What Is The Ending Of Wuthering Heights

So, you finally crawled through Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. Congratulations! You’ve survived ghosts, screaming, and the worst romantic role models in history. Now you’re staring at the last page, wondering: what on earth actually happens at the end?

Spoiler alert: nobody gets a normal happy ending. But that’s the whole point. Brontë doesn’t do flowers and rainbows. She does doom, fog, and very dramatic dead people.

The Dead Guy Who Won’t Stay Dead

Heathcliff dies. Yes, finally. But he doesn’t go quietly. For days he stops eating and just stares at a window. Romantic? No. Creepy? Very.

He’s obsessed with Catherine’s ghost. He believes she’s been haunting him for eighteen years. So he basically starves himself to join her in the grave. Talk about an extreme long-distance relationship.

A servant named Nelly finds him dead in Catherine’s old room. His face looks weirdly happy. And his eyes are wide open. Yikes.

The Ghosts Get Their Reunion (Sort Of)

Here’s the funniest detail: after Heathcliff is buried, locals claim to see two ghosts walking together on the moors. A shepherd swears he saw them—but he was also terrified and ran away. So maybe don’t trust his story entirely.

Brontë leaves it ambiguous. Are the ghosts real? Is it just mist and wind? Nobody knows. That’s why it’s fun to argue about over coffee.

Fun fact: in 1973, a British TV crew actually tried to film the ghosts for a show. They got nothing but fog. The actors were so spooked they quit. Priceless.

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The Not-So-Crazy Kid Wins

You know who actually gets a decent ending? The second generation. Cathy Linton and Hareton Earnshaw. They’re the weird cousins who sort of fall in love. And they’re not insane.

Cathy teaches Hareton to read. He gives her flowers. It’s almost sappy. But Brontë keeps it real—they still bicker like alley cats. That’s love Yorkshire-style.

They plan to move to the manor house across the moors. Away from all the screaming. Good choice, kids. Good choice.

The Windows Are a Whole Thing

The ending circles back to the beginning. The whole novel starts with a guy named Lockwood having a nightmare about a ghost tapping at a window. At the end, Heathcliff is buried near the same window.

And what happens? People claim the ghost still taps. At the exact same window. Brontë was not subtle. She loved circular storytelling.

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Quirky detail: in some old editions, the windowpane is literally cracked. Readers used to blame the printers. But maybe it was the ghost. Ooh.

Graves, Grass, and Zero Resolutions

The very last image is of three graves: Catherine, Heathcliff, and Edgar Linton (Catherine’s boring husband). They lie side by side. Edgar’s grave is flat and neat. Heathcliff’s is overgrown. Catherine’s is in the middle.

Nelly says the moors have grown wild grass over them. “I wondered how anyone could ever imagine unquiet slumbers,” she says. Meaning: they look peaceful now. But the reader knows better.

Is it peaceful? Or is it just looks peaceful? Brontë refuses to tell you. That’s the trick. She’s a literary troll.

Why This Ending Is Actually Great

Most stories tie up every loose thread. Not Brontë. She leaves ghosts possibly flapping around, a couple who might mess up, and a dog named Snap who barks at nothing. (Yes, there’s a dog named Snap. He’s fine.)

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The ending is haunting because it’s unresolved. It makes you wonder: did Heathcliff and Catherine finally get their twisted happily-ever-after? Or did they just become creepy weather phenomena?

People still argue about this 175 years later. That’s why it’s fun to talk about. It’s like the world’s most literary ghost story that never ends.

Take That, Happy Endings

If you wanted a nice wedding and a hero who isn’t a dirt-covered lunatic, you read the wrong book. But if you wanted a story that burrows into your brain and refuses to leave—welcome to the club.

The ending of Wuthering Heights is a masterpiece of weirdness. It’s sad, funny, spooky, and weirdly sweet all at once. And it leaves you staring out the window, wondering if a ghost is staring back.

Go ahead. Check your window. Just in case.