The anecdote serves to set up Bronte's feminist critique revealed throughout the remainder of the story. After falling in love with a woman, Lockwood describes a "look" he gave to the woman, which conveyed his love. "She understood me, at last, and looked a return - the sweetest of all imaginable looks - and what did I do? I confess it with shame - shrunk icily into myself, like a snail, at every glance retired colder and farther." (6) The woman's glances may be considered forward in light of the historical context. Thus, the woman's deviations from societal norms caused her to be rejected by the socially conscious Lockwood. .
The other narrator of the story, Nelly Dean, also provides insight to Bronte's feminist message. Through her narration, she displays keen memory and an adept ability for storytelling. Lockwood's description of her storytelling is an important clue to the feminist nature of the novel. He said, "She is, on the whole a very fair narrator and I don't think I could improve her style." (157) The implications of this compliment are multi-faceted. He recognizes that she is intelligent and considers her narration better than his own. Indeed, Nelly is very well read commenting that she had read just about everything in the library. On another level, Bronte is the actual narrator; so she is, in a way, complimenting her own style, thereby asserting her own ability to write. The importance of the quote is further supported by its structural placement within the text, located in the first paragraph of the second part of the novel.
The two female main characters of the story, Catherine and Cathy, serve to further illuminate Bronte's feminist message. Catherine serves the novel as a complicated heroine. Her unbridled passion is atypical of Victorian women but fitting with the prevailing personality of Wuthering Heights. However, when she is forced to stay at Thrushcross Grange due to injury, she develops a new sense of being.