The events of Emily Bronte's classic novel Wuthering Heights take place across three main locations, each of which is crucial to the overall plot of the book.
Wuthering Heights - the Gothic Farmhouse
The main setting for much of the novel is Wuthering Heights; its significance can be guessed from the fact that Bronte chose to name the whole book after this particular house. This location adds to the atmosphere of the novel, exposed as it is to all weather: "`Wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather" (chapter one).
That the wind is unforgiving is emphasised by the physical appearance of the vegetation suurounding the house: "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" (chapter one). As the reader comes to know the characters based at this house, it is not difficult to see them the same way - exposed to great passions and violence, but ultimately seeking love and warmth from one another.
The house itself is by necessity built to withstand the onslaught of the elements, creating the unwelcoming aspect that greets Lockwood on his arrival: "the narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large jutting stones" (chapter one). This impression of the residents of the house being isolated from outsiders is emphasised by the fact that the house is repeatedly associated with locked doors, gates and windows throughout the novel.
The house itself is old; a date above the door suggests it dates from 1500. Full of dark corners, the house has elements of the classic haunted mansions of the Gothic novels so popular in Emily Bronte's day; indeed, Lockwood undergoes a ghostly experience when he is visited by the spectre of Catherine imploring to be let in at the window in chapter three.
Thrushcross Grange: Superficially Cultured
If Wuthering Heights is associated with the Earnshaws and the passionate Catherine and Heathcliif, Thrushcross Grange is the home of the refined and socially superior Lintons. The contrast with the neighbouring house - albeit four miles away - could not be greater; here the vegetation is lush and beautiful, sheltered by the Grange's position tucked away on lower ground.
However, the Grange is not as perfect as it may seem on the surface. Edgar and Isabella Linton are spoilt and silly as children, and greatly concerned with superficial matters such as appearance. It is Catherine's great misfortune that she finds herself torn between her love for Heathcliff and her desire for the wealth and social position that goes with the position of lady of the house at Thrushcross Grange.
The Grange is also a place of boundaries and restrictions, surrounded by a high wall. When Catherine lies ill in bed at the Grange, all she wants is to return to her old home: "`Oh, dear! I thought I was at home,' she sighed. `I thought I was lying in my chamber at Wuthering Heights" (chapter 12), and her daughter Cathy is forbidden to go beyond the boundary walls. If the residents of Wuthering Heights find themselves exposed, those of the Grange are too sheltered from the realities of real life.
Both houses also play a material role in Heathcliff's plan to dominate all those who have slighted him - he ends up the owner of both properties through his trickery; a far cry from his humble beginning on the streets of Liverpool.
The Moors: a Place of Freedom
The one place where characters are free to be themselves is out on the moors. Predominantly associated with Catherine and Heathcliff, young Cathy also shows her affinity with her mother through her yearning to escape the confinement of the Grange and run free on the moors. The imagery of these wild, rolling moors runs throughout the novel, finding perhaps its most famous expression in Catherine's metaphorical description of her love for Heathcliff: "'My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff!'" (chapter nine).
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