The Conflict Between Nature and Culture in Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë and a Room with a View by E.M.Forster
“Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains.” - Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Many readers enjoy ‘Wuthering Heights’ as a form of escapism, a flight from reality into the seclusion and eerie mists of the Yorkshire moors, where the supernatural seems commonplace and the searing passion between Catherine and Heathcliff absolute. Yet Wuthering Heights reaches much further than its atmospheric setting, exploring the complexities of family relationships and Victorian society’s restrictions; similarly, in ‘A Room with a View’, E.M. Forster expands the relationship between Lucy and George to address wider social issues. Both novels explore and dramatise the conflict between human nature and society, between nature and culture.
Both Emily Brontë and Forster use setting to represent nature and civilisation. In Bronte’s novel, Wuthering Heights symbolises the wildness of nature, whereas Thrushcross Grange embodies comfort and civilisation, protected from the violence and tumult of the moors by surrounding walls. All the particularly vicious acts are committed in Wuthering Heights, such as Hindley’s abuse of Heathcliff and his own mistreatment of Hareton; thus Wuthering Heights is inextricably linked to aggression and violence, both through the “atmospheric tumult” of the weather that surrounds the house and its inhabitants. Architecturally, Thrushcross Grange is a more luxurious house than Wuthering Heights (Lockwood describes it as “grotesque” in its decoration, the harsh diction exaggerating his distaste). The moors are a literal wilderness surrounding the two houses, acting as a constant antagonist in the lives of the characters; and as a means of diminishing the importance of human culture by comparison with nature’s sheer power.
Forster separates the natural and the civilised world by using different cultural values in contrast to each other. Forster uses the distinction between the freedom of Italian culture which Lucy glimpses through the window, and the stiff
Many readers enjoy ‘Wuthering Heights’ as a form of escapism, a flight from reality into the seclusion and eerie mists of the Yorkshire moors, where the supernatural seems commonplace and the searing passion between Catherine and Heathcliff absolute. Yet Wuthering Heights reaches much further than its atmospheric setting, exploring the complexities of family relationships and Victorian society’s restrictions; similarly, in ‘A Room with a View’, E.M. Forster expands the relationship between Lucy and George to address wider social issues. Both novels explore and dramatise the conflict between human nature and society, between nature and culture.
Both Emily Brontë and Forster use setting to represent nature and civilisation. In Bronte’s novel, Wuthering Heights symbolises the wildness of nature, whereas Thrushcross Grange embodies comfort and civilisation, protected from the violence and tumult of the moors by surrounding walls. All the particularly vicious acts are committed in Wuthering Heights, such as Hindley’s abuse of Heathcliff and his own mistreatment of Hareton; thus Wuthering Heights is inextricably linked to aggression and violence, both through the “atmospheric tumult” of the weather that surrounds the house and its inhabitants. Architecturally, Thrushcross Grange is a more luxurious house than Wuthering Heights (Lockwood describes it as “grotesque” in its decoration, the harsh diction exaggerating his distaste). The moors are a literal wilderness surrounding the two houses, acting as a constant antagonist in the lives of the characters; and as a means of diminishing the importance of human culture by comparison with nature’s sheer power.
Forster separates the natural and the civilised world by using different cultural values in contrast to each other. Forster uses the distinction between the freedom of Italian culture which Lucy glimpses through the window, and the stiff