The title Wuthering Heights symbolizes contrasting themes of freedom and nature versus darkness and gloom. Initially, it symbolizes joy in the beauty of the outdoors and nature unfettered from materialism. Conversely, it also symbolizes the often bleak state of nature and its potential dangers amid stormy conditions.

While Mr. Earnshaw is alive, Wuthering Heights is a family homestead. However, after his death, Wuthering Heights symbolizes darkness and gloom, like the moors on which it is built often can be. As the “wuthering” in the name suggests, it symbolizes gusty winds and the dangers of nature.

Wuthering means characterized by strong winds, and heights means atop or maximum. The name itself tells of the inhospitable nature of the house, which was once a home but has become a cold, desolate structure in which there is no warmth or kindness.

Yet, early in the story, as Cathy and Heathcliff become inseparable, the location of the house at the height of the moors represents freedom to them and liberty from the materialism and classism that Cathy begins to yearn for at the Linton home.

Once Cathy leaves, Wuthering Heights truly becomes a cold, desolate place. Just as the moors can be characterized by stormy gales and craggy rocks, Wuthering Heights becomes inhospitable to human kindness and reflects the stormy darkness of its master, Heathcliff. The violence and fury that nature can unleash on the moors also characterize Wuthering Heights, as it reflects Heathcliff’s increasingly dark nature and violent temperament.

The title Wuthering Heights refers to the Earnshaw family home, built by an ancestor called Hareton Earnshaw around 1500.

The house represents many things in the novel. Firstly, it is the childhood home of Heathcliff and Catherine, the place where they lived as siblings, before Hindley's abuse and Catherine's engagement to the refined Edgar Linton drove Heathcliff away. For the star-crossed lovers, Wuthering Heights is a haven, a reminder of the wild joys of their childhood before class divisions drove them apart. Other characters do not associate Wuthering Heights with joy. For Isabella Linton and, later, Cathy Linton, Wuthering Heights is a prison, where abuse is a daily occurrence.

Heathcliff's ownership of the house illustrates his obsession with the past and especially with Catherine. He covets the house not only to get revenge on Hindley but also because it was the one place where he was allowed to be happy as a boy.

The title of the house is also significant: the term "wuthering" suggests bad weather and rain, apt symbols for the tempestuous relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff, or the passions which drive all the characters to desperate, cruel behavior.

Wuthering Heights, and the house it is named after, symbolizes Heathcliff. Wuthering Heights is situated on the dark and gloomy moors, which mirror Heathcliff's character. Heathcliff, an orphaned boy from Liverpool, was an unmannered child, wild in spirit and quick to anger. Though he was taken into the family by Mr. Earnshaw, he is always treated as an outsider, especially by Hindley Earnshaw. Heathcliff is only kind to Mr. Earnshaw and his daughter Catherine, who are deeply fond of him.

Heathcliff grows up to be a sullen, rude, and jealous man. After Cathy marries Edgar Linton and dies early in their marriage, Heathcliff's negative character traits worsen. He becomes obsessed with seeking revenge on the Linton and Earnshaw families. Like the inhospitable moors, Heathcliff traps Cathy's daughter (also named Cathy)—he locks her into a marriage to his son Hareton, and her living situation at Wuthering Heights is close to unbearable. Thus, Heathcliff's moodiness and rugged character parallel the harsh wilderness of the moors and the forlorn place Wuthering Heights became when he assumed ownership of the house.

The title Wuthering Heights is symbolic of the characters and relationships in the novel.  

First of all, the title of the novel symbolizes the setting in which the house of the same name is situated. Wuthering Heights is set in the northern English moors, a rough, inhospitable climate prone to the harshest of winters. The house by the same name sits high on a hill near some rocky crags. The word "wuthering" means, as Lockwood tells us, being prone to "...atmospheric tumult...in stormy weather." The area is pummeled by high winds throughout most of the year.

As a result, the house looks and feels harsh, cold and stormy. The architecture used to deflect the wind's damage symbolizes this depressing mood. Deeply inset windows and jutted corners are two examples; this particular architecture can make the house appear dark and cold, both outside and inside.

The windy, stormy weather suggested by the word "wuthering" also symbolizes the lives of the family who live inside. Their relationships and situations are stormy and dark, just as their home and setting are stormy and dark, as contrasted with neighboring Thrushcross Grange, situated in a grassy, lower-lying area with happier residents.