The biggest juxtaposition between the two protagonist settings is in social class. Wuthering Heights is very working class. The Heights could be described as gothic. The Gothic setting suggests a wild and primitive landscape unconstrained by the orthodox rules of society. The reader is first introduced to Wuthering Heights, the house and its surroundings, as it appears to the middle class, Mr. Lockwood, on a stormy night. Mr Lockwood too is introduced to Wuthering Heights on a stormy night, a foreshadowing of the darkness to come. Mr. Lockwood has an arrangement to meet with his neighbouring tenant, Mr. Heathcliff and after walking four miles in the snow, he reaches the Heights to find the gate closed. On page 29, he stands "on that bleak hilltop where the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air made him shiver through every limb” thus emphasizing the darkness and cruelty in nature. After ejaculating that his "wretched inmates deserved perpetual isolation from their species of churlish inhospitality," for leaving the gate locked during a storm, Mr. Lockwood is let inside, by a woman whom he thinks is Mrs. Heathcliff. His experience here within this Gothic house in quite unpleasant. While waiting for Heathcliff in silence he notices how the women "kept her eyes on him, in a cool regardless manner, exceedingly embarrassing and disagreeable." the arrival of Heathcliff "relieved" Mr. Lockwood momentarily, yet soon he became uneased by Heathcliff’s presence.
A Marxist critic would see the settings as a statement against the social class boundaries, with Thrushcross representing the higher class, and Wuthering Heights representing the less fortunate working class. The two are juxtaposed not only as settings, but it could be argued they are used to show the great differences between the two social classes
Heathcliff’s name plays an important role within symbolism in the novel, for example the word heath is a synonym of Moores, and cliff could be used to describe Penistone Crags or the Heights. Not only this, the characters come to a painful true understanding of themselves through him, such as Catherine realising her mistakes on her death bed, and Heathcliff tells her its self inflicted.
Wuthering Heights is a dark manor that expects the worst in man, and to its inhabitants it is the only reality they know. When Catherine marries Edgar Linton and moves over to the Grange, she is at first contented to be pampered and spoiled. Her every need is taken care of. Later, when she is confronted by Heathcliff, she is reminded of Wuthering Heights and begins to miss the place she once was so eager to leave. Catherine begins to see the Grange as superficial and confining, and at first she is only annoyed by this, but eventually the suffocating enclosure causes Catherine to lash out at her husband and all the Grange represents. Catherine, aware of her incestuous attraction to Heathcliff, believes the Grange is destroying her, and because of her disgust of the Grange and her sense of guilt, it does. In the process, Edgar too must suffer Catherine’s pain because of his love for her. In Hardy’s poems we can also see the effect of setting on a relationship.
In the poem We Sat at the Window, Hardy talks about how he and Emma shared a hotel room in Bournemouth on Swithins day. It seems rather trivial that the poem is set on Swithins day, yet as folklore goes, if it rains upon Swithins day, it will rain for forty days straight. And we see in the poem that the couple are distant and unattached, this could be the beginning of the end, as Swithins day is the beginning of the end for the summer. In the poem it would seem as if, even though the two people are in close proximity to each other, they are mentally a hundred miles away from each other, love has been eroded, and the foundation of feelings has corroded. The language used is very effecting in adding to the dismal feeling of the poem. In the line, “Babbled unchecked in the busy way” The use of onomatopoeia emphasises the lack of dialogue between the pair, that even water can be heard more than them. Despite this, the use of the pronoun “We” in lines such as the title “We Sat at the Window” shows that the poet still has feelings about his partner.
Another of Hardy’s poems where a setting is quite pivotal in influencing a relationship is Neutral Tones. The lure of "Neutral Tones" by Thomas Hardy is in its subtle familiarity. Although the poem describes the breaking off of a relationship, the reader quickly finds the speaker is neither fondly nor bitterly recalling the event. By avoiding every sensory image except for sight, abstaining from definition, and colouring in neither bright nor dark tones, the author purposefully distances the reader from the event. The poem's appeal lies not in its allusion to lost love, but in the passing of pain with time. This pale scene reveals the aging of painful memories that occurs but each of us so often forgets. The whole poem has a very cold aurora surrounding it, in such lines as “Pond that winter day” and “the deadest thing” The poem is almost autobiographical in that we can feel that what Hardy writes about is real to himself, this is evident in lines such as “Since Then” implying he was there. The tone of the poem is rather sharp and pessimistic; we can see this in the line “That love deceives” This line would tell the reader that the relationship had no trust, and the heart shaped glasses of love covered the truth of differences. Thomas Hardy’s poem “Neutral Tones” is a dramatic monologue consisting of four tetrameter quatrains. The speaker addresses an estranged lover and reminisces about a foreseen moment in their past, which anticipated the demise of their relationship. The first three stanzas describe the past incident, and the fourth stanza reflects upon this incident and the nature of love. It is a sad, pessimistic poem that portrays love as painful and doomed. Similarly, the poem's lack of definition allows the reader to see this painful memory as similar to a personal experience without demanding the recollection of details better forgotten. Several things are purposely unclear: whether the speaker is male or female, which person ended the relationship and who or if anyone was at fault. This comfortable obscurity encourages the reader to identify with the speaker, and assures that the similarity is tenuous at best. Instead of by pushing the reader out, the distance here is created by pulling the reader in, but only to the point of familiarity. "They had fallen from an Ash, and were grey" Ash trees are very beautiful hardwood trees, and this line indicates the passing of beauty, and ties in with the dying leaves mentioned in line three. This first stanza indicates that something once beautiful is dying, most probably the relationship between the two characters. Bronte incorporates an image of locks and keys repeatedly throughout the novel Wuthering Heights. Imagery of locks and keys can be discovered in places, characters and events both literally, physically and figuratively. Right from the start of the novel we can find examples of keys and locks found in the character Lockwood. Even something as trivial as his name can be taken to be a representation of Lockwood being isolated and locking himself away from other human beings, his name contains lock which represents this. The reader is first introduced to Lockwood early on in the novel, and not soon after he explains how Wuthering Heights is “A perfect misanthropist's heaven”. Here, Lockwood admits that he is a misanthropist, or a person that hates human beings, and by staying at Wuthering Heights, he can avoid civilization and lock himself away from human interaction. Later, he reflects on a love he once had, and explains how he loved a woman from behind his emotional and social barriers, but he dared not to express his feelings toward her. When she finally returns his love, he seals his feelings from her and returns to his former antisocial self. An example of locks and keys found in places, such as Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange is the gate leading into Wuthering Heights. This gate reflects the story of Wuthering Heights and is always locked when Lockwood is learning of the history of Heathcliff. The lock is found unlocked at the end of the book when Lockwood unlocks the mystery of Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff's past. This lock also symbolizes the grasp Heathcliff has on Catherine for his revenge plan. When Catherine's hat falls on the other side of the wall, she has to go and retrieve it and climbs over into Wuthering Heights. Nelly is left on the outside and Catherine bumps into Heathcliff on the inside. This portrays just how Catherine is stuck and cannot not escape Heathcliff's foul grasp on her for his revenge. Locks and keys are used in the plot of Wuthering Heights as well. An example of this is when Isabella asks Heathcliff for a key to their bedroom because they are married. Heathcliff yells at Isabella telling her that it is not “their” bedroom, just “his”. This possession represents how Heathcliff controls Isabella by locking her out of rooms and keeps from creating any real emotional attachment to her. Bronte depicts locks and keys by using people, places, and events in the plot. By keeping people out and keeping things locked, locks and keys also enforce the theme of secrecy. Bronte uses the unlocked gate to Wuthering Heights to represent the uncovering of the mystery of Heathcliff's past for the reader and Lockwood. Even though it represents isolation, the unlocked gate represents the theme of secrecy as well because Heathcliff's past was a secret and Lockwood had Nelly reveal it to him. Revenge is emphasized by locks and keys as well because Heathcliff seeks revenge on Catherine and he keeps control over her by locking her in Wuthering Heights. When he decides that he does not want to continue his revenge plan, he unlocks his true feelings to Nelly and admits he feels weaker and older than when he decided to exact his revenge. Bronte uses locks and keys to stress important the themes of isolation, secrecy, and revenge. In the poem The Self Unseeing, Hardy writes about a man, most likely himself, returning to his old family home. The tone is very nostalgic, in that he realises that the time spent on the “ancient floor” was the best of his life. Hardy uses a domestic scene so the reader can identify with the emotions he is going though and progressively the reader becomes more emotionally connected with the poet. Hardy, in this poem, is a time torn man, not to dissimilar to what stereotype Heathcliff fulfils within Wuthering Heights. A man who wants to regain what he once had, whether it be love from a female companion or ones family. The poet also uses fire to represent feelings and situations, such as in the line “Smiling into the fire” Although Hardy uses fire to represent happiness; it is very similar to the fire metaphors in Wuthering heights, used to represent passion and aggression. We know that the poem is written in retrospect due to the use of past tense, “I Danced”, “She sat here”.
