Environmental Influences

A person’s environment affects the way they live and think because it strongly affects what influences they are exposed to and what opportunities they have. Have you noticed that the topic that many novels are focused upon is how an environment can affect its characters? Well Wuthering Heights is one of those books. Throughout the novel, Emily Brontё describes two manors, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Although they are not far from each other, both locations are extremely different and the people that live on each manor contrast due to their disparate environments.

Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are in many ways set in opposition to each other. The Heights sits exposed on a stormy hilltop, but the Grange is calm and protected down in the valley. Wuthering Heights is the estate of the Earnshaw family and it’s located on England’s Yorkshire moors. Wuthering Heights is described by Mr. Lockwood, a tenant at neighboring Thrushcross Grange, as desolate and the “perfect misanthropist's heaven” (1). The house itself seems dark and forbidding which is mostly likely used to cater to the gothic element of the novel. Throughout the book, Wuthering Heights is associated with stormy weather which explains the name of the manor. 'Wuthering' being a significant adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric disorder to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. In contrast, Thrushcross Grange is the home of the Linton Family and it is much lighter and more orderly than the Heights. Thrushcross Grange is described as 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” (10). Thrushcross Grange had a much more refined and pleasant appearance.

There are tons of differences in the residents of these two places as well. For example, Edgar grew up with his sister Isabella and is fair, well educated and quite the opposite of Heathcliff. If Heathcliff represents the Heights then Edgar represents the Grange in that he is civilized yet sheltered and quite dull. Emily Brontë uses the setting of Wuthering Heights to extend how the novel uses contrasting characters to support the theme of Good vs. Evil. It is not just the homes alone that contrast but more importantly the individuals that emerge from each place and mirror its setting. Wuthering Heights are packed with the working class whereas Thrushcross grange has residents who belong to a higher level in the social ladder. The Earnshaws are wild and passionate while the Lintons are tame and civilized.

Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, illustrate this concept, as they are double opposites in the story. The physical characteristics of the two places and the people that reside there are the driving forces for this opposition. With the union of Cathy and Hareton, the barriers of class are finally broken and the two incompatible worlds of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights blend together in harmony. They achieve in life what Heathcliff and Catherine can only achieve in death.