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Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights Essay

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Throughout the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë effectively utilizes weather and setting as methods of conveying insight to the reader of the personal feeling of the characters. While staying at Thrushcross Grange, Mr. Lockwood made a visit to meet Mr. Heathcliff for a second time, and the horrible snow storm that he encounters is the first piece of evidence that he should have perceived about Heathcliff's personality. The setting of the moors is one that makes them a very special place for Catherine and Heathcliff, and they are thus very symbolic of their friendship and spirts. The weather and setting are very effective tools used throughout the end of the novel as well, for when the weather becomes nice it is not only symbolic of …show more content…

He stated that he "could make no error there"(28), for the path is transformed into one that is straight and easy for Lockwood to follow. These preliminary descriptions of the path between the two houses, and the weather upon first being introduced to the characters, help in conveying the personalities of the characters in a more subtle manner. The area surrounding both the Heights and the Grange are referred to as the moors, and they are an important setting for many characters throughout the course of the novel. The two characters that the moors are most symbolic of, however, are Heathcliff and Catherine Linton. The two would play on the moors as children, and this area of land was very expressive of their wild personalities, and of their friendship. The moors are thought of by them as a place where they could be free and unrestricted to be themselves. Brontë once again utilizes a setting to represent the personalities of her characters, for here she uses the wildness of the moors to express the wildness of Heathcliff and Catherine. One evening Catherine makes the decision to marry Edgar Linton, and not her true love Heathcliff. Heathcliff hears her declaration and runs off into the moors. Not long after Heathcliff leaves the vicinity of the Grange, a "storm came rattling over the Heights in full fury"(78), and Catherine refuses to sleep without her love present in the Heights. "Catherine would not be persuaded into tranquility.

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