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Ihona Winiger- Literature II

Prof. Enrique, Alcatena


Instituto Daguerre-2017
WHUTHERING HEIGHTS
By Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte wrote her first and only novel in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. However, it
was not approved of by Victorian critics who thought of it as brutal and controversial. It was not
until Emily Brontes death that the book gained popularity and acclaim and became a
masterpiece of English novel.

The book is a combination of passion, mystery and love. Its most characteristic element is
nature which is as important in the book as any other character. The reader knows beforehand
that the weather and nature will play an important role throughout the novel. Wuthering
Heights suggests wind and it is intimately related to the spirit of the novel. Storm and wind are
the elements which almost define the novel; they show the atmospheric tumult of the
situation of Heights which mirrors the mood of the characters. Throughout the novel there are
lots of instances in which the mood of nature is portrayed by the events in the narrative and the
nature of its characters. In this paper I will try to show how Emily Bronte connects the theme of
nature with both characters emotions or behaviour and setting throughout the novel.

Wuthering Heights could be considered as a novel about the power of humanity. It is shown
through the novel that humanity possesses an innate capacity for love and evil. The central
characters within the novel suffer as a result of their own inability to control the innate animal
instinct that hides within all of us. Bronte sees humanity as powerful as nature forces, and
argues that being unable to contain that force leads to our downfall. It must be bare in mind that
human beings are part of nature.

To begin with, Emily Bronte connects the theme of isolation and nature in her first chapter as a
way of setting the atmosphere to her novel. Mr. Lockwood writes in his diary that he wanted to
occupy Thrushcross Grange. He wanted to isolate himself from society after hurting a woman he
really admired. Brontes idea of isolation connected with nature is also exemplified when Mr.
Lockwood says In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so
completely removed from the stir of society.''(Ch.1 p. 33) However, when Lockwood visits
Wuthering Heights at the beginning of a blizzard, Heathcliff does not hesitate to inform him of
the dangers. ''Do you know that you run a risk of being lost in the marshes? People familiar with
these moors often miss their road on such evenings'' Through these few passages, Lockwood's
character introduces the relationship between beauty, isolation, and danger that is explored
through the rest of the novel.

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Ihona Winiger- Literature II
Prof. Enrique, Alcatena
Instituto Daguerre-2017
Furthermore, Lockwoods need to be alone reflects Emily Bronte's preoccupation with solitude.
For example, when he says I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or
town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself.( Ch. III, p. 57) In this
quotation the reader is able to interpretate that solitude is what separates the people who live
at Wuthering Heights from the civilized. Bronte seems to suggest that finding sufficient
company in oneself is the only way a person can truly know who they are and what they want.

Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange could be considered as a part of the setting and as
two symbols in Brontes Novel. The forces of nature are represented by the Heights, and of
civilization are represented by the Grange. While Wuthering Heights depicts a stormy mood, the
Thrushcross grange depicts a calm mood. Wuthering Heights has a surrounding that is depicted
as dark and cold, which reflects the darker side of life; there is a feeling of storm in this place.
Thrushcross Grange is just the opposite of Wuthering Heights. It is depicted as more bright and
warm, which reflects the brighter side of life. There is much difference in the residents of these
two places. Wuthering Heights are packed with working class whereas Thrushcross grange has
residents who belong to a higher stratum in the social ladder. Wuthering Heights is a farmhouse
that is situated on top of Yorkshire moors. On the contrary, Thrushcross Grange is situated
lower in the valley and is close to civilization. The Thrushcross Grange has a more cultivated
atmosphere than the Wuthering heights. Wuthering Heights symbolizes jealousy, anger and
hatred. It can be noticed that there is much tension in the house as depicted by the characters.
On the contrary, Thrushcross Grange reflects love, kindness and peace. The two houses
represent nature versus civilisation, Thrushcross Grange, the home of the Lintons, is civilised,
and Wuthering Heights is the home of the children who run wild. For example at the beginning
of chapter one, we read about natures influence on it:

Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliffs dwelling, Wuthering being a significant
provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in
stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there, at all times, indeed: one may
guess the power of the north wind, blowing over the edge, by the exercise slant of a few, stunted
firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as
if craving alms of the sun. (Ch. I p. 34)

By this description we learn that the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights have much closer
contact with nature than anybody else. The place is wild and free of any human interference.
Those who live there have to accept the fact that they are going to share the place with nature
forces governing it. However, nature is not entirely unfriendly, although frightening at times.

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Ihona Winiger- Literature II
Prof. Enrique, Alcatena
Instituto Daguerre-2017
But more importantly the moors are the embodiment of nature and the emotions, completely
wild, untamed as Lockwood remarks at the beginning of the novel, "completely removed from
the stir of society". Many of the references to the earth in the novel are associated with death,
graves, enjoyment and love. The moors are one of the settings for the novel, the place where
Catherine and Heathcliff are at home, even in death. The moors represent for them freedom and
escape from the tyranny of Hindley and the place of which Catherine dreams. Catherine's love
for Heathcliff "resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but
necessary "(Ch. IX P. 108). Catherine seems to belong to the moors and not to the woods. She
explains to Nelly why she should marry Edgar, who is compared to the foliage in the woods.
Heathcliff, on the other hand, is associated in the novel with forces of Nature: the moors, the
wind, rain and snow. What is more, Catherine's grave is as close to the moor, to which she
belongs "and it was dug on a green slope in corner of the kirk yard, where the wall is so slow
that heath and bilberry plants have climbed over it from the moor; and peat almost buries it
"(Ch. XVII p. 190). Emily Bronte tells us that Catherine is not buried in the chapel, nor with
either Linton's family or her own. She does not belong to any of those but to wild, natural forces
which are her and Heathcliffs true environment.

It could be said that Emily Bronte fantastically associated Nature with Human emotions. For
instance, when Lockwood says I perceive that people in these regions acquire over people in
towns the value that a spider in a dungeon does over a spider in a cottage, to their various
occupants; and yet the deepened attraction is not entirely owing to the situation of the looker-
on. They do live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface, change, and frivolous
external things.(Ch. VII, p. 88) , he is suggesting that the rural lifestyle encourages people to be
more reflective and in touch with their feelings. The author is trying to say that people spending
time alone or in the country is essential to have a full and passionate life.

Weather conditions and passion are intimate connected during a meal at Wuthering Heights
described in chapter two. Many events took place during this meal that resulted in Lockwood
with a nosebleed and a snowy day into a blizzard. Note how the storm intensifies along with the
passions in the house The business of eating being concluded, and no one uttering a word of
sociable conversation, I approached a window to examine the weather. A sorrowful sight I saw:
dark night coming down prematurely, and sky and hills mingled in one bitter whirl of wind and
suffocating snow. (ch.2 p44 l 13.) Lockwood cannot handle the passions neither the weather
conditions in Wuthering Heights so he decides to leave the house.

Bronte relates the theme of desolation due to love and nature during the night Lockwood has a
nightmare in which he breaks a window to get some air and Catherine begs to enter. It was not

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Ihona Winiger- Literature II
Prof. Enrique, Alcatena
Instituto Daguerre-2017
Lockwood who was desolated but Heathcliff who suddenly enters the room and after a
conversation with Lockwood, he opens the window and shouts for Catherine to come in. In this
scene is clear that love and desolation are connected with nature. His desires to speak to her are
very strong. Catherine is being characterised by nature, indeed by the storm.

In Wuthering Heights, the narrator Nelly Dean describes Catherine Earnshaws perceptions of
Heathcliff and Edgar Linton using the metaphor of nature Doubtless Catherine marked the
difference between her friends as one came in, and the other went out. The contrast resembled
what you see in exchanging a bleak, hilly, coal country, for a beautiful fertile valley, and his voice
and greeting were as opposite as his aspect (Ch. VIII p. 96). Despite Heathcliffs actions,
readers associate his character with purity, given the love he once inspired in those who
associated with him, such as Hidleys father and Catherine Earnshaw, whose childhood
friendship with him consisted of a love so innocent and intense that she considered the two of
them to have identical souls. Beyond the quality of purity he shares with nature, Heathcliffs
embodies the nature in which the novel specifically takes place. Heathcliff is a dark-skinned
gypsy, an erect and handsome figure, slovenly, and morose. These same characteristics
reflect the moors: bleak and wild yet majestic and imposing.

Heathcliff passion and desolation are represented by violent wind and thunder which display
the strength in his character. Bronte represents Heathcliff as a symbolic character through the
elemental image of fire and storm. On the day he leaves Wuthering Heights after overhearing
Catherines confession. For instance, the storm came rattling over the Heights in full fury' (Ch.
IX Pg. 110) , 'There was a violent wind, as well as thunder, and either one or the other split the
tree off at the corner of the building; (Ch. IX Pg 110). Heathcliff is associated with storm, a harsh
weather that Bronte connects with his character, which is rough. Accordingly, when Catherine
discovers his absence, distraught she searches for him all night in the rain, catching a fever in
the process. It could be understood that her fever is like a physical manifestation of her wild
passion.

Bronte uses animal imagery to symbolically describe the characters' emotional state of the
inhabitants of Wuthering Heights. For example, Nelly, the narrator, compares Edgar to a soft
cat and a half-eaten bird when Nelly writes, The soft thing looked askance through the window:
he possessed the power to depart as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half
killed, or a bird half eaten. Ah, I thought, there will be no saving him: he's doomed, and flies to
his fate. This example of imagery portrays Edgar as weak and helpless when it comes to
Catherine, who is much stronger than he is.

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Ihona Winiger- Literature II
Prof. Enrique, Alcatena
Instituto Daguerre-2017
Through the novel, birds tend to be suggestive of fragility and gentleness. Isabella is described
as a canary. In his attraction to Cathy, Hareton put out his hand and stroked a curl as gently as
if it were a bird (Ch 30 p. 309). This simile places Hareton as being at one with his natural
environment, in a way that Lockwood never is. Another example could be when Catherine is ill
in her room she puts natural objects such as birds feathers into groups in an attempt to make
sense of her world. Furthermore, while Heathcliff waits outside as Catherine dies, Nelly sees a
pair of ousels passing and repassing scarcely three feet from him, busy in building their nest
(Ch. XVI p. 188) This suggests that Heathcliff can blend into nature as if he were an animal
himself, probably a reminder of happier days on the moors.

Isabella is frequently referred to with animal imagery., she is likened to a monkey 'You are an
impertinent little monkey!' exclaimed Mrs. Linton(Ch. X p. 127) , a little canary I'd as soon put
that little canary into the park on a winter's day, as recommend you to bestow your heart on
him!(Ch. X p. 128), , a sparrow's egg and he'd crush you like a sparrow's egg, (Ch. X p. 128), a
tigress, a vixen and a dove There's a tigress!' exclaimed Mrs. Linton, setting her free, and
shaking her hand with pain. 'Begone, for God's sake, and hide your vixen face! (Ch. X p. 128).
These characteristics serve to demonstrate her complex nature, a mixture of helplessness and
ferocity. Ultimately, she will be destroyed by the forces which range against her. In other words,
she will be destroyed by natural consequence of her personality and the choices she makes.

It seems that Emily Bronte wanted each scene to be vivid and detailed so that they seemed more
realistic. That was possible due to the use of elements of nature both in setting and in the
characters. It can be assumed that Emily Brontes message in the novel is that human nature is
composed of elements which can never be completely controlled by humans themselves so as
earth natural elements, which always look for equilibrium. For example, Catherine destroys the
balance and independence between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, especially
after her marriage with Edgar .However, the equilibrium is reached again at the end of the
novel when little Catherine, the new representative of civilization gets married with Hareton,
closely related to nature, which shows the new relationship of modern people and nature. It
can be understood that people are not able to conquer nature and they are not the owner of
nature. Consequently, Bronte portrays the idea that nature mirrors the passions of the
characters. She moves easily and naturally among symbols. The symbols at the heart of the book
are of wild and tame, fierce and gentle, dark and fair. The setting and weather conditions reflect
the mood of the characters and their actions. The environment in which they live is another way
to understand the conflict between nature and emotions.

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