The Setting of Wuthering Heights
Authors often utilize the tool of setting to convey meaning and advance plot. Emily Bronte employs this technique in her gothic novel, Wuthering Heights. Through her description of the Grange, the Heights, and their weather Bronte creates many new elements in the plot of her work. Without such vivid imagery, the novel would lose much of its passion, which is a crucial component of the romantic novel. Character development also relies heavily on the setting. The setting forces each character to act in a manner that often contradicts the character's heart. The focus of the novel transpires around the two main characters' "unworldly love". The setting's constraint on their love creates the actual plot on which this novel revolves. Perhaps under a different set of circumstances the events of this novel would not have transpired, but then again, that is what makes the setting of Wuthering Heights so critical.
When one looks at the completed novel it becomes quite apparent that it could not have occurred in another setting. The seclusion of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange allows for the character's behavior. The dark turbulent atmosphere present at the Heights has a direct connection with the actions of the Earnshaw family, while the calm atmosphere present at the Grange displays the Linton's gentler and more civilized attitude. The violent and primitive displays preformed by Heathcliff, Hindley, Catherine, and the other characters at the Heights would not have been tolerated if the story had not had a rural setting. Without being set in an isolated area, the incidents of Wuthering Heights could not have occurred.
The actual homestead of Wuthering Heights is described in great detail during the first few chapters. One does not take particular notice of the "gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs?", the "narrow windows deeply set in the wall," or the "homely, northern farmer," described as Lockwood enters the Heathcliff's home (Bronte 2,3). Most readers will go on unaware of the true wealth of information Bronte has presented in these beginning few paragraphs. Not only is the actual homestead of Wuthering Heights here described, but through doing so also its inhabitants and ambience. The dark stormy atmosphere of the Heights outwardly displays the inner turmoil of the house's occupants. The withering thorns, stunted firs, and over grown shrubbery all represent the unrefined and wild nature of the Earnshaw family, most particularly Heathcliff.
Many stunning comparisons can be made between Heathcliff and the surroundings of the Heights. Like Heathcliff, the house is built to hide the occurrences within. Its "narrow windows deeply set in the wall"(2) exemplify Heathcliff's own eyes which are withdrawn and squinted. The innards of the house are more than modest, boarding empty. This emptiness symbolizes Heathcliff's own empty heart without Catherine. Heathcliff's physical characteristics are also found to have corresponding traits in and around the house. The hard stone floors of the house exemplify Heathcliff's hard features and disposition. His dark complexion corresponds with the dismal and shadowed environment of the Heights. "His thick brown curls" and "whisker's [which] encroached bearishly over his cheeks" display how closely bonded Heathcliff is with his surrounding wilderness (8). Heathcliff's savage, uncivilized attitude also exhibits his connection with nature. Man's role in nature becomes a major theme throughout the novel, one that Bronte clearly illustrates through her description of Heathcliff.
Dissimilar to the descriptions of Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange appears to be a place of civility and calm. Dark is replaced with light, cold with warmth, and distress with comfort. In fact, Thrushcross Grange represents everything Wuthering Heights does not: refinement. David Cecil, a critic of the novel, summarizes the differences between the Heights and the Grange quite well:
"[Wuthering Heights] land of storm; high on the barren moorland naked to the shock of the elements, the natural home of the Earnshaw family, fiery, untamed children of the storm. On the other, sheltered in the leafy valley bellow, stands the thrush Grange, the appropriate home of calm, the gentle, passive timid Lintons."(Cecil 102)
Even Heathcliff remarks on its beauty: "it was beautiful - a splendid place carpeted in crimson, and crimson covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold"(40). The Grange is a reality check for the Earnshaws. The Linton family and Thrushcross Grange are not only the idealistic dreams and aspirations of the Earnshaws, but also a reality staring them directly in the face. It represents something both Heathcliff and Catherine will not find until their deaths, happiness.
Heathcliff's misery can clearly be seen after his loss of Catherine. As the first three chapters unfurl Lockwood is forced to spend a night at Wuthering Heights. While trying to fall asleep he was awakened by a rapping on the bedroom window. To Lockwood's surprise it was not a tree branch but rather the Ghost of Catherine moaning to be let in. His yelps arouse Heathcliff to the room, after which he approaches the window, yelling into the storm, "Come in, Come in! Cathy do come,"(23). Here the setting obviously serves to heighten the intensity of Heathcliff's misery. The fact that the "snow and wind whirled wildly" contributes to the powerful passionate tone of the episode, the tone that is indicative of Heathcliff's feelings (23). Not only is the storm an important setting characteristic during this scene, but the thing that separates the inside from the out is also important - the window. Bronte chooses to use a simple window to represent everything that stands in the way of Heathcliff and Catherine's Love. Catherine is yearning to come in while Heathcliff is yearning to be let out, yet the only thing separating the two is a single pain of glass. Such a powerful metaphor creates an enormous amount of compassion for the two lovers deserted on opposite sides of the glass. Bronte's truly ingenious use of setting during this single scene creates a commanding tone of passion, anguish, and pity.
The image of the storm is not reserved strictly for the opening chapters, it is present throughout the novel during its most violent and turbulent episodes. For example, on the night that Catherine is detained at the Linton's, Heathcliff comes home through a terrible storm. Again, on the day of Edgar's proposal it becomes overwhelmingly stormy coming "rattling over the Heights in full fury" (74). This time it is Catherine caught in the midst of it, searching out Heathcliff, who had recently overheard her reasons for marrying Edgar. Another great storm surges over the Heights, this one occurring the night of Catherine's burial. Here the reader finds Heathcliff out and about during this storm yet again. This pattern continues throughout the novel, occurring each time there is a dramatic twist of events. Each storm offers the reader a glimpse of the powerful forces at work behind Heathcliff and Catherine's love. They demonstrate its unworldly strength and each character's hate of being separate from one another. The image of the storm gives deep insight into Heathcliff and Catherine's love, and also to the character's interconnectedness of emotion with nature.
Not all imagery within the novel is dark and somber in nature. There is a very clear distinction between the first and second halves of the book. This can mainly be seen through the displacement of the dismal imagery focussed around Catherine's love for Heathcliff, with the brightened summer weather imagery focussed around younger Catherine. As young Catherine lies in the middle of the moors with Hareton there is a "blue sky and a bright shinning sun? with a west wind blowing". This imagery is symbolic of hope. Hope for the future of the Heights, and of the Grange. The bright imagery reveals to the reader that not all is lost, and like most stories, evil is fighting a losing battle.
The final destination of both Heathcliff and Catherine is the moors. The bleak yet wild moors are the only place in which their love could blossom. As children they would "run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day" (39). Here, unrestrained by the world, the doomed lovers found sanctuary. Without the moors both Catherine and Heathcliff would be lost in anguish for eternity.
Utilization of setting as a tool to convey deeper meaning is a skill clearly mastered by Emily Bronte. From her melancholy description of the Heights, to her tranquil descriptions of the Grange Bronte successfully adds successively deeper levels to her novel. Without her using this technique the novel would lack the true passion of a romantic novel.
Works Cited
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Prentice Hall. 1846.
Cecil, David. "Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights". Volger, Thomas. Twentieth Century Interpretations of Wuthering Heights. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. Prentice Hall. 1968.