to build a fire essay

Chapter 1, Summary
In Chapter 1 the narrator, Mr. Lockwood, relates how he has just returned from a visit to his new
landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. Lockwood, a self-described misanthropist, is renting Thrushcross
Grange in an effort to get away from society following a failure at love. He had fallen in love with
a "real goddess," but when she returned his affection he acted so coldly she "persuaded her
mamma to decamp." He finds that relative to Heathcliff, however, he is extremely sociable.
Heathcliff, "a dark skinned gypsy, in aspect, in dress, and manners a gentleman" treats his visitor
with a minimum of friendliness, and the farm, Wuthering Heights, where he lives, is just as foreign
and unfriendly. "Wuthering" means stormy and windy in the local dialect. Dangerous-looking
dogs inhabit the bare and old-fashioned rooms, and threaten to attack Lockwood: when he calls
for help Heathcliff implies that Lockwood had tried to steal something. The only other inhabitants
of Wuthering ...