How Do the Settings and Characters in Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ Reflect Each Other? Essay Example
“If I were in heaven, Nelly, I would be extremely miserable.” How do the settings and characters in Emily Brontë’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ reflect each other?
Written in 1847, ‘Wuthering Heights’ is Emily Brontë’s only novel. Published a year after her death under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, it is perhaps one of the most passionately original novels in the English language. The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing, passionate, yet thwarted love between dark, brooding Heathcliff and hot-blooded Catherine Earnshaw and how their unresolved passion eventually destroyed them and the people around them. Now considered a classic of English literature, ‘Wuthering Heights’ was met with mixed reviews by critics when it was first published, mainly because of the narratives stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty.
The temperament or personality of the characters in a novel can sometimes be skilfully portrayed and enhanced through their physical surroundings. Their morals and values are constructed to reflect the surroundings they are placed in, which helps the reader understand them and their situation and motives more. Emily Brontë uses this technique throughout her novel, largely helped by the disparity between her two settings; Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, both situated on the harsh and desolate moors of Yorkshire. The microcosm of the two properties is achieved by their isolation, leaving no escape from their bleak situations.
Wuthering Heights is the epitome of a Gothic setting, shrouded in the supernatural, this cold, dark, desolate house is an excellent reflection of the characters within. These people are often ill-tempered, vengeful and angry, which is illustrated by the bleakness and isolations of the property. Its antithesis however, Thrushcross Grange, is the embodiment of wealth and the upper class. Lavishly decorated and cultivated, characters such as Edgar Linton frequently appear more reserved and calmer then their
Written in 1847, ‘Wuthering Heights’ is Emily Brontë’s only novel. Published a year after her death under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, it is perhaps one of the most passionately original novels in the English language. The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing, passionate, yet thwarted love between dark, brooding Heathcliff and hot-blooded Catherine Earnshaw and how their unresolved passion eventually destroyed them and the people around them. Now considered a classic of English literature, ‘Wuthering Heights’ was met with mixed reviews by critics when it was first published, mainly because of the narratives stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty.
The temperament or personality of the characters in a novel can sometimes be skilfully portrayed and enhanced through their physical surroundings. Their morals and values are constructed to reflect the surroundings they are placed in, which helps the reader understand them and their situation and motives more. Emily Brontë uses this technique throughout her novel, largely helped by the disparity between her two settings; Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, both situated on the harsh and desolate moors of Yorkshire. The microcosm of the two properties is achieved by their isolation, leaving no escape from their bleak situations.
Wuthering Heights is the epitome of a Gothic setting, shrouded in the supernatural, this cold, dark, desolate house is an excellent reflection of the characters within. These people are often ill-tempered, vengeful and angry, which is illustrated by the bleakness and isolations of the property. Its antithesis however, Thrushcross Grange, is the embodiment of wealth and the upper class. Lavishly decorated and cultivated, characters such as Edgar Linton frequently appear more reserved and calmer then their