Wuthering Heights by Charlotte Bronte

“It is a tale of usurpation, revenge, and a devilish, preternatural passion that tamer beings can scarcely recognize as love.” (Duclaux)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is considered a masterpiece today, however when was first published, it received negative criticism for its passionate nature. Critics have studied the novel from every analytical angle, yet it remains one of the most haunting love stories of all time. “Wuthering Heights is not a comfortable book; it invites admiration rather than love.” (Stoneman) The novel contains several different levels that force readers to ponder the text. It allows for individual interpretations of the novel.

The novel has supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights and monstrous images hoping to create an atmosphere of mystery and fear. Emily Brontë challenges readers’ minds by creating different themes and filling the novel with symbolism and motifs. Certain aspects of Wuthering Heights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Emily Jane Brontë lived a short and intense life. No one knows much about her except for what she reveals in her writing, which consists of many poems and one novel, Wuthering Heights. Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire on July 30, 1818. She is one of three talented and famous sisters and fifth of six children. Brontë grew up in Hawthorn, a village that is built against a steep hill. Behind the town, were the empty moors that Brontë wandered in yearlong and loved deeply. The moors greatly influenced Emily’s life as the readers can see because much of the setting in Wuthering Heights takes place along the rugged bank and rippling brook of the moors.

Many other things in Brontë’s life affected her writing. Emily’s mother also gave her inspiration when...

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... chose wealth over love and it was a decision she was forced to live with forever.

The internal and external conflicts in the novel add depth and create many dimensions in the novel.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë is filled with many varying elements that expand a readers mind and allows them to construe their own meanings of the symbolism and themes included in the novel.

Works Cited

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights . 1994 Modern Library ed. New York: Modern Library, 1994. Print.

Bloom, Harold. Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights . New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1987. Print.

Duclaux, A. M. F. R. Emily Brontë; O’Brien, F. R. M. W. (“Romer Wilson”). All Alone: The Life and Private History of Emily Jane Brontë; Simpson, C. W. Emily Brontë; Southern Atlantic Quarterly 34:202 April 1935. Print.

Stoneman, Patsy. Wuthering heights: Emily Brontë. 1995. Print.