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Wuthering Heights Chapter 16
At midnight, Catherine gave birth to a baby girl, which was named Catherine. Two hours later, the mother died, without ever being conscious enough to ask for anyone. Edgar sunk into a deep sorrow, and the baby was at first ignored. Nelly found Edgar lying with the body, who was peaceful, finally at rest. But Nelly wondered if Catherine was heaven-bound. She went outside to find Heathcliff and tell him the terrible news, but he had already guessed it. He asked how she died, and if she asked for him. But she died quietly, and was not conscious enough to ask for anyone. Furious, Heathcliff called her a liar, and hoped Catherine awakens in hell:
"And I pray one prayer--I repeat it till my tongue stiffens--Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you--haunt me, then!...Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh God! it is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!" Chapter 16, pg. 153
He hit his head against a nearby tree in anguish.
Topic Tracking: Nature 8
Topic Tracking: Supernatural 6
Topic Tracking: Violence 14
Before the funeral, Edgar stayed with the body. Heathcliff was able to sneak a visit, and placed a lock of his hair into the locket Catherine wore. Nelly added a piece of Catherine's, and wound them together. When she was buried, it was not in the chapel or the Linton's monument, but in a corner of the graveyard where the plants of the moors creep inside.
