The four elements in Wuthering Heights

Today in English, whilst studying Wuthering Heights (Review when finished) my group and I went into how the Earths elements reflects the houses, especially Wuthering Heights.

Earth – reflects the moors and the buildings stability through the madness

Air/Wind – represented Catherine’s ghost appearance at the window

Fire – the fights are the arguments that took place

Water – the weather, there’s a lot of pathetic fallacy in the book.

This can also be done for Thrushcross Grange:

Earth – again, reflects the moors and the buildings stability through the madness, especially when Catherine went crazy

Air/Wind – represents the ghosts and the chill of the winter that was taking place when Catherine was going mad

Fire – the family love and welcome they gave to Catherine when she stayed with them and Edgars and young Cathy’s relationship near the end of the book

Water – Nelly and how she manages to filter between the dramas and be there for everyone and goes with the flow.

This made me think about how the different elements could define a person. According to Chinese fortunes, as my birthday is in June, it makes my element water. Water people are seen as wise and resourceful. They have good memories and think before they leap.


There are two types of Water, which represent two types of water people: Floating Water and Still Water.

Floating Water makes people active and restless and feels like traveling whereas still Water makes people clam and peaceful.

Sticking with this I think, for the majority of the time, I am floating water.

For those who aren’t water here is what’s said about the other elements.

Fire – A Fire-type person are seen as someone who is courteous, polite and expressive. They are good at compliments in speech and are energetic, artistic, passionate, easily excitable, and have a tendency to rapidly change emotional states as well as become aggressive.

Earth – Most Earth-type people are known as trustful, steady, loyal and responsible. They are honest, religious, reliable, and keep their promises. Earth people don't like to move their body and change their mind too often. They are honest, trustworthy, and responsible.

Air – For some reason air was a really difficult one for me to find information on. I discovered that an air person is seen as a communicator, they are positive and inspiring, change quickly and are adaptable by nature. They are open-minded, tolerant, and non-judgmental and are good at making people open up to their creativity.

Although, after doing a quiz, here, which says I’m a rare true element of air it made me think. Most people believe you are only one element but after doing this research and using all the elements in describing the houses in Wuthering Heights, I feel that people have aspects of all the elements in them to need to to make them a well-rounded person. Am I the only one who noticed that nothing bad was stated about each of the elements?

Sorry for such a random post, after learning it in school I wanted to look into in more detail. I’m defiantly going to be using the elements when having to describe the characters in my next English lesson. It was a new way of learning and describing a building that’s for sure!

Talk to you later x