Wuthering Heights

1. Charlotte Bronte Wuthering Heights

2. Victorian Literature • 1837-1901 – named after Queen Victoria • Expressed the fusion of pure romance to gross realism.

3. Victorian Literature • Realism: closer to daily life and its practical problems and interests. • Social and economical issues • Industrialism • Emancipation • Child labor • Women’s rights • Evolution

4. Victorian Literature • Moral Purpose: deviation from “art for art’s sake” • Many poets were teachers • Faith and moral message to instruct the world

5. Victorian Literature • Idealism: doubt and pessimism • Influence of science • Conception of man in relation to the universe with the idea of evolution • Idealistic life characterized by writers • Truth, justice, love, brotherhood

6. Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte • Published 1847 • Emily died one year after publication • Infuses Gothic elements and romanticism • Famous literary family • Emily Bronte • Ann Bronte • Branwell Bronte

7. Wuthering Heights

8. Characters • Narrators: • Mr. Lockwood: rents Thrushcross Grange from Heathcliff • Ellen “Nelly” Dean: housekeeper to Earnshaws and Lintons

9. Characters • Earnshaws: • Live at Wuthering Heights • Mr. Earnshaw (father) • Catherine (daughter) • Hindley (son) • Heathcliff (adopted orhpan) • Lintons: • Live at Thrushcross Grange • Isabella (sister) • Edgar (brother) • Wealthy and sophisticated, especially compared to the Earnshaws

10. Characters • Hindley • Marries Frances • Fathers Hareton • Enemy of Heathcliff • Frances dies early • Dies a broke gambler • Catherine • Marries Edgar • Mothers Cathy • Truly loves Heathcliff • Conflicted • Too proud for love or happiness

11. Characters • Heathcliff • Marries Isabella (sister of Edgar) • Fathers Linton • Conflicted as hero/villain • Love leads to his hatred • Vows vengeance on all those who defy him • Cathy • Daughter of Catherine and Edgar • Marries Linton • Marries Edgar • Resembles Catherine • Marriage is happiness Catherine and Heathcliff never had • Only possible after all remaining feuds and adults are dead.

12. Family Tree

13. Character Links

14. Themes • Love/Relationships • Passionate, but inevitably doomed (Catherine & Heathcliff) • Destructive (Catherine & Heathcliff) • Civilized/Acceptable (Catherine & Edgar) • Greedy/Self-serving (Heathcliff & Isabella) • Imbalanced (Cathy & Linton) • Ideal (Cathy & Hareton)

15. Themes • Class • Social Mobility • Heathcliff • Hareton • Acceptance or Denial • Heathcliff • Hindley • Outward actions and appearance • Heathcliff • Hindley

16. Motifs • Doubles • Heathcliff & Catherine • Edgar & Isabella • Cathy & Linton, Hareton • Heathcliff & Hindleyto Heathcliff & Hareton • Contrasts • Catherine & Isabella • Heathcliff & Hindley • Heathcliff & Edgar

17. Motifs • Repetition • Revenge • Hindley (Heathcliff) • Heathcliff (Hindley, Hareton, Edgar) • Cathy (Heathcliff) • Love • Couples (non-love) • Destructiveness • Catherine • Hindley

18. Symbols • Places • Moors: wild, expansive, soggy, untamed & infertile, unable to be cultivated • Wuthering Heights: simplicity, wilderness and passion • Thrushcross Grange: tamed, civilized culture

19. Symbols • People/Non-people • Ghosts: Catherine, Heathcliff • Catherine: social pride, conflict, passion • Heathcliff: destructive love, untamed, outsider • Cathy & Hareton: “happily ever after,” end to vengeance, true love

20. Using Quotations • Short quotations (shorten than 4 lines) • Enclose quotation with quotation marks • Provide author and specific page citation • Include complete reference on Works Cited page • Punctuation appears after parenthetical citation • Question marks/exclamation points appear within quotation marks if they are part of the quoted passage. If not, they appear afterward.

21. Using Quotations • Quotations should… • Be used to prove, reinforce or reiterate your point • Be an example for your point • Have a lead in or out of your sentence • Quotations should not… • Be excessive • Exist as a sentence alone

22. Example quotations • Topic: Catherine/Social Class/Pride/Love Even though Catherine loves Heathcliff, the orphaned, degraded adopted son, she refuses to be with him and marries Edgar Linton, who is more suitable for her class even though she does not love him. She explains to Nelly that she loves Edgar because he is “handsome…young and cheerful…and because he loves me” (Bronte 72-73). Obviously her passionate love for Heathcliff is her desire, but she will not give in to her want because it will ruin her social status.

23. Adding Words • If you MUST add words, place your words in brackets. The narrator for Wuthering Heights is mostly Nelly, the housemaid. She retells many events that she witnessed saying once, “and then how they met I [Nelly Dean] hardly saw…” (Bronte 152) as she described a moment between Catherine and Heathcliff.

24. Omitting Words • Use ellipsis marks to shorten a quote or take out unnecessary words. Heathcliff is often prefers absence to deal with conflicts, or to perhaps reflect on a destructive solution. For example, Nelly once recounts that she once “heard him go downstairs and out at the front door…and in the morning I found he were still away” (Bronte 306).

25. Paper Requirements • Be sure that you • Follow MLA guidelines • Include a word count (750) • ANALYZE a topic • Adhere to one thesis