Motifs In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

Brontë has apposed them in every way, even the names indicate what kind of house we should expect. The beautiful and well-kept Thrushcross Grange can be viewed as a haven when compared to the chaotic Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights symbolizes the anger, hatred and deep-felt tension of that house while Thrushcross Grange embodies the superficial feelings and materialistic outlook of its inhabitants. The contrast between the houses is more than physical; rather these two houses represent the people which are living in them. Brontë made Heathcliff and Wuthering Height as one, by making both of them cold, dark, and menacing, similar to the storms which constantly surround both Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights. Thrushcross Grange is parallel with the Linton’s; who are of a welcoming and peaceful manner; who have had virtually perfect lives and who have been hidden by their parents, from the evils of the outside world.

The ghost of Catherine appears early on in the novel and we come to understand the type of relationship Heathcliff had with her and that the relationships was a young type of immature love that they shared. It is interesting that Catherine's ghost always appears in a childlike form, which implies that Brรถnte wanted to illustrate how important her early relationship with Heathcliff was. She and Heathcliff never grew out of the young love they shared and the sort of rebellion against those around them whom were older and perhaps stood in their way. Catherine comes back to her childhood environment as Heathcliff has kept it the same over all the years. In the first five chapters of the novel, the reader gets to know the relationship between Heathcliff and Catherine on quite an intimate level

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.

Wuthering Heights engages Gothic elements to strengthen the motif of entrapment, including a framed narrative, and the use of locks and closed doors. Emily Bronte’s application of a framed narrative in Wuthering Heights emphasizes the emotional and physical smothering that Catherine experiences. The usage of a story within a story, as told by multiple characters, creates confusion and chaos both internally and between characters. The internal conflicts of Catherine emphasize the power of her emotions and create a feeling of suffocation and claustrophobia. According to Catherine, her chamber, settled deep into the labyrinth of Thrushcross Grange, is a “shattered prison” (116). Confinement is partly induced by the framed narrative, however, other gothic devices also play a key role in Catherine’s deterioration.

Her every need is taken care of. Later, when she is confronted by Heathcliff, she is reminded of Wuthering Heights and begins to miss the place she once was so eager to leave. Catherine begins to see the Grange as superficial and confining, and at first she is only annoyed by this, but eventually the suffocating enclosure causes Catherine to lash out at her husband and all the Grange represents. Catherine, aware of her incestuous attraction to Heathcliff, believes the Grange is destroying her, and because of her disgust of the Grange and her sense of guilt, it does. In the process, Edgar too must suffer Catherine's pain because of his love for her.

This quote represents the first point of the book in which Lockwood realizes the Heights hold a secret no one wants him to know about. It stirs up his curiosity about the past affairs at Wuthering Heights and leads him to inquire about the story. He doesn’t know why this woman’s name is scratched into the wall so many times with such precision and curiosity. This leads him to investigate the woman and her past relationship with Heathcliff, who loved her enough to ask her to haunt him.

This is also evidence that the dream that Lockwood had was not a dream, but was really the ghost of Catherine Linton. The evidence for this is above where Heathcliff himself goes to the window and calls out to Catherine, almost as if she had been their before but still had not come in through the window.

Through Bronte’s use of the frame novel Lockwood, depicts the landscape of the moors through two contrasting description that explore his changed self-awareness of the world around him. The first “naïve” description of the moors as “a perfect misanthropists heaven” which foreshadows the truth revealed through Bronte’s representation of the malevolent Heathcliff. Bronte has thus depicted how an imposing landscape can affect the experience on an individual (expand). Additionally, Bronte represents the extreme states of being and experiences through her metaphorical representation of the landscape in which she compares her love of Heathcliff to the “eternal rocks” and Linton’s to the “foliage of the woods”. This contrasting representation allows Bronte to convey Catherine’s love and passion for Heathcliff as the experience she lives for, something that is always there and is constantly referenced too throughout the book. Whilst Linton’s as the relationship that withers and dies, thus ultimately linking people and landscapes to explain the impact a landscape can have on how an individual perceives the world around them. Thus, Bronte has shaped the audience response in which she reveals the influence of a landscapes on the identity of an

Emily Bronte really does do good job bringing in love, passion, longing, and death and also the afterlife, which has a way of linking them all rolled up into one, and creates the excellent novel that we all refer to in this current time as Wuthering Heights. Even though Catherine and Heathcliff's desire for each other did appear to be the attraction of Wuthering Heights, provided that it is greater and more lasting than any other sentiment that had really put on display throughout the entire novel, Bronte also does a great job with showing the provocative theme of demise and the afterlife in her novel, conferring to the disapproval of Robert M. Polhemus. Polhemus composes a criticism that goes all the way back to the early 1990s era and it was titled, "Love and Death in Wuthering Heights", and in this he makes a huge discussion of death, love, and the afterlife, and then clarifies how all three are connected.

While Catherine is pregnant, Edgar and Heathcliff have a fight, causing Catherine to lock herself in her room where she leaves her window open, to have a view of the moors and Wuthering Heights that remind her of her childhood and Heathcliff, and starves herself. Finally someone gets inside her room and realizes she has become very ill. Since Catherine is so ill, her recovery isn’t expected to go smoothly. Heathcliff visits Catherine and they profess their love for each other once

In the first three chapters of Wuthering Heights, Lockwood is forced to grapple with the mystery of Heathcliff’s cruelty, watching him do things from “[striking] his forehead with rage” and “savage vehemence” to threatening to physically assault his daughter-in-law (27). The narrative which the original text of Wuthering Heights provides, however, is not concerned with the emotional progression of the individual, assuming that Heathcliff’s savagery is simply characteristic of his very existence. It is through Catherine Earnshaw’s perspective, manifested through her diaries, that Heathcliff’s cruelty can be assessed, not only as a product of his social environment, but as something deeply entrenched in his racial differences. Catherine’s sympathy

To an outsider The Moors were dangerous and difficult to navigate, for example Lockwood would have gotten lost on The Moors after the snow storm if Heathcliff had not guided him. Lockwood himself states “for

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

In the gothic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the author hides motifs within the story.The novel contains two major love stories;The wild love of Catherine, and Heathcliff juxtaposing the serene love of Cathy,and Hareton. Catherine’s and Heathcliff's love is the center of Emily Bronte’s novel ,which readers still to this day seem to remember.The characters passion, and obsession for each other seems to not have been enough ,since their love didn't get to thrive. Hareton and Cathy’s love is what got to develop. Hareton’s and Cathy’s love got to workout ,because both characters contained a characteristic that both characters from the first generation lacked: The ability to change .Bronte employs

            I think one of the most powerful Romantic elements WH possesses is the gripping emotional element and the use of nature to convey that emotion.   The love bond between Heathcliff and Catherine is such that despite their reprehensible actions readers still find their hearts being torn in two when it becomes apparent that the two lovers are doomed to live their lives forever dissected from its twin soul.   Readers are made to despise and yet simultaneously grieve for the condemned lovers.  Bronte is a master at so twisting the emotions of her readers that few opinions remain the same through the course of the reading; it is at best difficult to choose the good guy and bad guy in this work.  Nature plays a very strong role in conveying emotion in Emily Bronte's work.  The book starts with a storm and that theme is carried through the entire plot.  Heathcliff's arrival is hailed by a storm, Catherine's divulgence of her dilemma between Heathcliff and Edgar comes in a storm scene, Cathy's birth and Catherine's death is in the midst of a storm, and Heathcliff's departure from this world is also greeted by ill weather.  All key points and major plot twists are preceded or accompanied by a storm of some kind.