Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights Essay

to be most at home when wandering about in the moors. He is quick to fly

Bronte illustrates the Heights as having a very blunt and intimidating appearance. It is a very strong and prominent structure, however it proves to be a very desolate and lonely place. Likewise, those who inhabit it prove to be somewhat tormented souls. Nelly describes Heathcliff after his subjection to the Heights without Catherine, “A half-civilized ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued; and his manner was even dignified: quite divested of roughness, though too stern for grace” (Bronte, 95). Just a few miles away, the Grange represents sanity and sensibility with its refinement and pleasant appearance. The civility of its inhabitants, the Lintons, and their distinguished status stand in stark contrast to the more disturbed Wuthering Heights. Bronte takes great care to create these images of the two estates for readers because it is what they stand for that drives Catherine and Heathcliff apart in the first place. Ironically, Bronte also uses setting to reunite Catherine and Heathcliff. The moors that separate the two estates represent a sort of heaven for the two, where they used to lose themselves when they were young, the only place either of the two ever truly felt they belonged. It is here that the two roam together in the afterlife.

In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses the setting of the English Moors, a setting she is familiar with, to place two manors, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The first symbolizes man's dark side while the latter symbolizes an artificial utopia. This 19th century setting allows the reader to see the destructive nature of love when one loves the wrong person.

But far from presenting them as innocent children, Emily Bronte uses Nature to depict wild characters trapped into their infancy by savage passions. Thus, the first appearance of a child in the novel, Catherine Earnshaw in the form of a child- ghost who wants to come into the house. (……) is surrounded by a snow storm with a gelid wind. This introduction of the character reveals the connection between her and Nature, the same as Heathcliff, in a similar maner, as Nelly tells, they were only happy in the moors, (….) and both of them are connected with the extreme weather and the wildness of the landscape (…). Furthermore, the lack of adult references, since the premature death of the mother and the distant figure of a father, makes it possible that far from being educated, the children in Wuthering Heights grow up surrounding by wilderness and the wind and as a result their characters are as reflection of those wild elements. Furthermore, in many occasions the characters are described by natural elements such as (….) and on her death bed Catherine asks return to the moors, in a desperately trying to find her lost childhood. As a result, children are presented as savage beings abandoned to their nature and far to be tamed. Only the second generation (Cathy and Hareton) will be tamed and overpass the savage of the childhood by the influence of

Not only does Brontë do this with Heathcliff, but Catherine is also described using the unpredictable, wildness of the nature of the moors. ‘…returning his look with a suddenly clouded brow: her humour was a mere vane for constantly varying caprices.’ (II, 1) By comparing Catherine to her surrounding environment this, no doubt, confirms how the wild savagery of her upbringing, playing in the moors, has influenced her with a harsh and instinctive temper.

   "My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff" (81)" These words, uttered by Catherine, in the novel Wuthering Heights are for me the starting point in my investigation into the themes of love and obsession in the novel. Catherine has just told her housekeeper that she has made up her mind to marry Edgar Linton, although she is well aware that her love for him is bound to change as time passes. That she is obsessed by her love for Heathcliff she confirms in the above quotation and by saying that she will never, ever be separated from him. Why does she not marry him then? Well, she has

    Critics analyze and examine Wuthering Heights to obtain a deeper understanding of the message that Emily Bronte wants to convey. By focusing on the different literary elements of fiction used in the novel, readers are better able to understand how the author successfully uses theme, characters, and setting to create a very controversial novel in which the reader is torn between opposite conditions of love and hate, good and evil, revenge and forgiveness in  Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. There is no doubt that the use of conflictive characters such as Catherine Earnshaw, Heathcliff, and Edgar, with their interactions in the two different settings creates an

In the book Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Heathcliff has taken it upon himself to seek revenge against anyone who mistreated him. While doing so, his cruel acts lead to the demise of the first generations of Earnshaws, the family who adopts him. Although his animosity is aimed to one it becomes out of control, it spreads to everyone like a disease of cruelty and heartbreak. Unfortunately a bitter childhood and betrayal of the heart turns a kind soul into an evil sour man searching for vengeance. The avengement of Heathcliff brings on the rage and corruption to the Earnshaw – Linton families tearing through the first generation.

In “Wuthering Heights”, Emily Bronte created a suspenseful setting by giving an eerie feeling to the story when Lockwood enters his new residence and it was not very welcoming to Lockwood. Bonte described snow as a dangerous thing that can kill you. “A sorrowful sight I saw; dark night coming down prematurely, and sky and hills mingled in on bitter whirl of wind and suffocating snow”, (Bonte 10). This setting gives Lockwood a life or death choice to make, does he go back to his residence or stay at his landlord’s house. He then decides and his decision causes us to learn about Heathcliff, Lockwood’s landlord. Early in the story Bonte gives us a good clue to Heathcliff which is. “The herd of possessed swine could have no worse spirits in them

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights display of cultural and physical features of an environment affecting one’s character and moral traits is showcased through the first Catherine’s development throughout the novel. Catherine is forced to “adopt a double character”, as she lives as a rebellious, passionate woman on the turbulent Wuthering Heights, while behaving politely and courtly on the elegant Thrushcross Grange(Bronte, 48). Each of these environments also contains a love interest of Catherine’s, each man parallel with the characteristics of their environments: Heathcliff, the passionate and destructive, residing in Wuthering Heights, while the civilized and gentle Edgar inhabits Thrushcross Grange. Catherine’s development in character due to her setting significantly contributes to the theme that pursuing passionate love is dangerous, such as the love shared by Heathcliff and Catherine.

Throughout the compelling conspiracy of Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë, creates an inhospitable and ominous estate, known as the Heights, that mirrors the savage inhabitants’ demeanor, such as the characters, Joseph or Hindley, but it is for most part apparent with Mr. Heathcliff. In the exposition, the reader gets a clear idea that the Heights is a dim, depressing, miserable residence when Mr. Lockwood first arrives there, and he begins to describes the Heights by observing the terrain; and he thinks to himself, “[O]ne may guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs… [and] by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of sun” (4 Emily Brontë d).

Nelly recalls Heathcliff’s description, "'We crept through a broken hedge, groped our way up the path, and planted ourselves on a flower plot under the drawing-room window. The light came from thence....it was beautiful- a splendid place carpeted with crimson and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the center and shimmering with little soft tapers.'" (47). The light shines on the calm area of Thrushcross Grange, setting up a completely different atmosphere from Wuthering Heights and carries very different symbolic meaning, showing how the Lintons are foils fo Cathy and Heathcliff, as they are civilized. The Linton are raised in a very cultivated society, one that not allow room for the savageness of Wuthering Heights. After Heathcliff flees Wuthering Heights upon hearing Cathy say that although she loves Heathcliff, she must marry the more respectable Edgar Linton, a storm is brewing outside, “About midnight, while we still sat up, the storm came rattling over the Heights in full fury. There was a violent wind, as well as thunder, and either one or the other split a tree off at the corner of the building…”

Love is a strong attachment between two lovers and revenge is a strong conflict between two rivals. In the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte uses setting to establish contrast, to intensify conflict, and to develop character. The people and events of Wuthering Heights share a dramatic conflict. Thus, Bronte focuses on the evil eye of Heathcliff's obsessive and perpetual love with Catherine, and his enduring revenge to those who forced him and Catherine apart. The author expresses the conflict of Wuthering Heights with great intensity. Hence, she portrays a combination of crucial issues of romance and money, hate and power, and lastly

“The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish,” said Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Treasure Island. Any person can write a book, but to be able to write what you mean and affect your readers is very difficult. A writer simply can’t just drop dialogue into a character’s mouth without having any context of the dialogue. If an author has his or her character saying “I’m broke,” what does this really mean without any context? To Oprah Winfrey, being broke may mean she can’t buy a Silk Jet, a winery, or a country. To a middle- class American, being broke may mean they can’t buy a new pair of shoes that week, buy a new car, or get their hair

In addition, Mr. Lockwood expresses his fear of travelling the moors in a stormy and wild weather. The shift of the weather in the moorland suggests the occurrence of a serious and dangerous disaster. For example, a second violent storm occurs when Heathcliff departs from Wuthering Heights. Bronte states that the weather “ was a very dark evening for summer: the clouds appeared inclined to thunder, and I said we had better all sit down; the approaching rain would be certain to bring him home without further trouble...” and that the “storm came rattling over the Heights in full fury”(54). The surrounding environment and stormy weather create a truly Gothic setting.