Wuthering Heights was described to have gothic and grotesque elements. Thrushcross Grange is a pleasant-looking little villa. As we read the novel, we feel the uncomfortable life in Wuthering Heights starting when Hindley took over the household. Oppression and abuse were always there almost every day. Heathcliff was no better in managing the house. After the transferring of Nelly to Thrushcross Grange, there remained no reasonable person in the house anymore.
Thrushcross Grange on the other hand is depicted to be a warm and welcoming house. People there shared intimate relationships with each other. There was no reason for everybody there to be uncivil with each other. There was proper decorum and good food. What's important was that everyone was reasonable.
Everything changed when people started to live in the other house where they do not originally belong to. Catherine living in Thrushcross Grange drove everyone crazy there. She was loved though. Isabella living in Wuthering Heights drove her mad which provoked her to run away. I suppose the only person there who wouldn't be driven mad into living in any of the two houses is Nelly Dean.
The houses represent a sense of victory for Heathcliff. Both of them were his objective. He wanted to own the two houses. The families of which hated him and so he resolved into taking the two houses through his devious plans.
Catherine died in Thrushcross Grange and Heathcliff died in Wuthering Heights. Perhaps the meaning of this is that both of them were not meant to live and die together. But they didn't care. They lived wanting and obsessed with each other. Both I suppose achieved their own heaven together in the very end.
IV-Conclusion
Wuthering Heights is one of the most amazing and awful novels I have ever read. It's all about love, obsessive and passionate love between two powerful characters. Emily Brontё is to be commended to this marvelous work! It definitely stands out in the literary canon during the Victorian Period.
Her characters are either very whole or very flat. She made rich characters like Heathcliff, Catherine, Edgar and Hindley. But he also made flat ones like Mr. Earnshaw or the Lintons' parents.
The plot is very devious and scheming like Heathcliff. Brontё has succeeded in making her characters alive. Her characters are quite consistent and life-like. Though there is of course the hint of being eccentric in her work, Brontё made it in such a way that her message about life and love is told to the reader.
The novel centralized to the plot. After the significance of one character has expired, Brontё immediately eliminates them. Examples of this scenario are the death of Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw, Mr. and Mrs. Linton, Isabella and Linton Heathcliff. Brontё's killing of these characters are so sudden that it actually sounds too much of a coincidence.
Wuthering Heights is the kind of novel that would leave you astounded, amazed and at the same time creeped out. It was said before that Wuthering Heights was a work of a mad person.
The novel is very intriguing with its themes and motifs. Considering the fact that it was made in the Victorian Period where propriety is observed, I would say that Wuthering Heights is one of the best works in that time.
Until now, it still does not fail to get the admiration of young readers of today's generation. Wuthering Heights has definitely worthy enough to be called as one of the greatest additions to literature.
