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Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights. Thematic & Structural Considerations. Industrial Revolution-1847. “Marked by rapid, violent social changes” Land ownership was a part of the gentry class Genteelness was about birth rights and moral character The economy was becoming more cash-based

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Wuthering Heights

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  1. Wuthering Heights Thematic & Structural Considerations

  2. Industrial Revolution-1847 • “Marked by rapid, violent social changes” • Land ownership was a part of the gentry class • Genteelness was about birth rights and moral character • The economy was becoming more cash-based • The middle class was created because of this and more powerful than landowning gentry Changes political power Changes rules of social acceptance

  3. Implications of Social Change Textual Evidence Social Class • Ch2-Lockwood’s blunders • Ch 5-$ as status as explained by Nelly • Ch 6-Hindley making Heathcliff a servant • Ch 7-Heathcliff wants to be like Edgar • Ch11-Heathcliff lowers status of Hindley *source of motivation for revenge (theme)

  4. Women’s Right Movement Novel was published at the beginning of this movement in England It was about voting rights It was about married women’s property rights so they were the same as unmarried women.

  5. Textual Evidence

  6. Textual Evidence

  7. Thematic Considerations: Death

  8. Death & Burial Customs Pre-1823 Customs Property could be forfeited to the Crown if discovered as a suicide Superstition-mirrors caused the soul to flee from the person and caused their death (suicide?) If you talk of death to the person and they commit suicide, you were an accomplice and would be subject to the law as well • Insanity vs. self murdered • Felo-de-se • Suicide was subject to even greater ignominy • Could be buried at a cross-roads with a stake in the heart.

  9. Death & Burial Customs After 1823 Customs Buried in the church yard in the evening (hour + place) No minister need to come Nothing to be said over the person (lack of Christian burial) • Suicides could be legally buried in the churchyards but below wall so no one could step over grace and disturb the soul

  10. Closed Family System

  11. Psyco-analytic Criticism

  12. Character Considerations Closed Family System Wuthering Heights Bildungsroman focus on Cathy & Heathcliff Contrast to Romanticism in many ways The disappearance of God in literature so the focus is on human relationships as substitutes Shift in focus could signify pre-oedipal focus on mother to father; eventually allows the integration of “self” again • Focus on the family rather than the individual on isolation • Temper their love to detach from the family destruction • Victims, triangulation, and scapegoating

  13. Character Considerations Bildungsroman Byronic Hero Vs. Anti-Hero Antithesis of a hero Considered incompetent, unlucky, tactless, clumsy… • Mostly about a single individual’s growth within the context of a defined social order • The growth is somewhat a quest story • Some form of loss or discontent jars the character away from home • Process of maturity is long, arduous, and full of repeated clashes between desires and social order that is unbending • Spirit and values of the social order become a part of the character and the protagonist then becomes a part of society

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