1. Thematic & Structural Considerations
Wuthering Heights
Thematic & Structural Considerations

2. Industrial Revolution-1847
“Marked by rapid, violent social changes”
Land ownership was a part of the gentry class
Genteelness was about birth rights and moral character
The economy was becoming more cash-based
The middle class was created because of this and more powerful than landowning gentry
Changes political power
Changes rules of social acceptance

3. Implications of Social Change
Textual Evidence
Social Class
Ch2-Lockwood’s blunders
Ch 5-$ as status as explained by Nelly
Ch 6-Hindley making Heathcliff a servant
Ch 7-Heathcliff wants to be like Edgar
Ch11-Heathcliff lowers status of Hindley
*source of motivation for revenge (theme)
(Hareton)
Yoemen
(Lintons)
Gentry
(Heathcliff)
Capitalist

4. Women’s Right Movement
Property Act of 1882
Single & Unmarried Women
Common Law Doctrine
Novel was published at the beginning of this movement in England
It was about voting rights
It was about married women’s property rights so they were the same as unmarried women.

5. Textual Evidence Ch9-Isabella’s reactions about being with Heathcliff
Ch10-marriage proposal that Cathy accepts from Edgar
Ch13-implications of Cathy’s baby if it is a boy vs. girl
Ch14-pg. 131 (approx)-quote
Ch17-Hareton’s Inheritance

6. Textual Evidence Ch21-Buying off Mr. Green because of the Will
C25-Why does Edgar let young Cathy marry Linton?
Ch28-Linton’s possessions, including the locket
So what will happen to young Cathy?
This is also a theme which also motivates revenge

7. Thematic Considerations: Death
b. Suitable arrangements do not reflect suicide
a. Dies in a state of drunkeness
Hindley
b. Neither Linton nor Heathcliff become genuinely alarmed but it is too late
c. Her burial is not addressed as a suicide
a. Induces her own ill health
Catherine
b. His will states he is to be buried with Catherine (Nelly does not want to infringe on this)
a. Dies of natural causes
Linton
a. Has a need to not be discovered as a suicide
b. Wants to be next to Cathy but Linton was
Heathcliff

8. Death & Burial Customs Pre-1823 Customs Insanity vs. self murdered
Felo-de-se
Suicide was subject to even greater ignominy
Could be buried at a cross-roads with a stake in the heart.
Property could be forfeited to the Crown if discovered as a suicide
Superstition-mirrors caused the soul to flee from the person and caused their death (suicide?)
If you talk of death to the person and they commit suicide, you were an accomplice and would be subject to the law as well

9. Death & Burial Customs After 1823 Customs
Suicides could be legally buried in the churchyards but below wall so no one could step over grace and disturb the soul
Buried in the church yard in the evening (hour + place)
No minister need to come
Nothing to be said over the person (lack of Christian burial)

10. Closed Family System
Earnshaws
Nelly
Cathy
Hindley
Joseph

11. Psyco-analytic Criticism
Amoral
Trans-generational
Addiction
SCAPE-GOATING
Gambling
INVALIDISM
Mortgages
ANOREXIA

12. Character Considerations
Closed Family System
Wuthering Heights
Focus on the family rather than the individual on isolation
Temper their love to detach from the family destruction
Victims, triangulation, and scapegoating
Bildungsroman focus on Cathy & Heathcliff
Contrast to Romanticism in many ways
The disappearance of God in literature so the focus is on human relationships as substitutes
Shift in focus could signify pre-oedipal focus on mother to father; eventually allows the integration of “self” again

13. Character Considerations
Bildungsroman
Byronic Hero Vs. Anti-Hero
Mostly about a single individual’s growth within the context of a defined social order
The growth is somewhat a quest story
Some form of loss or discontent jars the character away from home
Process of maturity is long, arduous, and full of repeated clashes between desires and social order that is unbending
Spirit and values of the social order become a part of the character and the protagonist then becomes a part of society
Antithesis of a hero
Considered incompetent, unlucky, tactless, clumsy…