Mr. Lockwood

Mr. Lockwood is a gentleman of misanthropic temperament who arrives at Thrushcross Grange in 1801 seeking a perfect retreat from society in the isolated Yorkshire countryside. Sharing with Mr. Heathcliff a sympathetic chord regarding reserve and an aversion to showy displays of feeling, Lockwood initially finds the surly landlord a kindred spirit in solitude. However, his stay at Wuthering Heights—marked by an embarrassing romantic misunderstanding with the widow Catherine Earnshaw—unsettles his composure and awakens his curiosity about the dark history of the Heights and the mysterious Mr. Heathcliff. To combat the solitude and low spirits that plague him, he entreats Ellen Dean (Nelly Dean), the housekeeper, to provide him with an account of the neighborhood's history, commissioning her narrative across multiple evening sittings. His role as listener and recorder transforms him into the primary witness and conduit through which the reader receives the novel's central tragic history. Though a minor figure in terms of direct action, Lockwood's outsider perspective and his request for Ellen Dean (Nelly Dean)'s account serve as the structural and narrative frame through which all the novel's events unfold.