In Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, numerous references are made to different conditions of weather. Even the title of the novel suggests the storminess present in nearly the entire book. The often-changing weather serves to signify the characters personalities, as well as the changes that they go through during the course of their lives. In fact, the first incidence of a reference being made to the weather occurs with a thought of Mr. Lockwood. Wuthering being a significant provincial adjective, he says, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather (46). Because Wuthering Heights has been built on the moors, wind blows fiercely during storms. At this point, Lockwood knows little about Heathcliff, but the significance of the houses name will become more apparent to him later in the novel. After getting settled into his new house at Thrushcross Grange, Lockwood decides to pay a visit to Heathcliff. He arrives at the house just as snow is starting to fall and observes the yard. On that bleak hilltop, he notes, the earth was hard with a black frost, and the air made me shiver through every limb (51). While it was cold at his own house, it seems even colder here, and the weather is beginning to get worse. It isnt even until he is at the gate of Wuthering Heights that the snow starts to fall. As will later be shown, the earth at Wuthering Heights is as cold and hard as Heathcliffs heart. He provides Lockwood with little food or comforts at his arrival and does not attempt to be a gracious host. It is only with a great deal of gruffness that he decides to allow Lockwood to spend the night at his house until he can go home the next morning. This is one of the first indications of Heathcliffs lack of compassion for the rest of humanity. The next day, Heathcliff offers to accompany Lockwood on his way back home, explaining that he will not be able to find the way on his o...
