The importance of the setting in the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte reflects on the time and social importance in which the novel was set, as well as the environment, symbolism and barriers which contribute to the characters conflict and relationships throughout the novel. .
Wuthering Heights is a rather isolated home situated on the top of a hill, belonging to the Earnshaws - Mr and Mrs Earnshaw, Catherine and Hindley and Heathcliff - a "gypsy brat" described as "as dark almost as if it came from the devil" whom Mr Earnshaw found and brought back from his trip to Liverpool. Thrushcross Grange is the home of Edgar and Isabella Linton, an estate closer to the town and nicer than that of Wuthering Heights. Thrushcross Grange was in the valley, sheltered from the violent winds and storms that Wuthering Heights tolerated. Mr Lockwood describes Wuthering Heights as " atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather .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 .as if craving alms of the sun". .
Throughout Emily Bronte's' novel there is a clear establishment of symbolism between the two estates. Thrushcross Grange appears to be calm, refined and welcoming, whereas Wuthering Heights appears wild, disrupted and hostile. Lockwood mentions this sense of hostility on his first visit to Wuthering Heights, "He (Heathcliff) wished no repetition of my intrusion .it is astonishing how sociable I feel myself compared with him". Both of these appearances relate well to the estates positions, in both social status and location. The uncultivated and wild Yorkshire moors is also a dominant feature in the novel, as it represents the disorderly behaviour at Wuthering Heights and the discomfited relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff. The wild expanses of the moors played great homage to their childhood, away from the social expectations of society.
