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Wuthering Heights
Lecture one
A230b:
Shahd Alshammari
AOU, 2014
1847
Emily Bronte wrote it under the pseudonym Ellis Bell
Early reception of the novel. Refer to page 352
Victorian Reaction to the novel as too violent and extreme.
The setting/home description by Lockwood.
Home setting as orderly, but chaotic on the inside.
The wild external landscape is significant- “spatial expression of the themes and
emotions portrayed”
Lockwood’s first impression of Heathcliff.
The first description of Thrushcross Grange.
Indoors rather than from its exterior. This contrasts with Wuthering Heights.
Location and opposition
Heathcliff’s characterization. (360-361)
Lord Byron’s Byronic hero- dark and obsessive mentality, inspires fear.
Byronic or Gothic Hero.
How did Victorians react to his character as well as the other characters?
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Emotional and Physical Violence.
Structure of Wuthering Heights and the Idea of Home
A sense of disturbed familiarity in which the novel is structured.
Patterns of repetitions, variation, chronology.
Home: Henry James ‘house of fiction’- multiple perspectives, house with many
windows.
Characters repeat the same experiences, naming, and genealogy. (365-366)
Repetition-with-variation
Narrators and Perspectives
1st person narrators.
Lockwood’s initial narrative dated 1801, closing 1802
Lockwood: represents the majority of the novel’s readership. He is not at home at
Wuthering Heights.
Lockwood’s bewilderment.
Nelly Dean- at home both at WH and TG. Discuss her perspective and reliability.
(367-68) She narrates the events of 20 years ago.
Catherine’s diaries and voice.
Epistolary narrative- Isabella’s letter in Vol 1
Narrative uncertainty is a reason the novel is considered confused, despite its
chronological structure.
Wuthering Heights as Romance
Hybrid form
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Reasons why it is described as a romance.
The term originated as a term for fictional adventurers and tales of courtly love in
the Middle Ages.
WH has strong connections with Gothic novels.
Differences and Similarities between Gothic novels’ characters and WH. Discuss
(372-73).
Realism
Critic George Henry Lewes argued that the novel has real issues/emotions and
‘truth’
Discuss the issues and truths in terms of domestic life, social exclusion, economic
dispossession.
Discuss various interpretations of the love between Catherine and Heathcliff and
how this has been depicted in film versions