Wuthering Heights: Cultural Documents & Illustrations

I am a very visual learner, so I am automatically grateful for anything that has some sort of picture or visual representation that I can look at and connect with my reading.  I actually had to google what a moor was the first time I read Wuthering Heights.  The picture of Top Withens, which is considered the site the novel takes place, is really much different than I imagined.  I always pictured it on top of a hill, a house that once looked like a majestic castle, now slowly decaying.  Instead, it looks almost like it was built into the side of a hill, and reminds me a lot of just a nice English country home.  The picture that shows an artist’s interpretation of Wuthering Heights from far away though, looks a lot like I imagined it.  The moor itself is relatively empty except for the images of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange in the background.

             I find it interesting that all of the Bronte sisters were buried in Haworth Church, which is located close to the moors.  I think that really enforces their interest in the moors and how much they liked them.  The Law Hill School is also very interesting, because it is noted that the idea of Wuthering Heights may have come from the story of an adopted student who eventually gained control of all of the family property, much like Heathcliff.  It seems almost a stroke of luck that Emily Bronte even wrote Wuthering Heights, because she did not teach at Law Hill for very long.