Wuthering Heights
two
A230B
The second chapter on WH explores ways in •
which the idea of abroad might be relevant to
the novel from a range of perspectives.
The chapter examines a variety of 19th ,20th •
21st centuries responses.
WH and the world beyond •
Some North American critics were less •
favorable than usual.
How this sense of abroad features in the •
novel?
It is not too difficult to the contrasting worlds •
of WH and Thrushcross Grange might
represent a conflict between northern rural
values and the more urban cultures of the
south of England.To Lockwood, thjenorth is
stikingly other, a foreign place.
One of WH’s more notable achievement is to demystify •
the Victorian notion of the family.
The domestic spaces in which the novel’s action take •
place cannot be viewed by readers today as divorced
from the conflicts of the world beyond.
Heathcliff is the most obvious representative of abroad •
in the context of the local and domestic world of the
novel.He enters the domestic scene from another
world: from the streets of Liverpool, the imperial
trading port where Mr.Earnshaw finds him and from
elswhere before that.
Taken together with his possible irish •
background, his origin might make him an angel
of revenge on behalf of a formidable collective of
oppressed ethnic groups.
The mystery over Heathcliff’s origins and over his •
whereabouts when he disappears from the novel,
and over the source of the wealth with which he
returns connect him in a suggestive way with the
world of cmmercial enterprise and colonial
exploitation.There is no precise location for the
colonial contexts of this novel.
The uncanny •
Home and abroad are very closely interrelated in •
Bronte’s novel.Wh combines realistic storytelling
with some of the most fantastical modes of
Romantic narration, to which the concept of the
uncanny is central.
The uncanny is things that disturb our sense of •
the familiar.The familiar suggests what is known
or literally what is of the family.The word may be
close to the idea of home.
The sense of an animating presence within •
inanimate nature might be described as
uncanny .The final paragraph of WH , as was
discussed earlier, describes a wind that “
breathes “through the grasses.
A sense of disturbing presence in nature is •
every bit as typical of Romantic poetry.
The grotesque is another quality that might be •
associated with the uncanny.
There are certainly numerous grotesque •
moments in wh for example , the apparition
at lockwood’s window.
The uncanny has to do with the a sense of •
strangeness or mystery.It shows a sense of
unfamiliarity which appears at the very heart
of the unfamiliar.The uncanny has to do with a
disturbance of the familiar.
The novel is hybrid in form and the genres are •
unsettled by each other.The sense of the
uncanny is reinforced by the unsettling
repetition of names and events.
WH and Romantic poetry.. •
As we have seen, genre is a central issue in •
thinking about the literary home of WH.The
uncanny returned us to thinking about the
gothic elements of the novel.From the
moments of its publication,wh invited
comparisons with forms outside the novel
and its chief home genre, the romance.
WH was seen as a domestic drama, a novel in •
poetry, and that some descriptions of Headcliff
are close to dramatic poetry…
Disturbed her? No? she has disturbed me, night •
and day, through Eighteen yeards- incessantlyremorselessly-till yesternight-and yesternight, I
was tranquil.I dreamt I was sleeping the last
sleep, by that sleeper, with my heart stopped,
and my cheek frozen against her.
Why does the critic describes that as dramatic poetry? •
Bronte’s language in this passage draws attention to •
the ways in which the effect of the passage results as
much from what we could call the musicality of of the
from the actual meaning of the words language as
used.These effects are not exclusive to poetry, of
poetry, of course, but prose is described as poetic
when these qualities are prominent in its use of
language.some of the words that Bronte chooses for
this passage, its diction, are also reminiscent of poetry:
the archaic’ till yesternight’ for example.
Dramatic monologue means a poem in which an •
imaginary speakers addresses an imaginary
audience…”Disturbed her? No..She has disturbed
me”.
The novel’s relationship with poetry is certainly a •
crucial aspects of its composition.Both Bronte’s
own work asa poet and her extensive reading of
poetry had a profound impact on the language
and rhythms of WH.
WH and Romanticism.. •
WH’s affinities with Romantic Literature are •
especially strong in its portrayals of romantic
union and of the natural world.Specific allusions
to Romantic poetry underpin Catherine and
Heathcliff’s passionate declarations of a union of
souls…”I am not thine: I am a part of thee”
Heathcliff says..”Be with me always- take any •
form –drive me mad”.That made the love story of
Catherine and Heathcliff reflects love and not
desire.
After the death of Catherine, Heathcliff •
becomes a romantic hero,with a capital R.
Another link with Romanticism is the notion •
of the spiritual presence within nature in the
Romantic poetry that Emily Bronte knew and
loved.
Again throughout WH, every mood and •
season in nature, its weather,skies,birdsong, is
lovely detailed.
Some critics saw WH as a story about the •
distortion of innate affections.Nelly relates that “
from childhood, Heathcliff had a delight in
dwelling on dark things, a tendency clearly
encouraged by the brutal treatment he
receives.p.288.Romantic ideas of the importance
of childhood experience for the formation of
character are suggested here.In telling the the
life story of Heathcliff from poverty to
gentlemanliness shares aspects of the Romantic
Bildungsroman or a novel of education.
WH and the world within.. •
Victorian readers’ own encounters with the novel were •
conditioned by their awareness of contemporary
contexts( including mercantile copetition, irish
immigration and social marginalisation). Even if issues
of class , race and gender are more emphasised in
current criticism.
Moreover, the dominant models of psychology at the •
time presented a view of the individual interior life as
driven by warring energies fighting for dominion as
energetically as in the political and economic struggles
of the world outside.
These faculties required an outlet .Self control •
was crucial for a balance between
them.Suppression was likely to breed revolt.
Heathcliff’s psychology might be understood •
as a microcosom of aggressive capitalism
abroad.Heathcliff might be suffering from
monomania…partial insanity.The mind was
seen as a divided entity.
Heathcliff’s program of revenge might speak •
to victorian anxieties about the uncanny
potential of both dispossessed classes and
maltreated races to usurp the pre-eminence
of those currently in possession of wealth and
power.
How the contrasting worlds have been •
differently read?
For many readers ,WH dramatises a struggle •
between nature and civilization which reflects
Romantic ideas about the superiority of
nature over culture that are as attractive to us
today as they were to the Victorians.This is a
conflict that civilizatio must always, and
tragically, win.
A view of the novel as dramatising a conflict •
between civilization and nature is, in fact, longstanding and appears in one of the first critical
reponses to the novel.This assessment identified
Catherine’s divided attraction to Edgar and
Heathcliff as the hub of the drama played out in
the two competing locations of the novel.While
Edgar is an appropriate husband, she loves
Heathcliff with a passionate abandoment which
sets culture , education, the world, at defiance.
Domestic readings of WH •
The shift of critical attention towrds female characters •
has worked in the service of a variety of redaings.These
reviews see that Catherine is the real protagonist of the
novel.The categories of romance and realism, home
and abroad, coexist as much as they compete within
the novel.The first generation story is characterized by
domestic vilence( forced marriage) whereas the
second-generation story ends with the withdrawal of
the hero and heroine into the nuclear family and the
gentler home-world of Thrushcross Grange.The novel
offers here a new forms of family.
How are books and reading significant to the novel? •
When Lockwood reads the first Catherine’s diaries in •
the form of annotations written in a copy of the Bible,
we are exposed to the heroine’s defiant attitude to the
most authoritative of texts.Books in the novel are not
only symbols of intellectual independence and
resisitance to tyranny.They have a material presence
and value, and are the preserve of rich men( lockwood
piles books against the window to try to keep
Catherine’s ghost out.
Nelly is able to narrate because she reads. •
The readers of WH are also interpreters and •
often narrators of their stories
A divided afterlife.. •
The status of WH as a popular novel is a •
20thcentury phenomenon , following the success
of the 1939 film with Laurence Olivier and Merle
Oberon.Right after the the release of the film,
there was an increase the sold copies of the
novel.The romantic love conveyed by the film
represents the dominant mode of popular
readings of the novel over the past 70 years.
One effect of film adaptations of WH was a •
decisive shift of attention to the female
characters of the story.
Conclusion.. •
From the start of its popularity in the 20th cent, •
WH has enjoyed a divided afterlife.Wheras
academic studies of the novel have wanted to
investigate its particular historical and cultural
contexts.
Film adaptations have aimed to make WH a •
timeless and universal romantic myth.
This split between critical and popular •
representations of the novel exemplifies how
stories take on a life of their own within english
culture independent of their original
contexts.Readers and and audience contribute to
any text’s meaning ,as they interpret it in terms of
their own interests and concerns.Texts go
abroad.we make them at home.