Readers’ expectations place pressure on writers to conclude their novels in a decisive way; they want ‘promises to be kept, questions answered, uncertainties resolved’ (Mullan 2006, p. 303). Yet Emily Brontë, Nella Larsen and Margaret Atwood recognise that ‘[t]he whole of anything is never told’, as Henry James, a master of the ambiguous ending, puts it (James in Mullan 2006, p. 306). The art of ‘not telling’ brings the satisfaction of imagining more.
Lockwood’s return to Wuthering Heights after a gap of seven months frees Brontë to conclude her novel with Nelly Dean’s account of the final harrowing months of Heathcliff’s life and brings unity in the marriage of the younger generation of the Earnshaws and Lintons — Hareton and Catherine.
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