Timelines in Emily Brontës «Wuthering Heights». Michael Weber

that of 1783. This is no coincidence because the calculations from the two combined statements must end in the same month in order to be plausible. Assuming that “nearly” means the usual “fewer than six months less”, for example three months, one arrives in March 1783 – this would be correct as far as the month of the wedding is concerned, but wrong for the month of death, October. Since November is ruled out as the month of the wedding, the statement “nearly five years old” must also be wrong. When the move takes place in March 1782, Hareton is in fact, and in the generally accepted sense, nearly four years old: three years and nine months to be exact (there are three months until his fourth birthday). It is also no coincidence that the age “nearly five years old” is made in direct connection with the period “three years subsequent”. Their combination is to be understood as a warning sign that the dates need to be clarified before their chronological use and that Hareton’s age cannot be used to determine the year of the wedding and the move but is only correct for the alleged wedding month of November. This warning has not been recognised before, probably because the correct wedding month is mentioned long after the wedding (in Chapter 21) and in a completely different context, and the alleged wedding month very early, before the beginning of the story (in Chapter 4).

      As with the determining of the year of the major episode, there are two aspects concerning Hareton’s physiological development that also suggest that the “nearly five years old” cannot be correct.

      Ellen Dean supplies additional ←53 | 54→information regarding Hareton’s approximate age, which actually reveals his true age at the time of the move. Concerning that period, she says: “[…] and I had just begun to teach him his letters” (WH, 109). Children usually start to write letters at about the age of four, starting with their own name, with their “own letters”, as Ellen Dean puts it (Baumann, p. 394). At the time of Catherine’s wedding and the move, Hareton cannot have been nearly five years old, but only about four. The second aspect is that Hareton can no longer remember his foster mother Ellen Dean “ten months” after the wedding and the move (cf. Chap. IV, Hareton Earnshaw’s biography). If he had been over five years old at the time, he would have remembered her, but not as a younger child.

      In view of all these facts, it cannot be mere coincidence that the age “nearly five years old” is in direct correlation with the period “three years subsequent”. The combination of the two time references is to be understood as a warning against using the dates uncritically. In Ellen Dean’s story, it is the narratological equivalent to the opening sentences of Chapter 1 and Chapter 32 in Mr. Lockwood’s report. They lead to false conclusions because they are ambiguous and contradictory in themselves. They are unsuitable for refuting the postulate that 1778 is correct as the year of Hareton’s birth and 1801 incorrect as the year of the first visit.

      The second refutable assertion: