characters.

In Wuthering Heights, the story takes place on the stormy moors of Yorkshire, particularly in two mysterious estates: Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Wuthering Heights, though it seems to be eerily beautiful, is not bright and hospitable; it seems dark, haunted, and uncomfortable.

The supernatural element is certainly present as well; throughout the entire story, ghosts and spirits are hinted at. Heathcliff particularly seeks out contact with the late love of his life, Catherine, going so far as to exhume her body from her grave to be closer to her. Brontë, keeping in mind that powerful, all-consuming emotions were another common gothic element, seems to be indicating that Heathcliff and Catherine are truly soul mates; even death cannot keep them apart. Heathcliff himself is also the classic gothic antihero; he is brooding, mysterious, and tortured by his own emotions, and he ultimately chooses to starve himself in order to join Catherine in death.

There are many Gothic elements to Wuthering Heights. These include the following:

Setting: the Gothic genre is known for settings that are wild, forbiddingly beautiful, and isolated. Wuthering Heights uses the moors as this kind of Gothic setting. Gothic buildings are ancient, mysterious, and foreboding. Wuthering Heights, the house, fits this description as well, a remote outpost that often serves as a kind of prison.

The supernatural: Gothic stories often have to do with supernatural events or creatureism, hence the book's use of the theme of "haunting" and the idea of Cathy's ghost haunting Heathcliff.

Extreme emotion: Heathcliff and Cathy's love is described as being beyond normal human relations and enduring even after death. Heathcliff's hatred toward Linton, his revenge against Hindley, and his treatment of Isabella and his own son all show his extreme emotions.

The Gothic hero: Heathcliff functions as a Gothic hero in that he is dark, mysterious (his origin and how he becomes rich is unknown), violent, and scheming. Heathcliff's passion for Cathy seems to be also a desire to transcend reality or to defy or defeat God himself.

Violence/Depravity: The Gothic is known for violence, and Wuthering Heights is full of violent confrontation, drinking to excess, and gambling, as well as acts of casual cruelty.

Morality: While Christian morality is referenced often, the book in effect establishes its own moral system which is outside common religiosity.

The gothic genre is characterized by showing the dark or shadowed side of life. A gothic landscape is anything but bright and sunny. It is far more likely to be dark, stormy, isolated, and foreboding. A classic gothic house would be the creepy haunted house with the loose banging shutter that everyone is afraid of. Gothic characters have a sinister quality, and gothic heroines often find themselves in life threatening situations. Further, the supernatural hovers over the gothic.

While Wuthering Heights is more than just a gothic novel, gothic characteristics or motifs are part of the story. The moors are depicted as in an isolated area of England, and as rocky and harsh. The house dates to 1500 and is made of harsh stone. We first encounter it on a winter day and then at night, where it is shadowy and gloomy. It is an unheimlich or uncomfortable place, as Lockwood quickly finds out on his early visits. He, for example, mistakes a basket of dead rabbits for a basket of kittens. Further, Heathcliff, who he first considers a "capital" fellow, turns out to be hostile and inhospitable. When Lockwood is forced to spend the night at the house due to a snowstorm, he has what might be a supernatural encounter with the desperate ghost of Catherine Earnshaw. All of these are classic gothic elements.

As the story unfolds, we are faced with family dysfunction, including alcoholism, neglect, and abuse. Heathcliff is not a Romantic hero but a dark, cruel figure bent on revenge. Catherine chooses death because she is caught between Heathcliff who she loves and her husband. The novel focuses on the grim underside of families and patriarchal power. We are led to believe that Catherine's ghost wanders the moors. These gothic elements set the tone for the novel.

The character of Heathcliff is the very epitome of Gothic. Dark, dangerous, and brooding, he's a man without a past, a man whose origins are an absolute mystery. In fact, he's more like a force of nature than a man, in keeping with the dark, windswept Yorkshire moors that provide such a dramatic backdrop to much of the story's action.

If Gothic is about anything it's the complex relationship between the natural and the supernatural, between this world and the next. In the figure of Heathcliff, that relationship in all its complexity finds its ultimate expression. He's in this world but not of it. Though possessing some of the obvious traits of the Romantic hero, his selfishness and cruelty also put him firmly in the category of a villain. This is a classic example of the moral ambiguity that is such a characteristic feature of the Gothic in literature.

For context, you should think of Romanticism as a broad movement spanning literature, art, music etc., and then consider how this particular novel fits into the overall cultural picture of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Take a look at the first Encyclopedia article that I have linked. The photo on the homepage can give you an idea of what Romanticism feels and looks like: an isolated man on top of a mountain looking out at a desolate landscape, painted in dark tones.

Now, for some romantic elements in Wuthering Heights:

The Setting

Emily Brontë's depiction of the moors is quintessential Romanticism. Nature plays a huge role in this literary movement, and many if not all of the characters in the novel have a relationship with the desolate yet beautiful landscape. Take a look at the imagery in the following quotation which describes the way two different characters engage with the moors.

He said the pleasantest manner of spending a hot July day was lying from morning till evening on a bank of heath in the middle of the moors, with the bees humming dreamily about among the bloom, and the larks singing high up overhead, and the blue sky and bright sun shining steadily and cloudlessly. That was his most perfect idea of heaven’s happiness: mine was rocking in a rustling green tree, with a west wind blowing, and bright white clouds flitting rapidly above; and not only larks, but throstles, and blackbirds, and linnets, and cuckoos pouring out music on every side, and the moors seen at a distance, broken into cool dusky dells; but close by great swells of long grass undulating in waves to the breeze; and woods and sounding water, and the whole world awake and wild with joy.

Isolation

Somewhat related to the emphasis on nature, isolation is another important feature of Romanticism one can find in Wuthering Heights. There are very few families/homesteads involved in the novel, effectively cutting off our group of characters from the rest of society. Additionally, the characters themselves often spend time alone. Once again, this can be tied to nature, such as when Heathcliff is described as taking "solitary rambles on the moors." If you think back to the painting on the Romanticism homepage linked below, as well as other pieces of Romantic art that have a human subject, it is often a single subject portrayed in nature.

Byronic Hero

For better or for worse, Heathcliff is a prime example of a Byronic hero. He is tortured, intensely emotional and passionate, guilt-ridden, and morally ambiguous. This character is an archetype stemming from the figure of Lord Byron, a man who had a bad marriage and committed incest with his half-sister among other alleged crimes against humanity. Typical of these heroes, Heathcliff has dark coloring, is of questionable origin, and is often violent or imbued with evil characteristics.

Hopefully, these elements will get you started, and the encyclopedia article should get you thinking about other aspects of Romanticism, including which other authors and artists are typically associated with the movement.

Wuthering Heights is a classic novel that embodies many of the elements of Romanticism as it developed in the 1800s in English literature. Beauty, mystery, and the supernatural play significant roles in the novel, as does the emphasis upon nature and the human spirit.

The setting of the novel places the story in the English moors of Yorkshire, a place both beautiful and bleak. Much description of nature is in found in the novel, including the natural elements of the weather--wind and rain. Nature is wild and beautiful and often dangerous. Supernatural elements are introduced into the novel through the references to Heathcliff's strange and diabolical nature and the ghost of Catherine. Much of the story concerns events of the past, another element of Romanticism. Finally, the novel's emphasis upon the individual, the human spirit and its needs and compulsions, is highly romantic. In its tale of love and desire, danger, betrayal and revenge, Wuthering Heights stands as a superb example of English Romanticism.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a prime example of the Gothic romance genre. As stated above, the presence of the supernatural, isolated settings, and the drama surrounding the characters' romantic entanglements are all present within the novel.

One of the first indications that the novel is a Gothic romance is Mr. Lockwood's strange encounter with Catherine Earnshaw's ghost in her former bedroom at titular estate, which Heathcliff now owns and inhabits. Lockwood is forced to stay the night because of a snowstorm, and what he experiences is bizarre:

"As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child's face looking through the window. Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it wailed, 'Let me in!' and maintained its tenacious gripe, almost maddening me with fear."

This excerpt from Chapter 3 describes Lockwood's encounter with the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw/Linton. The violent imagery of blood splattering everywhere through the broken glass of the window establishes a mood of horror. Therefore, the supernatural elements in this novel are tinged with terror from the very beginning of the text, a fact that only continues throughout.

Furthermore, the setting itself is an example of the genre in which the novel is written. Wuthering Heights is a dark, looming presence that overlooks the wild, strange moorland in a rural part of the country. Even the name of the estate is Gothic; wuthering, as Mr. Lockwood states, means susceptible to stormy weather. In his first impression of the house, Lockwood says:

"the architect had foresight to build it strong: the narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large jutting stones. Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire a quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principal door; above which, among a wilderness of crumbling griffins and shameless little boys, I detected the date '1500,' and the name 'Hareton Earnshaw.'"

The architectural details of the Heights are clearly meant to evoke a sense of the bleak and of history. Use of the words "grotesque" and "jutting" suggests the house is somewhat fearsome in its appearance. Lockwood is further intrigued with the apparent ancient history of the home—another feature of Gothic settings.

Finally, it is the romance itself juxtaposed with the Gothic elements that land Bronte's novel firmly in the subgenre of Gothic romance. The love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a dark-complected orphan her father brought home on one of his travels and raised as a sort of foster brother alongisde his own children, is intensely passionate. At one point, Catherine remarks:

"My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning; my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff— he's always, always in my mind—not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself—but as my own being; so, don't talk of our separation again—it is impracticable."

This passage is an example of the Gothic version of Romance because Catherine waxes melodramatic about what might happen should she ever be separated from Heathcliff. The fact that her social status forces her to marry Linton over her self-described soulmate makes love a tortuous experience in this text. The intensity of passion within the novel is what propels the action forward, from Catherine's death to Heathcliff's horrific revenge plot.

Gothic Romances are commonly characterized by their use of the following elements: mystery, supernatural events or occurrences, dark, gloomy settings like castles or large estates, a dark, mysterious hero figure.  Wuthering Heights features most of these characteristics. 

Mystery:  Heathcliff is certainly a mysterious element in the novel.  His heritage is unknown; the only supporting detail or clue is that he spoke some foreign language when he was found on the streets of London.  Heathcliff's fortune also is a mystery to the reader--he left dirt poor and came back filthy rich, ready to torment his enemies.

Supernatural events:  Catherine's ghost searches the moors, trying to find her way back to Wuthering Heights.

Setting:  Wuthering Heights is depicted as a dark, gloomy estate, set upon the wild moors of Scotland.

Romance:  Wuthering Heights has a passionate romantic triangle formed between Heathcliff, Lindly, and Catherine.   "Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!"  Wuthering Heights exudes passion and unrequited love.

The romantic elements in Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights are reflected in Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff’s intense love. Although they don’t marry each other (Catherine marries Edgar, Heathcliff marries Isabella), it’s clear that they are soulmates. In chapter 9, Catherine measures her feelings for Edgar against her feelings for Heathcliff. When it comes to Edgar, Catherine’s love is mutable, like “foliage in the woods.” With Heathcliff, Catherine’s love “resembles the eternal rocks beneath.” Their love is steadfast and “necessary.” Her romantic feelings for Heathcliff are so strong that she tells Nelly, “I am Heathcliff!”

The feverish romance between Heathcliff and Catherine arguably forms the novel’s gothic elements. It’s possible to claim that Brontë doesn’t present Catherine and Heathcliff as normal people in love but as mythological beings who are eerily infatuated with one another. Heathcliff could be thought of as more of a monster than a man. He uses Catherine’s death as a reason to brutalize and exploit Catherine’s daughter, Hareton, and Linton Heathcliff. Meanwhile, Catherine appears to transform into a ghostly figure. She seems to continuously haunt and torment Heathcliff in her afterlife.

Heathcliff is not the only beastly character in the novel. Catherine’s brother, Hindley, is vicious as well. Jealous of Heathcliff, Hindley hits Heathcliff and verbally abuses him. After giving Heathcliff his colt, Hindley tells him, “I hope he’ll kick out your brains!” Considering Hindley’s cruelty and the mysterious arrival of Heathcliff, one might also contend that the gothic elements prefigure Catherine and Heathcliff’s stormy romance.

In addition to the elements already mentioned, there are other elements of the Gothic and Dark Romanticism in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights:

• Bleak, foreboding environments

In the opening chapter, the narrator describes Heathcliff's house, Wuthering Heights, explaining that the adjective wuthering describes "the atmospheric tumult" of its physical location, for there are high winds and stormy weather. Also, over the doorway of the house Lockwood notices a "grotesque carving."

--The desolate and wild moors are set against the drama of the families. When Heathcliff imprisons Nelly and Cathy at Wuthering Heights in Chapter 28, he goes to Gimmerton and creates the rumor that the two women "sunk in the Blackhorse marsh" and that he rescued them.

• Atmosphere

--When Mr. Lockwood arrives at Wuthering Heights, he has a sense of dread as he observes the environment with its thorny branches before the house and the weather. 

--Throughout the narrative, there is mystery and dread. The dark child that Mr. Earnshaw brings home with him is mysterious, and throughout the narrative, Heathcliff's actions are often unexpected.

• Protagonists

--The protagonists of Dark Romanticism and the Gothic are characters who are often isolated or alone. Certainly, Heathcliff represents this type; he is an orphan who is rejected by Hindley Earnshaw and later by Catherine herself, as she marries Edgar Linton, one of her own class.

• High Emotion

--Heathcliff is characterized by high emotion. He is strong-willed and defies conventions by running away and returning as a wealthy man with the hope of stealing back Catherine. After he purchases Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff becomes cruel and vindictive in his desire for revenge against those who have denied it to him.

• The Supernatural

--Dark Romantics created images of anthropomorphized spiritual elements in the form of ghosts. While Mr. Lockwood stays at Wuthering Heights, he witnesses a ghost. In Chapter 3, Mr. Lockwood is put in a room where his sleep is interrupted by a branch tapping on the window in the wind. When he opens the window, he is grabbed by a cold hand. "Let me in-let me in!" it cries. When Lockwood asks who it is, this ghost replies, "Catherine Linton." After Lockwood tells Heathcliff of his "dream," Heathcliff rushes to the window, calling to Cathy to come in: "On! my heart's darling! Hear me this time, Catherine, this time!"

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights exemplifies literary characteristics of the Victorian era including the importance of education; social class and mobility; complex and lengthy plot; and narrative style.

Victorian literature often focuses on the growing importance of education as well as the connection between education and financial stability. Generally, the educated characters in the novel have financial security and the uneducated characters do not.

Social class plays an important role in Victorian literature. In Wuthering Heights, the characters are organized into different social classes and treated accordingly. For example, the Earnshaw and Linton families belong to the upper class, whereas Heathcliff is born into poverty.

Heathcliff is orphaned and homeless when Mr. Earnshaw finds him. Even after being adopted by a wealthy family, Heathcliff is still considered low-class by many, especially Hindley. Even Catherine, who loves Heathcliff dearly, considers him to be beneath her social station. As much as Catherine loves Heathcliff, she opts to maintain her social and financial status by marrying Edgar.

The novel, like many Victorian novels, establishes a link between money and power. For example, Heathcliff is powerless prior to his three-year-long disappearance from Wuthering Heights; however, he has a great deal of power upon returning to the manor as a wealthy man.

Many Victorian novels feature long, complex plots and many characters. This is true of Wuthering Heights, which can be confusing at times due to the large number of characters, the similarity of names, and complicated connections/relationships between characters.

The novel also demonstrates typical Victorian narrative style. The story is alternately narrated by Nelly Dean and Lockwood. Both narrators intrude on the plot by interjecting their opinions and feelings. They also prolong the narrative by digressing.

These are just a few of the many ways in which Wuthering Heights exemplifies the values and conventions of Victorian literature.

Wuthering Heights was published by Emily Bronte in 1847, 10 years into the reign of Queen Victoria. Although the Victorian era is commonly thought of as very prude or uptight—"Victorian," as it were—the domestic policy of the Victorians was actually quite liberal, at least relative to the time.

Perhaps the most important feature of the Victorian era in Emily Brontë's case is that the genre of the novel became wildly popular. Before the Victorian era, nearly all respected literature came in the form of poetry and drama; very few respected people were writing novels. However, this quickly changed in the Victorian period (mostly thanks to Charles Dickens), and the novel became wildly popular.

Novels during this time were published serially, which means that rather being published all at once, they were dealt out in (often monthly) installments. Therefore, novels read similarly to how we understand weekly TV shows today. Cliffhangers were often utilized to keep the audiences attention, and there would be discussion of the text in between installments.

Wuthering Heights is both of its time and sui generis—one of a kind. It is quite different in tone from the novels of Dickens, for instance, and of most Victorians, including other women authors such as Emily Brontë's sister Charlotte and George Eliot. Yet as unusual as it is, there is something about it that corresponds to the Victorian zeitgeist and that perhaps expresses the deepest imaginings of the period more forcefully than the more "conventional" novels of the time are able to.

The story is one of obsession, largely sexual obsession. Conventional wisdom about the nineteenth century is that it was an age when people were sexually repressed, disallowed from talking or writing openly about sensitive matters. This is, of course, mostly true, but it's also the reason that taboo subjects became a kind of interior obsession that found their outlet in the disturbing subtexts of various works. It is almost as if the inability to deal with any real openness about certain things caused authors to produce a veiled kind of expression, more disturbing than an explicit spelling out of ideas would have been. The self-destructive and obsessive love of Catherine and Heathcliff is at the center of the novel. So is the Earnshaw family's adoption of Heathcliff and the abuse to which Heathcliff is subjected. The systematic revenge Heathcliff takes against Catherine's brother and against the Lintons is connected with this hopeless romantic and sexual obsession. Heathcliff marries Isabella because he hates her family and wishes to carry out his revenge through her. And his deliberately raising Hareton Earnshaw in a state of ignorance represents his vengeance against the Earnshaws, including Catherine, whom Heathcliff supposedly loved.

It's not difficult to see not only a sexually-oriented subtext, but a sadomasochistic one to the story. For those of us who expect a prim and proper story as characteristic of the 1840s, it is a rude awakening. But it is just this sort of naked and disturbing emotion, almost to the point of psychosis, that occurs at unexpected times in the literature of the period. Flaubert's Salammbo is a kind of orgy of depravity in ancient times, though this is less surprising, because the French writers always were more explicit than their British and American counterparts. In Hardy there is, as well, a subtext of sexual cruelty beneath the dominant, resigned melancholy of his novels. Other examples can be found, but Wuthering Heights is perhaps the most striking and paradoxical expression in the Victorian canon of this undercurrent of sensuality and cruelty.

Bronte's treatment of education and social class structure in Wuthering Heights all clearly reflect the influence of the Victorian era in which Bronte wrote the novel.

Hindley's abuse of Heathcliff reflects a problem in Hindley's character, and one way Hindley mistreats Heathcliff is to stand in the way of Heathcliff's education. Additionally, Hindley interferes with Heathcliff so violently that Mr. Earnshaw is advised by the curate to send Hindley away to boarding school. In both of these situations, Victorian education is seen as a valuable asset, so valuable that Hindley does not want Heathcliff to enjoy it, and so valuable that Mr. Earnshaw believes it can have a redeeming impact on his cruel son.

The importance of education in Victorian society is linked to the social class structure, as Hindley's desire to deprive Heathcliff of an education is a way for Hindley to keep Heathcliff in his place as an outsider. As well, Hindley's treatment of Heathcliff is damaging the Earnshaw name and reputation, so Mr. Earnshaw's intention to send Hindley to boarding school is complex; not only is he creating necessary and perhaps life-saving distance between the two boys, he is also hoping that education will teach Hindley how to act better so to protect the Earnshaw name.

The novel Wuthering Heights comes as a link between the Romantic and the Victorian social and literary eras.

I like to think that young Heathcliff is a Romantic, a Byronic Hero hurt by love, mysterious, and a lover of nature.  The old Heathcliff is a Victorian: reclusive, stuffy, prudish, and possessive.

The two houses also show this duality.  The Earnshaws are the Romantics, and the Lintons are the Victorians.  Whereas the former is defined by nature and openness (at least in the beginning of the novel, when Catherine and Heathcliff were young), the latter is closed and dark (the Linton kids are small, pasty white, never go outside).

As for the historical background, you can't beat Enotes:

The Victorian Age was a time of great economic, social, and political change. The British Empire had reached its height and extended throughout one quarter of the world. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution it was a time of great prosperity for some, but abject poverty for factory and farm workers. Many Victorian writers dealt with the contrast between the prosperity of the middle and upper classes and the wretched condition of the poor. Indeed, class distinctions will appear as an important subtext in Wuthering Heights.

Like her fellow Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy, Brontë’s setting is limited to the Yorkshire moors of northern England, a rural, isolated region. Rural life was governed by a strict societal hierarchy which Brontë accurately depicted in Wuthering Heights. At the top were the Lords, the aristocracy, with its hereditary or monarch granted titles, large estates, political dominance and patronage system. Next came the gentry class, non-titled nobility landowners, who constituted local leadership. The Linton family in Wuthering Heights is typical of this class. Next were the gentlemen farmers, many of whom were prosperous enough to maintain a lifestyle like that of the gentry. Mr. Earnshaw, father of Hindley and Cathy, is a representative gentleman farmer. Indeed, the distinction between the two classes appears in the novel, when Catherine refers to herself and Heathcliff as being of “the lower orders” (Pool 160-166).

Wuthering Heights is quite distinct from most novels of the Victorian Age. She does set it in the Yorkshire moors of northern England, a rural, isolated region. She also depicts the strict social hierarchy of the time. At the top were the Lords, the aristocracy, with its titles, large estates, and political dominance. Next came the gentry class, non-titled nobility landowners. The Linton family is typical of this class. Next were the gentlemen farmers, many of whom were prosperous enough to maintain a lifestyle like that of the gentry. Mr. Earnshaw, father of Hindley and Cathy, is a representative gentleman farmer. However, beyond this, the novel is unlike any other novel in the genre of Victorian literature.

Wuthering Heights stands outside the social conventions of its time. At this point in time, the individual was characteristically viewed only as a member of society. All actions were considered in reference to this framework. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë for the first time portrayed society from a completely individual point of view. Although other authors dealt more directly with moral and social concerns Bronte's novel was unique for containing more of the primitive and spiritual side of the human spirit. The wild passions of Heathcliff were essentially unheard of within literature before the novel.

Wuthering Heights, furthermore, with its mysterious, isolated mansions located in the wind-swept, brooding Yorkshire moors, is replete with overtones of Gothic horror. There is the suggestion of ghosts revisiting the living, supernatural allusions, and above all, a protagonist who symbolizes the dark side of mankind. These Gothic characteristics are more typical of the Romantic period of literature than the Victorian. Most notably, its theme of indestructibility of the spirit, which was a subject not touch by Victorian writers, belonging instead to the Gothic tradition.