Essay

Prompt: 1991. Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

                Wuthering Heights is consumed with characters that support each other’s fault, or even contrast one another completely.The name of this widely used literary element is called doubles, other known books that use doubles are: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. The amount of books that use doubles is uncountable; some authors use it without even thinking about it, because every story needs a little balance. Three large examples of doubles in Wuthering Heights are the Lintons and the Earnshaws, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and lastly Catherine and Heathcliff.

                The Lintons and the Earnshaws represent larger elements of differences than just two family names. The Lintons as a whole represent culture, showing how civilized families live. The two siblings Edgar and Isabella were raised to be extremely respectful and polite. This family follows every rule unwritten by society and attends church every Sunday. The double of the Lintons are the Earnshaws, they represent nature, and consists of Hindley, Catherine and Heathcliff. At first this family was just like the Lintons, until Heathcliff joined it. Heathcliff brought out Catherine’s more wild and adventurous side that had always seemed to be there. They stopped going to church on Sunday’s because of the dirty looks and even Hindley began to act out, enough to be sent away.

                Another largely used double in the book is the two estates, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Both estates represent the families that live inside, like a room expresses the person that inhabits it, favorite colors, talents, and characteristics. Wuthering Heights has the same wildness as Heathcliff, in the same way as him, the moors located around the estate are described throughout the book as “uncontrollable” or “dangerous”. Yet Thrushcross Grange is shown as a more “put together” estate, like the seemingly perfect family that obtains it. An example of this is the flawless carving above the door of the family name, Lintons, mentioned every single time someone enters.

                Lastly the main double in Wuthering Heights is Catherine and Heathcliff. Catherine, before meeting Heathcliff, was the same as any other girl her age, polite, respectful and did nothing wrong. Though we did not know where Heathcliff came from, we assume that he still acted as wild as he does when Mr. Earnshaw brought him home. The two become very alike for awhile until Catherine stays at the Lintons for six weeks and comes home, “the perfect lady”. Throughout the entire book these two characters are made out as doubles, until one specific line Catherine says in a conversation to Nelly, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he’s not handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and [Edgar’s] is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire,” after this we find out that they are actual the same.

                These strong uses of doubles help to build Wuthering Heights, they are what makes the book award-winning. Without Catherine and Heathcliff’s similarities and differences this book would have no meaning. If you had any one of these doubles in Wuthering Heights; The Lintons and The Earnshaws, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and Catherine and Heathcliff, but not the other, this book would not have the balance it needs to make the tragic love story it is.