This document provides an overview of the class discussion on the novel Wuthering Heights. It summarizes the plot in two parts, with an exposition, rising action, turning point, and falling action for each. It also discusses recurring themes of romance, revenge, cruelty, and repeating cycles and patterns throughout the characters and generations. Finally, it poses discussion questions on characters' motivations and relationships, and provides background on the next author to be discussed, Robert Louis Stevenson.

1. ELIT 46C: Class 6
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mt3sIWwUSw

2. Chair Poet?

3. Agenda
 Lecture: Wuthering Heights:
 Romance and Revenge
 Repeating Cycles and
Recurring Patterns
 Discussion:
 Wuthering Heights
 Questions and QHQs
 Author Presentation:
 Robert Louis Stevenson

4. Genealogy Tree

5. PLOT
exposition- Lockwood's arrival at Wuthering heights, his
finding of the diary and Nelly's explanations of each
character
rising action- Hindley hates & banishes Heathcliff after he
and Catherine have fallen in love
turning point- Catherine marries Edgar. This leads to
Heathcliff wanting revenge, and marrying Isabella.
falling action- children are born (Hareton, Cathy, and
Linton.) people die (Hindley, Catherine, Isabella)
The First 17

6. PLOT
second exposition- Cathy's growing up at Thrushcross Grange, the meeting of the
new generation.
second rising action- Heathcliff's basic stalking of Cathy, Cathy finally meeting
her two cousins, Linton's and Cathy's relationship becoming more complicated,
and Linton's confession about being forced to court her.
second turning point- Heathcliff's kidnapping of Cathy and Nelly Dean and
forcing Cathy and Linton to get married
second falling action- Linton's eventual death, Nelly's escape and cry for help,
Cathy and Hareton falling in love and getting married, Heathcliff's slow madness
leading to death
resolution- Cathy and Hareton move to Thrushcross Grange together, Lockwood
once more departs for London, feeling satisfied with the happy ending, and
Heathcliff is burried (as he wished) next to Catherine with open coffins so they
may rest in peace together.
The Second 17

7. Lecture: Romance
Bronte paints a multi-sided portrait of love and revenge. Each of the
characters loves at least one of the others. Each, either purposely or
unwittingly, exacts revenge from another. None of the characters
seems to understand the psychological make-up of either him or
herself or the others in his or her world.
Heathcliff and Cathy struggle to be together. They are connected by
an invisible, but almost tangible force. Bronte may suggest that male
and female characteristics can never be fully united or integrated.
Neither sex is dominant; neither is truly happy.
This is also a story about passion and naturalness. Heathcliff and Cathy
are two passionate people. As children they are soulmates. They are
wild, almost feral children who roam the moors, and they are one with
nature. They are initially free of the social constructions of behavior.

8. Lecture: Revenge
Heathcliff's devotion to Catherine is ferocious, and when he is
thwarted in his desires, he conceives a plan of revenge of enormous
proportions.
Catherine's brother Hindley shares her passionate nature, though he
devotes most of his energies to demeaning Heathcliff. His is revenge
for his father’s choice to foster and love Heathcliff.
In the characters of Heathcliff and Hindley, who both feel slighted in
love, Bronte draws a parallel between the need for love and the
strength of revenge.

9. Violence and Cruelty: Closely tied to the theme of revenge,
are themes of cruelty and sadism
Cruelty can be manifested emotionally:
 Mr. Earnshaw's disdain for his natural-born son
 The first Catherine's apparent rejection of Heathcliff in favor of Edgar.
Physical cruelty is apparent:
 "Terror made me cruel," says Lockwood, yet he rubs the wrists of the ghost
Catherine against a broken windowpane in an effort to free himself from her
grasp.
 Hindley torments Heathcliff, as Heathcliff will later torment Hareton.
 Heathcliff marries Isabella and then treats her so badly that she asks Nelly
whether he is a devil.
Sadism is also a recurring thematic element.
 Heathcliff tries to strangle Isabella's dog
 Hareton hangs a litter of puppies from the back of a chair.
 The first Catherine's refusal of Heathcliff has elements of masochism (self-abuse)
in it, as does letting him back into her life: her divided heart eventually kills her.

10. “Repeating Cycles and Recurring Patterns”
Donna Woodford writes, “Wuthering Heights is, above
all, a book of repeating cycles and recurring patterns [. .
.] When Lockwood spends the night at the Heights, he
finds the window ledge covered with ‘a name repeated in
all kinds of characters, large and small—Catherine
Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff,
and then again to Catherine Linton.’”
Can we trace the name “Catherine”
in the novel? What other repeating
cycles and recurring patterns are
apparent?

11. Groups: Can we trace the name “Catherine” in
the novel? What other repeating cycles and
recurring patterns are apparent?

12. Hareton is a gentler version of his oppressor and foster
father.
"Hareton [seems] a personification of my youth … the ghost of my immortal love, of
my wild endeavours to hold my right, my degradation, my pride, my happiness, and
my anguish” (Heathcliff).
 The original Catherine begins life as Catherine Earnshaw.
 She rejects the opportunity to become Catherine Heathcliff and instead
becomes Catherine Linton.
 She then gives birth to another Catherine Linton.
 The second Catherine first marries Linton Heathcliff, becoming Catherine
Heathcliff
 At the end of the book, she becomes engaged to Hareton Earnshaw. The
cycle of names thus comes full circle as this final marriage will give the
second Catherine the original name of the first.
The second Catherine is in many ways a reincarnation
of her mother.

13.  Heathcliff is taken in by Mr. Earnshaw; Hindley ultimately makes him an
outcast.
 Catherine, also orphaned by Earnshaw's death, becomes still more isolated
after Heathcliff's departure.
 Linton Heathcliff loses his mother and is raised by a father who despises
him.
 Hareton's mother dies shortly after his birth, and the death of his abusive
father leaves him at the mercy of Heathcliff.
 The second Catherine is born only hours before her mother's death, and
the death of her father leaves her "destitute of cash and friends."
"if all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and, if all
else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty
stranger” (Catherine, speaking of Heathcliff)
There is a repeating cycle of orphans and outcasts:

14. Groups: Discussion Questions and QHQs

15. Discussion Questions
1. Heathcliff is certain that Catherine loves only him. Does Catherine
have legitimate feelings for her husband.
2. Are Hindley and Isabella equally victims of Heathcliff’s scheming, or
did they in some manner “deserve” what happened to them at his
hands?
3. Both Isabella and Catherine are pregnant at one point in time, yet
neither one even mentions it. What significance is there to their
combined disinterest in motherhood?
4. How are the love triangles between Hareton-Cathy-Linton and
Heathcliff-Catherine-Edgar similar? What is the fundamental
difference?

16. Discussion Questions
5. If Heathcliff truly loved Catherine, why do you think he treats Cathy,
her daughter, in such a horrible way? After seeing the way he treats
Linton and Hareton, do you think he would treat Cathy differently if
he, not Edgar, were her father?
6. Explain Heathcliff’s obsession with Catherine’s dead body. Argue
whether he is insane or is determined to be at peace by opening
Catherine’s grave.
7. Describe Heathcliff’s death. Do you feel Heathcliff found peace?
Describe the characters’ reactions to Heathcliff’s death.

17. QHQs
Q: Does Heathcliff really seek to exact revenge
on Hindley’s and Edgar’s descendants?
Q: How did Heathcliff acquire his money? Does it
really matter?
Q: Was Lockwood a necessary part of the story?
Q: Would the events of Wuthering
Heights have repeated themselves if Linton
had lived?

18. Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-
94)
• Born in Edinburgh
--Sickly (lung trouble—tubercular?)
--Read law at Edinburgh U, never practiced.
--1876: met Fanny Osborne in Europe; American divorcée with two
children; ten years older than RLS.
--1879: moves to California (Monterey) to be with Fanny.
--1880: marries Fanny, moves to Napa.
--Returns to England (Bournemouth), but winters in Europe.
--1883: Treasure Island.
--1885: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
--1886: Kidnapped.
--1888-90: Pacific voyages (Hawaii, Samoa, etc.)
--1890: settles permanently in Samoa, where he is buried.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-h2lhMEnx9s

19. To Watch Out For in Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde
Supernaturalism
Identity (Doubling)
Change/Transformation
Freedom
Good and Evil
Queerness

20. Homework
Assigned Reading: The
Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1675
HW: Discussion
Question #6