Narrative Essay: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is an extremely unique piece of fiction, as Emily Brontë took many events from her own life as inspiration for this work of literature. Growing up secluded and lonely, Emily Brontë was able to let her mind wander without the distractions of society. Wuthering Heights is an amazing example of Brontë taking her experiences and turning them into a wonderful novel full of character and soul. Brontë’s childhood homestead, and the tragedies she experienced clearly shape the plot and setting in Wuthering Heights.    

Growing up in Haworth, England, Emily Brontë and her five siblings had very isolated childhoods. Although some may dislike being isolated, Brontë thrived when she was alone. “Emily Brontë did not mind the isolation of Haworth, as being outdoors in the moors gave her a feeling of freedom. Here she experienced the world in terms of forces of nature that cannot be considered good or evil.”(“Notable Biographies”) The setting of Wuthering Heights is very similar. Mr. Lockwood reflects, “The dismal spiritual atmosphere overcame, and more than neutralized, the glowing physical comforts round me.”(Brontë 14”) Abominable storms and dreary surroundings seem to eradicate any sense of cheer from the inhabitants of the Moors that Brontë grew up in, as well as the characters in the Wuthering Heights estate. Ponden Hall, where the Brontë children were raised, is shockingly similar to the Wuthering Heights mansion. Specifically, Ponden Hall's main bedroom. “The main guest bedroom of Ponden Hall features a small, single-paned window within a wooden, paneled box bed.”(“The Independent: House that "Inspired" Wuthering Heights On Sale for £1M”) In chapter 12, Catherine Earnshaw complains to Nelly about the living quarters in which she is confined as she is ill. “I thought as I lay there, with my head against that table leg, and my eyes dimly discerning the grey square of the window, that I was enclosed in the oak-paneled bed at home; and my heart ached with some great grief which, just waking, I could not recollect.”(Brontë 121) Charlotte Brontë, Emily Brontë's sister, even uses these descriptions of the Moors in her book Jane Eyre. “Some heavy clouds swept from the sky by a rising wind, had left the moon bare; and her light streaming in through a window near, shone full both on us and on the approaching figure, which we at once recognize as Miss Temple.” (Jane Eyre 62).

Another striking resemblance of Emily Brontë’s life, when compared to Wuthering Heights, is the tragic theme of death and destruction. When Brontë was just three years old, her mother, Maria, and her two sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, died, leaving Emily’s father, Patrick Brontë, to raise the three remaining children. These misfortunes were important for the Brontë children's love for writing and their character development as a whole. As they experienced these tragedies, the Brontë children created vast imaginary worlds with pen and paper, forever changing the concept of literature. This is shown in Wuthering Heights, as all of the characters take on the affliction of losing loved ones. Heathcliff weeps to Catherine while she is on her deathbed begging her to not leave him: “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest, as long as I am living!… I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” (Bronte 148). As the reader progresses through Wuthering Heights, they witness over eleven deaths in the Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange estates. “Mrs. Earnshaw dies first, followed by Mr. Earnshaw, Frances, the elder Mr. and Mrs. Linton, Catherine, Hindley, Isabella, Edgar, the young Linton, and Heathcliff.”(Death in Wuthering Heights) One specific character, Hindley, is directly inspired by Emily Brontë’s brother, Branwell Brontë. Hindley is essentially a carbon copy of Branwell, in that they were both severe alcoholics, which catches up to both of them and destroys their lives. “Hindley Earnshaw! Your good old friend Hindley…He died true to his character-drunk as a lord. Poor lad; I’m sorry, too….he had the worst tricks with him that ever a man imagined, and has done me a rascally turn.”(178) Like Hindley, Branwell Brontë proceeded to drink himself to death just days after Emily Brontë’s passing.

While Wuthering Heights is a unique piece of gothic fiction, Emily Brontë immerses the reader in a book that is based loosely on her own life. With the setting of Wuthering Heights being an exact reproduction of Brontë’s homestead and the novel’s tragedies replicating Emily Brontë’s experiences, the reader is given a relatively clear image of what Brontë’s life was like. Although the Brontë children were isolated, they all wrote fascinating works of literature, utilizing their experiences to help their audiences understand what they endured in their rough lives.