Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights

In the first chapter of the book the reader gets a vivid picture of

the house Wuthering Heights from Lockwood's descriptions ""wuthering"

being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the

atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather."

It quickly becomes clear that Wuthering Heights portrays the image of

its surroundings, the desolate Yorkshire moors fully exposed to the

elements.

It is not only the house that displays the environment that envelops

the place it is also the occupants and things inside the house that

deliver the symbols of the raw emotion and the exposure to the cruelty

(storms) that so much resembles the weather and location. As shown by

the dogs that are seemingly ordinary creatures to be found occupying a

house. But in the descriptions given by Lookwood they appear to have a

greater significance. They are depicted as threatening creatures (like

wolves) as they are described as "four footed fiends," and a "herd of

possessed swine" Also the dogs are not seen to occupy the kitchen but

they "haunt" it, giving a more terrifying impression. The verb used by

Lookwood "haunt" is appropriate as later in the novel Catherine

returns to haunt Heathcliff.

Lookwood meets a cold and bitter reception from Heathcliff at The

Heights which is typical of its surroundings "The "walk in" was

uttered with closed teeth." (Lookwood chapter 1) The phrase also shows

that the people of the Heights do not hide there emotions, in this

case Heathcliff's disappointment at receiving a visitor.

Four miles across the moors in a sheltered valley is the haven of

Thrushcross Grange su...

... middle of paper ...

... revenge.

Emily Bronte also uses the love of Heathcliff and Catherine to show

how women wanted to be equals to men. But when Catherine marries Edgar

she becomes a 2nd class citizen and this is typical of men's views on

women at the time when the novel was written. The way in which

Catherine's name changes throughout the book shows how women have a

crucial lack of identity that was common at the time the book was

written.

The contrast between wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange is very

important in the novel because the novel is all about contrast,

conflict, unions that fail, how the unions produce manipulated unhappy

children. The contrast in the houses symbolises the contrasts and

differences inherent in life that produce conflict not peace. Yet in

both houses live people who want to be loved and to love.