How do the two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, relate to the major characters and themes in Wuthering Heights?

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Wuthering Heights the novel is full of many themes. There is passion, revenge, and destruction within the novel. There are also darkness and light, heaven and hell, storm and calm, love and hate, crime and punishment, ignorance versus education, nature versus culture and life and death within it. The main contrasts in the book are between the two houses that are the homes to most characters in the novel, Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights with the former representing heaven, light and peace, and the latter more reminiscent of hell, dark and hostility. The houses feature so much in this novel, with even the title “Wuthering Heights” being the name of one of them, it could be said that the two houses almost take place as characters themselves. The book (as well as many of the characters contained within it) has a sensation of the wild and desolate. The actual physical landscape of the novel is described in such a way that it reflects the emotional landscapes of many of those who live within it.

Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights in the mid 19th Century, a time when Gothic novels were popular. A typical Gothic novel has elements of horror, supernatural, cruelty, terror and suspense. Usually set in monasteries or castles, Gothic novels and romances were gloomy frightening books, and Emily Brontë took all these themes and added more, although throughout the

novel, Wuthering Heights has a strong and gritty thread of realism. Emily Brontë’s writing works on the reader through suggestion rather than through direct explanation. She weaves in subtle indications of characters and events through weather and emotions, through buildings and boundaries and through night and day.

Wuthering Heights is a stone building set on the moors. It represents the personalities of the characters that grow up or reside within it, and it is not until the end of the novel that we see lightness and happiness associated with it. Words used whilst describing the house such as wild, hostile and raw are often felt by the reader to describe the characters that live there, such as Heathcliff, Catherine, Joseph and Hareton and Hindley. It seems to throb with life and energy; Lockwood upon his first visit to the Heights uses words like “villainous” “lurking” and “shameless” which are words more suited to describe humans than buildings and furnishings.

One of the main protagonists Heathcliff, whose very name suggests to the reader his nature, that of being barren wild, desolate and everlasting, lives at Wuthering Heights. We are first introduced to him by way of the diary of Mr. Lockwood as he calls at Wuthering Heights to introduce himself, having just taken tenancy of Thrushcross Grange. On the first page of the novel, within

the first paragraph, Lockwood vividly describes Heathcliff as he approaches him at Wuthering Heights, “…I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously

under his brows, and when his fingers sheltered themselves with a jealous resolution, still further in his waistcoat.”(p.21). When Heathcliff first speaks, his words are uttered through closed teeth, and immediately a parallel is drawn between Heathcliff’s clenched teeth and jealous fingers and the gate that Lockwood is reluctantly invited to walk through being chained against entry. The second parallel is on the following page with the description of Wuthering Heights’ exterior echoing the recent appearance of Heathcliff’s eyes. Lockwood describes, “The narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended by large jutting stones”. He also describes a strong sense of the inhospitability of the building when he says ”’Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective descriptive to which its station is exposed in stormy weather… the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the end of the house…a range of gaunt thorns all stretching one way as if craving the alms of the sun”. (p.22)
Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights is that of the typical outsider. Mr Earnshaw returns to his family from a visit to Liverpool, and reveals the child Heathcliff hidden beneath his coat. Nelly Dean describes Heathcliff in her narrative as a ‘dirty, ragged, black-haired child;’(p. 56). He is named after Earnshaw’s dead son, and a sense of the supernatural, ghostliness seems to surround his character immediately. The defining motifs of Heathcliff’s character are his determination and his desire for revenge – he is prepared to

go to any length to achieve that which he desires. Heathcliff’s character develops throughout the novel, as he is able to reinvent himself. To Catherine, he is both brother and lover. He is consumed by his obsessive love of Catherine. After her death, he is haunted by guilt, sees her spirit everywhere and yearns to be reunited – ‘the entire world is a dreadful collection of memories that she exists and that I have lost her.’ (p. 356)

Catherine also embodies the spirit of the Wuthering Heights; she is wild in spirit, selfish, passionate and often cruel as ...

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Catherine also embodies the spirit of the Wuthering Heights; she is wild in spirit, selfish, passionate and often cruel as a child. When Lockwood stays the night at Wuthering Heights, he reads some of her diaries whilst staying in what used to be her bedroom. He notices that there are three versions of her name, Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine Linton and Catherine Heathcliff. This shows the reader how Catherine is torn in life and also reveals the splits, or fragmentation, in her character. The location of her coffin also symbolizes the conflict in Catherine’s personality and life, being buried in the kirkyard close to the moors, which represent her life. It is significant that she is not buried in the chapel with the other Lintons, nor in amongst the Earnshaw tombs. Later, Edgar’s body is placed on one side of her, and Heathcliff on the other.

She agonises about whether to be with Edgar or Heathcliff, and tells Nelly Dean in chapter 9 (p.102) that to be with Heathcliff would “degrade her”. This is really about making a choice between a life of passion and truth, and a life

of financial stability and morality. Catherine’s arrogance and her will for self-betterment causes her to choose to marry Edgar Linton (opting for culture

rather than natural passion for Heathcliff). It is again typical of Catherine’s selfishness that she believes she can continue her relationship with Heathcliff

alongside her marriage. Catherine goes to convalesce at Thrushcross Grange after an illness, and when she returns, her countenance is much changed. Outwardly, she is more refined and gentle, almost as if Thrushcross grange has moved inside her with its gentility and peace. It is this change in her character that alienates Heathcliff.

Hindley Earnshaw is introduced in the novel via Catherine’s journal, where she describes him as a detestable substitute for her father, whose behaviour is ‘atrocious’ (p. 39) and a tyrant (p. 40). Here, she is describing the time that Hindley returned to Wuthering Heights as a married man and began to degrade and mistreat Heathcliff. Hindley’s jealousy of Heathcliff stems from when his father brings Heathcliff to their home as a child, in the process crushing a fiddle that he had brought as a gift for Hindley. After the death of his wife, Hindley resorts to alcoholism and becomes bent on self-destruction, unwittingly helping Heathcliff, who is already determined to exact revenge upon Hindley. Hindley becomes even crueller as he gets older. In Chapter 9 he pushes a knife between Nelly’s teeth when she attempts to hide his son

away from him and then dangles and drops his son from a banister. (Pgs.95-96)

Hareton Earnshaw has a tortured childhood living at Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff. This relationship parallels that of Hindley and Heathcliff, in which the latter was the victim. Whilst Heathcliff is abusive to him, Hareton loves him

rather than his destructive father Hindley. Later, he grows to love Cathy but this love perhaps lacks the intensity and violence of that between Catherine

and Heathcliff. Hareton is nursed by Nelly after the death of his mother Frances and begins to acquire knowledge until he is placed under the care of Hindley at Wuthering Heights, and then becomes wild and reckless. Hareton’s later attempts at self-improvement are motivated by his love for Cathy, who chastises and praises him alternately.

Joseph's characterisation is minimal but incredibly powerful. He is a working class Yorkshire man cruel and rough in nature, as is the place he works and lives, Wuthering Heights. Joseph has a very strong religious and moral countenance and feels a strong kinship with Heathcliff. The dialogue that Joseph speaks in has a very strong impact on the reader, emphasising class differences between himself and many of the other characters, even Nelly Dean who is also local to the area. Joseph is a self-righteous old man and will not go out of his way to help anyone, this despite his religious beliefs. The

amount of cursing and swearing he does also serve to underline the imagery of warfare that surrounds both him and Wuthering Heights. Storms are

mentioned in the novel often "rattling over the Heights in full fury." This invites comparison with Joseph’s outbursts of fury at many of those around him.

Thrushcross Grange represents culture and civilisation. It is a beautiful house, surrounded by trees in a lush and fertile valley, the exact opposite to Wuthering Heights. Gardens and flowers are often described in reference to

Thrushcross Grange, which gives the sense of cheerfulness, beauty and

hope. Heathcliff recounts to Nelly how he and Catherine crept through a broken hedge and saw “a splendid place, carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a

shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre, and shimmering with little soft tapers.” (p.67) Many scenes at Thrushcross Grange take place in sunshine, with the atmosphere of summer or spring about them, and the walls that surround it appear as a metaphorical shield against the harshness of Wuthering Heights. However, in Chapter 15, Catherine sees Thrushcross Grange as a prison, saying, “The thing that irks me most is this shattered prison” (p. 187). There is a sense of superficiality about the Grange, which is echoed in the characters that reside within it.

Mr. Lockwood is an eloquent educated man, much given to overly pretentious speech. He seems innocent and cultured, the very qualities that the former residents of Thrushcross Grange all held. He is the other main narrator in

Wuthering Heights, and it is difficult to trust his impressions of people, as he is governed by a lack of knowledge of the folk that reside in the two houses, and

also has a lack of knowledge of the tradition and culture of people that reside in remote Northern villages.

Edgar Linton represents the morality which Catherine and Heathcliff lack. He was raised at Thrushcross Grange, and dies there. He is the exact polar opposite of Heathcliff, with blond hair and a gentle character. Nelly Dean remarks that Edgar Linton is like seeing “a beautiful fertile valley after a bleak hilly coal country” (p.91). His inheritance, unlike that of Heathcliff, is legitimate and he is an educated and well-mannered gentleman. In the preface written by Emily Brontë’s sister Charlotte it says, “for an example of constancy and tenderness remark that of Edgar Linton” (p. 17).

Isabella Linton is Edgar Linton's sister, and physically resembles him with her blonde hair and haughty educated persona. She falls in love with Heathcliff, not realising how angry he is. He deliberately makes her life miserable, as she becomes a vehicle for his revenge. Her imagined love for Heathcliff is a naïve fantasy, which she soon regrets, as evidenced in her letter to Nelly where she asks, “Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a

devil?” (p.161) In the same letter, Isabella describes how she left the Grange, with the sun setting behind her and arrived in darkness at Wuthering heights

to the face of an inhospitable Joseph. Eventually Isabella escapes Heathcliff and moves away. She gives birth to Linton, but dies when he is twelve, in

exile, having never returned to Thrushcross Grange.

Cathy Linton is the daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton. Cathy’s birth is clouded by her mother’s death. It is almost as though when

Catherine dies, she is reborn as a Catherine who is part Earnshaw and part Linton and so has inherits the best character traits of both her parents, and both the spiritedness of Wuthering Heights and the gentleness of Thrushcross Grange. She is, according to Nelly Dean, high spirited like Catherine, but also sensitive, affectionate, thoughtful and gentle. However, we do see Cathy behaving in ways that conflict with this generous description. She mocks Hareton for his lack of education, rather as her mother mocked Heathcliff for his lack of refinement, and in this, we see aspects of Catherine emerge in her.

Linton Heathcliff is the offspring of Isabella Linton and Heathcliff, such an unnatural union that he is doomed from the beginning. He has inherited the worst traits of both parents and is both soft willed and cruel by turn – like Cathy Linton, he also embodies the spirits of the two houses, only this time in reverse. Heathcliff manipulates him into getting what he himself wants, and

then dies tended only by the softhearted Cathy. Although he stays at Thrushcross Grange for a short time, and Wuthering Heights for longer, he

always embodies the Lintons, with his blond hair, educated manner and lazy ways. When Cathy and Linton are speaking of their ideas of heaven, Cathy’s

is more in the manner of Catherine’s spirit, “Rocking in a rustling green tree with a west wind blowing, bright white clouds flitting rapidly above…” whilst Linton dreams of “lying still on a hot July day from morning til evening…” (p.276).

Ellen Dean, or Nelly, is one of the narrators in Wuthering Heights. She crosses between Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, and as such understands much of the nature of the two houses and families. She has the advantage of knowing all of the characters within the novel since she grew up with Heathcliff, Hindley, and Catherine at Wuthering Heights. She has nursed

both of them when they were ill, watched over both their children and has been privy to many of their confessions and confidences. One problem that

the reader has with Nelly Dean is that she tends be overly superstitious, and this impacts on the much of the behaviour of the main characters. Nelly relates imagery of heaven and hell often, such as when Catherine recounts a dream about being exiled from heaven, saying, "You are not fit to go there, all sinners would be miserable in heaven". (p.102) Nelly also describes Heathcliff in an animalistic terms, "…he gnashed at me, and foamed like a mad dog, and gathered her to him with greedy jealousy." (p.187).

Nelly makes judgements on what she sees although she does not always understand. In Chapter 9, the reader can see how little Nelly understands of Catherine and Heathcliff, by the contrast in dialogue. Catherine’s words are passionate and heartfelt, and Nelly’s own are dry and rather unsympathetic.

Although Nelly is only a servant, she considers herself to be a Linton. “Hareton is the last of them (the Earnshaws), as our Miss Cathy is of us - I

mean, of the Lintons”(pg. 54). She considers herself honest and reliable, but she can be seen to be untrustworthy as she reveals and withholds information as she chooses and her actions impact upon the lives of the characters. She

reveals Heathcliff’s courting of Isabella to Edgar when this would have better remained a secret.

At the end of Emily Brontë’s only novel, the constant triangles and parallels that abound within it finally merge together, and the lightness and hope so lacking throughout appears to have arrived to exorcise the ghosts and imagery of harshness away. Lockwood observed that the second Cathy and her fiancée Hareton look as if, together, "they would brave Satan and all his legions"(p.370). It is as though the two houses at last unite with Cathy and Hareton’s love. Wuthering Heights becomes more a heaven than a hell, less the “land of the storm” described by Lord David Cecil in 1934, and both it and Thrushcross Grange which they intend to move into, become transformed by a finally fulfilled true love, one which is both spiritual and physical. The story turns full circle, and is completed.

References

Lord David Cecil, Early Victorian Novelists, (Macmillan, 1934)