Morkowski 1

Anika Morkowski
Ms. Winter
British Literature, Period 2
10 May 2016
Location is Key
In novels and movies, setting is one of the most important elements of the story. A battle
in space and a battle in the ocean are going to create two completely different stories. Authors
choose their settings very carefully to reflect their ideas and story effectively. Emily Bronte,
author of the Victorian novel Wuthering Heights written in 1847, uses location in the novel to
portray two different worlds and the characters within them. The novel follows the story of the
Earnshaw and Linton families, living a few miles apart in Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross
Grove, respectively. The relationships between the families intertwine the characters and result in
characters moving between the houses. Emily Bronte uses the different households to portray
Victorian ideals of the time and their effect on women. The destroying and upholding of
Victorian ideals in different locations is seen through Cathy and Young Cathy as they live in
Wuthering Heights, which destroys ideals, and Thrushcross Grove, which enforces ideals.
As a young girl, Cathy lives in Wuthering Heights where she grows up without any
Victorian ideals in her life. In the Victorian era girls were expected to grow up learning to be
ladies. Girl should be learning to sew, write, and keep a loving home. Children were expected to
be well-mannered and obedient to their parents. At Wuthering Heights none of these ideals were
upheld and the children in the house grew up with unacceptable behavior and with wild spirits.
Nellie, the housekeeper, explains how Cathy put all of [them] past [their] patience fifty times
and oftener in a day; from the hour she came downstairs till the hour she went to bed, [they] had

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not a minute's security that she wouldn't be in mischief (Bronte 45). Cathy is a reckless child.
Her parents and caretakers have no control over her and her actions. Cathys mischief and
disobedience would be stopped in a household that upheld Victorian standards, but Wuthering
Heights has no standards.Cathy and the other occupants of Wuthering Heights are affected by
the scenery which surrounds them and by the traditions, old and dark and superstitious and
malign, of some particular spot upon the earth's surface" (Powys). The people of Wuthering
Heights are quite peculiar in their ways because the houses traditions and ideals make them so.
Cathy and Heathcliff even make fun of the Lintons and the way they act because it is different
from the ways they have been taught at their home. The two [laugh] outright at the petted
things; [they] did despise them (Bronte 52). Cathy and Heathcliff, who have both grown up with
the influences of Wuthering Heights, find the lifestyle of the Lintons and the way the children
act ridiculous. Cathy is changed forever when she stays at Thrushcross Grange and is influenced
by the Victorian ideals,
so that, instead of a wild, hatless little savage jumping into the house, rushing to squeeze
[them] all breathless, there lighted from a handsome black pony a very dignified person,
with brown ringlets falling from the cover of a feathered beaver, and a long cloth habit,
which she was obliged to hold up with both hands that she might sail in. (Bronte 55)
The change is Cathy is obvious and the effect of Victorian standards is strong. Even just a brief
stay at a different location changes Cathys character drastically. If Victorian ideals are present in
a location, then they are forced onto anyone who goes there. Cathy is forced to follow the
standards that are portrayed at Thrushcross Grove and is change drastically by it.
Cathy changes location when she marries Edgar and moves to Thrushcross Grove, which
forces her to be surrounded by the Victorian ideals she was previously unfamiliar with. Cathy

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tells Nellie that she loves Heathcliff, but she still makes the decision to marry Edgar and move to
Thrushcross Grove even though she could have stayed at Wuthering Heights. Cathy, in secret,
explains to Nellie, if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't
have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I
love him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am"
(Bronte 82). Cathy choose to go against her true feelings and instead cares about what others
think. This is one of the first instances where Cathy shows Victorian ideals. Status is a very
important aspect for proper women in this time period and Cathy follows that ideal when she
chooses to marry Edgar. She does not actually love him, she knows he has money and a good
family, so she believes this is what she should do. Both Heathcliff and Edgar are so closely
related to the two worlds in which they are placed that every action, every word that is spoken
involves the whole of those worlds" (Turnell). Cathy is torn between the two world by
interacting with both boys. Each boy is a reflection of the location and ideals associated with that
location. This causes Cathy to be affected by each location just by her interactions between
Heathcliff and Edgar.
While living at Thrushcross Grove Cathy is forced to live in a world she does not belong
in, which ultimately kills her.. Marrying Edgar and living at Thrushcross Grove cause Cathy to
change into a lady who follows Victorian ideals. Cathy tries to be the angel of the house and
follow etiquette, which kills her inside because it is not who she truly is. Cathy attempts to
manipulate Heathcliff's acceptance into the Linton society (Goodlett), so she can have that part
of her back in her life. Heathcliff represents Cathys life at Wuthering Heights and the life she
lost. Heathcliff's inability to blend into the Lintons way of life shows how the part of Cathy that
still loves Heathcliff and wants to be back at Wuthering Heights cannot survive in the ideals and

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people at Thrushcross Grove. While living at Thrushcross Grove, there is a kind of ghost inside
Catherine--a part perpetuating the perspective of childhood, long after childhood is over " (Levy)
that starts to eat away at Cathy. At the end of Cathys life all she can think about is being free and
going back to Wuthering Heights. Like Cathy, The Lady of Shalott, from the poem The Lady of
Shalott by Tennyson, feels trapped and unable to escape into the world she wants to be in the.
The Lady of Shalott is stuck in a tower seeing the world only through mirror: "And moving
through a mirror clear / That hangs before her all the year / Shadows of the world appear"
(Tennyson line 46-8). The Lady of Shalott is seen in figure one (The Lady of Shalott, Engraved
by J. Thompson by William Holman Hunt) locked away in her tower surrounded by her sewing
and her mirror portraying the world outside her own. The Lady of Shalott and Cathy both are
trapped in a world that they do not want to be in and long for a world that is now out of their
reach. Being changed into someone she is not and being trapped in a house with ideals that do
not fit her own, is what causes Cathys entrapment and unhappiness at Thrushcross Grove. Cathy
tries to fit into the lifestyle of the Lintons but ultimately she is destroyed by this act of hubris
and is unable to live without Heathcliff (Frost) and the
lifestyle that Heathcliff represents. Cathy is killed by
Thrushcross Grove and ideals that suffocate her true self.
Though Cathy is destroyed by Thrushcross
Grove, her daughter Young Cathy thrives at Thrushcross
Grove. Young Cathy grows up with her father, Edgar, at
Thrushcross Grove and learns to live by the Victorian
ideals of the house. As a young girl, Nellie says Young
Cathys

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spirit [is] high, though not rough, and qualified by a heart sensitive and lively in excess in
its affections. That capacity for intense attachments reminded [Nellie] of her mother; still
she did not resemble her; for she [is] soft and mild as a dove, and she [is] a gentle voice
and pensive expression; her anger [is] never furious, her love never fierce- it [is] deep and
tender. (Bronte 183)
Young Cathy grows up very different from her mother because of where she lives. Young Cathy
learns to read and write at a young age and is taught her manners and what is right and wrong.
Both Catherine Earnshaw and her daughter Cathy reflect the worlds of their births and early
childhoods. Each child seems indigenous to her environment and symbolically equated with the
vegetation natural to each region " (Doybns). Cathy is rebellious and untamed which resembles
Wuthering Heights, while Young Cathy is more obedient than her mother and is more concerned
about what people think about her. Young Cathy is herself when she is at Thrushcross Grove,
which is the location of her mothers misery. Both location have completely different ideals, but
for one Cathy this is home and for the other it is a prison. The ideals of each location either make
or break the characters that live there. Women, especially, are forced to conform to the standards
of the location they are thrown into and have no say in their own happiness.
Location in Wuthering Heights is one of the most influential elements in the novel. Each
location either upholds or destroys Victorian ideals, which affects each character differently as
they move from house to house. Being born in one location or the other also makes a huge
difference on how the character will behave and act. Emily Bronte shows the great effect ideals
can have on a person, especially women, and how forcing ideals on someone can really ruin their
life and make them unhappy. Choosing a location is a very important decision in everyones life.

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Do not take the decision lightly. Choosing where to live or go school can have a huge impact on
ones life and character, so do not choose lightly.

Works Cited
Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Signet Classic, 1958. Print.
Dobyns, Ann. The Conflict of World Views in Wuthering Heights. The Voices of
Romance. Newark: U of Delaware P, 1989. 70-88. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Criticism. Ed. Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 244. Detroit: Gale, 2011. Literature Resource
Center. Web. 26 Apr. 2016.

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Frost, Robert. Outcasts and rebels: Robert Frost compares The French Lieutenants
Woman and Wuthering Heights. The English Review 16.3 (2006): 38+. Literature
Resource Center. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Goodlett, Debra. Love and addiction in Wuthering Heights.. The Midwest Quarterly
37.3 (1996): 316+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Hunt, William Holman. The Lady of Shalott, Engraved by J. Thompson. 1857. Wood
Engraving on Paper. Tate, London.
Levy, Eric P. The psychology of loneliness in Wuthering Heights.. Studies in the
Novel 28.2 (1996): 158+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Powys, John Cowper. Emily Bront. Suspended Judgments: Essays on Books and
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New York: American Library Service, 1923. Rpt. in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Criticism. Ed. Jessica Bomarito and Russel Whitaker. Vol. 165. Detroit: Gale, 2006.
Literature Resource Center. Web. 28 Apr. 2016.
Tennyson, Alfred Lord. The Lady of Shalott. 1832. The Victorian Age. Ed. Julia
Reidhead. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. N. pag. Print. Vol. 2B of
The Norton Anthology of English Literature.
Turnell, Martin. Wuthering Heights. Nineteenth-Century. Ed. Cherie D. Abbey and
Janet Mullane. Vol. 16. Detroit: Gale, 1987. 83-86. Print.