Setting has always been, and will continue to be a key element in any story. It has the unique ability to bend and sway the reader’s emotions accordingly with the slightest alteration of atmosphere. In addition, it possesses the even more remarkable power to reflect, and aid in the analysis of each character’s behavior and motivation. These same qualities make the settings found in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, both necessary and intriguing.
The first setting the reader encounters is the estate of Wuthering Heights. It is approached with the perspective of an outsider, Mr. Lockwood. Upon Mr. Lockwood’s first visit to Wuthering Heights, he observes the significance of the name Wuthering as “being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather”. This statement does not simply describe the surrounding environment. It mirrors the mood of the house and its inhabitants. Lockwood goes on to comment, “bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed”. However, standing out from among the rest, the most brilliantly symbolic foreshadowing is expressed with the description of “a range of gaunt thorns, all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun”. Bronte’s imagery here captures the essence of each character. Each one resembling the starved, desperate branches craving light in their dark world. Wuthering Heights as a setting, beyond any doubt, truly provides the reader with an array of beautifully crafted, subtle parallels to the central theme and characters.