Wuthering Heights

‘Wuthering Heights’ – A Level Lang Lit English Week beginning: 8th June 2020 Checklist: • Read chapters 4,5,6,7 • Read the notes that follow with mini tasks included • Make notes on each chapter using the WAGOLL partially completed template provided e.g. overview, characters , key themes, key quotes • Identify and comment on key language features in each chapter (some WAGOLLs are included). Focus: • Track and analyse the transformation of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw and their relationship. Analyse the presentation of setting (Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange) MAT CHALLENGE • Identify contextual factors that influence the narrative or characters. • Consider critics responses to the text ‘Wuthering Heights’ Chapter 4:(IV) Arrival of a Foundling Overview of chapter: In Thrushcross Grange, Nelly Dean begins to tell Lockwood of the story of Heathcliff. She explains how he was brought to Wuthering Heights as a child and spread discord among the Earnshaw family. Make notes on the Key quotes Comments and analysis of quotation following themes in Select 10-20 quotes from each chapter each chapter • Characters e.g. Heathcliff Cathy Hindley • Setting/ sense of place • Discord/conflict or disruption to the natural order • Formative childhood experiences • Freedom and imprisonment or feeling trapped • Human faults and failings e.g. character flaws • Painful emotions Contextual overview Heathcliff’s origins are obscure and family relationships place him outside the conventional social structure of the family. He is available to be loved or hated for himself. His lack of social status or clear social role, coupled with Mr Earnshaw’s favouritism, destabilises any certainty about inheritance and genealogy, causing Hindley to feel, rightly, threatened, and Catherine, equally rightly, strengthened. The first act of love is shown by old Mr Earnshaw, who returns from Liverpool with a waif hidden under his greatcoat, determined to offer the young orphan a home. Victorian readers would have been familiar with the story of Heathcliff as a foundling from the port of Liverpool: orphans and child beggars were a common social problem. It is perhaps ironic that this simple, genuine act of kindness should become a catalyst for great upheaval in the Earnshaw household. From the moment of his arrival, Heathcliff has no defined position within the home and immediately creates discord as a result. CONTEXT: As an intrinsic part of Victorian culture, it was believed that the novel should contribute to contemporary moral values. Victorian readers judged the novel on moral grounds and found it shocking. The shifting nature of social status is demonstrated most strikingly in Heathcliff’s trajectory from homeless waif to young gentleman. He ensures his rise in social standing by cheating and deceiving others. Narrative Voices ►The doubling of the narrator acts as a caution to the over-confident reader. It immediately unsettles our certainty that the narrator’s voice is neutral or trustworthy. ►An external masculine narrative frames (and legitimises?) an internal feminine narrative. There is a clear link to Bronte’s choice to use a gender-neutral pseudonym to legitimate her novel. ►When Nelly Dean takes up the narration we are presented with a narrative whose subject and interest consist entirely of domestic action and adventure. Through her narrative, Bronte cautions us against underestimating the domestic power that women are sometimes able to operate. Power is shown to operate in many different ways and is available to serve different ends. We see examples of despotism of the strong over the weak, the inequalities between men and women and between rich and poor. She also introduces us to the power of writing and its manipulative potential. Nelly controls the narrative ; as the reader of all the books in the library and recipient of important letters, she makes choices about what to do with the information that she holds. Key features: Find examples of the following techniques reflected in Nelly’s narration in CHAPTER 4: • Similes which typify her honest, simple narrative • metaphor to describe Heathcliff • noun phrase to describe Heathcliff • pronoun • Superlative which emphasizes how she is beginning to find something endearing in Heathcliff’s character. • Animalistic imagery associated with Heathcliff which highlight his uncivilized qualities. WAGOLL: Add further explanation to explain the impact of the language features used. Nelly introduces Heathcliff: • “Rough as a saw-edge, and hard as whinstone!” Nelly’s similes typify her honest, simple narrative, making her account of the characters more direct and credible than Lockwood’s. • She describes Heathcliff’s history as “a cuckoo’s”. An entirely appropriate metaphor as Heathcliff takes that which is not rightly his. • Mr Earnshaw describes him using the noun phrase, “a gift of God”, whereas Mrs Earnshaw describes him as “that gipsy brat”. • Nelly often uses the pronoun “it” rather than “he” to describe him. • His divisive impact upon the Earnshaw household is immediate and sadly forebodes what lies ahead. Heathcliff’s stoicism and patience when suffering from measles endears him to Nelly, however. “The quietest child that ever nurse watched over”. Superlative emphasizes how she is beginning to find something endearing in his character. • “Off, dog!” cried Hindley. Animalistic imagery is often associated with Heathcliff, highlighting his uncivilized qualities. Chapter 5:(V) The Death of Mr Earnshaw Task: Find 5 examples which exemplify Catherine’s character. e.g. • Descriptions of Catherine by Nelly – “She had the bonniest eye, and sweetest smile, and lightest foot in the parish”. Tripling of superlatives to highlight her attractive qualities. • “She was much too fond of Heathcliff”. A note of warning and foreboding in the declarative by Nelly Chapter 6:(VI) New Acquaintances Hindley returns to Wuthering Heights following his father’s death with a new wife. Heathcliff is banished to the servant’s quarters . Hidley refuses to allow the curate to contine Heathcliff’s education and forces him to work as a farm hand. Catherine and Heathcliff grow more rebellious and wild. They sneak into Thrushcross Grange and Catherine is injured by their dogs. 1. What is the impact of Mr Earnshaw’s death? 2. How are Hindley, Heathcliff, Catherine presented/transformed? 3. Compare the presentation of Catherine with that of Hindley’s wife Frances. Add additional quotes which show Hindley’s transformation. • Hindley – “Young Earnshaw was altered considerably in the three years of his absence”. The adverb considerably indicates the level of change about to be experienced by those living at Wuthering Heights. • “Hindley became tyrannical.” Adjective ‘tyrannical’. • “He drove him from their company to the servants, deprived him of the instructions of the curate, and insisted that he should labour out of door.” Use of the verbs ‘drove’, ‘deprived’ and ‘insisted’ emphasise the poor treatment suffered by Heathcliff as he is degraded by Hindley. How are Catherine and Heathcliff treated? Heathcliff and Catherine escape from the house one Sunday evening; they have gone to look at the Linton family through the windows of Thrushcross Grange. They are noticed as they laugh at Edgar and Isabella quarrelling over a little dog, but their laughter is short-lived as the bull-dog is set upon them. The dog seized Catherine by the ankle. As the two trespassers were taken into the house, Catherine was finally recognized and treated with care and kindness as her leg was treated; Heathcliff was thrown out of the house for using foul language. • Once more a window is a focal point of the narrative. Windows are separators in the novel. The window initially separates Catherine and Heathcliff from the Lintons but by the end of the chapter it separates Catherine and Heathcliff from each other; they are never to be truly happy together again. • The window at Thrushcross Grange separates Heathcliff from Catherine and the Lintons and the behavior of the Linton’s towards him reinforces his lower social status. The window is a physical barrier which symbolizes the social barrier between them. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë constantly Moors: The constant emphasis on landscape within the text of plays nature and culture against each other. Wuthering Heights endows the setting with symbolic importance. Nature is represented by the Earnshaw This landscape is comprised primarily of moors: wide, wild expanses, high but somewhat soggy, and thus infertile. Moorland family, and by Catherine and Heathcliff in cannot be cultivated, and its uniformity makes navigation particular. These characters are governed difficult. It features particularly waterlogged patches in which by their passions, not by reflection or ideals people could potentially drown. Thus, the moors serve very well as of civility. Correspondingly, the house symbols of the wild threat posed by nature. As the setting for the where they live—Wuthering Heights— beginnings of Catherine and Heathcliff’s bond (the two play on the comes to symbolize a similar wildness moors during childhood), the moorland transfers its symbolic associations onto the love affair. Design a mind map: Settings Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange Windows are a focal point of the narrative. Windows are The novel establishes a difference between separators in the novel. The window initially separates Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange; the Catherine and Heathcliff from the Lintons but by the end of former full

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