Timelines in Emily Brontës «Wuthering Heights». Michael Weber
his diary in the summer of 1801 after his last visit to Wuthering Heights. However, his time plans indicate that he does not do so until 1802: in the year of his first two visits, he had already precisely planned the following year. He arranges to stay at Thrushcross Grange from October until Michaelmas (29 September, the beginning of autumn) of the following year, with the option of an extension. Otherwise, he would not have tried to cancel the lease with Mr. Heathcliff in the January of the following year after his difficult experiences. Clearly, the contract contains an extension option ←39 | 40→which is why Mr. Lockwood – after Mr. Heathcliff does not release him from the contract – at least gives notice for the coming winter. For September and the time after, he plans visits to a friend with hunting trips in the north of England. Michaelmas is one of the days that divides the English financial year into four quarters; at that time, rental contracts were usually concluded up to one of these days (Small, p. 335). This ties in with the fact that Mr. Heathcliff informs Ellen Dean during his first confession at the beginning of September 1800 that he will rent out Thrushcross Grange (WH, 353) and also with the fact that Mr. Lockwood on his first visit to Wuthering Heights apologises to Mr. Heathcliff for pushing so hard to rent the Grange (WH, 1). Mr. Lockwood obviously then takes his time travelling to Yorkshire despite his insistence on renting the Grange, though he is not slow to make his courtesy call. It is therefore unlikely that Clay (1952, p. 100) is right when he states that Mr. Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange from 1 November 1801 until 31 October 1802. Heywood (2004, p. 391) accepts this assumption without citing Clay. The conversion of the Julian calendar to the Gregorian highlighted by Sanger (1926, p. 13) and Daley (1995, p. 173) in this connection, with its loss of eleven days between 28 September and 10 October, is irrelevant for dating purposes but it does explain Mr. Lockwood’s scheduling. Theoretically, the time change may have had some significance because it made those affected aware of how easily time can be changed. Clay (1952, p. 100) explicitly mentions the duration of the tenancy and even the six months that pass between Mr. Lockwood’s third and fourth visits to Wuthering Heights, without drawing the inevitable conclusions concerning the months of Mr. Lockwood’s visits to Wuthering Heights.
After his premature departure at the end of January, Mr. Lockwood adheres to his original schedule with his second trip to the north, even though his attitude to the north of England is by now as ambivalent as Dr. Johnson’s was to Scotland. It is rather unlikely that he has forgotten Wuthering Heights and Cathy Linton in the intervening six months, as he claims to have done (WH, 375), and that he purely by chance and quite spontaneously decides to visit Wuthering Heights. He speaks a lot about the weather, even for an Englishman.
The month of July is confirmed by meteorological and botanical data. It is hot, “too warm for travelling”, the harebells are in bloom in the cemetery, at Wuthering Heights wallflowers and stocks are blooming, the “very green oats, newly reaped” are brought in by the farmers. The unequivocal piece of information that the harvest in Gimmerton is three weeks later than elsewhere dates the visit to between the middle and end of July (WH, 375, 376, 378, 417).
On his arrival in the north of England, Mr. Lockwood is so enthused by the “delightful scenery” that he writes:
←40 | 41→
[…] had I seen it nearer August, I’m sure it would have tempted me to waste a month among its solitudes. (WH, 376)
This sentence is difficult to pin down chronologically. July is certainly nearly August. His wording seems to indicate that he arrives in June, but this can be ruled out by the six-month interval and the meteorological details. On the other hand, the wording could be taken as evidence that Mr. Lockwood does not arrive until September, as September is also near August. If this were the case, however, the wording would probably be something like “if it had still been August”. Perhaps the solution to the mystery lies in the fact that Mr. Lockwood always has something to find fault with: in summer it is too hot for him, and in winter it is too cold.
When Mr. Lockwood approaches Wuthering Heights, the moon rises at dusk. It shines so brightly that he can “see every pebble […] and every blade of grass” (WH, 378). From this it has been concluded that there is a full moon, leading to attempts to determine the date of the visit. According to the lunar calendar, there was a full moon on 25 and 26 July 1801. This is incompatible with Mr. Lockwood’s statement that his visit was not near August. Unless it was not a full moon. Halfmoon was on 18 July 1801, so theoretically a day between 18 and 26 July would also be possible (see Fig. 3). If this were the case, it would be an indication that the fictional calendar of 1801 corresponds with the real calendar, as in fact will be demonstrated in connection with Easter in the year 1801 (cf. Chap. III, ‘Daley’s almanacs’ and Chap. IV, Mr. Heathcliff’s biography). It should be mentioned that in 1802 the full moon was ten days earlier than in 1801 – on 15 July. This date fits much better with the words “had I seen it nearer August” and could be taken as evidence that 1802 is the correct year, not 1801, and that in 1802, not 1801, the fictional calendar and the real calendar correspond. Emily Brontë must have known all this and used it for her own purposes.
Regarding the lack of time and opportunity to write his report about his last visit to Wuthering Heights, it should be noted that Mr. Lockwood is only at the Grange for one day before going hunting with a friend on the moors (WH, 375). Neither during the visit, nor while on his hunting trip, can he spare the time needed to write his report. He therefore does not continue the diary until the following year, which explains why the second part of his report is under the year 1802, not under 1801.
These conclusions drawn from Mr. Lockwood’s behaviour in his five different roles in the novel prove that the last of the chronological hypotheses mentioned applies (namely, that 1778 is the year of Hareton Earnshaw’s birth and that 1801 ←41 | 42→is not the year of Mr. Lockwood’s visit). The following analysis of Ellen Dean’s dates will further prove this.
The Time Scheme of Ellen Dean’s Story
Before she begins her story, Ellen Dean answers Mr. Lockwood’s question
You have lived here a considerable time, […] did you not say sixteen years?
with
Eighteen, sir: I came, when the mistress was married, to wait on her; after she died, the master retained me for his housekeeper. (WH, 38)
At the time it is cold and misty; later, it even snows (WH, 8, 36). Readers inevitably associate this wintry weather with November or December 1801 because the novel, and therefore the beginning of Mr. Lockwood’s report, opens with the date 1801, and it is clear from the context that Mr. Lockwood arrives in late autumn. This naturally leads to the conclusion that the wedding and the move to Thrushcross Grange take place eighteen years earlier, in November or December 1783.
When a second retrospective time reference appears towards the end of the first part of the narrative, one again counts back from 1801 – in the assumption that Ellen Dean does exactly the same. Regarding the discovery of Cathy’s secret visits to Wuthering Heights, which take place one November, Ellen Dean states that:
These things happened last winter, sir, […] hardly more than a year ago. Last winter, I did not think, at another twelve months’ end, I should be amusing a stranger to the family with relating them! (WH, 315)
This dates Cathy’s visits to the year 1800 and the wedding and the move to 1783 because, according to the text, Cathy is sixteen years old at the time of the visits and she is born one year after the wedding (1801 - 1 = 1800, 1800 - 16 = 1784, 1784 - 1 = 1783). The year of the wedding and the move thus appears to be doubly confirmed from a chronological point of view and to be categorically incontrovertible. This is deceptive.
Just as the time scheme of Mr. Lockwood’s report contains an easily identifiable, extremely important and logical argument, hitherto unmentioned in Wuthering Heights-literature, that events from two different years cannot be dated with one and the same year, namely 1801, there is also an extremely important logical argument for the time scheme of Ellen Dean’s story. It argues against the assumption that 1801 can be used as the starting year for chronological calculations and that the year of the wedding and the move has been clearly established. ←42