Many plays and novels use contrasting places. In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte sets the novel around Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, two neighboring houses on the Yorkshire Moors in England. Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are two different places with completely different characteristics and vibes.
Wuthering Heights is home to Heathcliff, Catherine, Hindley, and Nelly. Wuthering Heights gives off a more rebellious, free-spirited vibe. It has a more country feel compared to Thrushcross Grange. Wuthering Heights lacks hospitality and comfort. The people in Wuthering Heights represent more wild, rebellious characters. Heathcliff and Catherine are great examples of this free-spirited, wild, and rebellious characters in how they run off together and just the way they live their lives, especially when they were younger before Catherine married Edgar and moved to Thrushcross Grange. The characters in Wuthering Heights also represent a more middle to lower class household compared to the lavish life lived at Thrushcross Grange.
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Thrushcross Grange represents refinement, class, and civilization. The characters at Thrushcross Grange are considered more of upper class, which is what intrigues Catherine. Thrushcross Grange is home to Edgar, Isabella, and their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Linton. After Catherine and Heathcliff are caught at Thrushcross Grange by the dogs, Catherine gets hurt so they let her come in and they basically pamper her, but they tell Heathcliff that he cannot stay, which is presumably because of his skin color, which angers
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.
16. Thrushcross Grange has a more civilized nature than Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights is personified by storms, stunted plants, and characters that cannot fulfill their own passions with ease. Thrushcross Grange is more enclosed and is not as much exposed to the bitter winds. Gardens and flowers are illustrated in reference to the Grange, and this evokes a sense of optimism and beauty. The Grange is also more associated with money and the material world than is Wuthering Heights, which is more connected to nature. Thrushcross Grange protects the Linton family from Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights itself.
The novel of Wuthering Heights involves passion, romance, and turmoil but most significantly carries cruelty as an overarching theme. Cruelty is apparent throughout the work most importantly when dealing with relationships between Heathcliff and Hindley, Heathcliff and Hareton, and even the emotional cruelty between Heathcliff and Catherine.
If Wuthering Heights is hopelessness and desolation, Thrushcross Grange is peace and salvation. Heathcliff leaves Lockwood at this point, telling his tenant that he will be able to make it the rest of the way on his own. Heathcliff lives at Wuthering Heights because a desolate place is where he belongs, and his not walking the rest of the way to Thrushcross Grange is symbolic of his not being able, or even wanting, to travel toward happiness. Any happiness he had ended when Catherine died.
The gothic and often disturbing Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte’s classic novel that contains undeniably powerful writing that created her timeless love story. Andrea Arnold transformed her masterpiece into a cinematic rendition to recreate the wild and passionate story of the deep and destructive love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff.
She becomes aware that she belongs to a social class when she and Heathcliff view life in Thrushcross Grange ' It was beautiful-a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass-drops'
Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë does not idealize love; she presents it realistically, with all its faults and merits. She shows that love is a powerful force which can be destructive or redemptive. Heathcliff has an all-consuming passion for Catherine. When she chooses to marry Edgar, his spurned love turns into a
While Wuthering Heights was a symbol of darkness and winter, Thrushcross Grange could only be described as its opposite. Thrushcross Grange can be seen as a happy place that is light and summery. Its inhabitants are blissful and naive. They did not worry or have to fend for themselves because there is always money and servants to wait on them. The inhabitants of the house are ignorant of the cruelties and injustices of the outside world. When Isabella, Edgar's sister, marries Heathcliff and is taken to the Heights, she too learns these realities and is destroyed by them. She is imprisoned in the Heights by her husband. Isabella writes Nelly and describes her depression;
Heathcliff is introduced in Nelly's narration as a seven-year-old Liverpool foundling (probably an Irish famine immigrant) brought back to Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw. His presence in Wuthering Heights overthrows the prevailing habits of the Earnshaw family, members of the family soon become involved in turmoil and fighting and family relationships become spiteful and hateful. Even on his first night, he is the reason Mr. Earnshaw breaks the toys he had bought for his children. "From the very beginning he bred bad feelings in the house". Heathcliff usurps the affections of Mr. Earnshaw to the exclusion of young Hindley-: "The young master had learnt to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a
It had, “.... a few stunted firs at the end of the house….” and, “the corners defended with large jutting stones” (Brontë 4). The ruins of Wuthering Heights made the household seem less noble and respected. A ruined home and structure compared them to the winsome Thrushcross Grange. The differences of the houses amplified the difference in class, stature, and ways of life. The ruins of Wuthering Heights made those living there have a different mindset and look as if they couldn’t reach the Thrushcross standards. Also, those who lived at Wuthering Heights had a much different attitude, this because Wuthering Heights nurtures those into whom they become. For instance, Catherine, after leaving Wuthering Heights came back Nelly describes her as, “ a very dignified person….” as opposed to, “a wild, hatless little savage” (Brontё 52). Her time at the ruined Wuthering Heights made her into a ruined and hateful girl herself. If Wuthering Heights resembled that of Thrushcross Grange then there would not be a shift in Catherine’s or anyone's character. In fact, the novel wouldn’t have a difference between the two settings, making both households equal.
While at Thrushcross Grange, she grows infatuated with Edgar, despite her love for Heathcliff. Edgar came from an upper class family as well and took care of her when she was in a dog accident. This leads to her acceptance of Edgar Linton’s marriage proposal despite her statements regarding her love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff overhears unfortunate passages of Catherine's discourse and disappears for a period during which he mysteriously makes his fortune and changes irrevocably from the person he was. Vengeance consumes him, and Heathcliff attempts to destroy the lives of those who wronged him, (as well as their children). Ultimately, Heathcliff’s bitterly executed vengeance is effaced by a love between Hareton and Cathy that mirrors Heathcliff’s own love for Catherine. Hareton is Catherine’s nephew and Cathy is Catherine’s daughter, which makes the two first cousins.
Wuthering Heights is depicted as a cold, threatening, and dark manor, situated on a "bleak hilltop." In the novel, "wuthering" is the local adjective to describe the "atmospheric tumult" present in the region. The rugged manor, Wuthering Heights, represents a "storm", characterized by the wild emotions and harsh behaviors of the inhabitants. The depressing atmosphere causes people to "shiver through every limb" at the "sorrowful sight" of the Heights. In deep contrast, Thrushcross Grange is described as a "splendid place" of elegance and comfort. The peaceful dwelling of the Grange represents higher values and morals, and is considered the "calm" residence of the novel. The author creatively reveals the theme of good versus evil, or the calm versus the storm, through the pronounced symbolic differences in the houses.
Self-Centered. Heathcliff is self-centered, caring for himself and his interests and having little concern for others. This trait is greatly amplified by his love for Catherine and hatred for Mr. Linton. One example of this is when he trapped Cathy and her companion for no less than five days in his house at Wuthering Heights, forcing Cathy to marry Linton (255, 260). “And there I remained enclosed [in a chamber], … [for] Five nights and four days I remained, seeing nobody but Hareton [when he brought food],” shows how little Heathcliff is concerned for others, and how much he cares for his own interests (260). His own self-interest causes him to want control over Thrushcross Grange, as evidenced by the fact Linton will gain control of it after Mr. Linton, who is in poor health, dies if he (Linton) marries Cathy (263). However, Linton was also in poor health and was going to
Heathcliff’s accusation above is mind blowing. From the youngest of ages, Heathcliff longed to have what Edgar Linton had. This translates to the future when Heathcliff wishes to acquire Catherine, who he loves deeply, and Thrushcross Grange from Mr. Linton
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights display of cultural and physical features of an environment affecting one’s character and moral traits is showcased through the first Catherine’s development throughout the novel. Catherine is forced to “adopt a double character”, as she lives as a rebellious, passionate woman on the turbulent Wuthering Heights, while behaving politely and courtly on the elegant Thrushcross Grange(Bronte, 48). Each of these environments also contains a love interest of Catherine’s, each man parallel with the characteristics of their environments: Heathcliff, the passionate and destructive, residing in Wuthering Heights, while the civilized and gentle Edgar inhabits Thrushcross Grange. Catherine’s development in character due to her setting significantly contributes to the theme that pursuing passionate love is dangerous, such as the love shared by Heathcliff and Catherine.