The Importance of Setting in Developing a Theme for Wuthering Heights by Bronte

Creating a haven from the cruel outside world, families ideally provide protection and support for each of their members. In Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, however, bitterness grows between the Earnshaws and the Lintons. Within these two families, siblings rival for power and parents fail to fulfill their roles as caregivers. The intertwining relationships of the Earnshaws and the Lintons are marked by physical abuse, degradation, and emotional negligence. These reduce each of the family members’ life to a lonely and meaningless journey though the cold and misty moors.

The interior scenes in the ThrushCross Grange represent the mood of the characters and how it influenced the location. Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights are two separate households with one-main goal and that is to show the importance of the scenery. The ThrushCross Grange is where the inhabitants are civilized and the house is immaculate. The immense view that Catherine and Heathcliff saw while looking through the window. “Both of us were able to look in by standing on the basement, and clinging to the ledge, and we saw- ah1 it was beautiful-- a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson –covered chairs and table, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass –drops hanging in silver chains from the centre, and

If Wuthering Heights is hopelessness and desolation, Thrushcross Grange is peace and salvation. Heathcliff leaves Lockwood at this point, telling his tenant that he will be able to make it the rest of the way on his own. Heathcliff lives at Wuthering Heights because a desolate place is where he belongs, and his not walking the rest of the way to Thrushcross Grange is symbolic of his not being able, or even wanting, to travel toward happiness. Any happiness he had ended when Catherine died.

16. Thrushcross Grange has a more civilized nature than Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is personified by storms, stunted plants, and characters that cannot fulfill their own passions with ease. Thrushcross Grange is more enclosed and is not as much exposed to the bitter winds. Gardens and flowers are illustrated in reference to the Grange, and this evokes a sense of optimism and beauty. The Grange is also more associated with money and the material world than is Wuthering Heights, which is more connected to nature. Thrushcross Grange protects the Linton family from Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights itself.

While Wuthering Heights was a symbol of darkness and winter, Thrushcross Grange could only be described as its opposite. Thrushcross Grange can be seen as a happy place that is light and summery. Its inhabitants are blissful and naive. They did not worry or have to fend for themselves because there is always money and servants to wait on them. The inhabitants of the house are ignorant of the cruelties and injustices of the outside world. When Isabella, Edgar's sister, marries Heathcliff and is taken to the Heights, she too learns these realities and is destroyed by them. She is imprisoned in the Heights by her husband. Isabella writes Nelly and describes her depression;

When Catherine resides in Thrushcross Grange, her coarse demeanor is heavily augmented by the values of the upper class. Catherine’s return from a five weeks stay at Thrushcross Grange renders “her manners much improved” and her appearance as a “very dignified person” (Bronte,37). Catherine proves to be a proper, civil woman, when on the Grange, picking up on the well-mannered tendencies of Edgar and

However, despite changes, the literary world remained predominantly male, and women writers not encouraged, or taken seriously. Consequently, to counteract this Emily Bronte published her novel Wuthering Heights, under the male pseudonym of Ellis Bell. Wuthering Heights is the story of domesticity, obsession, and elemental divided passion between the intertwined homes of the Earnshaw’s residing at the rural farmhouse Wuthering Heights, and the Linton family of the more genteel Thrushcross Grange. This essay will discuss how the language and narrative voices established a structural pattern of the novel, and how these differing voices had a dramatic effect on the interpretation of the overall story.

In some pieces of literature, the concept of a story transitioning to and fro two different settings creates a polar atmosphere, and usually highlights the order and chaos between said places. One of the handful of pieces that use this type of plot include “Tale of Two Cities”, where the story revolves around England and Revolution-Era France, and sets similar tones and moods for each for each place, with England being solemn and dark, and France being restless and livid. In Emily Brontë’s novel, “Wuthering Heights”, not only does it depict two settings, the Wuthering Heights estate and Thrushcross Grange estate, which both contrast greatly, not only in the tone in which it’s described, but also in the residents that reside in the estates, but it also describes the conflicts between many of the characters within the novel, including Heathcliff, Catherine Linton, Edgar Linton, and many others too. And although Brontë highlights the petty quarrels

Civilization, then, posts a direct opposition to this purity. The social organization embodied by the Lintons and Lockwood, as well as Heathcliff’s branch of rebellious social structure, are eventually thwarted by the natural power through Cathy and Hareton Earnshaw. This revival of the natural and isolated power of Wuthering Heights represent Emily Bronte’s argument that the natural order - that which cannot be controlled nor defined by civilization - is the purest form of social

Thrushcross Grange represents refinement, class, and civilization. The characters at Thrushcross Grange are considered more of upper class, which is what intrigues Catherine. Thrushcross Grange is home to Edgar, Isabella, and their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Linton. After Catherine and Heathcliff are caught at Thrushcross Grange by the dogs, Catherine gets hurt so they let her come in and they basically pamper her, but they tell Heathcliff that he cannot stay, which is presumably because of his skin color, which angers

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

It had, “.... a few stunted firs at the end of the house….” and, “the corners defended with large jutting stones” (Brontë 4). The ruins of Wuthering Heights made the household seem less noble and respected. A ruined home and structure compared them to the winsome Thrushcross Grange. The differences of the houses amplified the difference in class, stature, and ways of life. The ruins of Wuthering Heights made those living there have a different mindset and look as if they couldn’t reach the Thrushcross standards. Also, those who lived at Wuthering Heights had a much different attitude, this because Wuthering Heights nurtures those into whom they become. For instance, Catherine, after leaving Wuthering Heights came back Nelly describes her as, “ a very dignified person….” as opposed to, “a wild, hatless little savage” (Brontё 52). Her time at the ruined Wuthering Heights made her into a ruined and hateful girl herself. If Wuthering Heights resembled that of Thrushcross Grange then there would not be a shift in Catherine’s or anyone's character. In fact, the novel wouldn’t have a difference between the two settings, making both households equal.

While at Thrushcross Grange, she grows infatuated with Edgar, despite her love for Heathcliff. Edgar came from an upper class family as well and took care of her when she was in a dog accident. This leads to her acceptance of Edgar Linton’s marriage proposal despite her statements regarding her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff overhears unfortunate passages of Catherine's discourse and disappears for a period during which he mysteriously makes his fortune and changes irrevocably from the person he was. Vengeance consumes him, and Heathcliff attempts to destroy the lives of those who wronged him, (as well as their children). Ultimately, Heathcliff’s bitterly executed vengeance is effaced by a love between Hareton and Cathy that mirrors Heathcliff’s own love for Catherine. Hareton is Catherine’s nephew and Cathy is Catherine’s daughter, which makes the two first cousins.

The novel ‘Wuthering Heights’ (1847) by Emily Brontë and the film adaptation ‘Wuthering Heights’ (2011) by Andrea Arnold each convey respective values and perspectives reflective of the contrasting contexts and forms of each text. The novel, set in the Romantic period, is centred around two families living on the isolated, Yorkshire moors, and the explosive interactions between them. The concept of confinement contrasts against the freedom of nature throughout the novel. Nature is another key theme and a fundamental aspect of the Romantic period, used to present ideas such as rebellion and freedom. Finally, passion within human relationships is thoroughly explored through Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship within the novel. However, as the film adaptation is a product of a contemporary post-feminist, post-colonial time period, these themes can now be explored through lenses such as racial discrimination, feminism, and human connection.

It is the opinion of this essay that the character of Heathcliff evolves a lot more than the character of Catherine. When we first meet Heathcliff, he was found on the streets of Liverpool by Catherine’s father who then adopts him into the family as one of his own. This would have been a dramatic change for Heathcliff. Then after experiencing this quality of life until the death of the father he is then cast into the role of a servant/labourer by Catherine’s brother who despises him. Finally, when Heathcliff hears part of the conversation between Catherine and Nelly, he hears Catherine plans to marry Edgar Linton as she could never marry Heathcliff. “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now”. (82) It is here Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights and returns three years later, a gentleman of means and of polite demeanour, not what you would expect from him. Here we can bring back the point that one’s environment dramatically affects one’s behaviour. Like Catherine, Heathcliff defies social norms expected of his gender. After he returns back from travelling having acquired great wealth and on the surface seems a changed man, he would be accepted into middle class society as he displays the characteristics expected of him. It is well described in the book to enforce the dramatic change in him for readers to understand how far he has come from