If you wash your face and brush your hair, it will be all right: but you are so dirty!" (Bronte 95). .
Heathcliff is so hurt by Catherine's change in attitude, that he storms off and leaves Catherine in awe at how her words could cause such a bad temper. What she does not realize is that her time spent at Thrushcross Grange has changed her, but her wild side remains deep down. This wild manner is unique to Catherine and is a contrast in comparison to Isabella's spoiled and proper behavior that she is taught by her parents. One of the few things they have in common is the amount of limitations on their sheltered lives, Catherine's by Hindley's control of Wuthering Heights after their father's death and Isabella's harsh learning through her parents in order to be superior. The two women find themselves wishing to escape their constricted lives as they venture on their next journey, marriage. .
After many year of living as a lower-class citizen at Wuthering Heights, Catherine seeks out marriage with Edgar Linton as a getaway. Edgar is the brother of Isabella and lives at Thrushcross Grange, which appears to Catherine as a seat of empowerment compared to Wuthering Heights. She explains to Nelly that she wishes to marry Edgar because he is, "he is handsome, and young, and cheerful, and rich, and loves [her] " (Bronte 95). Catherine believes that by marrying Edgar he will be waiting on her hand and foot. She discovers that this life of proper behavior is very hard to maintain and her attempt to escape a household run by a male tyrant was unsuccessful. Catherine's marriage to Linton is based off of not for her love for Edgar, but for her love for Heathcliff. Catherine explains the predicament she is in to Nelly as, "My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods; time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath "a source of little visible delight, but necessary.