WH Context Flashcards
What law allowed men to possess and control women as all of their property and ownership was lost?
The Femme Couverte Law
When was WH written?
1846
What act meant “any property that was owned by a woman, even in the form of a gift, investment or inheritance, was naturally transferred to her husband”
The MARRIED WOMANS PROPERTY ACT OF 1882
What was Emily’s religious background and which character may it have influenced?
She grew up with her father as a priest and her aunt was a devoted Christian. The character Joseph could be inspired by her aunt, or by the hypocrisy of the devoted Christians at the time.
What loss did Bronte suffer in her early life?
When Bronte was only three she lost her mother, Maria, to cancer.
IN HAWORTH- moors
Adaptations of Wuthering Heights?
The 1939 MGM production in HOLLYWOOD
Heathcliff - LAWRENCE OLIVIER
What did Dante Rosetti state about Wuthering Heights?
It is a FIEND of a book, an incredible monster combining all of the stronger female tendencies
The action is laid in Hell
What does Stevenson state about the beginning of Heathcliff and Cathy’s childhood?
“A primordial moment of pre-social harmony”
What does H.F. Chorley state about Wuthering Heights?
“Depicts the eccentricities of woman’s fantasy”
Andrea Arnold- 2011
Wuthering Heights Adaptation- RACE
Empire, Race and Colonisation
Heathcliff- Black- Cultural Diversity
“Who knows but your Farther was an Emperor of China and your mother an Indian Queen”
Liverpool- centre of commerce/ slave trade
An individual who isn’t completely White, British has colonised TG and WH- reverse colonisation
What did Andrea Arnold state about WH?
“sadomasochistic”
sadism= pleasure of pain of others
masochism=pleasure of own pain
What are the main motifs within WH?
WINDOWS- Catherine looks in at Wuthering Heights as a ghost, also look in on the Linton’s- “a splendid place carpeted with crimson”
Catherine- Nelly C12 “open the window again wide”
ANIMALS- WILD= “bull” “lamb” “monkey”
MOORS- Moorland cannot be cultivated, and its uniformity makes navigation difficult. It features particularly waterlogged patches in which people could potentially drown.
Patmore’s Poem: “The Angel in the House”?
Published in 1854
(WH PUBLISHED- 1847)
Following the publication of Patmore’s poem, the term angel in the house came to be used in reference to women who embodied the Victorian feminine ideal: a wife and mother who was selflessly devoted to her children and submissive to her husband.
The term then evolved into a more derogatory assessment of antiquated roles with critiques from popular feminist writers like Virginia Woolf.
Patmore’s Poem: “The Angel in the House”?
Published in 1854
(WH PUBLISHED- 1847)
Following the publication of Patmore’s poem, the term angel in the house came to be used in reference to women who embodied the Victorian feminine ideal: a wife and mother who was selflessly devoted to her children and submissive to her husband.
The term then evolved into a more derogatory assessment of antiquated roles with critiques from popular feminist writers like Virginia Woolf.
Similar, later authors who also challenged the hypocrisy of patriarchal societies?
Thomas Hardy may have been inspired by Bronte within his pastoral novel “Far From the Madding Crowd”.
Just as Catherine draws power from WH which allows her to shelter from misogyny and become a “wild, wick slip”, its Hardy’s protagonist Bathsheba Everdeen who draws power from her farm, a location that allows her to rise above her social status when in her possession.
What did critic Thormahlen state about Catherine and Heathcliff?
The Lunatic and the Devils Disciple: The “Lovers” in WH
Catherine’s Return “pathologically egotistical Catherine Earnshaw begins to explore other ventures of self-gratification other than the ones shared by her childhood companion”
“Heathcliff is an integral part of her egomania”
vs
Swinburne’s opinion - “the love that devours life itself”
What could the madness of King George 111 reflect?
Catherine’s insanity
Bertha Mason- Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Gilbert and Gubar- The Madwoman In the Attic “a life of feminine submission is a life of silence
yet “a life of rebellion is a life that MUST be silenced, whose monstrous pen tells a terrible story
SEE “WH” AS A “BIBLE OF HELL”
What does the critic C. P. Sanger state about the form of WH?
“remarkable symmetries”
