Catherine Linton
'She could be soft and mild as a dove...'
We are introduced to Catherine Linton in Volume I: Chapter II.
Catherine is the only child of Edgar Linton, of Thrushcross Grange.
Catherine, born March 20, 1784, is the niece of Isabella Linton.
Ellen “Nelly” Dean—in service at Wuthering Heights since she was a child—shares a vivid description of Catherine in Volume II: Chapter IV…
She was the most winning thing that ever brought sunshine into a desolate house—a real beauty in face, with…dark eyes…fair skin, and small features, and yellow curling hair. Her spirit was high, though not rough, and qualified with a heart sensitive and lively to excess in its affections. That capacity for intense attachments reminded me of her mother; still she did not resemble her, for she could be soft and mild as a dove, and she had a gentle voice, and pensive expression: her anger was never furious, her love never fierce; it was deep and tender.
“…she had faults to foil her gifts. A propensity to be saucy was one; and a perverse will that indulged children invariably acquire, whether they be good tempered or cross.”
As we read Wuthering Heights, we become well-acquainted with the younger Cathy in the second volume of the novel. Her backstory is largely told by Ellen Dean to Grange tenant Mr. Lockwood, who is quite smitten with the young woman, upon meeting her in Volume I: Chapter II. This is his first impression of the eighteen-year-old:
She was slender, and apparently scarcely past girlhood: an admirable form, and the most exquisite little face that I have ever had the pleasure of beholding: small features, very fair, flaxen ringlets, or rather golden, hanging loose on her delicate neck; and eyes—had they been agreeable in expression, they would have been irresistible.