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Structure and narrative of Wuthering Heights
Structure and narrative of Wuthering Heights
Structure and narrative of Wuthering Heights
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There is no scarcity of material in the subject of love. It is an important part of how society has come to be what it is today, a gem that has continued to exponentially grow in value over the centuries. Yet despite all of the paragraphs upon paragraphs of discussion that comes along with the topic of love—it is for certain that love creates an irrationality within the confines of the human mind. It makes the strongest of individuals waver or the seemingly all-knowing blinded from the truth. The idea of Love can be described at times kind and peaceful, yet at other times vicious and unrelenting seems to be its middle name. So which one is it? Or is love an interchangeable entity? According to Alicia Keys, love is very much “Like the Sea.” In her beliefs, love is often punishing to those who reside within its waves and could very well take those who fail to succeed under; yet it could also be beautiful and rewarding experience once the couple manages to weather the storm. Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights deal with this theme of romance where “the lovers who risk and struggle for each other and their relationship are rewarded with emotional justice” (Crusie, par. 9). The progression that each of the couples embark in Jane Eyre …show more content…
In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff is rewarded with by letting go of his revenge and being able to rest in peace alongside his lover Catherine. The scene is calm, with “soft wind[s]” breathing through the grass to show a subtle peaceful tone as the transgressions of the past will not be repeated by the loving couple of Hareton and Cathy (E. Bronte 283). In Jane Eyre, Jane mentions that she has “married him” (C. Bronte 435). She is finally happy and ready to settle down with Rochester—on her own terms of course. No longer is she seen as a lesser by her husband, and no longer will she have no power over him or even over her own life
Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway and Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights share similarities in many aspects, perhaps most plainly seen in the plots: just as Clarissa marries Richard rather than Peter Walsh in order to secure a comfortable life for herself, Catherine chooses Edgar Linton over Heathcliff in an attempt to wrest both herself and Heathcliff from the squalid lifestyle of Wuthering Heights. However, these two novels also overlap in thematic elements in that both are concerned with the opposing forces of civilization or order and chaos or madness. The recurring image of the house is an important symbol used to illustrate both authors’ order versus chaos themes. Though Woolf and Bronte use the house as a symbol in very different ways, the existing similarities create striking resonances between the two novels at certain critical scenes.
Heathcliff's love for Catherine transcends the normal physical "true love" into spiritual love. He can withstand anything against him to be with her. After Hindley became the master of Wuthering Heights, he flogged Heathcliff like a slave. Although Heathcliff could have simply run away, his decision to endure the physical pains shows his unrelenting devotion to Catherine. Fortunately, Catherine feels as deeply for Heathcliff as he does for her, explaining to Nelly that "Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…" Their love for each other is so passionate that they can not possibly live apart. At Catherine's death, Heathcliff hopes that she will not rest, but will haunt him until he dies. This absurdity contradicts the traditional norm that one should pray that the dead rest in peace. Near the end of the novel, we learn that Catherine has haunted Heathcliff, allowing him only fleeting glances of her. This shows that despite their physical separation, nothing can part them spiritually. When Heathcliff dies and unites with Catherine once again, the neighbors see them haunt the moors. We finally see the power of their love; Not only does this love transcend physical barriers, it transcends time as well...
Jane doesn't even want to go near the red room and is quite happy to
The complicated nature surrounding Heathcliff’s motives again adds an additional degree of ambiguity to his character. This motivation is primarily driven by Catherine’s marriage to Edgar and past rejection of Heathcliff, since he was a servant whom Hindley disapproved of. Prior to storming out of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff overhears Catherine say, “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now…” (Brontë 87). The obstacles that ultimately prevent Heathcliff from marrying Catherine provide insight into Heathcliff’s desire to bring harm to Edgar and Hindley. The two men play prominent roles in the debacle, Edgar as the new husband and Hindley as the head figure who refused Heathcliff access to Catherine. Following this incident, Catherine says, “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…” (Brontë 87). Catherine’s sentiment indicates she truly would rather be with Heathcliff, but the actions of others have influenced her monumental decision to marry Edgar. Furthermore, Heathcliff is motivated to not only ruin Edgar’s livelihood, but also gain ownership of his estate, Thrushcross Grange. This becomes clear when Heathcliff attempts to use Isabella
Jane Eyre vs Mary Wollstonecraft There is no doubt that Charlotte Bronte knew the works of Mary Wollstonecraft, and she knew them well. Although Wollstonecraft's ideas were written a hundred years beforehand, many women did not read her work because it was not easily attainable. Many women were not educated to read this piece of literature, and many men deemed it unimportant to their education. Bronte's works were cleverly disguised in women's entertainment, the novel. The main themes both women discuss are education, love, and marriage.
...ctive. Catherine is pushed to death and Heathcliff to brutal revenge, bordering on the psychotic. Yet before Cathy’s death, the knowledge that the other loves them is strong enough to make Wuthering Heights such a classic love story, and “that old man by the kitchen fire affirming he has seen two of 'em looking out of his chamber window, on every rainy night since his death,” shows that as they walk together on the moors, their self destruction may have led them to death, but also to what they most desired-being together.
In the gothic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, the author hides motifs within the story.The novel contains two major love stories;The wild love of Catherine, and Heathcliff juxtaposing the serene love of Cathy,and Hareton. Catherine’s and Heathcliff's love is the center of Emily Bronte’s novel ,which readers still to this day seem to remember.The characters passion, and obsession for each other seems to not have been enough ,since their love didn't get to thrive. Hareton and Cathy’s love is what got to develop. Hareton’s and Cathy’s love got to workout ,because both characters contained a characteristic that both characters from the first generation lacked: The ability to change .Bronte employs literary devices such as antithesis of ideas, and the motif of repetition to reveal the destructiveness of wild love versus a domestic love.
It is the aim of this piece to consider how two elements are developed in the opening chapters of three classic novels written by 19th century English women: Emma, Wuthering Heights, and Jane Eyre, respectively. The elements to be considered are a) character; and b) character relationships. Consideration will be given to see how each opening chapter develops these two aspects, and the various approaches will be compared and contrasted as well.
The gothic genre created both a lot of films and novels, some of which are debatable as to if they were categorized properly. The Films Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights directed by Peter Kosminsky, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein directed by Kenneth Branagh are both based on novels. Both films display many different ideas, and are structured differently, but Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is an archetype for the gothic genre. Although the two are very different films, through the use of gloom and horror, film techniques, and heroic traits, both films are able to prove themselves part of the gothic genre by displaying many gothic elements.
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness are two similar stories in the effect that they both have dual narrators and that the narrators of both are manipulated to tell stories of similar morals. They differ, however, in the narrative frames, points of view, and some personality traits of the narrators.
Wuthering Heights is a novel which deviates from the standard of Victorian literature. The novels of the Victorian Era were often works of social criticism. They generally had a moral purpose and promoted ideals of love and brotherhood. Wuthering Heights is more of a Victorian Gothic novel; it contains passion, violence, and supernatural elements (Mitchell 119). The world of Wuthering Heights seems to be a world without morals. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë does not idealize love; she presents it realistically, with all its faults and merits. She shows that love is a powerful force which can be destructive or redemptive. Heathcliff has an all-consuming passion for Catherine. When she chooses to marry Edgar, his spurned love turns into a destructive force, motivating him to enact revenge and wreak misery. The power of Heathcliff’s destructive love is conquered by the influence of another kind of love. Young Cathy’s love for Hareton is a redemptive force. It is her love that brings an end to the reign of Heathcliff.
(4) Wuthering Heights’s mood is melancholy and tumultuous. As a result, the book gives off a feeling of sorrow and chaos. For example, Catherine’s marriage with Edgar Linton made Heathcliff jealous and angry. In retaliation, Heathcliff married Edgar’s sister, Isabella, to provoke Catherine and Edgar. Heathcliff and Isabella’s marriage ignited a chaotic uproar with Edgar and Catherine because Linton disapproved of Heathcliff’s character, and Catherine loved Heathcliff in spite of being married to Edgar. Inside, Catherine wanted to selfishly keep Heathcliff to herself. Their relationships all had tragic endings because Catherine died giving birth to Edgar’s child. Isabella also died, leaving behind her young son. Heathcliff and Edgar resented each other because of misery they experienced together. The transition of the mood in the story is from chaotic to somber.
The basic conflict of the novel that drives Heathcliff and Catherine apart is social. Written after the Industrial Revolution, Wuthering Heights is influenced by the rise of new fortunes and the middle class in England. Money becomes a new criterion to challenge the traditional criterias of class and family in judging a gentleman’s background. Just as Walpole who portrays the tyrannies of the father figure Manfred and the struggles of the Matilda who wants to marry the peasant Theodore, as depicted in the quote “(…) improbability that either father would consent to bestow his heiress on so poor a man, though nobly born”(p. 89), Brontë depicts a brutal bully Hindley who torments Heathcliff and separates Catherine from him. Heathcliff, a gypsy outcast picked u...
One of the biggest rivalries in the nineteenth century was between the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. These women wrote some of the most popular novels in their time that often had very common themes. Emily Bronte's novel Wuthering Heights and Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice both deal with the common theme of social standing, especially in relation to marriages. In Wuthering Heights, Catherine's higher class standing than Heathcliff’s status hinders them from being together. In Pride and Prejudice the gender roles are reversed, and it is Darcy who must deal with being with a woman, Elizabeth Bennet, in a lower standing than he and his family is. The problem of conflicting social classes extends throughout the entirety of the two novels as an obstacle that both couples most overcome in order for them to be together. These novels show how these two couples differed in their reactions to each other of being in a different social class, and how this affected their love in the end.
“Wuthering Heights is a strange, inartistic story”(Atlas, WH p. 299). “Wuthering Heights is a strange sort of book” (Douglas, WH p.301). “This is a strange book” (Examiner, WH p.302). “His work [Wuthering Heights] is strangely original” (Britannia, WH p.305). These brief quotes show that early critics of Emily Bronte’s first edition of Wuthering Heights, found the novel baffling in its meaning - they each agreed separately, that no moral existed within the story therefore it was deemed to have no real literary value. The original critical reviews had very little in the way of praise for the unknown author or the novel. The critics begrudgingly acknowledged elements of Wuthering Heights that could be considered strengths – such as, “rugged power” and “unconscious strength” (Atlas, WH p.299), “purposeless power” (Douglas, WH p.301), “evidences of considerable power” (Examiner), “power and originality” (Britannia, WH p.305). Strange and Powerful are two recurring critical interpretations of the novel. The critics did not attempt to provide in depth analysis of the work, simply because they felt that the meaning or moral of the story was either entirely absent or seriously confused.