Wuthering Heights & The Poetry Anthology Revision Flashcards
About Emily Bronte (1818)
> The 1830s was the Gothic Revival period in Architecture
> In 1832 the Reform Act on women’s suffrage was passed
> In 1847 Wuthering Heights was published under the pseudonym ‘Ellis Bell’ because she wanted her work to receive due critical attention.
> In 1848 was the beginning of the Feminist Movement in England and Emily Bronte dies
The Gothic Genre
> Gothic literature lends itself to Psychological realism.
> This genre is an emotionally charged kind of literature, dealing with the uncanny and the ambiguous.
> This genre combines atmospheric power and the imaginative range of romance.
> This genre combines horror and romance which typically features supernatural encounters, graveyards, ghosts and crumbling ruins.
> Heathcliff’s profound passion and desire for Catherine extends beyond the grave and exceed the conventional boundaries of the class and time.
> The fairy-tale structure, found in tales like “Beauty and the Beast” permitted women writers to elaborate ideas about choice within a 19th century marriage contract.
> Relate to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
> Bronte has incorporated aspects of Gothic trappings. These include the persecuted protagonist, her being wooed by a dangerous but good suitor and the heroine’s appreciation for nature.
The Setting
> The novel is set in a bleak Moorside in Yorkshire and the geography is considered a character itself
> The desolate landscape is difficult to settle in due to the harsh weather. This acts as a metaphor for the uncertain moral landscape which the characters inhabit
> Bronte’s use of hostile weather conditions and bleak settings reflect the social hardships of the 19th century.
The relationship between the landscape description and theme is called Pathetic Fallacy
> These two locations are structural oppositions in that Wuthering Heights is isolated, dark and forbidden and set upon the hillside. Whereas, Thrushcross Grange is sunny and located in the Valley
> The descriptions of the settings are in direct contrast with the Romantic view of the open landscape as sublime and uplifting
Social Context
> Contemporary readers of Wuthering Heights would have been familiar with stories that of Heathcliff being a foundling from the port of Liverpool. Orphans and child beggars were a common social problem.
> Heathcliff’s uncertain origins can be read as a realistic account of the social upheavals of the mid 19th century.
> The mid 19th century also saw mass unemployment as a result of the Industrial Revolution and the decay of a rural lifestyle in the face of increased urbanisation and new technology
> The Industrial Revolution dramatically changed the social structure in Britain. Prior to this event, 3/4 of Britain’s population lived in the countryside working in agriculture or as a skilled craftsman.
> The new enclosure of laws of 1845 - 82 meant that many farmers could no longer afford to farm the land
> A new standard of defining a gentleman was money which challenged the traditional criteria of breeding and family.
> Some argue that Bronte supports the status quo and upholds conventional values. > The readers sympathises towards Heathcliff, the gipsy oppressed by a rigid class system. But as he pursues his revenge and tyrannical persecution of the innocent, the danger posed by the uncontrolled individual to the community becomes apparent.
> Bronte’s fine grasp of the complex inheritance laws of the 19th century are crucial to her development of both the plot and characterisation, affecting the key decisions that her female characters make.
Dual Narration
> dual narration was virtually unprecedented when she wrote Wuthering Heights
> The dual narration in “Wuthering Heights” means that multiple perspective compete with and contradict each other, so that the reader’s understanding of character and plot development is constantly revised.
> Bronte’s first narrator, Lockwood who tells the frame narrative is clearly unreliable. He mistakes social relationships and radically misreads Heathcliff from the start
> Nelly’s narrative is somewhat less subject to contradiction and denial. Nevertheless, it is evident that we are informed by her own preferences and sometimes her interior motive. We are never under the illusion that Nelly is neutral or objective.
> Wuthering Heights has a distinct and complex narrative structure in that is a story within a story. One character tells the story to another character who tells the story to the readers.
Dialect and Structure
> The use of dialect earned the novel hostile reviews since the language and manners of the local characters were criticised for being rough and coarse.
> Joseph’s dialect doesn’t serve to make him ridiculous but to contribute to the authenticity of his character. His dialect is evidence of his resistant to change and his hostility to strangers.
> Bronte’s use of Yorkshire dialect has generally been considered to be an accurate account of the accent of the region.
> In the second edition of the novel, Charlotte Bronte changed the way in which Emily wrote Joseph’s dialect in order to make it more comprehensible.
> Psychoanalytical theorists such as Jay Clayton have drawn on the Lancian view of language as alienating as a crucial part of what it means to be human
> “Wuthering Heights” is an intricately structured novel of great symmetry. Bronte establishes a powerful dichotomy at the heart of the novel, in which two opposing ways of life interact and conflict with each other. These oppositions are primarily represented by the two houses, Wuthering Heights, which represents nature and Thrushcross Grange, which represents culture.
Poetic Language
> Much of the potent imagery in Wuthering Heights is also to be found in her poetry.
> Heathcliff’s tormented account of being unable to sleep because of his love for Catherine and his desire to be reunited with her dead body can be compared with, “Sleep brings no joy to me”
> The superabundance of metaphors, symbols and lyricism of the descriptive passages have earned praise of its poetic language
Cartesian Dualism: René Descartes
> A struggle or conflict between the heart and mind;
> The nature of the mind (that is, a thinking, non-extended thing) is completely different from that of the body (that is, an extended, non-thinking thing), and therefore it is possible for one to exist without the other.
Courtly Love: Denis De Rougemont
> A medieval European literary conception of love.
> The notion that a lover would select a woman who is preferably married and would yearn for her, sing songs and write poetry, all to make her fall in love with him.
> However, they must never sleep with each other because that would be adulterous and would spoil the state of being in love - whereby one should be in a state of constant unhappiness and unfulfilled
Alain De Botton: Romanticism
> He theorised that when we fall in love we are recreating a pattern of earliest childhood.
> The concept of love is introduced in childhood and is recreated in adult relationships. He says we are not drawn to the people who make us happy but rather the people we feel familiar to.
Ellen Moers 1976; Feminist Critic
> She states that the puzzles of Wuthering Heights could be resolved if the novel is read as viewing a girl’s childhood and the woman’s tragic yearning to return to it.
> Catherine’s impossible love for Heathcliff becomes understandable when she is a pre-adolescent, modelled after the brother-sister relationship.
C.P Sanger: about time
> He has notes that Bronte pays careful attention to time
> Exact dates are only mentioned three times, however, there are many indications of time. Such as seasonal references and the age of characters. This alerts us to the complex time shifts of the novel
> The chronological exactitude is of primary importance which is established at the very beginning
> The first word of the novel is ‘1801’ which sets up our expectations for the novel to be set in reality. The expectations are radically challenged as the narrative progress and the shifts of narrators
Q.D Leavis: about time
> Her essay, “A Fresh Approach to Wuthering Heights”
> She states that by setting the story very clearly in the past, Bronte could demonstrate the point that the way of life was to change. This includes ‘patriarchal family life’. These traditional values would be challenged by the progress of culture and civilisation.
> She has also stated that the novel a “Romantic-incest story: Heathcliff as brother-lover”
Lord David Cecil
> He praises the rhythm of Bronte’s prose as ‘unfailingly beautiful’
Nancy Armstrong
> Argues that the enigmatic figure of Heathcliff is the result of his crossing between Literacy genres, The Romantic one and the early Victorian domestic realism
Theme: Love / Prejudice / Conflict / Power
Catherine
“It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him” - Chapter 9
> Societal expectations and her true emotions are in constant conflict. Heathcliff represents the turbulence of a mobile social workforce; he is destructive to the established order (Eagleton, a Marxist theorist).
> Catherine is well aware of societal standards (which contrasts her typical naive nature) and knows her status will be devalued if she marries her true love.
> In this case, the mind wins because Catherine values how people perceive her rather than her own happiness.
> The semicolon acts as a link between the juxtaposing sentences. Bronte could have done this to show the readers that Catherine is trying to justify or alleviate the conflict she has.
> This makes me as the reader question her love for Heathcliff. If love was there then social and physical barriers would be irrelevant.
Theme: Love / Power
Heathcliff
“Hush, hush, Catherine! I’ll stay. If he shot me so, I’d expire with a blessing on my lips.” - Chapter 15
> By this, the readers are informed that Heathcliff and Catherine do not have a physical/sexual relationship. Supports the idea of the cult of courtly love.
> “hush hush, Catherine!” slows down the pace of the extract. This gives the phrase a soft sounding feel which reflects what Heathcliff is trying to do to Catherine in her dying moments. The use of the exclamation mark adds emphasis to Heathcliff’s emotions.
> “Blessing on my lips” could reflect how Heathcliff views Catherine. A blessing is typically used for protection and favour from the divine (God). So by Heathcliff thinking Catherine’s kiss is a blessing shows the readers that he views Catherine as god-like or angelic.
Theme: Love / Conflict
Catherine
“Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s as different as… frost from fire”
> Natural imagery used to emphasise Catherine’s conformist behaviour towards the Victorian ideology that marriage must occur within the same social standings.
> “fire” symbolises consumption. Reflects Catherine because she absorbs Edgar’s love and doesn’t fully reciprocate those feelings. It can also represent pain and death which subtly foreshadows her painful death.
> “frost” represents Edgar in which his lack of masculinity is immutable. Also, this phrase shows that Heathcliff is obviously her true lover but they’re too similar that it crosses the boundary of them being compatible. And maybe Catherine acknowledges this, hence why she marries Linton although she wishes it could be Heathcliff.
> Readers during the 1800s would regard Edgar as “feminine” due to him not fitting into the social norms of what a man is expected to be.
Theme: Love / Conflict
Catherine
“I wish I were a girl again… laughing at injuries, not maddening under them!”
> Catherine shows her internal struggle between who she was as a young girl, venturing onto the moors with Heathcliff, and who is she now supposed to be, the respectful and ‘genteel’ wife of Edgar Linton. (the idealised image of Victorian woman)
> It’s a struggle because she never learns to reconcile which ultimately leads to her death.
> The Humanistic Approach would argue that personal growth can only be achieved if one’s self-concept (who they currently are) and their ideal self (the person they want to be) are in congruence with each other. If there is too big of a gap between the two selves, the person will experience a state of incongruence. In Catherine’s case, these include negative feelings of herself and the want to return to childhood, where times where simple.
Masculinity
Theme: Conflict / Power
(about) Edgar
Critics argue that the concept of masculinity is difficult to pin down to one definition. Many believe manliness is innate and descendant from biological factors. However, others believe that the concept is a socially, therefore culturally, constructed system of qualities of what society expects of a man. nature v nurture.
“grew pale with annoyance” - Chapter 10
> “grew pale” could foreshadow future events in the novel. This phrase could indicate that now Heathcliff is back, Edgar is losing what little control he had over Catherine. Which this in itself is unusual, husbands typically had complete control over their wives. “pale” could symbolise Edgar becoming inferior or feeble.
> This foreshadows future events because when Catherine admits that she also loves Heathcliff it downgrades the love she has for Edgar due to class and wealth differences. The alliteration of “pale…pure” gives the sense of abruptness and authority which contrasts Edgar’s current situation.
> A Psychoanalytical reading could argue that instead of verbally expressing his annoyance, he represses it due to his love for her. He doesn’t want her to cause upset in such a happy moment for her which doesn’t occur often. This is due to Edgar’s ego - the rational part that works on balancing the wants of the Id and Superego.
However, he may have repressed these feelings due to his nurturing background which helps him suppress his Id. In all his life he hasn’t done manual labour or been in fights which have evidently hindered his ‘manliness’
Emasculating Hindley
Theme: Power / Conflict / Love
Catherine
“If I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise and place him out of my brother’s power”
> Her marriage to Linton was part of the plan to help Heathcliff and remove him from Hindley’s tyranny.
> However, whether this act is altruistic on her part is somewhat doubtful. This could be the benefit for Catherine more than Heathcliff. She is getting the best of both worlds; a marriage that consists of wealth and status and the removal of Hindley’s domination.
This makes the readers question Catherine’s love for both Heathcliff and Edgar.
Theme: Love / Power
Catherine
“I am Heathcliff”
> Catherine and Heathcliff’s bond is so close, even as children, that they sometimes feel like one person.
> As believers in the Christian faith, the Bronte girls would have been familiar with the idea that during the sacrament of marriage two people become ‘one in Christ’ forming a new unit which may lead one day to a new family.
> Emily did not wholeheartedly subscribe to this view, however, the idea is still significant because it illustrates her (and Catherine’s) metaphysical side.
> It represents the conventional passion for being whole with the one we love as it symbolises eternity as you never have to worry about being apart - you are one entity. In return, ‘the other half’ gives their whole self back - unfortunately, a tall order for any couple, as is seen in the novel.
> This short, simple emphasises her unstable sense of identity which cannot be stabilised by Heathcliff as he too is enigmatic and uncertain.
> In Catherine’s paradoxical statement that Heathcliff is “more myself than I am,” readers can see how the relation between Catherine and Heathcliff often transcends a dynamic of desire and becomes one of unity. Heterosexual love is often, in literature, described in terms of complementary opposites—like moonbeam and lightning, or frost and fire—but the love between Catherine and Heathcliff opposes this convention.
Theme: Conflict
Catherine
“Tell her what Heathcliff is – an unreclaimed creature, without refinement”
> Heathcliff is a child of the storm, and the resemblance between him and Catherine Earnshaw makes them fall in love with each other.
> But since he is an extraneous element, he is a source of discord, inevitably disrupting the natural order. He is a manifestation of natural forces acting involuntarily under the pressure of his own nature.
> But he is a natural force which has been frustrated by its natural outlet so that it inevitably becomes destructive.
> Brontë frequently draws on the hardest, most elemental forms of nature to characterise Heathcliff, as if to make clear to the reader that his wild nature, like Catherine’s, is fundamental to his character.
> This phrase shows us that Catherine (and probably most of the other characters) see Heathcliff as an animal (which is distinct to humans) and such wording is important as it shows readers that although many factors link Heathcliff to Catherine, there is one crucial element that will forever divide them.
> The use of the verb “unreclaimed” could portray the idea that this creature, that is Heathcliff, is similar to a wild animal on the loose. This is reinforced by the use of “without refinement,” he cannot be tamed or cannot be purified.
Theme: Power / Conflict / Love
“I wish I had light hair and a fair skin and was dressed, and behaved as well, and had a chance of being as rich as he will be!’
> Gilbert and Gubar’s feminist work argues that Heathcliff is ‘female’ because he has no property, place or title. He is simply ‘Heathcliff ’, never ‘master’, unlike Edgar Linton. Thus he has the female role in the society of the novel.
> Brontë here concentrates on the physical qualities of the two rivals for Catherine’s affection, showing the connection between physicality and material wealth.
> The irony here is that despite the effeminate appearance and physical weakness of Edgar, he has
the ‘breeding’, status and wealth that Heathcliff does not possess.
> Bronte’s use of “wish” highlights Heathcliff’s false hope. Heathcliff is expressing a strong desire or hope for these physical qualities, but as readers, we know that it probably will not happen.
> Heathcliff’s outlook on life as a young boy contrasts sharply with the hardened, stoic worldview he will adopt later in life. In a rare moment of emotional earnestness, Heathcliff admits that he envies Edgar Linton.
> Some of the reasons for this envy are not surprising––like many characters in Victorian novels, Heathcliff aspires to be improve his financial situation.
> However, his desire for ‘light hair and a fair skin’ suggests a veiled critique of English attitudes toward foreigners. Heathcliff’s origins are uncertain, but people often call him a “gipsy,” which suggests he has Eastern European features. This would have prevented him from moving up in society at this time, even if he did amass as much wealth as Edgar Linton (as indeed he does later in the novel).
> Although Heathcliff descends into amorality as he gets older, Brontë suggests that this is not entirely his fault––his rejection from society contributed to this outcome as much Heathcliff’s own choices.
> This also shows the power of society and their standards of beauty or power. If one did not have light hair or fair skin there were reduced of power which included wealth and status. So by Heathcliff being a ‘gipsy’ it reduces the power he has a man.
