Character Analysis
Frances Earnshaw, Hindley's wife, is a strange one. Like Heathcliff, her background is a mystery, though that doesn't seem to bother Hindley, who meets her while he is off at college. She contributes to Heathcliff's mistreatment and clearly has her own set of issues, like a deep fear of dying, which of course happens soon after she arrives at Wuthering Heights. (She suffers from one of those ominous Victorian coughs.) She's not in the novel long, but before she dies she gives birth to Hareton Earnshaw.