Introduction to
Wuthering
Heights
British Literature
Warm Up for 1/8/2016
In your journal, jot down some life lessons you
have acquired from your favorite books.
 We will be a reading a book review about the life
lessons from Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.
 Read “Life Lessons from Wuthering Heights” by
Lindsey Gooden in your small groups and answer
the question:
 What is unique about Wuthering Heights?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUWOCd894-Q
Wuthering Heights: Introduction
In the late 1700s, Cathy and Heathcliff grow up
together at Wuthering Heights, Cathy’s family
home on the northern English moors.
Wuthering Heights: Introduction
Wuthering Heights is a romantic
tale of intense, tragic love—
the kind of love that leads to
madness and destruction.
Does Heathcliff and Cathy’s love
also bring hope for redemption?
Wuthering Heights: Background
The landscape of this novel is a raw, powerful
force—almost a character in itself.
The novel takes place on the moors of Yorkshire in
northern England.
Wuthering Heights: Background
A moor is a large, open area of marshy land.
It often has a top
layer of peat, or
decayed plant matter.
Peat may be
dried and used
for fuel.
Wuthering Heights: Background
The Yorkshire moors are covered with wild heath,
or heather.
Wuthering Heights: Background
Dark sandstone
crags, or cliffs,
help create an
atmosphere of
desolation.
Wuthering Heights: Background
Emily Brontë lived most
of her life in Yorkshire.
As children, she and
her sisters and brother
played on the moors
much as Cathy and
Heathcliff do in Brontë’s
novel.
Wuthering Heights: Background
Not surprisingly, this
landscape helped
inspire the dark
romanticism of
Wuthering Heights.
The Setting
Wuthering Heights is set in
three locations:
 Wuthering Heights
 Thrushcross Grange
 The Yorkshire Moors
The Setting:
Yorkshire,
England
Thrushcross Grange
Thrushcross Grange and the Moors
Gimmerton Valley near
Thrushcross Park
Looking from the
Valley toward the
Moors
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
A story of two Households…
Wuthering Heights: Introduction
Is true love stronger than death?
THE “FRAME NARRATIVE”
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Wuthering Heights is highly praised for the unique
narrative technique Emily Bronte used to execute the
novel, often referred to as a “frame narrative.”
The two main narrators are Lockwood and Nelly Dean,
but other narrators arise throughout the novel when
Nelly quotes what other characters have told her.
The frame narrative form of the novel adds complexity
for the reader. Lockwood is the outer layer and Nelly
the inner layer.
Since the story passes through layers, the reader must
question the reliability of all that he or she reads.
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Example: Nelly glosses over events to minimize her own guilt.
Example: Lockwood is naïve and lacks good judgment.
Novel Structure
Wuthering Heights is told in medias res.
Latin for "in the middle of things.”
It usually describes a narrative that begins,
not at the beginning of a story, but
somewhere in the middle — usually at
some crucial point in the action. The
purpose in Wuthering Heights is to add a
sense of mystery.
Industrial Revolution and
Social Class
 Wuthering Heights was written in 1847, which
was a time when Capitalism and the Industrial
Revolution were the dominant forces of the
British economy and society.
 It was a time of rapid, often confusing, change
that led to violence. As a result of the changing
economy, the traditional relationships between
classes and the social structure began to
change.
Social Class Evolution
 While wealth had traditionally been measured by
land ownership, the eighteenth century had
begun 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 yeomen, or the respectable
farming class, as well as the traditional powerholding gentry was challenged by the newly
wealthy capitalists.
Social Class Representation in Wuthering
Heights (record on family tree)
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
Women’s Rights
During this time period women’s
rights were changing.
Why this is relevant:
 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.

This property rights issue arises in Wuthering Heights.
Romanticism, the Gothic novel, and
Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights contains elements of Romanticism
and the Gothic novel.
Romantic elements:
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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
The Gothic novel
Elements of the Gothic novel
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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
Byronic Hero
Heathcliff is regarded as a classic Byronic hero. The
Byronic hero was defined by Lord Byron’s epic narrative
poem , Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in 1812.
Elements of the Byronic hero:
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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
What is it about?
“But here’s the thing: Wuthering Heights isn’t
really about Heathcliff as a hero, or Cathy as a
heroine. Heathcliff himself cautions against
‘picturing in me a hero’. It’s about love.
Transcendent love, operatic love, excessive,
abandoned love. It’s unreasonable, this olive. It is
angst and probably immature. But tornado love is
more appealing than postmodern love.”
–Samantha Ellis
TEXTBOOK
CHECK IN AND
CHECK OUT
Check back in Hamlet and check
out your copy of Wuthering
Heights.
Anticipation Guide
 Read over the statements and write “agree” or
“disagree” on the line. In the space below, write
a short rationale for your selection.

You may not choose to remain neutral.
Homework
 Read and
annotate
chapters 1
and 2 of
Emily
Bronte’s
Wuthering
Heights.