Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë Top Withens, possible inspiration for the Earnshaw family house. Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part One: First generation • The foundling Heathcliff is brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw. • Oppression and exploitation of Heathcliff by Hindley, Mr Earnshaw’s son. • Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff become twin souls. The bill for the 1992 film version Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part One: First generation • Catherine Earnshaw’s transformation from ‘savage’ to ‘proper lady’ during her stay at Thrushcross Grange. • Catherine’s betrayal of her ‘soul mate’ Heathcliff. • Heathcliff’s departure (splitting of the oak). • Catherine’s marriage to Edgar Linton. The bill for the 1992 film version Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part One: First generation • Heathcliff’s return as a ‘gentleman’ intent on revenge. • Catherine’s attempts to have both Heathcliff and Edgar. • Heathcliff’s elopement with Isabelle Linton • Catherine’s derangement and illness. Top Withens Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part One: First generation • Birth of Cathy II, Catherine’s and Edgar’s daughter. • Catherine’s death and Heathcliff’s despair. Top Withens Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part Two: Second generation • Heathcliff’srevenge: property, gained by marriage to Isabella Linton and expropriation. • Kidnapping of Cathy II and marriage with young Linton (Heathcliff’s and Isabella’s son). • Heathcliffloses interest in revenge. Near Top Withens Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part Two: Second generation • Heathcliff and Catherine together in death. • Marriage of Cathy II and Hareton (Hindley’s son): property restored to rightful owner. Near Top Withens Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 2. Main characters Catherine • Wayward,difficult, rebellious,spirited&‘unfeminine’. • “her spirits were always at high water-mark, her tongue always going... A wild, wick slip she was but she had the bonniest eye, and sweetest smile and lightest foot in the parish” (Part I, Ch. V) • “heaven did not seem to be my home” (Part I, Ch. IX) Charlotte Riley as Catherine and Tom Hardy as Heathcliff in Coky Giedroyc’s 2009 film version Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 2. Main characters Heathcliff • Persistent ambiguity: man or beast? • Unknown origins, absence of social connection. • Absence of emotion, “insensible”. Timothy Dalton in Robert Fuest’s 1970 film version Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 2. Main characters Heathcliff • Deteriorates into brute state. • Violent and extremelanguage. • A Byronic hero. Timothy Dalton in Robert Fuest’s 1970 film version Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 2. Main characters Heathcliff / Catherine relationship • Vindictive, violent and possessive “They may bury me twelve feet deep and throw the church down over me; but I won’t rest till you are with me… I never will!” (Part I, Ch. XII) • Merged identities “If all else perished and he remained, I should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger… Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” (Part I, Ch. IX) Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 2. Main characters Heathcliff / Catherine relationship • Vitality, authenticity, freedom. • Rejection of class values. • Heathcliff and Catherine symbolise the instinctual, unconscious forces. • Contrasted with ‘civilised’ characters: Edgar, Lockwood, Nelly Dean. Heathcliff and Catherine in the 1939 film version of Wuthering Heights. Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 3. Gothic elements • Heathcliff as a Gothic villain in his inhuman treatment of his wife and his son. • The sinister atmosphere of Wuthering Heights surrounded by the wilderness. • Catherine’s ghost. Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 3. Gothic elements • The dreams and superstitions often mentioned. These are not used to frighten the reader, but to convey the struggle between the two opposed principles of love and hate, of orderand chaos. Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 4. The Moors as symbol The Moors represent the Romantic rejection of society and the desire to transcend its rules Attempttoescape English Moors English Moors Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 4. The Moors as symbol Catherine tries to reconcile self & class society through her marriage to Edgar and her relationship with Heathcliff Escapeisimpossible English Moors English Moors Only Connect ... New Directions

The home of the Earnshaws. Severe, gloomy, brutal in aspect and atmosphere. Firmly rooted in local tradition and custom. The background for the life of primitive passion led by its owner. The home of the Lintons. Reflects a Victorian conception of life. Symbolises stability,kindness and respectability. Emily Brontë 4. Opposite principles Wuthering Heights Thrushcross Grange principle of calm principle of storm and energy Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 5. Narrative structure Non-linear narrative structure Use of flashback Beginning in medias res Two frame narrators Elicits curiosity in the reader Invites comparison between the two stories Implies anactive reader Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, where the Brontë family lived Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 6. Narrative point of view • Two frame narrators: Lockwood (as external narrator) and Nelly Dean (as internal narrator). • Chinese box structure: stories within stories. . Lockwood’s dream in an etching by Rosalind Whitman Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 6. Narrative point of view Nelly Dean’s perspective • Conventional  based on morality, religion and superstition. • She thinks Cathy is “wayward”, “ill-tempered”. • “I vexed her frequently by trying to bring down her arrogance”(Part I, Ch. VIII). • “She was too much fond of Heathcliff” (Part I Ch. V). Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 6. Narrative point of view Lockwood’s perspective • The voice of conventional society. • An unreliable narrator because he does not know all the details of the story. Only Connect ... New Directions

Emily Brontë 6. Narrative point of view Implications of the multiple narrators • Strangeness and ‘otherness’ preserved. • Multiple interpretations: no single ‘truth’. • Unique Interpretation becomes impossible  modern aspect of the novel. Only Connect ... New Directions

Wuthering Heights