Mr. Lockwood first visits Wuthering Heights, describing it as “[a] perfect misanthropist’s Heaven” (1). After meeting Heathcliff, Lockwood meets Joseph, “an old man: very old, perhaps, though hale and sinewy” (1). Upon entering the house, Lockwood notices the name Hareton Earnshaw carved over the front door and “requested a short history of the place from the surly owner” (2). As Lockwood walks through the house, he observes that “[t]he apartment and furniture would have been nothing extraordinary as belonging to a homely, northern farmer” (2), but Heathcliff is not such a man. Rather, “he has an erect and handsome figure; and rather morose” (3).

Lockwood strays from his descriptions of the house and master to explain that, the previous summer, he had led on “a most fascinating creature,” breaking her heart in the process, which makes him “unworthy of [a comfortable home]” (3). When attempting to stroke one of the many dogs in the house, one dog snarls at Lockwood, but Lockwood disregards Heathcliff’s warnings and makes faces at three of the dogs. They attack him, which inspires six more dogs to join in the fracas, and Joseph and Heathcliff join forces with “a lusty dame, with tucked-up gown, bare arms and fire-flushed cheeks” (4) to beat the dogs off Lockwood.