Wuthering Heights (CHAPTER TWO)

On a cold afternoon , Lockwood heads out to Wuthering Heights upon arrival nobody answers the door , eventually "Vinegar face Joseph" opens the door for Lockwood , and explains Heathcliff is not in the house. After a while , "a young man without coat and shouldering a pitch fork" he leads Lockwood to the s into a sitting room where he finds a beautiful girl seated beside a fire. Lockwood assumes she is Heathcliff’s wife. He tries to make conversation, but she responds rudely.  Later his corrected by Heathcliff "her mate is dead.I said she was my daughter in law , therefore , she must have married my son" . The light snowfall quickly becomes a blizzard , and when the time for Lockwood depature arrives he is forced to ask for a guide , everybody refuses to help him , he then takes a lantern and says that he will find his own way, promising to return with the lantern in the morning. Joseph see's him making his way , and assumes he has stolen the lantern and sets the dogs on Lockwood , his i then injured with a nosebleed , and despite being angry , Zillah , the house keeper leads him to a bed.

QOC:

"with several incoherent threats of retaliation that, in their indefinite depth of virulency , smacked of King Lear"

Lockwood means that his threats reminded her of the rash, angry and misjudged actions of Shakespeare's King Lear. By comparing his threats to one character such as King Lear highlights the voice of anger , and darkness which resides inside of everyone , once again further highlighting the essentials of tragedy. 

Analysis: (Adapted from http://www.gradesaver.com/wuthering-heights/study-guide/section1/)

This chapter could be viewed as a continuation of the strict division between social ideals (grace, pleasant social interactions, Lockwood) and natural realities (storms, frost, dogs, bluntness, cruelty, Hareton, Heathcliff). If the chapter was taken by itself, out of context, the reader would see that while social ideals are ridiculed, it is clear that the cruel natural world is ugly and hardly bearable.