Remoteness and Loneliness in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Essay

Remoteness and Loneliness in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte Emily Bronte loved nature and spent most of her childhood on the remote Yorkshire Moors near her home in Haworth. Emily found that the Moors were a place of peace and sanctuary where she could retreat to relax and follow one of her most favourite past times, which was writing. However she knew that in a matter of seconds the Moors could change into a wild and savage wilderness. Emily chose this ever-changing setting for her only novel "Wuthering Heights". "Wuthering Heights" tells the tale of two families living in and around the bleak Yorkshire Moors near a small village, very similar to Haworth, called Gimmerton. This setting mirrors the personalities of the savage and brutal characters. These characters live in a remote and weather ravaged working farmhouse called Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights acquired it's name due to the, "atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather" The inhabitants of Wuthering Heights need to be tough to survive and only those characters born in Wuthering Heights are able to survive within it. When Hindley returns from University with his wife Frances she dies rather quickly as she cannot survive the savage weather conditions. We do not expect Hindley to die but as he has been away from Wuthering Heights for so long he also cannot survive. However there are other reasons for his death. When Heathcliff returns from his absence he stays with Hindley, and gets his long awaited revenge by slowly luring Hindley into gambling and alcoholism. This is the main cause of his death. If Wuthering Heights was not set in such an isolated place Heathcliff would not have been able to torture and... ...alanced 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.