Earth, Wind, Water and Fire Imagery in Wuthering Heights



Earth, Wind, Water and Fire Imagery in Wuthering Heights

Earth Element in Wuthering Heights

The First Generation

• The constant emphasis on landscape within the text of Wuthering Heights endows the setting with symbolic importance.

• Moorland cannot be cultivated, and its uniformity makes navigation difficult.

• Thus, the moors serve very well as symbols of the wild threat posed by nature.

• “I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth.” – Chapter IX, page 80. The earth here signifies the element of consistent love for Heathcliff

• “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. – Chapter IX, page 81.

• Here we see the contrast between foliage and rocks. One changes with time while the eternal rocks symbolize a consistent and ever constant love for Heathcliff.

• “I came to a stone where the highway branches off the moor at your left hand; a rough sand-pillar, with the letters W.H. – Chapter XI, page 102.

• This is important because the signpost signifies realism that this story is set in a specific location within the moors despite the fantastical elements of the story.

Wind Element in Wuthering Heights

The First Generation

• “Oh! These bleak winds and bitter northern skies.” – Chapter X, page 88.

• Signifies the cutting and wounding by nature

• “A few more breaths of soft, sweet air.” – Chapter IX, page 89.

• The soft sweet air of the moors revive Catherine and gives her strength as she remembers the times in the moors with Heathcliff

• “Careless of the frosty air that cut about her shoulders.” – Chapter XII, page 116.

• The wind around the moors is sweet and also capable of hurting.

Water Element in Wuthering Heights

• “They’re gone through and through me, like wine through water.” – Chapter IX, page 79.

• “Catherine’s tears were more powerful than ours.” – Chapter IX, page 87.

This implies that Catherine is a valuable commodity to both Wuthering Heights and Thrush cross Grange.

Fire Element in Wuthering Heights

• “Sending a clatter of stoves and soot into the kitchen fire.” – Chapter IX, page 83.

• This implies that home is an important place and the warmth of the home and the kitchen makes her feel wanted and accepted.

• “I saw, by the sunbeam piercing the chinks of the shutters, Miss Catherine sitting near the fire-place.” – Chapter IX, page 84.

• The proximity to fire represents the fiery nature of both the Catherine’s.

Lightning (Fire)

• “Generally avoided aggravating her fiery temper.” – Chapter IX, page 87.

• This suggests that Catherine’s anger is amplified by Heath cliff’s departure

• “Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning or frost from fire.” – Chapter IX, page 80.

• Linton is the symbol of the civilized hero as soft and insubstantial as the moonbeam. Heathcliff on the other hand is the energetic and fiery hero, just as destructive as the insubstantial Linton. Both men through the elements they are compared with are shown to be dangerous to Catherine. (Gender reading)

• “We thought a bolt had fallen in the middle of us.” – Chapter IX, page 83.

• This implies that the bolt, representing lightning is a threat to the people living at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff is the threat of the bolt of lightning.

• “Heathcliff had never been heard of since the evening of the thunderstorm.” – Chapter IX, page 86.

• Nature itself is revolting in the form of a thunderstorm at Heath cliff’s departure.

The use of Elements in the Second Generation

• This love contains the better elements of both worlds. Harleton bears a remarkable resemblance to Heathcliff with Cathy who is the educted and refined product of the Linton household.

• “He is just like a dog is he not Ellen?” she once observed, or a cart-horse? He does his work, eats his food, and sleeps eternally. (Cathy about Harleton)

• This quote shows us the earth-like quality of Hareton the domesticated animals, which he sometimes shares with Heathcliff. Both men are of the earth, sturdy and loyal to those they love fiercely, just like the dog and horse that Cathy compares Hareton to.

• “Both their minds tending to the same point – one loving and desiring to esteem; other loving and desiring to esteemed” – Chapter XVIII, page 316.

• Cathy is able to accomplish what the first Catherine could not; she places her love not within a self-created environment.

• “He blackened and scowled like a thunder cloud’ Hareton is compared to a thunder cloud here where he shares the same characteristic like Heathcliff.

• “I perceived two such radiant countenances bent over the page of the book” The word ‘radiant’ suggest the fiery content of their genes but these two from the second generation are able to overcome their heritage to find love. Cathy succeeds where the first Catherine could not because Cathy was willing to be educated and let go of some of her pride unlike the first Catherine.

Done by:

Siti Balqis, Fatinah, QI Qi and Martha of 09A1

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