Imagery of Nature Wuthering Heights is immensely filled with nature imagery. Mathison believes that Wuthering Heights is a “wild novel” because of its illustration of the wild nature (18). From the moors to the barren landscape, Bronte brings together these images to depict a dreary and desolate setting. Bronte also uses the elements of nature to convey characteristics of characters. Bronte uses the imagery of nature to reflect the personalities of the characters in Wuthering Heights. “’Wuthering’ is a Yorkshire term for roaring of the wind” which is constantly seen in the weather of Wuthering Heights (Wuthering Heights 316). The weather in Wuthering Heights changes with the mood of the characters or with the mood of the place. The novel begins with a snowstorm that almost kills Lockwood, establishing the dreary setting of the story. When Mr. Earnshaw passes away a raging storm appears signifying his death. A downpour of rain frequently emerges when the plot of the story has taken a sad turn. When Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights to London, rain symbolizes his departure. Rain also arose on the night of Heathcliff’s death (Wuthering Heights 317). The imagery of weather is specific to each character in Wuthering Heights. Lockwood desires the weather to be bright and sunny and is highly disturbed with storms which reflect his cheerful attitude (Laar 75). Ellen Dean conjures several metaphors involving the weather such as rain and wind for example “…though our patient [Catherine] was as wearisome and headstrong as a patient could be, she weathered it through” (Bronte 80). She also loathes storms; she is unwilling to go out in the rain. Bronte created Nelly having a “close contact with nature” which symbo... ... middle of paper ... ...art of life that described what outside looked like. However, if one digs into the meaning of nature, extraordinary symbols arise. Nature affects characters in different ways, and nature does not treat each character in the same way. Overall, the imagery of nature portrayed the personalities of the characters. Works Cited Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Bantam Books, 1981. Print. Laar, Elisabeth T. M. The Inner Structure of Wuthering Heights: A Study of an Imaginative Field. The Hague: Mouton, 1969. Print. Marsh, Nicholas. Emily Brontë: Wuthering Heights. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999. Print. Mathison, John K. "Nelly Dean and the Power of "Wuthering Heights"." Nineteenth-century Literature. 11.2 (1956). Print. "Wuthering Heights." fvhslibrary. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Feb. 2012. .
In "Wuthering Heights," we see tragedies follow one by one, most of which are focused around Heathcliff, the antihero of the novel. After the troubled childhood Heathcliff goes through, he becomes embittered towards the world and loses interest in everything but Catherine Earnshaw –his childhood sweetheart whom he had instantly fallen in love with.—and revenge upon anyone who had tried to keep them apart.
Inwardness is also the key to the structure of the novel. The book begins in the year 1801, on the very rim of the tale, long after the principal incidents of the story have taken place. Mr. Lockwood, our guide, is very far removed from the central experiences of the narrative. Under Lockwood’s sadly unperceptive direction, the reader slowly begins to understand what is happening at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Gradually we move toward the center of the novel. In a few chapters, Nelly Dean, takes over from Lockwood, and the reader is a little closer to the truth. Still Nelly is herself unperceptive and the reader must struggle hard till reaching the center of the novel; the passionate last meeting of Heathcliff and Cathy in Chapter 15.
The central theme of Wuthering Heights is a love story that challenges the established social rules in which the protagonists, Catherine and Heathcliff have lived; it is a story that survives the unfortunate choices that both lovers make and even mystically survives Catherine's death. The protagonists fall in love despite the opposition of Hindley Earnshaw. Catherine's attraction for Heathcliff is so strong that she feels compelled go against her brother's wishes and the social class conventions existing at that time. However, after courting for a while, Catherine makes the tragic decision of accepting Edgar Linton's proposal for marriage. This decision brings about a conflictive situation between Heathcliff and both the Earnshaws and the Lintons. One day, Heathcliff overhears Catherine telling Nelly "It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now" (Bronte 59). This comment enrages Heathcliff and he storms out of the house; ...
Wuthering Heights is a novel whose main character is said to have a double significance. He is said to be both the dispossessed and the dispossessor, victim of class hatred and arch – exploiter, he simultaneously occupies the roles of working class outsider and brutal capitalist. Heathcliff has all these characteristics because of his experiences. He is a character moulded by his past.
In Emily Bronte’s, Wuthering Heights, and Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein, the utilization of nature-related imagery to symbolize shifts in moods of different characters, allude to underlying themes, and signify approaching tonal shifts. The two main characters, Victor Frankenstein and Heathcliff, display both a romantic and contrasting aggressive individualism with nature within their characterizations throughout both novels. This is shown in their inherent, initial behavior, and their after look when they both capture the aspects of nature that reflect their moods, which creates an environment for both Heathcliff and Victor in which they can take part in. By nature Heathcliff is prone to a lot of the negatives in life, simply because of his deprived early childhood, which clearly has its toll on his future. Not just nature alone, but those who participated in the cruelty, like his stepbrother Hindley Earnshaw. In Frankenstein, the character, Victor Frankenstein’s, responsiveness takes over any other of his emotions, leaving room for ultimate bliss. The serene landscapes in both novels act as a source of unrestrained emotional experience for Heathcliff, Victor and the relationships they have with other characters, such as Heathcliff and Catherine. The weather in Wuthering Heights is used to obscure, both literally and metaphorically, and creates a scene for the reader. In Frankenstein, there is an overpowering sense of greatness and power of nature, which causes Victor to experience the greatness, grandeur, and beauty of nature as to induce a sense of awe. A reoccurring theme in romantic literature is the emphasis towards a love of nature. The importance of nature is prominently shown through both of these analogies, as well as, ...
n the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights.
This essay analyzed the all three of the setting in Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights, with the worst personality turned everybody into bitter unlikeable people like Catherine, for example. Thrusscross Grange, left an impression in the people there by making them more naïve because of the affluence it had. The moors, the purest of all three gave the people examples of life away from the other settings. Emily Brontë had put so much emphasis on these settings to prove that the enviorment leaves an impression on the people who live within
... setting and the rough, dark characters. More literally how the characters have to battle against the weather and the setting for their own survival, mentioned by Brontë several times in the novel is the fact that people could drown out in the moors. Also the setting seems generalized, meaning everything looks very similar to everything else and one could easily get lost if they did not know the way and were unescorted, exemplified by Lockwood when he is trapped at Wuthering Heights during a blizzard and asks for a guide, which is then refused by Heathcliff. Brontë is that being a victim is classless; it affects everyone and can happen to anyone and Wuthering Heights is the perfect example of victimization, whether it’s through fate, circumstance, real or supernatural.
Virginia Woolf and Emily Bronte possess striking similarities in their works. Both works have inanimate objects as pivotal points of the story line. For Bronte, Wuthering Heights itself plays a key role in the story. The feel of the house changes as the characters are introduced to it. Before Heathcliff, the Heights was a place of discipline but also love. The children got on well with each other and though Nelly was not a member of the family she too played and ate with them. When old Mr. Earnshaw traveled to Liverpool he asked the children what they wished for him to bring them as gifts and also promised Nelly a “pocketful of apples and pears” (WH 28). Heathcliff’s presence changed the Heights, “So, from the beginning, he had bred bad feeling in the house” (WH 30). The Heights became a place to dream of for Catherine (1) when she married Linton and moved to the Grange. For her it held the memories of Heathcliff and their love. For her daughter, Cathy, it became a dungeon; trapped in a loveless marriage in a cold stone home far away from the opulence and luxury of the home she was used to. Then, upon the death of Heathcliff, I can almost see, in my minds eye, the Heights itself relax into the warm earth around in it the knowledge that it too is once again safe from the vengeance, bitterness, and hate that has housed itself within its walls for over twenty years.
Wuthering Heights is a symbol of the distinctive commotion, which is the overriding force in Bronte’s novel. A force that will damage, twist and harm anyone that comes across it. The actual meaning of the word ‘wuthering’ is a wind blowing strongly with a roaring sound. This picture serves as a metaphor that people, money, emotions, love etc… will be in jeopardy if not hold tight. Above all, this novel is obviously about love, a different and odd love. Emotions and love in this novel turn out to be very violent, brutal and ruthless just like wuthering.
Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte, has 323 pages. The genre of Wuthering Heights is realistic fiction, and it is a romantic novel. The book is available in the school library, but it was bought at Barnes and Nobles. The author’s purpose of writing Wuthering Heights is to describe a twisted and dark romance story. Thus, the author conveys the theme of one of life’s absolute truths: love is pain. In addition, the mood of the book is melancholy and tumultuous. Lastly, the single most important incident of the book is when Heathcliff arrives to Edgar Linton’s residence in the Granges unannounced to see Catherine’s state of health. Heathcliff’s single visit overwhelmed Catherine to the point of death.
First, Wuthering Heights is a contribution to the theme of the novel because it sets the mood for the scenes taken place inside the house. The house is first introduced to the reader during a storm. The house stands alone and the land around it is described as dreary and foreboding, which creates a mood of isolation. “On the bleak Yorkshire moors” describes the Yorkshire moors physical appearance. The estate has little vegetation and is more weathered, which moors are, as they are jutting, bare rocks towards the ocean. Wuthering Heights is an old stone house with gothic architecture and bleak interior. The people that live in Wuthering Heights are bitter and act violent. The characters of the story act wild when they are at Wuthering Heights, compared to other places in the novel. The setting of the house enforces the actions of the Earnshaws’, and Heathcliff. The name of the estate even sets a theme of gloom in the novel. Lockwood says Wuthering is, “a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather” (12).
Dreams play a large role in the story of Wuthering Heights. During Lockwood's first visit to the Heights, he has a night full of dreams and nightmares. Each one related to what Heathcliff had just read on the windowsil...
...e. On a very simplistic level, it is attractive, the name ‘Wuthering Heights’ sounds to the ear a more mysterious and enigmatic choice than Thrushcross Grange. But it can be assumed that the author had made the choice of naming the novel based on reasons that run deeper than mere attractiveness. The setting is vital to the plot, and as Wuthering Heights and its presence directly or indirectly precipitates a major part of the action, the choice is an apt one. In conclusion,the characters’ relation with Nature runs deep, and this too has been highlighted forcefully by the title, that keeps reminding the reader that in ‘Wuthering Heights’, the setting is the thread that runs through the entire narrative holding it together, and halfway through the novel, we can almost perceptibly feel the throb of Nature that is alive, that is at work, and that has a will of its own.
The setting used throughout the novel Wuthering Heights helps to set the mood to describe the characters. We find two households separated by the cold, muddy, and barren moors, one by the name of Wuthering Heights, and the other by the name of Thrushcross Grange. Each house stands alone, in the mist of the dreary land, and the atmosphere creates a mood of isolation. In the novel, there are two places where virtually all of the action takes place. These two places, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, differ greatly from each other in appearance and mood. These differences reflect the universal conflict between storm and calm that Emily Bronte develops as the theme in her novel Wuthering Heights.