In Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte makes use of atmospheric conditions to emphasise events
and highlight the mood of the characters in the story. The Yorkshire moors are known for
their harsh beauty and sometimes desolate landscape. This theme of a rough countryside
filled with hidden beauties and seasonal storms fits well into the storyline of Wuthering
Heights.
The title of the novel and the name of the Earnshaw's dwelling is used by Emily Bronte's
to project the overall mood of the book. She herself writes that the word "Wuthering [is]
a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its
station (the Earnshaw house) is exposed in stormy weather" (p.2).
Many of the notable events that take place between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross
Grange are accompanied by a change in the weather. Emily Bronte uses the weather to show
the beginning of a transition from calm to turbulent events in the storyline. The books
starts with Lockwood's arrival, a severe winter storm raging outside foreshadows the
unfriendly environment he is about to enter and the chaotic events that he is going to
witness through Nellie's story telling. When Nelly begins to tell the story of the two
neighbouring households, she describes Old Mr. Earnshaw setting out to Liverpool on a
"fine summer morning" (p.34). Yet, when Old Mr. Earnshaw dies she relates that "A high
wind blustered round the house, and roared in the chimney; it sounded wild and stormy"
(p. 41).
Emily Bronte often uses the weather to accentuate the personality traits and moods of
the characters throughout the novel. The countryside's sometimes savage weather compares
well to Heathcliff's temperament. Heathcliff disapears for days on end into this desolate
landscape and seems to be most at home when wandering about in the moors. He is quick to
fly into a rage, like a winter storm beating at Wuthering Heights with wind and hail.
Heathcliff's storms of rage often abate, but they can fly into full force without care
for anything or anyone around him like the force of mother nature on the moors. Like a
winter storm, Heathcliff's strength cannot remain with him forever. At the end of the
novel, Heathcliff's rage has abated, and he has lost the will to render any more harm,
with his death a stormy period in the history of the Earnshaws' and the Lintons' has
passed.
The final pages of this novel leave the reader with a feeling of content and happiness
which has once again descended upon Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte writes that the
weather is "sweet and warm" (p.305), she has brought the 'storm' to an end.
|