Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë Top Withens, possible inspiration for the Earnshaw family house.

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 Emily Brontë Only Connect... New Directions 1. Key events Part One: First generation

Emily Brontë 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. Part One: First generation Only Connect... New Directions 1. Key events The bill for the 1992 film version

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

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

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

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

2. Narrative structure Non-linear narrative structure Use of flashbackBeginning in medias resBinary structure Elicits curiosity in the reader Invites comparison between the two stories Implies an active reader Emily Brontë Brontë Parsonage in Haworth, where the Brontë family lived Only Connect... New Directions

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). 3. Narrative point of view Lockwood’s dream in an etching by Rosalind Whitman Emily Brontë Only Connect... New Directions

3. Narrative point of view Nelly Dean’s perspective Emily Brontë 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). Only Connect... New Directions

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

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

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 Emily Brontë Only Connect... New Directions

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

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

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) Heathcliff / Catherine relationship Emily Brontë Only Connect... New Directions 4. Main characters

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

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

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

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 Emily Brontë Only Connect... New Directions

6. Gothic elements Emily Brontë 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. Only Connect... New Directions

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. 7. Opposite principles Thrushcross GrangeWuthering Heights principle of storm and energy principle of calm Emily Brontë Only Connect... New Directions