Representation of Home in the Novel Wuthering Heights - Essay Example

?Representation of Home in the Novel Wuthering Heights Table of Contents Introduction 3 S.O. Beeton 4 Theme of Home Represented in ‘Wuthering Heights’ 4 Representation through Contrast 6 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction To understand the theme of the representation of homes in the ‘Wuthering Heights’ novel it is essential to learn about ideals, beliefs and thought processes associated with house and domesticity in the Victorian era. The importance of home and domestic life in the Victorian era would definitely help to delineate and comprehend the importance of home in the ‘Wuthering Heights’ novel and the omnipresence of home and domesticity throughout the novel. ‘Wuthering Heights’ was published in 1847. It was the only novel that was composed by Emily Bronte. It was written in between December 1845 and July 1846. The novel composed at the height of Victorian era ought to encompass the Victorian ideals and morality intrinsic to those times. Victorians are renowned for their affinity towards domestic comfort. They had a keen sentiment in upholding the ideal of a perfect home and in achieving it; they had relentlessly spent their lives in a fast transgressing industrial world. Even the monarch of Britain during the era, Queen Victoria, loved to spend time in the company of her children and grandchildren in the Osborne House. Britain was regarded by many as a huge profitable business project which was rapidly growing and expanding with the overseas trade in India. The middle class became affluent and their homes were conspicuous by the imperial goods and products. They preferred reading about places and people sitting back at their own homes, thus, gradually it became a space symbolic of comfort, peace and prosperity in the Victorian society. Home and domesticity, therefore, became a very crucial and important part in the life of the Victorian people, and their magnificent presence in the fiction was quite symbolic and extremely purposeful. Therefore, the description of the home at the outset of ‘Wuthering Heights’ novel definitely serves as the subtle interplay of thematic congruency and symbols manifested within a larger paradigm (Beeton, 1861). S.O. Beeton ‘Wuthering Heights’, with its vivid description of domestic setting and provincial location, definitely retells the importance of home and domesticity during Victorian period. The narrative of the novel encompasses a vivid comparison of two different houses, the inhabitants residing in them, as well as the external landscape. The examination of this contrast drawn from two different settings mentioned in the book would definitely help to comprehend the theme of representation of home in the ‘Wuthering Heights’ novel (Watson & Towheed, 2012). Theme of Home Represented in ‘Wuthering Heights’ During Victorian era home was perceived as a shelter from the turmoil, uncertain aspects of life, worries and latent violence prevailing in the society but still it could never be an absolute protection for the people of the Victorian era; this feeling was very strong and evident throughout the novel, its representation of shelter itself captivated many woes and worries, a disease and a fret. Lockwood is the narrator of the novel and the novel opens with the exterior description of the house which hints pertinently towards something gothic about the space. The very location of the house in some barren moors, very inhospitable in nature, reminds of the medieval gothic castles where the windows were narrow in shape, set deeply into the walls. The ‘slanted, ‘stunted firs’ have been almost shaped by the wind which dominates the novel as the symbol of uncontrolled natural energy and the narrow windows of the Heights is the symbol of detachment of the house from the exterior world importing its prison-like stature to the characters who are almost confined within its premises at some points of the narrative. A close reading of the novel would easily confirm that Lockwood faces difficulties three times when they intrude the house. He can’t get inside the Wuthering Heights first due to the locked doors, then he gets obstructed due to impassable nature of the moors and, thirdly, he faces the same problem because of unhelpful servants. Lockwood experiences the same kind of difficulty while getting out of the house. Therefore, the Wuthering Heights does not allow strangers to get access to the house easily. At the same time, it does not allow its occupants to easily get out from the house. Therefore, these instances demonstrate that Wuthering Heights is not a very cordial domestic space conceived with the virtues of invitation, warmth, safety and sanctity. Rather every character who gets into the space of the house or is already occupying it gets captivated with a kind of wilderness quite uncomprehending the mundane attributes of life and domesticity (Sim, 2004). The interior of the house lacks the conformity of the domesticity as well. Its interior, till the ending chapters of the novel, stands for an antithesis of a calm and poised domestic life. The interior of the house does not suggest any intimacy. The decor is not homely; it is not occupied with people who are blood related to each other. Most of the human and non-human members of the house are not tamed. A feeling of foreboding and aggression captivates the interior of the house. The atmosphere of the house is always threatening for an outsider and the indigenous appeal of the house is hindered with the presence of Heathcliff that is ambivalent in his ethnicity as well. The interior of the Wuthering Heights lacks the Victorian ideals of home and domesticity. The house at Wuthering Heights is simple, masculine, and down-to-earth and the decors of the house are definitely old fashioned. All these attributes make it very antithetical to the Victorian ideal of home. Under the reign of Heathcliff the house becomes a classless space again, a feature quite antagonistic to Victorian class conscious regime. The house also lacks an assignment of roles in terms of familial relations or very precise quarters and social roles delegated to each members of the family. This baffled situation almost leaves Lockwood non-functional and confused, as it is mentioned in the second chapter of the novel (Sim, 2004). Representation through Contrast The author, Emily Bronte, was very purposeful in drawing two household and separate representation of domesticity in ‘Wuthering Heights’ novel. The difference of settings brings to the surface the different ways the houses are constructed, their differences in exterior and interior. The action of the novel also takes place accordingly and each house stands for a separate entity. The houses Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are separated from each other by the barren moors, cold and very muddy in nature. Both of the households are distinctive and differ from each other. The houses stand lonely amid the land, quite mundane and dull, that evokes an atmosphere of desolation. However, these houses are very much different from one another in their appearance and mood. And this difference symbolises a universal conflict between passivity and movement, submission and aggression, storm and the clam, which also serves as the latent motif and theme throughout the novel. The opposition is very evident. The residents of the Wuthering Heights belong to working class, whereas the people staying at Thrushcross Grange have social acclamation. The atmosphere of Wuthering Heights is windy and the exterior weather of the house is always cold and dark, which represents the evil. On the contrary, the environment at Thrushcross Grange is always quite settled and calm, which represents the brighter side of life. Bronte describes Wuthering Heights wryly as the house with “narrow windows deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large jutting stones” (Bronte & Jack, 2008). None of the bleak features of the Heights can be noticed at the Grange; on the contrary, the interior of that house is blessed with warmth and plenty of light. It is a house trapped in Victorian ideals and Bronte, as if trying to be systematic, draws the contrast to depict the difference in situation at both of the houses, which captivates the contrasting theme of life. Thrusscross Grange is a suitable home for children but life at Heights is full of movement that even takes the shape of chaos at times. However, the original essence lays at the representation of the characters dwelling in the houses and the difference of their appearance is described through the contrast of representation of their houses. Heathcliff is analogous to the house he lives in. Both the Wuthering Heights and Heathcliff are chaotic, detrimental, dark, cold and evil. A sense of foreboding and unnatural pervades the house and people living in it. The similar contrast draws a parallel between the Lintons and Thrushcross Grange. The children in the house are settled and poised with a high ideal and sense of Victorian domesticity. Conclusion Emily Bronte purposefully shelters the children of the storm in Wuthering Heights and children of the calm in Thrushcross Grange. However, all these actions in the novel definitely have certain greater implications bearing the essence of Victorian morality and its critique. ‘Wuthering Heights’ novel can be viewed as Bronte’s critique of the Victorian ideals of home, domesticity, family and society at the greater realm. The Thrushcross Grange is the epitome of domesticity casted in Victorian ideals while the people at Wuthering Heights completely lack that phenomenon. They aspire to be at the place where the Lintons are and this implication gets evident when Heathcliff and Catherine peek out towards the house of the Lintons through the windows of the Wuthering Heights. The houses represented in the novel not only build the thematic aspect of the novel, throughout the plot one can trace greater implications represented by the contrast of the houses. References Beeton, I., 1861. Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Bronte, E. & Jack, I., 2008. Wuthering Heights. Oxford University Press. Sim, L., 2004. Wuthering Heights and the Politics of Space. The University of Western Australia. [Online] Available at: http://www.limina.arts.uwa.edu.au/previous/volumes_610/volume_10?f=73870 [Accessed February 15, 2012]. Watson, N. J. & Towheed, S., 2012. Romantics and Victorians. Oxford University Press. Read More