Symbolism in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering heights

ABSTRACT

In the real world, people are not separated from signal problems. There are many kinds of signs in the social life. To explain the terms of sign and symbol are not easy, but sign or symbol is used to indicate something has other meaning. Emily uses imaginative languages that make the readers concentrate the meanings. Many of her ideas are expressed in figurative languages and the resemblances use the natural terms. They are expressed in similes, metaphors, hyperboles, so that this work looks beautiful.

Wuthering Heights is a symbolic name. She describes that the high wind is blowing to the house, and the power of the house is astonishment. The house is very strong, whereas, it is often blown by the high wind. According to the condition of the house that is windy and stormy, the main feature of this study is discussing the symbolic meanings. Actually, a literary work imitates the appearance of the world. The reader, when he or she reads a work, as is he or she is in the work itself. This study will be studied by semiotic approach.

This study is conducted to find the symbols using semiotic approach. Semiotic approach is an approach of study that analyzes sign and symbol, especially in writing, what are they mean, and how are they used. On the other hands, it means an approach of study to analyze the literary work as the imitation of real life in symbolic aspects, as Emily presents that many kinds of the symbolic social problems. The writer tends to investigate the implicit things of this work that point to the symbol. Descriptive-qualitative research design is applied to the study.

Wuthering Heights indicates the name of the house, the condition of the air. It has some symbolic meanings. The symbolic meanings relate to Heatcliff’s character, because he is dominant doer in this novel. Heatcliff is a symbol of many things, symbol of the revenge man, symbol of cruel man, symbol of greed, symbol of nervousness, symbol of the liar, symbol of oppression, and Heathcliff’s death as the symbol of the end of wickedness.