Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so, For, those, whom thou thinkst thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be Much pleasure, then from thee much more must flow And soonest our best men with thee do go Rest of their bones and soul's delivery. Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men, And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell, And poppies or charms can make us sleep as well And better than thy stroke; why swellst thou then; One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die!
Holy Sonnets X, circa 1610
Wuthering Heights
Male
Past
Art
Love
Female
Present
Life
Hate
Form follows function
Male
Past
Art
Love
Female
Present
Life
Hate
How is this comic both simple and complex?
In what ways is passion simple?
How is it also complicated?
"Wuthering" is a local word from northern England, meaning wild, exposed, storm- blown
Genre(less)
Gothic adventure or a Victorian romance?
WH blows aside attempts to define it and
does not really belong to either (or any?)
category.
However, contains some Romantic influences, but written in 1847, after the peak of the Romantic era
Brontë was a gently bred Victorian woman but expresses her disdain for the accepted social constraints on class and gender
e.g. Many male characters are weak and pathetic, while leading female character is strong and sometimes cruel.
Thus , WH is Emily Brontë’s singular vision and cannot be easily categorized
Unique and Ahead of its Time (Avante garde)
Is a novel that works as drama (dialog-driven)
Epic– spans three generations (Earnshaws & Lintons)
Has no central narrator
Protagonist is an anti-hero (prefigures modernism)
Explores the messy– and very real-- overlap between love and hate (anti-Romantic)
Passion trumps morality (anti-Victorian)
Art imitates Life
Brontë’s mother died when Emily was three; protagonist is an orphan
Branwell, Emily’s brother, died of alcoholism and drug abuse; ????? dies the same way
Brontë’s older sisters died of tuberculosis; ????? dies of tuberculosis.
Brontë was born in the moors of northern England; WH is set there
Blurring of Time
Every story must have a beginning, middle, and end…
just not necessarily in that order.
Time
Narrative style and overlapping names create a disorienting effect on the reader’s sense of time
Like the wind on the moors itself, time moves freely forward and backward throughout the novel
Past is Present (Life)
Past
Northern England moors isolated
Largely cut off from Victorian zeitgeist
Thus past continues in present for Brontë
Present
Writing style is unprecedented
And avante garde (the future now)
Past is Present (Art)
Present time
Lockwood arrives at WH
Mistakes second generation for first
Immediately see a ghost– our future (temporal time is overcome)
Past time
Nelly tells story to Lockwood of WH in flashback
Worst of the past dies off and best endures
Oedipus complex at family level
Setting: Lay of the Land
The Heights Thrushcross Grange Penistone Crag (Cliff) Gimmerton Kirk (church)
Art imitates Life
The moorland that Emily Brontë describes is a combination of areas that she knew:
The moor around Haworth in West Yorkshire where she spent most of her life
The Shibden valley where she worked
Haworth was likely the intended position for Wuthering Heights and the Gimmerton valley:
In chapter 4, Mr. Earnshaw walks sixty miles to Liverpool from the Heights
The real distance from Haworth to Liverpool is 63 miles
Setting: Exposed Isolation
Wuthering Heights is in an extremely exposed position on the moors
Northern side of a hilltop also known as Wuthering Heights (or "the Heights") which blocks any view of Thrushcross Grange
Four-mile walk from Thrushcross Grange
Nearest village is deep in Gimmerton valley
Map of the Moors The Earnshaws The Lintons
Characters
Morose Teenager
Heathcliff Bitter Adult
(1771, age 7) ...I had a peep at a dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and talk: indeed, its face looked older than Catherine's; yet when it was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and over again some gibberish that nobody could understand.
(Childhood, cont.) I wondered often what my master saw to admire so much in the sullen boy; who never, to my recollection, repaid his indulgence by any sign of gratitude. He was not insolent to his benefactor, he was simply insensible; though knowing perfectly the hold he had on his heart, and conscious he had only to speak and all the house would be obliged to bend to his wishes.
(1777, age 13) Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the middle; and that couple of black fiends, so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil's spies?
(1780, age 16) In the first place, he had by that time lost the benefit of his early education: continual hard work, begun soon and concluded late, had extinguished any curiosity he once possessed in pursuit of knowledge, and any love for books or learning. His childhood's sense of superiority, instilled into him by the favours of old Mr. Earnshaw, was faded away... he acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness…
(1783, age 19) A ray fell on his features; the cheeks were sallow, and half covered with black whiskers; the brows lowering, the eyes deep-set and singular. I remembered the eyes.
(1783, age 19) ...[Edgar] had sense to comprehend Heathcliff's disposition: to know that, though his exterior was altered, his mind was unchangeable and unchanged.
(1801, age 37) He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman: that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure; and rather morose.
Emily Brontë’s sister Charlotte described the character:
“ Heathcliff, indeed, stands unredeemed; never once swerving in his arrow-straight course to perdition…”
(Preface to the 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights )
Heathcliff as Anti-Hero
Protagonist, yes– hero, no
Although intense and engaging, he remains cruel and harsh throughout
Flat and static, not round or dynamic
Never learns or grows-- stays stuck in his misery
Thus, an entertaining and memorable protagonist, but not a hero
Catherine (Cathy)
Catherine Earnshaw, daughter of old Mr. Earnshaw
Later known as Catherine Linton (after marriage) **
Torn between H’s timeless love and E’s money/conventions (future vs. present)
Has a daughter named Catherine **
We only learn of her through flashback **
“ It was enough to try the temper of a saint, such senseless, wicked rages! There [Catherine] lay dashing her head against the arm of the sofa, and grinding her teeth, so that you might fancy she would crash them to splinters.”
(1784, age 18)
Catherine (Cathy)
“ Nelly, I am Heathcliff!”
“ He’s more myself than I am.” “ His soul and mine are the same.”
Um, you might call us co-dependen t.
WH Monty Python Style
Name may have come from Ellen Nussey, a close friend of the Brontës
Both a character and one of the narrators
Youthful asst. caretaker for Catherine, Hindley, Heathcliff
Housekeeper first at Wuthering Heights and later Thrushcross Grange
Narrates “inside frame” to Lockwood– from inside out
Ellen (Nelly) Dean
Mr. Lockwood
Has rented Thrushcross Grange and pays a snow-covered visit to his landlord, Heathcliff
Gets snowed in at WH and discovers Catherine’s old books
Sees her ghost (?), becomes rattled but intrigued
Back at the Grange, asks housekeeper Nelly Dean to tell him the story of WH (flashback)
Mr. Lockwood
Upperclass– vain, pompous
Prose is more complex than Nelly’s
Functions as a surrogate reader, asking questions and learning the history of Heathcliff, the Earnshaws and the Lintons from Nelly Dean
He is eyewitness to only 10% of story
Shows us how things are not (outside-in point of view)
Not from northern England, so he finds it difficult to understand the behaviors of the people he meets, but he is intrigued
Hindley
Son of (old) Mr. Heathcliff Earnshaw
Brother to Catherine (he’s 8 yrs. older)
Same age as Nelly
Adoptive brother to Heathcliff
Forever jealous of father’s affection for Heathcliff
Master of Wuthering Heights following father’s death and becomes the new Mr. Earnshaw **
Marries Frances
Heathcliff
Gypsy? Orphan
No last name
Adoptive brother to Catherine & Hindley
As an young adult, tries to remake himself to win Catherine’s approval
Love/hate relationship with Catherine
The Lintons
(Old) Mr. Linton
Father to Edgar & Isabella
m. (Old) Mrs. Linton
not to be confused with Catherine who m. Edgar Linton and thus becomes a Mrs. Linton
Edgar Linton
Always attracted to Catherine
Isabella Linton
Attracted to the remade Heathcliff
Lesser or Later Characters
(Old) Mr. Earnshaw m. Mrs. Earnshaw
Zillah
Heights Housekeeper when Nelly is away
Dr. Kenneth
Hindley’s drinking buddy in Gimmerton
Frances
m. Hindley
Hareton
Son of Hindley
Cathy
Daughter of Cathy
Linton Heathcliff?!?!
Map of the Moors The Earnshaws The Lintons
Narrative Structure: Simple…
Prologue in present time (chs. 1-3)
Heathcliff’s childhood in fb (chs. 4-17)
Heathcliff’s adulthood in fb (chs. 18-31)
Epilogue in present time (chs. 32-34)
… yet complex
… just the way passion really is.
Function of Framed Narrative Structure
No omniscient narrator to explain characters’ feelings, so the language is extremely emotional and engaging
Involves reader directly inside the story
Aesthetic balance-- the novel ends at about the same time it begins
If actions had been explained by an omniscient narrator, it would not have been as democratic, free to reader interpretation
Allows for free shifts in the time, events, narrators, and realistic dialogue (and dialect) which force the reader to make his or her own meaning
Dialogue and complicated framed narrative allow the characters to express themselves, appear as real and dynamic personalities and counterbalance the otherwise dubious supernatural aspects
Limitation: the story is left to speak for itself and impart exposition to the reader without much help
Lockwood vs. Nelly: Opposing and Complimentary Perspectives
Both fall under personal prejudices and moral judgments
We realize for ourselves that both are right AND wrong, so our opinion of the characters is personal and unique-- not the same as Lockwood’s or Nelly’s by the novel’s end
Complimentary perspectives prevent us from making the same mistakes and assumptions that they make
Brontë is telling us what NOT to do: judge the characters as quickly as we might judge any real person
Story within story feels like a legend, so these are not only characters but also something greater --or worse-- than we could be in our own lives
Wuthering Heights "Wuthering" is a local word from northern England, meaning wild, exposed, storm- blown
Content and Form
Wuthering Heights blows aside attempts to define it
Unrestrained narrative structure enables storytelling to blow freely forward and backward in time
Film Versions of Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights . Director: A. V. Bramble. Actors: Milton Rosmer, Colette Brettel, Warwick Ward, and Anne Trevor. British, 1920. Movie.
Wuthering Heights . Director: William Wyler. Actors: Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon. American, 1939. Movie. A classic and widely regarded as the definitive version.
Wuthering Heights . Director: Paul Nickell. Actors: Charlton Heston and Richard Waring. American, 1950. Live TV broadcast.
Abismos de Pasion . Director: Luis Buñuel. Actors: Jorge Mistral and Iraseme Dilian. Mexican, 1954. Movie.
Wuthering Heights . Director: Peter Sasdy. Actors: Ian McShane and Angela Scoular. British, 1967. TV series.
Wuthering Heights . Director: Robert Fuest. Actors: Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall. G.B.: American, 1970.Movie.
Wuthering Heights . Director: Peter Hammond. Actors: Ken Hutchison and Kay Adshead. British, 1978. TV series.
Hurlevent . Director: Jacques Rivette. Actors: Lucas Belvaux and Fabienne Babe. French, 1985. Movie.
Arashi ga oka . Director: Yoshishige Yoshida. Actors: Yusaku Matsuda and Yuko Tanaka. Japanese, 1988. Movie.
Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights . Director: Peter Kosminsky. Actors: Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche. British, 1992. Binoche plays the roles of Catherine and Cathy. Movie.
Wuthering Heights . Director: David Skynner. Actors: Robert Cavanah and Orla Brady. British and American, 1998.TV movie.
Wuthering Heights CA . Director: Suri Krishnamma. Actors: Erika Christensen and Mike Vogel. American, 2003. TV movie.
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