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SOCIOECONOMIC COMMENTARY (WH vs BELOVED) - Coggle Diagram
SOCIOECONOMIC COMMENTARY
(WH vs BELOVED)
SETTING
WH
THE MOORS
isolated setting contibutes to the dependence catherine and HC have on eachother. they share a common sense of being two 'others' in this unforgiving social setting
The moors act as a substitution for heaven. Challenges the master narratives that existed during brontes time. Ties in with typical romantic ideologies challenging christianity
The narrrative takes place in an almost claustrophobic setting composed of the heights, the grange and the moors only. This exemplifies the isolation that catalyzes the interdependency of the two households
THE HEIGHTS
The Earnshaws are characterized with earth tones ( dark hair) and are presented as robust. They belong at the rugged stony landscape. Rough and direct. Fits only awkwardly in the more refined constraints of civilization.
catherines lack of physical or legal hold over WH in her lifetime ultimately leads to her perpetual wanderings in WH
THE GRANGE
thrush - songbird. grange - country house >> tamed and cultivated epitome of civilization
NATURE VS CIVILIZATION
The Hc and Edgar Linton conflict via contrasting appearances - Hc as threatening and dangerous vs Edgar as weak and effeminate.
hc and cathy embrace the wild tempests of nature while the lintons are first seen inside in the warm crying.
HC often acts against the orthodoxy set by society VS edgar always playing within the rules set by high society
edgar is a passive and muted character because of how he conforms to society VS hc who simply does not care and is an active and destructive character
COMMON
intimate relationship bw the ghost and the material location directs the reader to read the stories in relation to
confinement, traversal and reclaimation
THE OTHER
WH
Heathcliff takes the role of theclassic
'gothic monster'
(
from elizabeth gaksells story -'the crooked branch' !!this symbol apparers in WH physically as well
) - a figure created, treated with neglect, and then returns to wreak havoc on its creator. (hindley, the lintons and catherine 1)
"it is their purpose to transgress against society"
HEATHCLIFF AS A BYRONIC HERO
- outcasted and characteristic dark traits. behave as rebels who defy the standard mode of thought. alienated from social life.
HEATHCLIFF AS SATANIC
-mutiple references to heathcliff as a "devil".
embodies a satanic byronic hero
BELOVED
black women are
"caught between two identities, tangled, confused. Sexism and Racism melt together, coming at them all at once."
. forced to place women in an
isolated territory from both white and man
the autobiographical narration is deemed to be a manifestation of black subversive desire to counter the assumption of racial inferiority by using the white instruments of writing a logical narrative.
The use of 3rd person omniscient allows a favourable response from readers who cannot primarily identify with a black persona . An instrument to influence a white audience
SLAVERY IN BELOVED
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
LEGAL
The US constitution tacitly acklowladges slaves as 3/5ths of a person - for taxation representation in congress
1863 - emancipation proclaination
by abraham lincoln.
"slaves i within any state or designated part of a state...in rebellion...shall be then, thenceforward and forever be free"
13th amendment to the constitution
-
"
neither slavery nor invoulantary servitude except as a punishment of crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted
shall exist within the united states
or any other place subject to its jurisdiction "
civil rights act of 1866 invalidating 'black codes' that kept slaves dependent on their slavemasters
Fugitive Slave Act of 1850
, which legally required officials and citizens in free states to capture alleged runaway enslaved people and return them to their masters. Such a law would have applied to Sethe, an enslaved person who fled north in 1855.
possible that no one from the community warns her in part because they feared punishment under the Fugitive Slave Act.
The civil war -
The southern states formed an alliance – the confederate states of America >The rest formed the union > Union VS Confederates >> Began as a means of reuniting the nation > Adopted the abolishment of slavery as a motive due to military necessity and the growing anti slavery sentiments in the north
THE ABOLITIONIST MOVEMENT
- central theme portrays the struggles of African Americans fighting against the domination of white Americans
the novel does not directly relate to
the Underground Railroad movement,
it explores the experiences of enslaved people and the impact of slavery on their lives.
stamp paid and the bodwins are likely representatives of the underground railroad movement
Beloved draws heavily on slave narratives written in the 19th century - autobiographical accounts either written directly by former slaves or composed with assistance. told of the various challenges and traumatic experiences faced by slaves.
Beloved gives voice to the interior thoughts and feelings of former slaves.
the novel itself is classified as a NEO SLAVE NARRATIVE
based on the real-life story of an incident from 1856 involving a woman named Margaret Garner. Like Sethe, Garner escaped from slavery, and when she was tracked down she tried to kill her children to prevent their return to slavery. Morrison takes this historical narrative and breathes life into it, creating a work of fiction that harkens back to 19th-century slave narratives.
set during the slavery and reconstruction eras
the ghost of beloved embodies an ugly reality. a fleshly reincarnation of the unspeakable, the unrepresentable and the inexpresible horrors of slavery through reccurence of the traumatic images of the past.
NARRATOR
Omniscient narrator attempts to negotiate, repersonalize and rehumanize the idea of subversive resistance
CLASS IN WH
natural and immutable
natural imagery to describe emotion. love for both edgar and hc natural but only edgar proper
use characters to show class is a construction, nurture not nature
hc shows class to be malleable
ingraned class roles and societal expectation in mind