sooo much symbolism…

Through the use of symbolism and surrounding details in Wuthering Heights, Bronte effectively communicates the emotions of the characters at the same time revealing the complexities of relationships and one’s experiences. One consistent way Bronte foreshadows how the characters will communicate and understand each other is through her added detail about the doors and windows wherever they may be. For example, when Mrs. Linton is still fairly ill and springtime is coming, Nelly explains that “the weather was so warm and pleasant that I set them wide open”, referring to the doors at Wuthering Heights. She also includes when describing Catherine’s position before Heathcliff’s letter arrives that she sat “in the recess of the open window”(Bronte 167). The state of the doors and windows directly reflects how open Catherine will be and how the scene reveals Catherine and Heathcliff’s true feelings. She opens herself up to Heathcliff about the heartache she endures and the truth is evident throughout the entire scene. Bronte also at times includes that the doors or windows are shut and/or locked and the scene that ensues reflects confusion, lies, and miscommunication between the families.

Another crucial symbol even though it only appears once is Catherine’s locket. After she dies, Heathcliff’s visit is discovered by Nelly when she finds the silver thread from Catherine’s locket and ascertains that “Heathcliff had opened the trinket, and cast out its contents, replacing them by a black lock of his own”(Bronte 180). After discovering this, Nelly simply twists the two together. Lockets are known to hold pictures of loved ones and serve as a reminder to keep them close. Heathcliff secretly opening her locket and getting rid of such pictures reveals his jealous and selfish character as he disregards her locket after she has passed away as he believes himself to be the one worthy of the spot. The black lock represents him not letting Catherine be at rest and wishing her to stay with him one way or the other forever. The dark obsession he has binds them together, foreshadowing Catherine’s ghost haunting Heathcliff and Lockwood encountering her. The black lock reflects Heathcliff’s devilish qualities and his obsession with keeping things to himself as a way of revenge. Nelly’s seemingly careless act of twisting the two further proves the notion that Heathcliff and Catherine are tied together forever as Catherine will “take him with me – he’s in my soul” (Bronte 172) and neither will find rest as their actions are fueled by revenge and selfishness.

Flowers seem like insignificant details when reading scenes such as young Cathy and Nelly’s walks together, but each type of flower proves to be symbolic of Cathy’s current position in life and the complex feelings she experiences. Nelly, in an effort to cheer Cathy up despite her father’s critical condition, points out “a little flower, up yonder, the last bud from the multitude of blue-bells that clouded those turf steps in July with a lilac mist” (Bronte 243). Bluebells specifically in England are commonly used to represent constancy, everlasting love, and sometimes humility. However, because there is only one bud left it can be seen as an indicator of the changes occuring or about to occur in young Cathy’s life. She is losing a part of her purity and innocence that she has held onto for so long in her nearly perfect childhood and is entering a period of growth and uncertainty as the world is revealed to be far more complex than she could ever have imagined, as reflected in the lilac mist. Nelly even directly compares her to the lonely bud saying that she is both “starved and sackless” (Bronte 243), further proving the significance of the flowers observed as indicators of the character’s emotions and experiences. Bronte includes a significant amount of seemingly insignificant details in order to convey the thoughts and feelings of the characters that drive the complex relationships between the two families of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.