Emily Brontë Wrote a Single Novel That Would Become Among the Most Celebrated Works in the History of English Writing. Wuthe
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
AP Literature and Composition 12 Due 2/26 Delran High School Please read this article by Thursday 26 February. While transferring this document to Google Drive caused some formatting issues, please ignore them and read this article carefully. Your journal entries should include one of the subjects of the highlighted portions of this essay, since your final essay test prompts derive from the highlighted portions of this essay. This essay also contains a useful demonstration of close reading. Wuthering Heights From: Bloom's How to Write about the Brontës. Article Contents: Reading to Write Topics and Strategies Themes Character Philosophy and Ideas Form and Genre Reading to Write Emily Brontë wrote a single novel that would become among the most celebrated works in the history of English writing. Wuthering Heights joined the equally powerful works of her sisters to make up a compelling group of literary masterpieces, made all the more amazing by the fact they were written by siblings. Notes from the sisters' diaries and letters make clear they discussed their novels with each other, but no specific dates for the writing of Wuthering Heights have been discovered. Some literary historians believe Emily may have begun work on her novel as early as 1837, but most believe she probably started in earnest in 1845. Charlotte Brontë wrote to her publisher in 1846 offering three novels for publication: Wuthering Heights, her own novel titled The Professor,and Anne Brontë's Agnes Grey. Wuthering Heights was published in 1847 under the name of Ellis Bell, Emily Brontë's pseudonym. The family had to agree to pay the publisher an advance of £50, the money to be refunded from sale proceeds of the first 250 copies. The novel would revolutionize the gothic genre, but Emily did not live long enough to enjoy its effect. The first of many new editions was issued in 1850, two years following Emily's death; it contained a preface by Charlotte. Charlotte took advantage of that opportunity to attempt to explain to the Victorian readership how such violent subject matter could have been conceived by her sister. In producing her gothic tale, Emily Brontë used all of the aspects of that genre. A source such as Peter K. Garrett's Gothic Reflections: Narrative AP Literature and Composition 12 Due 2/26 Delran High School Force in Nineteenth-Century Fiction, provides an excellent review and discussion of those aspects. Brontë furnished two symbolic houses in her depictions of WutheringHeights and Thrushcross Grange, but it is the moors that offer the mysterious setting traditional to gothic fiction. While most novels share some things in common, such as an easily recognizable protagonist, symbolism, and irony, some offer something more unusual to the observant reader. In the case of WutheringHeights, the moors act as more than mere setting. They help set the tone of a wild and unpredictable plot, mimicking Heathcliff's moods and tendency toward violence. While nature is technically neutral, never seeking revenge on the humans who expose themselves to its powers, we sometimes tend to attribute such powers to it. Particularly in the case of Wuthering Heights, the setting plays such a vital role in shaping the characters that it becomes a character itself. Heathcliff offers readers an essential element of the gothic genre as a dark, brooding Byronic hero, while both Cathy Earnshaw Linton and her daughter Catherine act as gothic heroines finding themselves in need of rescue from danger. Brontë emphasizes the gothic's supernatural aspects by transforming Cathy into a ghost following her death. Her spirit haunts Heathcliff, who, in a macabre act, opens Cathy's coffin to embrace her. He later removes a panel in the coffin so that when he dies and is buried beside Cathy, the couple's spirits may mingle. At the time of its publication, the novel's hero, or antihero as it were, confused readers who had never encountered a character quite like Heathcliff. He engages in what contemporary readers would have considered immoral actions, seeming to deny his own rational ability. He chooses instead to act upon instinct, leading many to compare him to an animal out of control. Brontë invites that comparison through her description of Heathcliff as a foundling, arriving at Wuthering Heightsdirty, ragged, and unable to communicate in anything other than "gibberish." As you read carefully through each chapter, consider possible writing topics and remember to take notes, especially regarding the characters' relationships. Because the two main female characters share the same first and last names, and the surnames Linton and Earnshaw are shared by several characters, keeping track of the characters can be a challenge; notes will help you to sort them out. While Heathcliff is clearly the novel's most dominant figure, others, including the dual AP Literature and Composition 12 Due 2/26 Delran High School narrators, offer promise as essay topics. The setting also intrigues many readers and for that reason suggests itself as a sound focus for an essay. Brimming with symbolism, irony, foreshadowing, and plot twists, the book offers a wealth of possibilities for the observant reader. In addition, background information may prove helpful, such as that found in Sally Mitchell'sDaily Life in Victorian England (1996), which helps readers better understand the cultural, social, and political issues during the era in which Brontë wrote. One approach to note taking involves keeping paper close at hand and developing categories that may be written at the top of columns. The categories could simply be the narrative elements of fiction, such as plot, character, style, and setting, or they might be more detailed. For instance, a column might be headed protagonist or antagonist instead of character, or tone and vocabularyinstead of style. Underneath each heading, you should list page numbers on which you note an interesting passage that involves your topics. This approach, or any other organized note-taking system, will prove invaluable when you begin to write an essay, allowing for easy access to important passages without dependence on memory. As you search for passages of interest, determine elements of the writing that attract you. You can look for similar elements in other passages and analyze those that suggest a deeper meaning than what one gathers at a first quick reading. Finally, ask questions about those passages that may lead to a thesis statement. Consider the passage below, spoken by the Lintons' housekeeper, Nelly, as she tells the story of the Lintons, the Earnshaws, and Heathcliff to Thrushcross Grange's new tenant, Lockwood. She focuses on the return of Heathcliff following a long absence: I determined to watch his movements. My heart invariably cleaved to the master's, in preference to Catherine's side; with reason, I imagined, for he was kind, and trustful, and honourable; and she—she could not be called the opposite, yet she seemed to allow herself such wide latitude, that I had little faith in her principles, and still less sympathy for her feelings. I wanted something to happen which might have the effect of freeing both Wuthering Heights and the Grange of Mr. Heathcliff, quietly, leaving us as we had been prior to his advent. His visits were a continual nightmare to me; and, I suspected, to my master also. His abode at the Heightswas an oppression past explaining. I felt that God had forsaken the stray sheep there to its own wicked wanderings, and an evil beast prowled between it and the fold, waiting his time to spring and destroy. One could approach this passage from several angles. A first approach would be to analyze the character of the narrator. Nelly states she prefers Edgar Linton to his new wife, Catherine Earnshaw, and she is AP Literature and Composition 12 Due 2/26 Delran High School quite specific as to why she holds that preference. While her first statement makes her seem prejudiced against Catherine, she defends her viewpoint, appealing to her own honest character. She also can be judged protective of her family, as she wishes for something to free both of the family homes from Heathcliff's evil effect. We would also judge Nelly a fine storyteller, due to her inclusion of details and use of figurative language in describing Heathcliff and his effect on the previously peaceful family. A second essay approach could involve examining the paragraph for foreshadowing of events and situations to come. Edgar Linton's description as "kind, and trustful, and honourable" could indicate dark days ahead for him, as he may not be a good match if pitted against the "evil beast" Heathcliff. While Nelly admits that Catherine is not Edgar's opposite, meaning she cannot be labeled unkind, distrustful, or without honor, she lacks principles that Nelly finds important. That could predict discord between Catherine and Edgar, and possibly Catherine's being again drawn to Heathcliff. Lacking her husband's principles, she would have not even those weak defenses against Heathcliff. Nelly wishes for "something to happen," which could be a predictor of a future event. However, because Nelly is telling of events in the past, and Heathcliff remains at the Grange during the present, that theory will not hold. A third method for analysis of this passage results from a study of its symbolism, which appears in the last half of the paragraph. Nelly describes Heathcliff's visits as "a continual nightmare," comparing the invader's presence to a frightening, chaotic experience over which one has no control. His presence is also "an oppression past explaining," again connecting Heathcliff's effect to something unnatural that cannot be dealt with rationally; it even defies Nelly's ability to describe it.