in January could be particularly significant, without recognising the chronological facts. He correctly states that the “calendars” – by which he means Mr. Lockwood’s chronology (“Lockwood time”) and Ellen Dean’s “Earnshaw Chronicle” – converge in mid-January (“the calendars can be synchronized”).
For the grammatical reasons mentioned above, the present perfect tense used at the beginning of the first sentence of the novel could even arouse the suspicion that the visit to Wuthering Heights that is being referred to is the third one, the visit in January, rather than the first or second. From a linguistic point of view, however, this seems implausible because of the future used in the same sentence (“I shall be troubled”) and the temporal circumstances described in January 1801.
Comparing the two parts of the report, the beginning of the second part, preceded by the year 1802, is also composed in the past tense, though it is the past simple not the present perfect (WH, 375). In both parts, Mr. Lockwood reports retrospectively, but at a different distance from the past. In contrast to the invitation, the visit is not long ago. The tenses allow the conclusion to be drawn that the events (the visit and the invitation) lie in the past, before 1801 and 1802 respectively. The fact that the invitation is already one year old at the start of the journey and that the month “September” refers to when the invitation is made and not to the date of the journey is demonstrated below.
Mr. Lockwood states that he has rented Thrushcross Grange for twelve months in total and that he will inform Mr. Heathcliff that he intends to spend the next six months in London (WH, 367). Since Mr. Heathcliff does not release him from his tenancy agreement, Mr. Lockwood decides while on his new trip to the north six months later, in July 1801, that he “might as well pass the night under [his] own roof [Thrushcross Grange] as in an inn” (WH, 376). It is only in this light that the opening sentence of Chapter 32 makes sense:
1802.– This September, I was invited to devastate the moors of a friend, in the North […]. (WH, 375)
←38 | 39→
This wording may give the impression that he arrives in September,9 but in fact he arrives in July. This sentence is just as ambiguous as the opening sentence of the novel and the opening sentence of Chapter 15. Since Chapter 32 was probably originally planned as the beginning of the third volume, it can be surmised that Emily Brontë systematically used the beginning of all three volumes to have Mr. Lockwood create chronological confusion. There is a certain narrative intent behind the use of the historic present at the beginning of these chapters and at the beginning of a narrative episode, which is thus relevant both narratologically and chronologically. Until the nineteenth century, the historic present usually functioned as an incipit of a plotline, marked the climax of an episode or the special involvement of the narrator in the events. After this time, it was just the typical stylistic phenomenon of a ‘written prose narrative’ (Fludernik 1991). Neither is in fact the case in Wuthering Heights. Formally and functionally, the historic present in Emily Brontë obviously plays a completely different role and, with it, a unique role in literary history.
The special character and significance of the opening of Wuthering Heights, with its alleged stylistic ineptitude, confirms that the key to the proper understanding of a novel is sometimes found on the first pages, if not in the first lines. Comparable to Wuthering Heights in German literature is not, as is often said, E. T. A. Hoffmann’s Das Majorat, but Theodor Fontane’s crime story Unterm Birnbaum with its cryptic beginning. This parallel may seem strange and far-fetched, and it certainly only relates to certain aspects of the novel, but it makes sense because Wuthering Heights, as far as the time frame is concerned, must be read like a crime novel with the keen nose of a detective.
If one continues to treat the fictional facts as if they were real facts, it must of course be considered that Mr. Lockwood resumes 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.
