Wuthering Heights Vs Trhoushcross Grange Essay, Research Paper
In the novel Wuthering Heights, we find two households separated by the cold, muddy, and barren moors, one by the name of Wuthering Heights, and the other by the name of Thrushcross Grange. Each house stands alone, in the mist of the dreary land, and the atmosphere creates a mood of isolation. In the novel, there are two places where virtually all of the action takes place, these two places are Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Emily Bronte?s Wuthering Heights is a novel about people?s lives that are intertwined with one another. Emily Bronte creates a distinct feeling for each of the different settings (Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange) and from each setting she creates each character based on their setting.
Wuthering Heights is parallel to the life of Heathcliff. Both Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights began as lovely and warm, and as time wore on, both withered away to become less of what they once were. Heathcliff is the very spirit of Wuthering Heights; Healthcliff is a symbol of the cold, dark, and dismal dwelling. Emily Bronte describes Wuthering Heights as having ?narrow windows deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large jutting stones.? This description, using the characteristics of Wuthering Heights, is adjacent to Heathcliff when he is illustrated having, ?black eyes withdrawn so suspiciously under their brow.? Heathcliff lived in a primal identification with nature, the rocks, stones, trees, heavy skies and eclipsed sun environs him. There is no true separation of the setting of Heathcliff?s nature and the lives with which his life is bound.
Thrushcross Grange is situated in the valley with none of the grim features of Heathcliff?s home. Opposite of Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange is filled with light and warmth. ?Unlike Wuthering Heights, it is elegant and comfortable, a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold.? Thrushcross Grange is the appropriate home of the children of the calm the atmosphere of Thrushcross Grange illustrates the link the inhabitants have with the upper class Victorian lifestyle. Although the Linton?s appearances were often shallow, appearances were kept for their friends and their social standing. The setting used throughout the novel Wuthering Heights helps to set the mood to describe the characters.
Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange both represent several opposing properties. The inhabitants of Wuthering Heights were that of the working class, while those of Thrushcross Grange were higher on the social ladder. The people of Wuthering Heights aspired to be on the same level as the Lintons. This is evident when Heathcliff and Catherine peek through their window when they were having a party and in addition, Wuthering Heights is always in a state of storminess while Thrushcross Grange always seemed calm. Wuthering Heights and its surroundings depict the cold, dark, and evil side of life.
Catherine Earnshaw, ties these two worlds of storm and calm together. Despite the fact that she occupies a position midway between the two worlds, Catherine is a product of the moors. She belongs in a sense to both worlds and is constantly drawn first in Heathcliff?s direction, then in Linton?s. Catherine does not like Heathcliff, but she loves him with all the strength of her being because Heathcliff, like her, is a child of the storm; and this secures a bond between them, which interweaves itself with the very nature of their existence. In a sublime passage she tells Nelly Dean that she loves him:
?not because he?s handsome, Nelly, but because he?s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton?s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire. . . . My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff?s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I?m well aware as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He?s always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.?
Despite the fact she loves only Heathcliff, she marries Edgar Linton. Catherine realizes that even though her love (or lack of love) for Edgar is questionable; she feels that someday she will learn how to love him. ?Catherine sees that, whatever his faults, Heathcliff transcends the Lintons? world.? The bond between Heathcliff and Catherine was formed long ago during their childhood at Wuthering Heights.
It is Emily Bronte?s remarkable imagination, emotional power, figures of speech, and handling of dialect that make the characters of Wuthering Heights relate so closely with their surroundings. The contrast of these two houses add much to the meaning of this novel, and without it, the story would not be the interesting complex novel it is. The contrast between the houses is more than physical, rather these two houses represent the opposing forces which are embodied in their inhabitants. Having this contrast is what brings about the presentation of this story altogether. Bronte made Heathcliff and Wuthering Height as one. Both of these are cold, dark, and menacing, similar to a storm. Thrushcross Grange with the Lintons was more of a welcoming and peaceful dwelling. The personality of both is warm and draws itself to you by the warmth of the decor and richness of the surrounding landscape.