Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë

The bill for the 1992 film version Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part One: First generation The foundling Heathcliff is brought to Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw. Oppression and exploitation of Heathcliff by Hindley, Mr Earnshaw’s son. Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff become twin souls. The bill for the 1992 film version

The bill for the 1992 film version Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part One: First generation Cathy Earnshaw’s transformation from ‘savage’ to ‘proper lady’ during her stay at Thrushcross Grange. Cathy’s betrayal of her ‘soul mate’ Heathcliff. Heathcliff’s departure (splitting of the oak). Cathy’s marriage to Edgar Linton. The bill for the 1992 film version

1. Key events Part One: First generation Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part One: First generation Heathcliff’s return as a ‘gentleman’ intent on revenge. Cathy’s attempts to have both Heathcliff and Edgar. Cathy’s derangement and illness.

1. Key events Part One: First generation Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part One: First generation Birth of Cathy II, Catherine’s and Edgar’s daughter. Cathy’s death and Heathcliff’s despair. Top Withens

1. Key events Part Two: Second generation Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part Two: Second generation Heathcliff’s revenge: property, gained by marriage to Isabella Linton and expropriation. Degradation of Hareton, Heathcliff and Isabella’s son. Heathcliff loses interest in revenge. Near Top Withens

1. Key events Part Two: Second generation Emily Brontë 1. Key events Part Two: Second generation Heathcliff and Catherine together in death. Marriage of Cathy II and Hareton: property restored to rightful owner. Near Top Withens

2. Narrative structure Non-linear narrative structure Use of flashback Emily Brontë 2. Narrative structure Non-linear narrative structure Use of flashback Beginning in medias res Binary structure Elicits curiosity in the reader Invites comparison between the two stories Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, where the Bronte family lived Implies an active reader

Lockwood’s dream in an etching by Rosalind Whitman Emily Brontë 3. Narrative point of view Two frame narrators: Lockwood (as external narrator) and Nelly Dean (as internal narrator). Chinese box structure: stories within stories. Two interpreters; two auditors (reader and Lockwood closely identified). Lockwood’s dream in an etching by Rosalind Whitman

Nelly Dean’s perspective Emily Brontë 3. Narrative point of view Nelly Dean’s perspective Conventional  based on morality, religion and superstition. She thinks Cathy is “wayward”, “ill-tempered”. “I vexed her frequently by trying to bring down her arrogance” (Part I, Ch. VIII). “She was too much fond of Heathcliff” (Part I Ch. V).

Lockwood’s perspective Emily Brontë 3. Narrative point of view Lockwood’s perspective The voice of conventional society. An unreliable narrator because he does not know all the details of the story.

Implications of the multiple narrators Emily Brontë 3. Narrative point of view Implications of the multiple narrators Strangeness and ‘otherness’ preserved. Multiple interpretations: no single ‘truth’. Unique Interpretation becomes impossible  modern aspect of the novel. Only Connect ... New Directions

Only Connect ... New Directions Emily Brontë 4. Main characters Catherine Wayward, difficult, rebellious, spirited & ‘unfeminine’. “her spirits were always at high water-mark, her tongue always going... A wild, wick slip she was but she had the bonniest eye, and sweetest smile and lightest foot in the parish” (Part I, Ch. V) “heaven did not seem to be my home” (Part I, Ch. IX) Charlotte Riley as Catherine and Tom Hardy as Heathcliff in Coky Giedroyc’s 2009 film version Only Connect ... New Directions

Timothy Dalton in Robert Fuest’s 1970 film version Emily Brontë 4. Main characters Heathcliff Persistent ambiguity: man or beast? Unknown origins, absence of social connection. Absence of emotion, “insensible”. Timothy Dalton in Robert Fuest’s 1970 film version

Timothy Dalton in Robert Fuest’s 1970 film version Emily Brontë 4. Main characters Heathcliff Deteriorates into brute state. Violent and extreme language. A Byronic hero. Timothy Dalton in Robert Fuest’s 1970 film version

4. Main characters Heathcliff / Catherine relationship Emily Brontë 4. Main characters Heathcliff / Catherine relationship Vindictive, violent and possessive “They may bury me twelve feet deep and throw the church down over me; but I won’t rest till you are with me… I never will!” (Part I, Ch. XII) Merged identities “If all else perished and he remained, I should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger….Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” (Part I, Ch. IX)

4. Main characters Heathcliff / Catherine relationship Emily Brontë 4. Main characters Heathcliff / Catherine relationship Vitality, authenticity, freedom. Rejection of class values. Heathcliff and Cathy symbolise the instinctual, unconscious forces. Contrasted with ‘civilised’ characters: Edgar, Lockwood, Nelly Dean. Robert Brook, Heathcliff and Cathy, from the novel Wuthering Heights, 20th century, Private Collection.

5. The Moors as symbol Attempt to escape Emily Brontë 5. The Moors as symbol The Moors represent the Romantic rejection of society and the desire to transcend its rules Attempt to escape English Moors English Moors

5. The Moors as symbol Escape is impossible Emily Brontë 5. The Moors as symbol Cathy reconciles self & class society through her marriage to Edgar and her relationship with Heathcliff Escape is impossible English Moors English Moors

Emily Brontë 6. Gothic elements Heathcliff as a Gothic villain in his inhuman treatment of his wife and his son. The sinister atmosphere of Wuthering Heights surrounded by the wilderness. Catherine’s ghost.

6. Gothic elements The dreams and superstitions often mentioned. Emily Brontë 6. Gothic elements The dreams and superstitions often mentioned. These are not used to frighten the reader, but to convey the struggle between the two opposed principles of love and hate, of order and chaos.

principle of storm and energy Emily Brontë 7. Opposite principles Wuthering Heights Thrushcross Grange The home of the Earnshaws. Severe, gloomy, brutal in aspect and atmosphere. Firmly rooted in local tradition and custom. The background for the life of primitive passion led by its owner. The home of the Lintons. Reflects a Victorian conception of life. Symbolises stability, kindness and respectability. principle of storm and energy principle of calm