Entering the world of Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights tells a story of passionate love and vengeance in the wild Yorkshire moors, the setting for the Brontë sisters’ own upbringing. For Year 12 Literature students, visiting the Brontës' home in the town of Haworth, as well as walking the moors, was an exciting and eye-opening experience for us all.
In true Wuthering Heights fashion, we arrived in Haworth to a brooding overcast sky that soon began to spit rain. Not to be deterred—if anything, the weather helped us get into the Gothic mood—we explored the town’s cobbled streets. The church, in which the Brontës’ father was a priest, overlooks Haworth with a looming and powerful presence. From there we visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where the siblings were raised. With each room a mirror of how it would have been over a century ago when the Brontës lived, breathed, and wrote in them, you could almost imagine their ghosts still lingered. We were also lucky to attend a lecture on the Brontës’ lives, an informative experience that gave us insight into the events that shaped their famous novels.
An early start the next day brought us to a fascinating lecture on Wuthering Heights, conducted in the very schoolroom where the Brontës once taught. It was both eerie and enthralling to stand where they once stood. Soon after, we embarked on a tour through the graveyard, where the ancient, crooked headstones provided a clear look into the world that influenced Emily Brontë so heavily. It was a steep climb from there to the moors. Battered by vicious wind and stung by typical Yorkshire cold, we crested the highest hill to a view of the wild, untamed world of Wuthering Heights. Atop the moors, rugged with sprawling expanses of heather and pockmarked by rocks, it was suddenly easy to see how this harsh land could inspire such compelling and intense characters as Cathy and Heathcliff.
Needless to say, we returned from the moors with a sense of having been let in, however briefly, to a different world—the Brontës’ world. We rounded the trip up with an exploration of Howarth’s shops (the chocolate and sweet shops, mainly). When we left, it was with a fresher, deeper and more profound understanding of Wuthering Heights and its far-flung world.
Lucie Colborne, Year 12
In true Wuthering Heights fashion, we arrived in Haworth to a brooding overcast sky that soon began to spit rain. Not to be deterred—if anything, the weather helped us get into the Gothic mood—we explored the town’s cobbled streets. The church, in which the Brontës’ father was a priest, overlooks Haworth with a looming and powerful presence. From there we visited the Brontë Parsonage Museum, where the siblings were raised. With each room a mirror of how it would have been over a century ago when the Brontës lived, breathed, and wrote in them, you could almost imagine their ghosts still lingered. We were also lucky to attend a lecture on the Brontës’ lives, an informative experience that gave us insight into the events that shaped their famous novels.
An early start the next day brought us to a fascinating lecture on Wuthering Heights, conducted in the very schoolroom where the Brontës once taught. It was both eerie and enthralling to stand where they once stood. Soon after, we embarked on a tour through the graveyard, where the ancient, crooked headstones provided a clear look into the world that influenced Emily Brontë so heavily. It was a steep climb from there to the moors. Battered by vicious wind and stung by typical Yorkshire cold, we crested the highest hill to a view of the wild, untamed world of Wuthering Heights. Atop the moors, rugged with sprawling expanses of heather and pockmarked by rocks, it was suddenly easy to see how this harsh land could inspire such compelling and intense characters as Cathy and Heathcliff.
Needless to say, we returned from the moors with a sense of having been let in, however briefly, to a different world—the Brontës’ world. We rounded the trip up with an exploration of Howarth’s shops (the chocolate and sweet shops, mainly). When we left, it was with a fresher, deeper and more profound understanding of Wuthering Heights and its far-flung world.
Lucie Colborne, Year 12