Personification In Wuthering Heights Chapter 1

Chapter one of Wuthering Heights begins in 1801 and introduces the narrator, Mr. Lockwood, who is visiting his new landlord, Mr. Heathcliff. The first chapter of the book is used mostly to describe the narrator’s surroundings and the characters that he meets. As a Gothic novel, the tone of the book is expected to be dark. How well does Emily Bronte use literary devices in the first chapter to convey the tone of a Gothic novel? The chapters point of view is that of a peripheral narrator. By being a character in the book and the narrator, it gives the story a more personalized feeling. Mr. Lockwood is telling his experiences at the Wuthering Heights estate and introducing the reader to a few characters. He is somewhat an unreliable narrator

The first personification the reader comes across with is when Lockwood first meets Heathcliff and is told to come into the house in an unwelcoming manner. The narrator states that, “even the gate over which he leant manifested no sympathizing movement…” (1) which is Bronte personifying the gate to make it clear to the audience that Heathcliff did not want to let Lockwood into his house. Another piece of personification used in this chapter is the comparison of Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is personified when the narrator states, “…Mr. Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his adobe and style of living…erect and handsome figure…” (Bronte 3). Heathcliff, like Wuthering Heights, is gloomy and

As Lockwood was trying to understand Heathcliff and his environment, the audience was trying to do the same thing. Bronte uses the peripheral point of view to allow the audience to emerge itself into the novel more easily, which helps to pick up the tone and mood of the chapter. The author uses personification, realism, and imagery to convey the tone of the chapter. She makes use of these literary devices mostly to describe in greater depth what the narrator was experiencing and feeling during his first encounters with Heathcliff and the Wuthering Heights residence. Heathcliff seemed very mysterious and dark to Lockwood throughout the chapter, and that is why he wanted to visit him again, even if he was not welcomed (Bronte 5). Lockwood’s understanding of the residence itself was that it was a place of gloominess and dreariness. This all ties into Bronte using the peripheral point of view and literary devices to make the tone of the chapter, and soon the whole book, known to the