Characterism And Symbolism In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights

Pamela Gonzalez

April 10, 2014

Dr. Yoder

English 210A: The Novel

Wuthering Heights

Symbols are in which someone chooses to be visualized and the setting within which someone’s portrait is placed can communicate to us about that person’s personality and objectives, how they like to be seen and/or the period in which they lived. Wuthering Heights is a quarantined building on the hills in the West Riding of Yorkshire. “Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff’s dwelling ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather" (Emily Bronte pg.2). From the beginning of the novel, the description of the house seemed very dark, cloudy and strange. The house was positioned where thunder, snow and rain weather could strike. The setting (including nature) is influential to the reader because it gives an understanding into the characters and the total comprehension of the novel.

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.

The moorland scenery generated a habitation that seemed away from the society and the rest of the world. This made a perfect staging for the strange, odd, funny, weird and occasionally ghostlike events that were revealed i...

... middle of paper ...

...urce of little visible delight, but necessary” (Bronte 60). Her love for Linton was not as deep and strong as the love she had for Heathcliff. Love, nature and the setting all have a happy medium, well a dark and weird medium. The triangular love is frequently described through metaphors of nature.

Although the title of the novel was the most important feature that gave the characters their traits, Emily Bronte included two places to make the novel more interesting. The two families were disjointed by the cold, murky, dark and desolate moors, Wuthering Heights and of Thrushcross Grange. Both houses hold different morals and values. Wuthering Heights represents wildness. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange and the Linton family represent culture, sophistication, settlement, and education. It did not take long for Wuthering Heights to take over Thrushcross Grange.