Investigating Wuthering Heights

Digger Deeper for AnalysisOr

Now it’s time to write a paper!

Who tells the story?• Multiple narrators

– Mainly Nelly but as we open up another layer we discover further detail, and often some closer personal experience this leads the reader to feel what?

• Nelly Dean – Both an observer and a character involved in the action, so she speaks with

authority – Down-to-earth nature versus passion of other involved in the story– Bias? Mistakes? Purpose in telling story?

• An unreliable narrator – This is the term used in literary criticism for a first-person narrator who cannot be

relied on always to be telling the whole truth. In Lockwood’s case, he does not deliberately mislead through mischief, but he jumps to conclusions and misinterprets situations. Why is this? 

• Non-chronological narration– Brontë is able to start the story at a point which raises questions about who people

are and how they are related. Techinque like the muliple narrators serves, leads the reader to feel what?

Doubling charactersHow does Brontë use them in the structure of her novel?

• Gothic literature in particular often matches characters in pairs. This may be because of similarities or because the characters offer opposite pictures. Pairings may last through the whole story or may change.– Catherine and Heathcliff– Catherine and Cathy– Heathcliff and Edgar– Heathcliff and Hindley – Heathcliff and Hareton– Linton and Hareton– Lockwood and Heathcliff – “a suitable pair”?

Imagery & SymbolismWuthering Heights is rich in imagery and symbolism and you should consider how it connects with characters, structure, and themes in the novel:• The four elements• Hell and the devil• Windows, doors, gates and locks/keys• Eyes• Books• Weather and landscape• Birds & other animals

– (real: dogs; mythic: basilisk/cocaktrice)• Violence

Structure: Two Part Novel• Dividing points in the novel:– Death of Catherine and the birth of her daughter

(Chapter 16 with Catherine’s burial or end of Chapter 17 which then includes another birth (Linton) and another death (Hindley), as well as Isabella running away)

– Following these events there is a twelve year gap before those of the next chapter, which provides an obvious break. • The novel’s initial two volume publication did not recognise

either of these points, breaking off the narrative at the end of Chapter 14 and restarting at Chapter 15.

Structure: Two storiesIf we examine Wuthering Heights as a novel of two halves, interesting patterns emerge:• The first part can be seen as providing the motivations for

Heathcliff’s revenge, which we see him carrying out in the second part

• It is also possible to see the first part as the story of Heathcliff and Catherine, and the second part as the story of Cathy and Hareton. This works in part, though Hareton is hardly a major figure through most of the second half.

• It is perhaps better to see the two parts as the stories of the two Catherines. This then draws attention to the comparisons between their stories and their characters. When Nelly outlines the similarities and differences which Cathy has to her mother at the beginning of Chapter 18, it serves to focus the reader’s attention on the start of the fresh story.

Structure: 5 Act Tragedy (King Lear)

We know that Emily Brontë was reading Shakespeare’s King Lear as she was writing Wuthering Heights and certainly much of the novel fits with the traditional form of a tragedy. • Act One (sometimes called the Introduction) would cover the

arrival and childhood of Heathcliff• Act Two (the Rising Action or Complication) would include

Heathcliff’s ill-treatment by Hindley, Catherine’s attraction to Edgar and Heathcliff’s disappearance

• Act Three (the Climax) would cover Heathcliff’s return and as far as Catherine’s death

• Act Four (the Falling Action) would outline Heathcliff’s revenge and the growing significance of Cathy

• Act Five (the Denouement or Conclusion) would cover the death of Heathcliff and the hopeful ending provided by Cathy and Hareton.

Brontë and social issuesBrontë tended to approach social issues in terms of their impact on the personal lives of individuals rather than as matters of institutional reform or legislative action. In Wuthering Heights:• The most obvious example of a social issue is the refusal of most

characters to accept Heathcliff as an equal; even Nelly seems to struggle with this

• There is a clear contrast between life at Wuthering Heights (even in Mr Earnshaw’s time) and life at Thrushcross Grange

• It was expected that servants like Nelly would stay with a family through successive generations

• There is a contrast between the Yorkshire rural ways and the ways of the ‘city’; Lockwood has to get used to different mealtimes, for example

• The rights of women were severely restricted by society and by laws.

The right use of wealth• Wealth is not seen as a sign of quality of character

in Wuthering Heights. The Lintons appear to be spoiled and snobbish as is clearly shown from our first meeting with them in Chapter 6. Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar because of the money and style which such a marriage offers does not seem to improve her character, despite her avowed intention to use her wealth to ‘aid Heathcliff to rise’.

• Brontë is not concerned with how Heathcliff makes himself a wealthy gentleman, but more with how he uses the power that it brings in order to pursue his revenge.

ThemesAccording to critic Norman Carrington: The theme of Wuthering Heights is a great love beside a great hatred, violent love and violent hate, consuming both parties in its course. You may agree or disagree, but the novel does appear to structure itself thematically through oppositions. Consider the following:• Calm versus storm• Passion versus restraint• Love versus hatred• Revenge versus forgiveness• Insiders versus outsiders• Death versus life• Heaven versus Hell