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TMA 04: “The whole drama takes place in the house” , A Critical Exploration of Setting in Wuthering Heights
Introduction
The claim that in Wuthering Heights “the whole drama takes place in the house” invites a close look at how Emily Brontë uses setting to shape the novel’s emotional and moral landscape. At first glance the comment seems exaggerated because the story stretches across moors, farms and even briefly into the wider world. Yet the more closely the reader studies the novel, the more convincing the claim becomes. The two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, do much more than provide a backdrop. They frame nearly every major conflict, heighten the contrasts between characters and reflect the shifting power dynamics of the plot. The interior and exterior worlds are tightly connected, but the central emotional drama repeatedly returns to the houses, which seem to absorb and echo the passions of their inhabitants. This essay explores how far the claim holds true by examining the physical spaces of the houses, their symbolic roles, the novel’s treatment of home and exile and the reactions of early readers. The aim is to show that while the moors and occasional outside references matter, the core drama is indeed rooted in domestic space.
Interiors and the Drama of Containment
Much of the novel’s intensity comes from the way Brontë traps her characters within the walls of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Early readers of the novel often responded to its claustrophobic atmosphere. The first house we encounter, Wuthering Heights, is introduced through Mr Lockwood’s uneasy impressions of its harsh interior. The space feels defensive and closed, filled with locked doors, heavy furniture and a sense of historical weight. It is telling that Lockwood first feels fear not on the open moors but inside the house. His dream of Catherine’s ghost at the window reinforces this feeling that the interior is alive with past suffering.
This layered history makes the interior central to the drama. Catherine and Heathcliff’s childhood takes place within the house’s farmhouse rooms, where they play, fight and develop their fierce attachment. Their bond forms in domestic space and this space shapes their emotional identities. When Catherine becomes too comfortable at the Grange, and later accepts Edgar’s proposal, the conflict takes on a domestic focus. Even their most violent emotional moments occur inside. Heathcliff overhears Catherine’s declaration that it would degrade her to marry him, and he runs away from the doorway of the kitchen. The doorway becomes a threshold between belonging and exile, and the drama unfolds because of what is spoken inside the house rather than outside.
Thrushcross Grange functions differently but has the same dramatic purpose. Its orderly interior amplifies the contrast between the cultured Linton world and the raw energy of the Heights. Isabella’s mistreatment, Edgar’s emotional withdrawal and Cathy’s slow imprisonment under Heathcliff all become more powerful because the Grange is meant to be safe. The drama in the Grange arises from the way the house fails to protect the people inside it. Domestic space becomes a site of vulnerability rather than comfort.
The Moors: Freedom, Distance and Emotional Echo, Not a Primary Stage
The moors are vital to the atmosphere of the story, yet they do not replace the houses as the core stage for the drama. The moors represent emotional freedom and the wildness of Catherine and Heathcliff’s childhood, but most of the decisive events still return to the houses. The scene where Heathcliff and Catherine wander the moors as children is important because it reveals a world beyond social rules. Yet the consequences of their freedom always pull them back indoors. Catherine’s injury after spying on the Lintons forces her into the Grange, changing the direction of her life. The moors create movement, but the houses create plot.
One of the few major confrontations that happens on the moors is Heathcliff’s later meeting with Cathy and Hareton. Even then, the encounter is defined by their relationships established in the houses. The moors offer space, but the drama, in the sense of structured conflict that alters relationships, still centres on domestic life.
Home and Exile: The Emotional Power of Domestic Boundaries
The novel constantly returns to the question of who belongs inside the house and who does not. Heathcliff’s status shifts depending on which house he occupies. As a child he is brought into Wuthering Heights but never fully accepted. After Mr Earnshaw’s death he is pushed to the margins of the home. This shift explains much of Heathcliff’s later cruelty. His desire to control the Heights is driven by his early exclusion from it. His takeover of the Grange later in the novel mirrors the same desire for dominance over domestic space. The houses become symbols of emotional recognition, which explains why gaining or losing access to them has such dramatic weight.
Catherine also experiences a form of exile. Her hope to have both Heathcliff and a respectable life shows how she imagines two homes. Her conflict grows stronger when she realises she cannot belong to both. Her famous declaration that she is Heathcliff expresses a desire for unity, yet her choice to marry Edgar ties her to the Grange. Her emotional crisis takes place entirely in the interior. Her illness, breakdown and final confession happen in bedrooms and parlours. Her death too is tied to the domestic setting. Even in death she lingers as a presence in the house, reinforcing the idea that the drama does not move far beyond the walls.
The younger generation follows the same pattern. Cathy’s restricted life at the Grange, Linton’s sickly presence at the Heights and Hareton’s slow transformation inside the same building show that the emotional growth of each character is shaped by the houses. Their struggle is not to conquer the moors but to redefine their place within the domestic structures inherited from the earlier generation.
