46c 5

1. ELIT 46C: CLASS
Gerard Manley Hopkins
”The Windhover”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMlwqpy4dk0
Gerard Manley Hopkins, (born July 28, 1844, died June 8, 1889),
English poet and Jesuit priest, one of the most individual of Victorian
writers.
At grammar school in Highgate (1854-63), he won the poetry prize for
"The Escorial" and a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford (1863-67),
where his tutors included Walter Pater and Benjamin Jowett. At one
time he wanted to be a painter-poet like D. G. Rossetti (two of his
brothers became professional painters), and he was strongly
influenced by the aesthetic theories of Pater and John Ruskin and by
the poetry of the devout Anglicans George Herbert and Christina
Rossetti.
His work was not published in collected form until 1918, but it
influenced many leading 20th-century poets, including T.S. Eliot, Dylan
Thomas, W.H. Auden.

2. CHAIR POET?

3. AGENDA
Lecture: The Bronte Family Home
Wuthering Heights:
 Social Context
 Class Distinctions
 Women’s Rights
 Romanticism and the Gothic Novel
 Heroes
Discussion:
Wuthering Heights
 QHQs
 Discussion Questions

5. Bronte home in Haworth

7. Wuthering
Heights
(1847)
by Emily Bronte

8. Historically, wealth had been measured by land ownership; however,
the eighteenth century began a trend toward a cash-based economy.
This created a middle class who were more economically
powerful than its landowning superiors (gentry).
The power of the respectable farming class (yeoman), as well as the
traditional power-holding gentry, was challenged by the newly wealthy
capitalists.
Each of these classes is represented in the novel by various characters.
• Hareton is a member of the respectable farming class
• The Lintons are members of the gentry
• Heathcliff makes his fortune (somewhat mysteriously) as a
capitalist
Context: Class Distinctions

9. Context:TheEvolution
ofWomen’s Rights
• Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering Heights during the beginning of
the women’s rights movement in England.
• The primary concerns of the movement were the lack of
women’s right to vote and the lack of married women’s
property rights. The latter issue arises in Wuthering Heights.
• Women couldn’t own or control property. If a woman inherited
wealth/land, it would go to her husband. If she were unmarried,
it would be controlled by closest male relative.

10. Romantic elements:
 nature as a powerful spiritual force
 descriptions of the countryside
 elevated emotional levels and passion
 a desire to rise above the limitations of ordinary human existence
 a strong interest in death
 a portrayal of opposites: escape and pursuit, life and death
 isolation, both emotional and geographical
 elements of the supernatural
Wuthering Heights contains elements of both
Romanticism and the Gothic novel.

11.  a castle,
sometimes ruined
or haunted
 sinister, ruined
buildings
 extreme landscape
and weather
 death and madness
 omens
 ancestral curses
 terrifying events
 taboo and sensational topics
 a suggestion of the
supernatural
 a villain or villain-hero
(Byronic hero) driven by
passion
 a heroine wooed by both a
good and a dangerous suitor
 revenge
Elements of the Gothic novel

12. Some of the darkest themes of the Gothic novel emerge with the implications of
incest (consider the romantic love of Heathcliff and Catherine, who may be half-
brother and sister) and the suggestion of necrophilia (through Heathcliff's perverse
interactions with Catherine's corpse).
The Gothic genre often reveals larger societal anxieties. Wuthering Heights may
demonstrate contemporary fears about ghosts, threats to patrimony, or an influx of
immigration (through places like Liverpool, England) in the form of the so-called
“gypsy.”
Wuthering Heights was published well after the trend in Gothic novels had faded,
so several critics saw the genre—and the novel—as unoriginal.
Through this genre, readers could share theirfears
about this period’s suffering, injustices and other
unseen “evils.”

13. THE SUPERNATURAL IN
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
In the novel, there are multiple instances of the supernatural, and even
when the references seem fairly literal, the characters do not seem to
find them strange or even surprising:
On Lockwood’s overnight visit, he encounters the ghost of the first Catherine Linton,
and his telling of the event to Heathcliff arouses not disbelief but a strange passion.
The bond between the first Catherine and Heathcliff seems to almost transcend the
mortal, and after she dies, Heathcliff implores her spirit, “I pray one prayer—I repeat it
till my tongue stiffens—Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest, as long as I am living!
You said I killed you—haunt me then!”
Heathcliff eventually confesses to Nelly that he has been haunted by Catherine's spirit
for eighteen years.
At the end of the novel, after Heathcliff's death, Nelly reports to Lockwood a child's
claim that he has seen Heathcliff and a woman walking on the moors.

14. HEROES AND ANTI-HEROES
The anti-hero lives in a universe
with a more cynical, ambiguous
moral code. S/he will have
visible character flaws, and s/he
will doubt him/herself. They will
perform heroic acts, like a
traditional hero, but unlike a
traditional hero, who has both
the physical and moral
capabilities to be traditionally
heroic, the anti-hero usually has
neither.
The traditional hero
fights with honor. S/he
makes the right decisions,
is a friend to all on his
side, and is a generally
well-rounded character.
The hero fights on the side
of obvious good. S/he
always wins eventually his
fights. The hero’s
intentions are pure and
s/he is incorruptible.
Basically, you know a
traditional hero when you
see one.

15. THE SUBSPECIES OF THE ANTI-HERO:
ROMANTIC AND BYRONIC
The antihero is a relatively new archetype. While we may see some
hints of the character earlier, the true dawn of the antihero in
English literature arrives in the English Romantic movement of the
late 18th and 19th centuries. A good working definition of the
antihero is a protagonist who defies traditional stereotypes of
heroism.
The Romantic hero is the antihero
protagonist of a Romantic novel.
He is alienated from society due to
his natural genius, his defiance of
civilization, and his devotion to
emotionalism and nature.
The Byronic hero is dark,
existentialist, operating by his or
her own rules often violating laws
and taboos. Frankly, the Byronic
hero is essentially a manifestation
of Lord Byron’s own personality,
“mad, bad, and dangerous to
know.”

16. Byronic heroes are often charismatic characters with strong passions and
ideals, but who are nonetheless deeply flawed individuals who may act in
ways which are socially reprehensible because they are contrary to
mainstream society. Think Heathcliff, Mr. Rochester (Jane Eyre), Severus
Snape (Harry Potter), Tyler Durden (Fight Club), Bruce Wayne, Jack
Sparrow, Hans Solo, almost all vampires.
Elements of the Byronic hero:
– a distaste for social institutions and social norms
– conflicting emotions or moodiness
– high levels of intelligence and cunning
– self-criticism
– mysterious origins and a troubled past
– self-destructive tendencies
– a loner, rejected from society

17. CHARACTERS: WHAT DO WE
KNOW ABOUT THEM?
Heathcliff
Catherine Earnshaw
Hindley Earnshaw
Edgar Linton
Nelly Dean

18. The story of Wuthering Heights begins “in medias res,” (Latin for “in the
middle of things”). The narrative starts, not at the beginning of a story,
but somewhere in the middle — at a crucial point in the action. This
technique adds a sense of mystery, suspense, and foreshadowing.
Bronte also uses a story telling strategy referred to as a frame narrative. In
this case, Bronte complicates the strategy by using Lockwood to narrate a
story that Nelly Dean tells about other characters. Since the storypasses
through layers, the reader must question the reliabilityof allthat he or she
reads.
The Narrative:

19. THE STRUCTURE OF THE NOVEL

20. GROUPS

21. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1.Compare and contrast the characters Heathcliff and Lockwood.
2.Discuss the meaning of the name of Heathcliff’s home, Wuthering
Heights.
3.There is enormous hatred between Hindley and Heathcliff. Both boys
feel cheated of something the other has. Which one do you feel has the
more legitimate complaint?
4.Discuss Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar. Why does she choose to
marry Edgar when she is in love with Heathcliff? Discuss Nelly’s
reaction to her decision.
5.Has Catherine truly gone insane, or is she acting insane for purely
manipulative reasons?

22. QHQS
1. Is Catherine actually the most powerful character in Wuthering
Heights or the most powerless?
2. Because Nelly is the one telling the story to Lockwood, can we
really believe Nelly’s views on Catherine and Heathcliff? In
what ways is the story biased to both “angel” Catherine and
“devil” Heathcliff?
3. Q: What is Ellen's position in the two households? Is she a
servant, a friend? Could she have been an illegitimate
Earnshaw child herself?
4. Q: Is Wuthering Heights haunted by Catherine Linton? What is
Catherine's intent? Heathcliff "let her in" so does she have to
be let in periodically? Why doesn't she just stay in the house
after being let in?
5. Is Heathcliff a person of color?

23. TO WATCH OUT FOR IN
WUTHERING HEIGHTS
1. Repeating Cycles and Recurring
Patterns
2. Dreams
3. Ghosts
4. Fate

24. HOMEWORK
 Assigned Reading:
Wuthering Heights (Finish)
 Take Quiz 2
 Suggested Reading:
“Repeating Cycles and
Recurring Patterns in
Wuthering Heights”
 HW: Discussion Question
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