We saw - ah! It was beautiful - a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of golden glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre and shimmering with little soft tapers
- Chapter 6
The floor was of smooth, white stone: the chairs, high-backed, primitive structures, painted green: one or two heavy black ones lurking in the shade. In an arch, under the dresser, reposed a high, liver-coloured bitch pointer surrounded by a swarm of squealing puppies; and other dogs haunted other recesses - Chapter 1
The contrast of houses
The first passage describes Thrushcross Grange, home of Edgar Linton, and the second is Heathcliff's home, Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte uses the two houses to show essential differences between the two men. Cathy and Heathcliff have gone roaming on the moor, and this passage is how she has seen the house by looking in through the window. It is an image of jealousy. They are on the outside, looking in at a room from which they are excluded. This jealousy and the desire for revenge is one that becomes increasingly powerful for Heathcliff as the story develops.
The room suggests wealth. The colours are rich and sumptuous: crimson, gold and silver. This wealth blends nicely with the delicacy and fragility: glass-drops and the gentle words 'shimmering', 'soft' and 'little'.
This is soft, feminine imagery and contrasts with the tough, masculine world of Wuthering Heights. There the furniture is crude and heavy. It is functional, not beautiful. The textures are tough and hard - stone and wood, not glass, cloth and carpet. The dogs show that this is a natural world.
