Emily preferred to write about things that she loved and knew well. One of these things was nature. Emily spent most of her childhood on the Moors and thus felt at one with nature. If Emily had not grown up surrounded by nature she would not have been able to write about it so enthusiastically and with so much passion. Her knowledge of nature and her home surroundings give "Wuthering Heights" an original aspect that the inhabitants of the city could not relate to or understand. Throughout "Wuthering Heights" Emily uses pathetic phalasy to portray the emotions of the characters. When the characters are feeling angry, upset or betrayed the weather is a metaphor for the way they are feeling. When Heathcliff overhears Catherine tell Nelly that it would degrade her to marry him he leaves Wuthering Heights in despair.
"It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love him;"
That night there is a violent storm and a tree is split in two. If "Wuthering Heights" were not set in a remote setting Emily would not have been able to use pathetic palsy to such an exaggerated and atmospheric effect.
"There was a violent wind, as well as thunder, and either one or the other split a tree off at the corner of the building;"
The splitting of the tree represents the splitting of Catherine and Heathcliff. Throughout "Wuthering Heights" there are references to storm and stillness. When the characters are at peace the weather is still yet when the characters are annoyed there is a storm. The storm represents the build up of mixed emotions being released. Without these constant references to nature we may be inclined to forget the remote setting of the novel. Perhaps Emily uses the weather as a metaphor as it is an element of nature and nature is very sensitive to change. Some flowers only open when they know that the weather is changing from being overcast and bleak to bright and sunny.
In "Wuthering Heights" Catherine loves both Edgar and Heathcliff but in different ways. Her love for Edgar is described as,
"like the foliage in the woods"
Her love for Heathcliff is described as,
"the external rocks beneath"
Catherine's love for Edgar is not very strong as leaves on trees are not very strong. However foliage is very beautiful and rocks are not. Catherine's love for Heathcliff is everlasting and will never change whereas foliage will eventually die. In these quotes Emily uses nature to show contrast. Nature provides an important contrast when describing these relationships as it is about balance. A flower cannot grow with only water. It needs a balance of both water and sunlight. Neither of these relationships worked, as there was no balance. Catherine's relationship with Heathcliff is about excess and did not work, as their love for each other was obsessive.
"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"
Catherine is telling Nelly not to talk about her separation with Heathcliff, which will be inevitable when she is married to Edgar. She cannot bear the thought of being without Heathcliff, as she is obviously obsessed with him. Their love for one another is immense and everlasting.
In contrast Catherine's relationship with Edgar had no spark and was based on infatuation rather than love. Whatever love there was, was one sided. However towards the end of the novel Catherine's daughter Cathy has a successful relationship with Heathcliff's nephew Hareton. This relationship can only happen when both Catherine and Heathcliff are dead and together as Wuthering Heights is at peace. While Heathcliff was alive Wuthering Heights was transformed from a loving yet working farmhouse into a prison. It changed as the characters changed. When a flower is growing under a tree it cannot blossom. Heathcliff was acting like the tree and Wuthering Heights was the flower. When Heathcliff is dead Wuthering Heights gradually returns to its original state.
"That is an improvement! I thought. And I noticed another, by the aid of my nostrils; a fragrance of stocks and wall flowers, wafted on the air, from amongst the homely fruit trees."
Before Mr Lockwood knows that Heathcliff is dead he notices a difference in the Heights. It appears more welcoming and homely and when Mr and Mrs Earnshaw owned Wuthering Heights it was a family home and now that Heathcliff is dead it has returned to what it once was. This setting allows Cathy and Hareton to fall in love and ends the novel with the positive chance of a successful relationship. Cathy and Hareton’s relationship works as it is balanced. They both love each other and can relate to of each other as each has a similar personality yet are complete opposites in their manner. Cathy has a part of the wildness of Wuthering Heights in her and Hareton has a part of refinement from Thrushcross Grange in him. This balance of refinement and wildness works whereas too much refinement or too much wildness does not work.
When Emily was alive the Moors were believed to be haunted. Emily uses this local knowledge in "Wuthering Heights" by allowing Catherine to live on as a ghost. Catherine's ghost haunts Mr Lockwood while he is staying the night at Wuthering Heights.
"and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate branch: instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand!"
As the Moors were the only place that Catherine and Heathcliff could be together in life and eventually in death the ghost of Catherine haunts the Moors and demands to be let into Wuthering Heights. The Moors were the only place on earth that Catherine was happy and they were also the place where Emily felt happiest. Could the presence of the dead on the moors be the reason for Emily's love of nature? I believe that Emily loved the Moors because she felt that she could connect with her dead family. The frequent deaths in her life may have left her with a feeling of loneliness and despair, as death is the most powerful dividing force between loved ones. The person left behind after death represents the remoteness of Wuthering Heights. They are alone. Emily not only shows her feelings towards death in "Wuthering Heights" but also in one of her poems called, "Remembrance".
"Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee, Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?"
This poem is centred around death and how it separates loved ones. The remote and lonely setting of the moors is ideal for folk stories about ghosts and unusual occurrences. Without it the ghost of Catherine would not have been able to haunt Heathcliff and thus would not have been able to drive him mad. Catherine’s ghost drives Heathcliff to desperate measures and he smashes the side of her coffin. This enables him to be next to her in death.
"as certainly as you perceive the approach to some substantial body in the dark, though it cannot be discerned, so certainly I felt that Cathy was there, not under me, but on the earth … it remained while I re-filled the grave, … "
When Heathcliff is filling the grave he thinks that he has released Catherine’s soul onto the earth and that he can feel her presence. This makes him feel at ease and he is as happy as when she was alive when he is walking back to the Heights. However this happiness does not last, as her ghost does not stay with him until his death. Catherine's ghost gives "Wuthering Heights" a very mysterious and dark atmosphere and adds to the gothic elements of "Wuthering Heights".
"Wuthering Heights" contains many elements of the gothic novel. It has an atmosphere of mystery and suspense, which is enhanced by the unknown; this unknown could be Heathcliff's unknown parentage. Also many of the characters have strange dreams, which could be classed as omens, portents or visions. Mr Lockwood has two strange dreams linked with supernatural events when he stays at the Heights for one night. These dreams lead him to believe that Wuthering Heights is haunted. This is a very common gothic element found in most gothic novels. There are also many other gothic elements, which I am sure anyone that reads the novel will notice. However the most important in this case is the remote and lonely setting which is the Moors.
Without the remote and lonely setting in "Wuthering Heights" many of the most important elements of the novel would not be there. Even without one of it’s most important elements such as imagery the novel would become unbalanced and would not have been as successful with Victorian audiences. Imagery using nature was not seen or heard of very much in large industrial cities such as London or Liverpool so a novel set in the remote Yorkshire Moors was inevitably going to be interesting for the inhabitants of the city to read. "Wuthering Heights" would be neither realistic nor interesting and would not have the excitement that it is famous for without it‘s setting. It would become boring and average and would not have made such an impact with its new ideas and scandals such as Catherine falling in love with her adoptive brother Heathcliff. However perhaps with a less savage and remote setting the characters would have been happier and most importantly the tragic yet futile love of Catherine and Heathcliff could have continued not only in their deaths but also in their lives.
