The Importance of Setting in Developing a Theme for...

When Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights England was going through a time of great change. It?s past agrarian society was changing and the common man was able to obtain wealth. Setting helps us to further understand the conflict between the natural world and cultured humanity, through the two main houses in text, and the social situation on the English Moors. Wuthering Heights uses this time of social unrest to develop the theme of the natural world in conflict with cultured humanity. An example of the natural world is the house, Wuthering Heights which the text is named after. It is a place of violent emotion inside, and violent weather outside. The narrator, Lockwood describes it through the medium of his diary ?pure bracing†¦show more content†¦and located in a pleasant valley, sheltered from the harshness of nature. This house shows us the upper-class civilised humanity. The Linton?s, who live at the Grange are of a higher-class than Catherine and Heathcliff. The valley in which the Grange is located protects the inhabitants from the raging emotion that is nature. In our first encounter with Thrushcross Grange, we are told that, ?the light came from thence,? and we see Thrushcross Grange as a educated civilised place, filled with books, music and other lovely things. Religion was an important aspect of the setting, to the contextual reader religion was a important aspect of their daily life. The inhabitants of the Heights disregard for cultured religion would have been seen as shocking and blasphemous and is an example of nature in opposition to civilisation. While the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange have the standard appreciation for religion at the time, Catherine and Heathcliff have their own version of heaven from the start when Mr Earnshaw dies no ?parson in the world ever pictured heaven so beautifully as they did, in their innocent talk.? This foreshadows Catherine?s dream, ?I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home, and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth, and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of theShow MoreRelatedNelly Is Confronted By.2436 Words   |  10 Pagesheart and an empty stomach, said I. Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves. But, if you be asha med of your touchiness, you must ask pardon, mind, when she comes in. You must go up and offer to kiss her, and say - you know best what to say† (Bronte, 47). (Nelly and Heathcliff are speaking) Nelly is talking to Heathcliff about Heathcliff’s relationship with Catherine. Heathcliff share’s his personal emotion with Nelly, who tries to understand the situation. She knows of Heathcliff’s love ofRead MoreVictorian Novel9605 Words   |  39 Pagesmentioning the importance of the expansion of railways. In a short time it greatly influenced not only the landscape of the country but also the perception of the space and time. Books, journals, reviews, magazines, papers became the portion of travelling. Even libraries, like those of Edward Mudie and W.H. Smith, thanks to the railways could send different forms of literature to provinces and overseas. Changes in the industry and society were equal to the changes in the novel. Themes like sea adventuresRead MoreRise of the English Novel5132 Words   |  21 Pagesoriginality and apply them to literature. Their stories were completely unique and used realism to show how people actually live (Watt 14). As the English novel developed the idea of characterization changed dramatically. A wide variety of characters and settings began to be used like â€Å"a man on an island, a servant-girl under siege, or a solitary eccentric oddly recapturing his prenatal past† (Longman 3067) Another characteristic of the novel is the use of ordinary names for people instead of symbolic namesRead MoreInterpretation of the Text13649 Words   |  55 PagesYet in analyzing works of fiction it might be useful to adhere to a certain scheme, like the one given in the box below. In studying fiction, use the following questions as a guide: What are the theme and the message? How does the title relate to them? What is the plot structure like? What does the setting contribute to it? What central conflict drives the plot? What are other conflicts? How is the story told? What does the particular type of narrator contribute? Which narrative modes are used? How