Hindley Earnshaw
'...would never thrive as where he wandered.'
We are introduced to Hindley Earnshaw in Volume I: Chapter IV.
Hindley is the eldest child of Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, of Wuthering Heights.
Hindley, born in 1757, is eight years older than his sister, Catherine.
Ellen “Nelly” Dean—in service at Wuthering Heights since she was a child—shares an episode from Hindley and Heathcliff’s adolescence, in which the boys quarreled over a prized colt…
“Take my colt, gipsy, then!” said young Earnshaw. “And I pray that he may break your neck; take him, and be damned, you beggarly interloper! and wheedle my father out of all he has, only afterwards show him what you are, imp of Satan—And take that, I hope he’ll kick out your brains!”
The (seemingly sensitive) young man who requested a fiddle from his father’s trip to Liverpool transformed into a bully when his father returned home with a foundling.
As we read Wuthering Heights we will meet Hindley’s wife and son and sadly, learn his relationship with Heathcliff only devolves. I’ve discovered illustrations of Hindley are few and far between, the lithograph above depicts a scene in Volume II: Chapter III.1
Hindley (left), is seized by Heathcliff (right), in this pivotal scene of bully-turned-victim.
As you read, you will come to understand why Hindley attracts little interest from artists.