the one with Edgar staring directly at him, he wants to destroy his computer. He wants to destroy it.

Edgar lacks the feral rage that defines Catherine and Heathcliff. He does not and cannot ever understand their passion and intensity.

Still, after that night, the tenor of their interactions changes. They still compete over Catherine, but they're also goading one another toward something neither could name. They're passive aggressively nice to one another in Catherine's presence. Now, the first to crack, to say something obviously cruel, loses a point. Catherine tries to set them up again, but they communicate enough to avoid that happening.

Heathcliff cannot see what Catherine sees in Edgar. (She sees a harbor in her rages, a soothing balm, stability she desperately lacks; he is also quick and clever and loves her). He only sees a man he wishes to destroy.

Then one night, Catherine presses Heathcliff's camera into his hands and pulls him into Edgar's bedroom (they've each their own, though Catherine rarely uses hers). "I want you to capture the moment he falls apart," she says.

Edgar objects to this, but Catherine soothes him with a kiss and then teasingly asks if she is too wild for him. Heathcliff chuckles at that and answers for Edgar, "Of course you are, Catherine. He is too meek for you."

And Edgar's eyes flash at that. "Fine," he says and pulls off his shirt. Catherine grins like a lynx and pushes backward onto the bed. Her teeth scrape at his throat.

***

Edgar tries to ignore Heathcliff, but cannot as Catherine narrates to him. "See how easily he bruises," she says, after sucking a hickey against the side of his neck. "Watch." Then she lowers her mouth and sucks another. She knows he prefers marks he can hide, just as he knows she prefers to see her handiwork.

"His nipples are so sensitive too," she says. "Look, they prick up with just a breath."

And Edgar knows his face is burning. He lays one wrist across his eyes, but then Catherine tuts and moves it aside. She kisses him deeply and he presses up against her. "Don't hide," she admonishes him and then slips down his body to bite a kiss beneath his belly button.

"He is weak for you," Heathcliff says suddenly and Edgar hates the shiver that wracks through him at his voice. He closes his eyes, but he can still hear the smile in Catherine's voice as she replies, "He loves me."

She pulls his pants down slowly and he grabs the bed sheet with both fists to resist snatching them from her and pulling them back up, putting an end to all of this.

Then her tongue swirls around his member and he makes a noise he cannot describe. Heathcliff laughs quietly and his camera snaps.

Catherine's mouth is warm and he can feel warmth building, but then he feels an intruder at his bum and jerks. Catherine pulls off of him and presses a kiss against his knee. "Let me," she says, her finger rubs light circles around his asshole. "Please."

Catherine almost never says 'please.' He nods and she smiles, soft and wild. Her finger pushes forward again. "Relax," she tells him, caressing his taut thigh with her free hand. She trails kisses down that same thigh and then back up his penis. He forces himself to breathe as her finger sinks deeper. It is uncomfortable, but then her finger crooks and brushes something electric.

She hums around his dick as he moans in his throat. The warmth slowly returns. Catherine pulls off of him and sinks another finger in. He finds himself pushing back against her, trying to hit that knot of pleasure again. He knows the word for it, but words have fled.

"So greedy for me," Catherine says, pleased and amused. "You know, Heathcliff's fingers are longer than mine. Thicker, too. Do you want him to try?"

This cuts through the haze of pleasure. "What?" he asks.

"Catherine," Heathcliff murmurs, full of warning.

Catherine is looking at Heathcliff, so Edgar follows her gaze. He sees the camera loose in Heathcliff's hands and the deeper darkness in his eyes. His hand flexes and Edgar can't ignore the size of his fingers.

"Scared?" Catherine half-mocks. She pulls her fingers free of Edgar and he bites back a noise of dismay. He is still hard, still wanting. Catherine holds out her hand for Heathcliff's camera. "Come on," she says, "trade me."

Edgar knows this is his moment to put an end to it all. To scramble back, cover himself, and recover himself. But instead he looks at Heathcliff and sees want. And the power of that makes him stupid.

"Do it," he says, surprising them all. "Trade her."

Catherine grins and smacks a kiss against his knee. She stands, grabs the camera from Heathcliff, and pushes him toward the bed. "Lube's there," she says, pointing next to Edgar on the bed.

Heathcliff uses a little, but not enough and his finger burns slightly on entry. He grins at Edgar's hiss of pain.

"Is that all," Edgar says, trying to reclaim the power of the situation.

Heathcliff scowls; he changes emotions as quickly as a breeze. "I will ruin you," he vows.

"You won't," Edgar promises. He isn't sure if that's reassurance or a dare.

Heathcliff works a second finger in and Edgar has never felt so full or so vulnerable. His girlfriend is waiting with the camera for the shot of his wreckage, but he cannot focus on her. He only feels the stretch and the fullness and the sheer delight of watching his enemy want him. And then he is close and he feels himself tightening. He refuses to be the only one compromised. He reaches, grabs a fistful of Heathcliff's hair, and tugs him forward, crashing home against his mouth. He comes like that--Heathcliff's fingers in his ass, his heel against Heathcliff's back, and their mouths hot against each other.

***

Heathcliff wants to destroy Edgar, but Edgar refuses to be destroyed. He meets the chaos head-on and remains, maybe changed, but still whole.

Heathcliff pulls away and looks down at his shirt and jeans, soaked with Edgar's come. "You destroyed my clothes."

Edgar, lazy in the aftermath, just smiles. "So undress next time."

Heathcliff goes as still as a deer in the woods. "Next time?" he repeats softly.

"Do you think she'll allow anything less?" Edgar asks, removing the sting of his words with a brush of his fingers against Heathcliff's hand. He still does not like this man, but he can try. For Catherine.

"We're doing this again," Catherine says, dropping the camera on the dresser and clambering onto the bed. She kisses them both. Edgar looks past her to Heathcliff and raises a brow, See?

Heathcliff starts to smile, but then looks away.

"We should clean up," Edgar says, sitting up. "I should shower."

"I'll join you," Catherine says. She bounces back off the bed and holds out her hand for him. "We'll see you at dinner?" she asks Heathcliff.

He nods and they leave.

Alone in Edgar's room, Heathcliff sits on the edge of the bed and buries his face in his hands. The scent of Edgar's sweat and come are thick in his nose.

Fighting with Catherine is like battling a storm. Her refusals are wind and lightning, forces of nature. They are one and the same and he loves her for her feral ferocity and joy.

Edgar is so much lesser, a mere man against gods. He should crumble beneath them, but he does not. He is every weak flower that survives the summer storm. He denies destruction and resists consumption. He is rare. If Heathcliff cannot wreck him, then he must possess him.

He cleans himself and goes downstairs. He listens to the water running in the pipes and orders food for them all. He surprises himself by remembering Edgar's usual order.

When Catherine and Edgar come downstairs, Heathcliff notices the bruises on Edgar's throat. Catherine smirks when she notices him noticing. Heathcliff's newfound possessiveness swells within him and he backs Edgar against the kitchen counter.

Edgar is nervous and concerned, asking if everything is all right. Heathcliff tells him to shut up before lowering his mouth to the otherside of his neck and biting. Edgar's hands flex and tighten against the edge of the counter and Catherine rubs one hand up and down Heathcliff's back; she closes the other, lightly, over one of Edgar's wrists.

Heathcliff pulls away and smudges a thumb across the dark mark he left behind. He steps back, freeing Edgar.

Edgar narrows his eyes at the both of them. "I'm doomed to turtlenecks and scarves in public now, aren't I?"

"No," Heathcliff says. "Let them see."

"You are both ridiculous," Edgar says and he leaves the kitchen.

Catherine launches herself into Heathcliff's arms and peppers thankful kisses all over his face. Heathcliff slams her into a wall and she bites his lip with a wild grin. "Ours, yes?"

"Yes."

Naturally, before they can get everything figured out, before Edgar can have the very awkward conversation with Isabella about his relationships, before they can even think about labels or the future, Hindley dies.

He doesn't show up to the gallery for work so Heathcliff goes upstairs and finds Hareton sleeping next to the cool corpse of his father.

Police are called. Social services are called. Heathcliff does not want the brat, but the social worker gives a polite, I-don't-care smile and says that they're at capacity and that it is better for children to remain with family and that means Heathcliff and, since they live together, Catherine.

So Hareton joins the household. The house is large, but not extremely so. It has four bedrooms, but the fourth is Heathcliff's office and studio. Hareton spends the first night in Edgar's bed. Edgar sleeps on the couch. Catherine and Heathcliff both refuse to give up their space, but the baby, who is about 4 years old at this point, has to have somewhere.

Edgar emails his professors that night citing a family emergency and takes off classes for the rest of the week. During this time, Heathcliff argues for taking Hareton back to the authorities to drop into foster care. Edgar disagrees. Catherine swaps sides to better enjoy them arguing. She doesn't want to take care of her nephew, though.

Hareton has never, other than the nanny when he was a true baby, had someone care for him. So, when Edgar tucks him in, asks him what he likes to eat, and holds him when he cries, he gets clingy.

Catherine realizes one night, watching Edgar carry Hareton up and down a hallway while humming a lullaby, that she rather likes the look of him holding a baby like that. Then she realizes that Hareton is hers and Heathcliff's. They're his relatives. If Edgar decides to love Hareton, too, then he has to stay with them to remain near the baby. This is another way to bind Edgar to them.

She slips into Heathcliff's bed and curls against his back. He grasps her hands tight to his heart. She whispers, "He can't leave us if we have Hareton. If we make Hareton belong to the three of us, he has to stay. He's good like that."

"Children are an irritation," Heathcliff grumbles.

Catherine kisses his shoulder. "Imagine Hindley's expression when Hareton calls you Papa. We can make him hate Hindley. And Francis."

Heathcliff rolls to his other side and pushes a lock of hair behind Catherine's ear. "Hindley hated Hareton."

"Yes, but he hated you more. He never wanted to lose anything to you."

"He lost everything to me," Heathcliff says, proud.

Catherine shoves his shoulder down and climbs over to straddle his waist. "Everything except Hareton," she taunts.

Heathcliff strokes his hands up and down her sides beneath her shirt. He skims his thumbs over her nipples and they harden under his touch. "What would we even do with his spawn?"

"Let Edgar handle the boy. We can spoil or shape him at our leisure, turn him into a little acolyte to do our bidding." She pulls off her shirt. "What do you say?"

Heathcliff rolls her onto her back and she laughs. "I'll think about it," he says.

"Think faster," she says and pulls him down for a kiss.

At breakfast the next morning, Heathcliff says, "If we keep him, you're responsible for him."

"I have classes," Edgar protests while cutting up a banana for Hareton. "I can't watch him full-time."

"You have to choose," Heathcliff says, uncaring. "If you can't handle him, we'll take him back to the social worker."

Edgar looks up sharply, but sees no help on either Heathcliff's or Catherine's faces. Disappointment sinks like a stone in his gut. "Fine," he says, sliding the bananas onto Hareton's plate. "Do that. But I'll leave at the same time and this--" he gestures at the three of them "--is over." He meets their gazes, first Catherine's and then Heathcliff's. "You have to choose."

A moment later, Edgar and Hareton are alone at the table. Edgar sips his coffee and watches Hareton eat. "I suppose we find out whether or not they hate you more than they like me." He sighs. "I hope Isabella won't mind me moving back in."

Edgar spends the day with Hareton, taking him to the park and reading books to him at the library. They get dinner out and return home when Hareton starts yawning with every breath. Edgar knows he is only delaying the inevitable and begins mentally packing on the way home.

When he arrives, Heathcliff and Catherine are waiting for him. "How would we do it?" Heathcliff asks and Edgar blinks; his plans scatter.

"Let me put him down first," he says, walking past them to his bedroom. As he tucks Hareton in, he kisses the child's forehead. "I suppose they do love me. Lucky you."

He returns to the main room. Catherine is pacing and he recognizes the energy and irritation in her fluttering fingers and chewed lip. Heathcliff stands by the empty fireplace, still as a statue.

"He's old enough for a nursery," he says. "Maybe even pre-school. That's half the day there. We can divide his expenses and take turns caring for him in the evenings."

"And what do we do with him?" Heathcliff asks, biting out each word.

Edgar shrugs. "Play with him? Keep him from harm? Make sure he's learning. Comfort him when he's scared or hurt. Discipline him when he's naughty. That sort of thing, I suppose."

"We don't have a room for him," Heathcliff points out.

"I have an idea for that," Catherine says. "We stay in one room, us three. Keep one room for when want to sleep alone and give the other room to Hareton. It is the three of us now, isn't it?"

Heathcliff's gaze cuts to Edgar and he waits for his reply. Edgar nods and swallows nervously. "Yes. I rather think it is."

"Good," Heathcliff says. "One room. Mine is the largest."

Catherine beams. "Good. We're parents, then, too. Papa, Daddy, and Mommy. Or Mama. I don't care which."

"Wait now--" Edgar says, uncertain.

"We did not agree--" Heathcliff begins.

Catherine pushes up onto her toes and kisses Heathcliff's jaw. "We're stealing everything, remember?" Then she skips over to Edgar and twines her arms around his neck; he catches her at the hip. "Besides, wouldn't it be better for him to have parents growing up? It'll be easier, too, if we have more children."

He really cannot deny her anything. Edgar pulls her closer, locking his hands behind her back. "Fine," he says. "I'm Papa?"

"Yes," she says, pressing her forehead to his. They breathe together and, for a moment, he can feel all of the tension and energy drift out of her, leaving calm resolve in its wake.

"We will have to go shopping," Heathcliff says, with a sneer.

"I can do that," Catherine says. "I'll make Isabella help me."

"Fine," Heathcliff says.

"Fine," Catherine replies.

"Fine," Edgar echoes. His future once again rearranges itself. He is a med student, in love with an utterly maddening woman, possibly falling for an utterly frustrating man, and a father. He's only 24 years old. Catherine is planning to be a nurse, though Heathcliff keeps trying to talk her out of it. Heathcliff continues selling his photographs and running his gallery. They might actually make this work.

And so that's how the future rolls out. Hareton grows up in an odd household with three parents who care for him in different ways. His papa always listens to him, ensures he has all he needs, and gives good advice. His mama is mercurial, but takes him on grand adventures around the city, gives him his first beer, and goads him into chasing his dreams. His father is stern most the time, but occasionally playful when Mama is around. He teaches Hareton how to present himself and handle others and demands strength. His compliments are rare, but Hareton treasures each one.

Hareton knows they did not give birth to him--his birth parents were drunkard and a woman prone to sickness--but he loves them. He also loves his younger sister and brother and does his best to protect them from the world.

Catherine is always selfish, but she learns to make sacrifices for her family. Heathcliff is always angry, but he learns to choose his targets well and ensure he doesn't lose anything important when he acts on his rage. Edgar is always a bit prone to worry and a peacemaker, but he learns to stand up more to his tempestuous partners. And all three come to trust and love one another. Their children are raised knowing love.

And then, one day, a young Professor Lockwood rents the apartment over the gallery and learns the whole story.

[princesssarisa]

A defense of the ending of “Wuthering Heights"

@astrangechoiceoffavourites, @theheightsthatwuthered, @wuthering-valleys, @heightsandmoors, @incorrectwutheringheightsquotes

 I’ve been reading other people’s opinions on Wuthering Heights this past year, I’ve noticed a small recurring theme.

It’s the idea that the ending feels out of place; tacked on; anti-climactic; too tame compared to the rest of the book. That it feels wrong for Heathcliff to simply lose interest in his revenge and then lose the will to live, or for the surviving characters to have any kind of happy or hopeful ending after so much brutality.

One book I read excerpts from on Google Books (I don’t remember the title or the author) suggested that maybe Emily Brontë originally wrote a very different, more brutal and Gothic ending, now lost. The author proposed that the final ending was probably the result of Anne and/or Charlotte urging Emily to tone down the book’s “immorality.” Of course this is pure conjecture. This same author also speculated that in the novel’s first draft, Heathcliff was explicitly Mr. Earnshaw’s illegitimate son, but that Anne and/or Charlotte persuaded Emily to change it. I’m not at all convinced by that theory, since @astrangechoiceoffavourites has argued very eloquently that to make Heathcliff and Cathy’s love forbidden because of the incest taboo rather than because of social class and race would go against the plot’s main themes and make nonsense of Heathcliff’s revenge on the Lintons and Earnshaws.

Still, this theorist isn’t the only person to think the ending (and possibly the whole second generation storyline) feels like the work of a different author than the rest of the book. Just recently I read a comment on Facebook arguing that a more cohesive, consistent Wuthering Heights would have had “a much darker and more explosive ending.” I assume a similar mindset is why some theorize that Branwell wrote the novel’s first half and Emily wrote the second. (I think I hate that theory even more than I hate the theory that Branwell wrote it all – “He didn’t write the whole book, but he did write the part everyone likes best.”) And if we compare the various adaptations’ endings to the ending of the book, there’s definitely a trend of giving Heathcliff a more brutal death.

I understand all of this. The ending of the book is ironic. Heathcliff himself knows it’s ironic: “It is a poor conclusion, is it not?” he asks Nelly, “an absurd termination to my violent exertions?” We don’t expect a towering, terrifying yet fascinating Byronic anti-hero like Heathcliff to become apathetic and ineffectual in the end and then die quietly (albeit mysteriously and eerily) in bed. We’d sooner expect him to freeze to death chasing Cathy’s ghost through a blizzard, or to be shot by his worst enemy, or to be lured by Cathy’s ghost to commit suicide by gunshot.

But I know I’m not the only person who thinks the entire book is fully cohesive and who sees nothing wrong with the ending whatsoever.

As far as I’m concerned, Heathcliff’s “absurd” end is more interesting than anything “darker and more explosive” would have been, precisely because it’s unexpected and yet makes perfect sense. Revenge never makes Heathcliff truly happy or brings him peace of mind: we know that all along. It might distract him from his pain, but it can’t cure it. While initially surprising, in hindsight it’s not surprising at all that, with no out-of-character repentance or remorse, he eventually loses the will to seek any more revenge. At heart it was never what he really wanted most; his real greatest desire is and always has been to be with Cathy.

Then there’s the strongest factor in his loss of his will for revenge: his grudging empathy for Hareton. Again, as far as I’m concerned, this is fascinating irony. Heathcliff has purposefully set out to shape Hareton into a copy of himself. Ultimately, that scheme “goes horribly right,” because he sees too much of his younger self in Hareton to hate him as much as he wants to, or to have the will to separate him from Cathy II the way he himself was separated from Cathy I. Then there’s Hareton’s resemblance to his aunt, Cathy I; even though Heathcliff’s passion for Cathy has been the motive for all his revenge on the two families that separated them, in the end it’s what makes him unable to ruin the lives of her lookalike nephew and her daughter, even though they’re also the children of the two men most responsible for taking Cathy from him. Again, it works because it’s handled delicately and without sentimentality. He still shows no remorse or regret for his past actions, and never shows any real kindness or fondness to Hareton or Cathy II, but despises the conflicted feelings they stir in him. But the fact remains that, despite all his efforts to be a monster over the years, he’s still a human being, capable of some empathy for people in whom he sees aspects of himself and of his beloved Cathy. I think it’s fascinating that this humanity, and not his monstrous actions, is what undoes him in the end.

Also, as some critics have pointed out, the very fact that Heathcliff receives no punishment for his sins (apart from his inner torment) makes the ending subversive by Victorian standards. If he had died a brutal death, it could easily have been viewed as his comeuppance, demonstrating God’s justice. From a moral and religious perspective, it might be all the more disturbing that instead he gets to die as close to a peaceful death as his character allows, with a devilish smile on his face.

Moving beyond Heathcliff’s death, I don’t see anything wrong with Hareton and Cathy II′s ending either.

First of all, it isn’t necessarily a straightforward happy ending. It’s definitely bittersweet if we have any sympathy for Heathcliff, and not just because he dies. This penniless, abused, disdained orphan of color defied the classism and racism of his society by clawing his way to wealth and status and by bringing down the two families who once oppressed him, but in the end, it’s all for nothing. Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange go back to the Earnshaw and Linton heirs and the only trace left of Heathcliff is a single name and death date on a tombstone. He’s just as much of a “nobody” in death as he was as a homeless child. Of course it’s tempting to cheer for this fact because of his cruelty and because Cathy II and Hareton are sympathetic, basically innocent young people whom he unfairly punished for their parents’ sins. But in a way at least, especially in Marxist readings of the book (which I don’t fully agree with but do see validity in), the ending can be viewed as the triumph of the classist and racist status quo.

Nor, as some critics have argued, is it guaranteed that Cathy II and Hareton will live happily ever after. First of all, the fact remains that Hareton loved and loyally served Heathcliff to the end, and to please Hareton, Cathy had to stop speaking out against Heathcliff even though he had horribly abused her. There’s also the fact that Hareton once hit Cathy himself; only once, and before they were even friends, let alone lovers, but in the real world it rarely bodes well for a woman to marry a man who once slapped her. A few critics have wondered if Hareton is really permanently “tamed” in the end, or will eventually revert to the roughness Heathcliff bred in him and abuse his new power and status the same way Heathcliff did. On the flip side, there’s the fact that apart from her conceding not to criticize Heathcliff, Cathy seems to rule over Hareton almost as much as her mother did over Heathcliff when they were children. She educates him, he craves her esteem and does her bidding, and in his lessons she meets his mistakes and inattention (however playfully) with “smart slaps” and threats of hair-pulling. Some critics have wondered if we should view these as red flags; if Cathy II is destined to be an emotional abuser like her mother was.

But even if you don’t subscribe to those darker interpretations of the ending... even if you view Cathy and Hareton as fundamentally good people who genuinely grow and change for the better, find a healthy balance between the worlds of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, and will be truly happy together... well, what’s wrong with that?

Is it really so impossible to believe that sometimes the cycle of abuse can be broken, or so “out of place” to show it being broken at the end of a book that shows its horrors? Is it just naïve delusion to hope that, with effort, children can avoid repeating their parents’ mistakes and opposing social structures like the Heights and the Grange can be reconciled? That at least one young couple might manage to combine the good aspects of both worlds while discarding the bad, rather than combining the worst of both worlds the way Heathcliff did? Just because the book is dark as a whole, do we really need to be so cynical when reading it that we can’t allow it to end on a note of hope?

Besides, I’ve written before about the mirror-image character arcs of the two Cathys. Cathy I is born and raised at Wuthering Heights, but eventually leaves it for Thrushcross Grange when she marries the latter household’s heir; she initially loves the rugged dark-haired Heathcliff and wanders the moors with him, but then gains snobbery, treats Heathcliff with increasing disdain, and shifts her attentions to the prissy blond-haired Edgar, whom she marries; as a result, her life ends in misery. Cathy II is born and raised at Thushcross Grange, but eventually she leaves it for Wuthering Heights when she marries the latter household’s heir; she initially loves the prissy blond-haired Linton, whom she marries, and treats the rugged dark-haired Hareton with disdain, but eventually she loses her snobbery, learns to love Hareton, and wanders the moors with him. In no way is Cathy II’s positive ending “tacked on” – her entire character arc is structured to be the opposite of her mother’s tragedy.

I understand why some people don’t care for the ending and think it feels anti-climactic or out of place. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s a thoroughly effective ending and fully consistent with what came before.