wuthering heights
AO5
quotes
context (AO3)
THEMES
comparison
'i wish to be a young girl again- wild and free'
'when i am thinking, i am not in pain'
'whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same'
'he's more myself than i am'
'he will be rich...and i will be proud of having such a husband'
'my love for heathcliff represents the eternal rocks beneath, of little visible delight but necessary'
'it would degrade me to marry heathcliff'
'every thought she spends on linton- she spends a thousand on me'
'he couldn't love as much in 80 years as i could in a day'
'i wish i could hold you til we were both dead'
'i could soon forget you as my existence'
'you may not rest as long as i am living'
TERRY EAGLETON- heathcliff's revenge not against people but against social structure. revenge against social hierarchy that rejected him as a child and separated him from catherine
wuthering heights as a parallel of a fantasy land taken from fairy/ folk tales. young Catherine imprisoned in TG- Rapunzel like? *
Heathcliff as an embodiment of life force in nature through his name and his unpredictable nature. Links to romanticism which views nature as a living force, explains everyone's immediate rejection of him beside cathy- feeling of sublimity, cathy is not belittled by heathcliff's presence
Heathcliff as female. rebels against social conventions of: class, marriage and inheritance. He intends to get property and power, also comparisons to Edgar who represents masculine culture and social standing
sisters were: charlotte and anne bronte who both engaged ib literature.
Emily Bronte was a poet. wrote poems such as 'hope', 'love and friendship' where she compares these relationships to nature, 'love is like the wild rose brier'. explains poetic elements to her literature
wrote under pseudonym Ellis Bell and lived through victorian period
*could mirror Bronte's real life- absent mother and lonely life on the moors
first receptions of the novel saw it as 'strange' and 'uncivilised'. complaining about its moral ambiguity in relation to topics such as: necrophilia, incest, abusive relationships
Catherine's scribbles in windows representing all women's lack of identity under patriarchal rule.
THE SCRUTINY- sexual dissimilar to WH; speaker saying he needs other people relates to cathy having to get with edgar; no monogamy; little love just respect dissimilar to WH
SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY- romanticism natural imagery; simply admires her compared to WH where he is all action, declarative tone, will do anything; lots of similes; novel focuses on darker side of love whereas poem focus on pure love; almost a platonic tone that could argue with WH, cathy and heathcliff growing up together as friends
THCM: poem ephemeral compared to WH eternal; poem uses syllogism (logical argument) compared to H's irrationality; opposing arguments 'make most before we die' compared to to WH where he wants to transcend death; both emphasise time
AT AN INN: going out of town so wouldn't caught similar to C+H's safe place being the moors away from judgement of society; never kissed when supposed to (C+H never have any intimate relationships despite H's kiss on deathbed); mentions of religion/ god; says he must see her before death
WHO SO LIST: women as possessions/ both of them as female but also how Heathcliff attempts to control Cathy beyond death not letting her rest; the chase, chasing cathy beyond
THE FLEA: sex v no sex; similar obsession; unions transcending death, contradicting religion. 'metaphysical'- beyond physical- represents whole of WH
SONNET 116: could represent Hindley and Frances and Edgar and Cathy: true/ traditional love; dissimilar in relation to C+H, I+H; love not changing despite time and lasting until the 'edge of Doome'; 'eternal rocks' and 'love alters not with brief hours and Weekes'
LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI: femme fatal (Cathy?); cyclical structure; supernatural; lack of change. 'her eyes were wild'- 'i wish to be a young girl again- wild and free'. pain from love
GARDEN OF LOVE- romanticism, nature representing everything; personal loss, personal to H causes personal revenge arc however shared between multiple narrations (nelly, Lockwood, Isabella, Cathy's diaries)- is it personal?; constrictions of religion through institutions represents mocking of Joseph's dogma; chapel built over garden symbolises marriage separating people
NATURE AND CIVILISATION
LOVE AND PASSION
GOTHIC/ SUPERNATURAL
MASCULINITY AND FEMININITY
CLASS
REVENGE
REPETITION
STRUCTURE
frame narration- lockwood and nelly
epistolary- use of letters (cathy, isabella)
dual narrative
obejctive observers- allows story to speak for itself
is nelly a reliable narrator?
discombobulated structure- parallels nature of story
'i'll to break their hearts by breaking my own'
moors
freedom, cathy and heathcliff can be liberated in the vast moors, breaking social conventions. allows cathy and heathcliff to escape societal barriers. 'i wish to be a young girl again- wild and free'
moorland cannot be tamed- cathy but more specifically heathcliff and his plot for revenge and lack of rationality
nature parallels unpredictability of the novel and its characters