Both Uses of
purgatory
in
Wuthering Heights
- I did not call her unfeeling long; for I perceived she was in purgatory throughout the day, and wearying to find an opportunity of getting by herself, or paying a visit to Heathcliff, who had been locked up by the master: as I discovered, on endeavouring to introduce to him a private mess of victuals.†
Chpt 7 *
- In my flight through the kitchen I bid Joseph speed to his master; I knocked over Hareton, who was hanging a litter of puppies from a chair-back in the doorway; and, blessed as a soul escaped from purgatory, I bounded, leaped, and flew down the steep road; then, quitting its windings, shot direct across the moor, rolling over banks, and wading through marshes: precipitating myself, in fact, towards the beacon-light of the Grange.†
Chpt 17
Definition:
-
(purgatory) a temporary condition of torment or suffering
or in Roman Catholic theology: the place where those who have died in a state of grace undergo limited torment to pay for their sins