directly influenced by the energy that Heathcliff brings. Many scholars have considered the estates to be yet two more characters of the story, since they too become deeply affected by the plot but, most importantly, by Heathcliff.

In Chapter 6 we can see Nelly's description of Thrushcross Grange

"...ah! it was a beautiful--a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre, and shimmering with little soft tapers."

Contrastingly, Lockwood sees a much different state of affairs where he enters and looks around him in Wuthering Heights

One step brought us into the family sitting-room, without any introductory lobby or passage: they call it here “the house” preëminently. It includes kitchen and parlour generally; but I believe at Wuthering Heights the kitchen is forced to retreat altogether into another quarter: at least I distinguished a chatter of tongues, and a clatter ofculinary utensils, deep within;

Not only were things barren but also the place resonates for its inactivity. This is quite a different story from the place where Catherine and Heathcliff first kindled their friendship

and I observed no signs of roasting, boiling, or baking, about the huge fireplace; nor any glitter of copper saucepans and tin cullenders on the walls. One end, indeed, reflected splendidly both light and heat from ranks of immense pewter dishes, interspersed with silver jugs and tankards, towering row after row, on a vast oak dresser, to the very roof.

Therefore, each narrator will experience two different visions of what they see because they came before and after the entrance of Heathcliff in the two residences.

It is clear that the central narrator, whose overarching narrative contains the various other levels of narration that are included in this novel, responds to the two central houses of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange in the same way that the majority of the characters do. Even though he is an outsider and therefore hilariously fails to comprehend so much about the strange situation of the families who live in these locations, he still manages to pick up on certain aspects of these two houses that reflect their symbolic function. Consider, for example, how he describes Wuthering Heights and focuses on the exposed nature of its location:

'Wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed: one may guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun.

Lockwood points out the parallel in terms of the location of the house and the way that the elements must batter it to the way in which characters who dwell in this house are psychologically exposed and battered by various mental and emotional storms. This is something that is literally made manifest by the storm that descends on Wuthering Heights in Chapter Nine after Heathcliff leaves the house and the Moors.

By contrast, Thrushcross Grange, where Lockwood is living, is a much more protected and gentler place. It has significant grounds and a protective wall that literally seems to remove it and defend it from the atmospheric tumults in various forms that dominate Wuthering Heights and the exposed moors. As befitting a Gothic text, the two houses form a symbolic function.