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23 Cards in this Set

  • Front
  • Back
What are the central themes in Wuthering Heights?
Revenge ,Love, Family, The Supernatural, Suffering, Society and Class, Foreignness and the other, and Betrayal.
What is Heathcliff's childhood like?
He enters the Earnshaw home as an orphan as before he was "starving and houseless."
Racially different, he can and will never be accepted by his adoptive family or the villagers of Gimmerton. He is never given the surname "Earnshaw".
His arrival is seen as a direct threat to everyone. Nelly says "from the very beginning, [Heathcliff] bred bad feeling in the house"
How is Heathcliff characterised?
Devilish and cruelly referred to as "it" in the Earnshaw household.
His language is "gibberish" and his dark otherness provokes the labels "gipsy," "wicked boy," "villain," and "imp of Satan."
He is portrayed to be passionately hateful and revengeful.
Why is the word "gipsy" used to discriminate against Heathcliff? What is its significance in Victorian society?
Victorian England was fascinated by gypsies, and they appear in novels like Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Gypsies, who were thought to have come from Egypt (which is where the "gyp" part of the word comes from), were objects of discrimination, partly because their traveling lifestyle made them people without a nation or land (like Heathcliff), and partly because they just looked so different from the typical Anglo Saxon. In nineteenth-century novels, gypsies often steal children. They are never the hero (or anti-hero) of the novel. So Brontë mixes up our expectations.
How does Heathcliff's appearance affect him in the novel?
Mr. Earnshaw introduces him to his new family by saying that he is "as dark almost as if it came from the devil"
His difference in appearance makes it impossible for him to ever fit in.
This makes him an outsider which drives him to desire to gain control of both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
He compares himself to the "handsome" Edgar which fuels his anger over Catherine further.
During his three year absence he returns a "tall, athletic, well-formed man". He now has physical dominance over Edgar at this point in the novel.
When Lockwood meets him he says: "He is a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman"
How does setting hold significance in Wuthering Heights?
The two main sites of action, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, are opposed in many ways: Wuthering Heights is dark and cold, located on a hill high above the more bright and inviting Thrushcross Grange, which is situated in the valley below. The two houses are only four miles apart.
Access to the Grange symbolizes the acquisition of a certain social status. Catherine is gratified by her acceptance into the Linton manor. Heathcliff, on the other hand, is not welcome in either household.
It is Set in the harsh and isolated Yorkshire moors in Northern England.
Gimmerton is the nearest town and provides the location for characters like Mr Kenneth, the doctor, and Mr Green, the lawyer.
Liverpool is a distant port city associated with the dark, foreign, gypsy child, Heathcliff.
Feelings of desolation and confusion provoked by the setting strongly contribute to the tone of the novel.
What is the significance of the First Person Narrative (Nelly and Lockwood)?
The primary narrator is Lockwood, who begins and ends the narrative and is recording the story that he hears from Nelly. Nelly is Lockwood's inside source of information as his narrative begins in 1801. Her version of events is filtered through Lockwood's perspective.
The narrative is partial as the narrators are subjective.
Nelly says she tells the story "in true gossip's fashion". But she wants us to know she is not just an uneducated servant as she says to Lockwood "I have read more books than you would fancy". She has a tendency to romanticise her version of events.
What are some of the Gothic elements in Wuthering Heights?
Imprisonment, dark stairways, stormy weather, nightmares, extreme landscapes, melancholy figures, moonlight and candles, torture and excessive cruelty, a supernatural presence, madness, maniacal behaviour, communication between the living and the dead, incest, and necrophilia.
It is not the usual gothic novel as although Heathcliff can be seen as the dark villain and Catherine the trembling innocent. The characters are a lot more complex than your average Gothic protagonists and antagonists and the novel provokes greater consideration of morality.
What does the genre of the novel reveal about larger social anxieties?
In Wuthering Heights, it may help to reveal contemporary fears about a foreign presence in the house, threats to patrimony, or an influx of immigration (through places like Liverpool, England) in the form of the so-called "gypsy."
How Romantic is Wuthering Heights?
The love between Heathcliff and Catherine transcends the boundaries between life and death. The romance between the two protagonists is by far the most dramatic and memorable. All the characters are driven by their appetites – desire, passion, lust, and ambition. The plotline is propelled toward the reunion of the two lovers, so that when Catherine dies halfway through the book, the reader really wants to know how the romantic story will be resolved.
How does Bronte shape the tone in Wuthering Heights?
The tone is persistently eerie and gloomy and Bronte does not show a wide variety of change in tone.
However, attitudes of our narrators help shape the tone as the drama unfolds, so that Lockwood's initial curiosity and fascination convey a lighter feeling than after he realizes how sinister Heathcliff is.
Whenever Heathcliff is around, the tone tends to grows darker.
Also Nelly keeps suspense when telling Lockwood the story which creates a mysterious tone.
How does Bronte's writing style balance the Gothic and the possibility of hope and redemption?
"listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth."
Brontë crafts the image of the three graves in subtle, graceful terms. Gothic elements are still present, with the suggestion of life after death and the supernatural human-like description of the breathing wind. Even in the face of death, nature is life-sustaining and life-giving. Brontë terms the bodies as "sleepers," a far more poetic characterization, and uses the word "unquiet" instead of "disturbed." Brontë's style accommodates both the extreme moments of gothic horror and the interludes and conclusions in which a peaceful romantic scene prevails.
How can the position of Heathcliff in trying to gain Catherine's love be compared to other male's in literature?
Can be compared to:
Stanley in "A Streetcar named desire" manages to marry a woman of higher class. He is criticised by her sister Blanche.
Gatsby in "The Great Gatsby" goes from rags to riches to impress his young lost love Daisy.
The Monster in "Frankenstein" wills a female partner to show his creator that he can love and not just destroy. This is similar to Heathcliff using Isabella's love to show he is a decent man worthy of Catherine.
What are the literary and philosophical references in Wuthering Heights?
•William Shakespeare, King Lear: Lear's actions end up destroying his family, tearing apart the kingdom, and causing a big old war, leaving just about everyone dead by the play's end.
•The Slough of Despond: a bog in John Bunyan's allegorical story Pilgrim's Progress. The protagonist, Christian, sinks into the Slough of Despond, weighed down by his sins and sense of guilt.
What are the Biblical references in Wuthering Heights?
•Matthew 18: 21-35, First of the Seventy-First: "Then Peter came unto him, and said, Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I shall forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but Until Seventy times seven." (3.31)
•Pharisees: an ancient Hebrew sect that believed in strict Biblical interpretation. However, the term has come to mean someone who is hypocritical and self-righteous. (5.7)
•Noah: the Hebrew patriarch (in Genesis 6-9) who received a covenant from God to build a boat and load it full of animals to protect them from an impending flood. (9.125).
•Lot: In Genesis 11-14 and 19, Lot goes to Sodom and Gomorrah. Warned to leave, he takes his wife. They are not supposed to look back at the doomed city, but she does and is turned into a pillar of salt. (9.125)
•The Jonah: Jonah was a minor prophet of the Old Testament who was famously saved by a huge fish. (9.125)
What are the mythical references in Wuthering Heights?
•Hercules: A mythical Roman demigod known for his great strength. (33.59)
•Fate of Milo: Milo was an athlete from Crotona who was caught by a tree he was trying to split. He was then devoured by savage beasts. (9.99)
What are some of the important love quotes in Wuthering Heights?
"Cathy, do come. Oh, do – once more! Oh! My heart's darling, hear me this time – Catherine, at last" Heathcliff believes in communication beyond the grave.
"The greatest punishment we could invent for her was to keep her separate from him" Their love is a tormented love.
"I saw the quarrel had merely effected a closer intimacy" With Edgar and Cathy, violence and desire are synonymous.
"he's more myself than I am"- Catherine is compatible with Heathcliff.
"My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath"
"My love for Edgar is like the foliage in the woods:time will change it"
"His new source of trouble sprang from the not anticipated misfortune of Isabella Linton evincing a sudden and irresistible attraction towards the tolerated guest." -Isabella is judged for loving someone below her own social status.
"he couldn't love as much in eighty years as I could in a day"- Heathcliff undermines Edgar.
What are the key family quotes?
"I began to feel unmistakably out of place in that pleasant family circle." Lockwood ultimately remains an outsider, but still wants to marry young Cathy.
"he's mine, and I want the triumph of seeing my descendant fairly lord of their estates"- Linton Heathcliff is merely a pawn in his father's grand scheme for revenge.
"No one will thank you for a doze in such a den!"-Lockwood is unable to see the situation outside of how it affects him. Heathcliff envies him for having touched Catherine's icy hand.
What are the issues with Society and Class in Wuthering Heights?
"probably, she had neither money nor name to recommend her"- Hindley's wife
"there 'lighted from a handsome black pony a very dignified person" - the untamed Catherine has become a changed woman, now superior to the lowly Heathcliff.
"Were I in your place, I would frame high notions of my birth"- Heathcliff may as well imagine a noble and exotic background for himself.
"I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven" - He's out of her league
Catherine marries Edgar to be the "greatest woman of the neighbourhood"
That Hindley denies Heathcliff an education implies that he is trying to force him to become a servant- Heathcliff's revenge is tied directly to class issues.
How is hot and cold imagery used in Wuthering Heights?
Catherine and Edgar's relationship is considered in terms of extremes of temper and temperature.
"Your veins are full of ice-water-- but mine are boiling"
Catherine is under pressure to choose between Edgar and Heathcliff, and so threatens illness.
What is a marxist reading of Heathcliff's economic transformation?
This impacts his emotional relationship with Catherine.
Catherine rehects his new persona, and her assertion "That is not my Heathcliff. I shall love mine yet" may site Heathcliff as an opponent of, and not the embodiment of, bourgeois values.
Also it could be viewed as the triumph of capitalism over a belated feudalism in which competition becomes the new tyranny.
Only through the acquisition of wealth he manages to move from the margins of society to its centre.
Explain Bronte's use of a dual narrative structure.
The framed narrative is both distinct and complex.
The story within a story reveals Lockwood as an unreliable narrator who misreads characters.
We are never under the illusion that Nelly Dean's narrative is neutral or objective.
A feminist view is Nelly's narrative as destabilising the conventional authority of the narrative voice.
What is a contemporary marxist response from wilson?
In his article 'Emily Bronte: First of the Moderns' (1947) he pictures 'Emily Bronte in a new light, the light of West Riding social history'.