How to Read Literature Like a Professor and Wuthering Heights
It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow
Weather can be used for foreshadowing and to create emotional atmosphere. In the story, Bronte uses bad weather to underscore the troubling times the characters experience. Even the eponymous Wuthering Heights has significance, it is explained in the book that “ ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather” (6). The house is named after storms and dangerous weather, and many stormy occurrences happen inside of it. Cold or stormy weather is often remarked upon before conflict or drama occurs in the book. Before Lockwood’s disastrous first dinner at Wuthering …show more content…
Communion does not need to be taken in the religious sense, but simply means community and trust. On the other hand, Foster says, missing a meal is tantamount to breaking communion and symbolizes distrust or animosity between characters. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë uses meals and eating to highlight the relationships between characters and reveal more about them. In the very first chapter, on Lockwood’s first tour of Wuthering Heights, he remarks that “The kitchen was forced to retreat altogether into another quarter” (7). In a normal household, the kitchen, the place of eating and therefore communion, is the center of the house. At Wuthering Heights, however, it has been shoved away. Even before really meeting any of the family that lives at Wuthering heights, the reader is able to discern that they will be dysfunctional and have interpersonal problems. Later in the chapter, the morose Heathcliff finally warms up to Lockwood after offering him some wine. This pattern of character’s becoming closer after eating together continues when Lockwood has dinner with the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights in Chapter Two. As the eat, he learns who they are and how they are related. Brontë continues to use eating together as a metaphor for characters having a strong relationship. She tells of how, Catherine Linton sits closer to Hareton during meals as their relationship blossoms (634). …show more content…
Foster explains how monsters such as vampires and ghosts are often symbols for selfishness and exploitation, especially in relationships where a man takes power and life from others. This pattern can be found easily in Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff, who is often described as monstrous. Heathcliff is called everything from ‘possessed with something diabolical’ (153), to ‘a mad dog’ (384) and ‘a savage beast’ (401) to ‘like the devil’ (687). He’s even explicitly accused three separate times as not being human. One character even wonders if “[Heathcliff] is a ghoul or a vampire” (791). Bronte makes the answer clear, he is. Heathcliff is the source of the conflict in the book and continually takes from the other characters, especially his supposed love, Catherine Earnshaw. As a young child, she becomes injured because of Heathcliff, and heals when she is separated from him for five weeks. It is also pointed out that her temperament improved with their separation. Later she claims that she is Heathcliff, that she is so in love with him that he has become part of her. Shortly after this speech, Heathcliff leaves and Catherine becomes deathly ill trying to find him. Upon Heathcliff’s return, he gets into an argument with Catherine’s husband. This causes her to become sick with ‘brain fever’, before Heathcliff leaves again. She begins to
It’s More Than Just Rain or Snow
Weather can be used for foreshadowing and to create emotional atmosphere. In the story, Bronte uses bad weather to underscore the troubling times the characters experience. Even the eponymous Wuthering Heights has significance, it is explained in the book that “ ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather” (6). The house is named after storms and dangerous weather, and many stormy occurrences happen inside of it. Cold or stormy weather is often remarked upon before conflict or drama occurs in the book. Before Lockwood’s disastrous first dinner at Wuthering …show more content…
Communion does not need to be taken in the religious sense, but simply means community and trust. On the other hand, Foster says, missing a meal is tantamount to breaking communion and symbolizes distrust or animosity between characters. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë uses meals and eating to highlight the relationships between characters and reveal more about them. In the very first chapter, on Lockwood’s first tour of Wuthering Heights, he remarks that “The kitchen was forced to retreat altogether into another quarter” (7). In a normal household, the kitchen, the place of eating and therefore communion, is the center of the house. At Wuthering Heights, however, it has been shoved away. Even before really meeting any of the family that lives at Wuthering heights, the reader is able to discern that they will be dysfunctional and have interpersonal problems. Later in the chapter, the morose Heathcliff finally warms up to Lockwood after offering him some wine. This pattern of character’s becoming closer after eating together continues when Lockwood has dinner with the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights in Chapter Two. As the eat, he learns who they are and how they are related. Brontë continues to use eating together as a metaphor for characters having a strong relationship. She tells of how, Catherine Linton sits closer to Hareton during meals as their relationship blossoms (634). …show more content…
Foster explains how monsters such as vampires and ghosts are often symbols for selfishness and exploitation, especially in relationships where a man takes power and life from others. This pattern can be found easily in Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff, who is often described as monstrous. Heathcliff is called everything from ‘possessed with something diabolical’ (153), to ‘a mad dog’ (384) and ‘a savage beast’ (401) to ‘like the devil’ (687). He’s even explicitly accused three separate times as not being human. One character even wonders if “[Heathcliff] is a ghoul or a vampire” (791). Bronte makes the answer clear, he is. Heathcliff is the source of the conflict in the book and continually takes from the other characters, especially his supposed love, Catherine Earnshaw. As a young child, she becomes injured because of Heathcliff, and heals when she is separated from him for five weeks. It is also pointed out that her temperament improved with their separation. Later she claims that she is Heathcliff, that she is so in love with him that he has become part of her. Shortly after this speech, Heathcliff leaves and Catherine becomes deathly ill trying to find him. Upon Heathcliff’s return, he gets into an argument with Catherine’s husband. This causes her to become sick with ‘brain fever’, before Heathcliff leaves again. She begins to