Positive love in Wuthering Heights

Question 1

Sonnet 116 & young Cathy and Hareton

Answer 1

Time has a restorative quality - their relationship is harmonious and juxtaposes Cathy and Heathcliff
Set to be married on New Year’s day
‘I lingered around them [the graves] under that benign sky’ (L) - the calm atmosphere enforces the symbolism of Cathy and Hareton. The pathetic fallacy is an antitheses to the colour palette in book 1
‘Both doors and lattices were open’
Dorothy Van Ghent - liminal spaces are symbolic of ‘conversion’ and ‘break throughs’
Bronte’s familiarity with Yorkshire flora and fauna and her own geographical isolation
‘I believe the dead are at peace’ (Nelly)

Question 2

Sonnet 116 & Cathy and Heathcliff

Answer 2

Eternal versus temporal love
‘My love for Linton is like to foliage in the woods’
‘My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath’
Iterative motif of nature like in Sonnet 116
‘I am Heathcliff’
Chapter 9
Shakespeare is making a social comment on the construct of marriage
Love is forever bound to nature. Love that isn’t true entails an incongruous setting - as seen with Edgar and Cathy

Question 3

Sonnet 116

Answer 3

Shakespearean sonnet - 14 lines of iambic pentameter
Gained popularity through the Renaissance and Shakespeare’s life time
First published 1609
Typical
Shakespeare is making a social comment on the construct of marriage
Love is forever bound to nature. Love that isn’t true entails an incongruous setting - as we see with Edgar and Cathy