Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte (Thematic Preoccupation)

 

(THEMATIC PREOCCUPATION)

 

 

 CHARACTERIZATION

AND

DRAMATIC TECHNIQUE

 

 

 

 Love And Hate

 

 Love is one major thing in Wuthering Heights and the nature of love is both Romantic and brotherly – not erotic.  In the text, every relationship is strained at one point or another. Bronte’s treatment of love is best seen as good versus evil or love versus hate.  The only most important relationship is the one between Heathcliff and Catherine.  The nature of their love is beyond this world-spiritual plane and it supersedes anything available to everyone on earth.

 However, their love seems to be born out of their rebellion and not mere sexual desire.  Both of them do not fully understand the nature of their love, for they betray each other.  Each of them married the person whom they did not love, as much as they love each other.  Catherine and Heathcliff’s love is based on their shared perception and they are identical.  For instance Heathcliff demonstrates this when Catherine dies and he wails profusely that he cannot live without his “soul” referring to Catherine.

            Contrasting the capacity for love is the ability to hate.  Heathcliff, for example, hates with a vengeance.  He initially channels his hate towards Hindley, then to Edgar, and then to a certain aspect, Catharine. Because of hatred, Harthcliff resorts to what is the major theme in Wuthering Heights – revenge.  Hate and revenge intertwine with selfishness to reveal the conflicting emotions that drive people to do things that are not pleasant. Therefore, love and hatred intermingled in the novel.  This is seen in the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff.  The bond between them is so charged that it easily spills over from positive to negative, particularly when either one threatens it.  For example, when Catherine returns to Wuthering Heights in chapter 7, Heathcliff is described as being “very black and cross”. Later, Heathcliff responds to Catherine’s death when he says “may she wake up torment”  (chapter 16).  For Heathcliff, Catherine betrayal is the beginning of his own personal hell or the turning point of his life.  This betrayed also leads of his cruel punishment or treatment to anyone who has relationship with Catherine or anyone he hates.  His return from Wuthering Heights is to begin his revenge and non-human revenge, especially after Catherine’s death.  In Heathcliff, we see a most terrible picture of scornful love turned into desperate hatred and revenge that is destructive to both the avenger and revenged.

            Apart from the love between Catherine and Heathcliff which is destructive, that of Catherine and Edgar is proper rather than passionate. Theirs is a love of peace and comfort, a socially acceptable love, but it can’t stand in the way of Heathcliff and Catherine which is more profound connection.  That of Cathy and Linton is an exaggeration.  While Catherine always seems 46 just a bit too strong for Edgar, Cathy and Linton’s love is founded on Linton’s weakness, Linton gets Cathy to love him by playing on her desire to protect him.

     Finally, there is a love between Cathy and Hareton, which seems to balance the traits of the other loves on display.  They have the passion of Catherine and Heathcliff without the destructiveness, and the gentleness shared by Edgar and Catherine without the dullness in power.

 

 Theme of Revenge

 

             Revenge is the action of hurting or harming someone in return for and injury or wrong suffered.  Nearly all of the actions in Wuthering Heights results from one or another character’s desire for revenge.  Such act of revenge seems to be endless and common.  Firstly, Hindley takes revenge on Heathcliff for taking his place in Wuthering Heights by denying him an education, and in the process separates Heathcliff and Catherine.  Heathcliff then takes revenge upon Hindley by first dispossesses Hindley of Wuthering Heights.  Heathcliff also seeks revenge on Edgar for marrying Cathy to Linton.

             However, while Heathcliffs revenge is effective, It seems to bring him little joy, Towards the ending of the novel, Cathy sees this and tells Heathcliff that her revenge on him no matter how miserable he makes her is to know that Heathcliff is more miserable.  Heathcliff’s revenge is cold cruel and even incomprehensible.  He uses his whole life and power to revenge anyone he hates.  Heathcliff act of revenge runs through two generation.  The first one features himself, Catherine, Edgar and Ellen while the second generation comprises Heathcliff, his child, Linton and Edgar’s daughter Cathy.

             Consequently, the result of his revenge includes the fact that Heathcliff gets, Hindley into his Clutches and finally drives him to drink himself to death.  Edgar dies of grief, and he also torments Isabella to death.  In addition, Catherine dies without his forgiveness. As for the second generation, Heathcliff’s son dies too. Heathcliff is now in full possession of the properties of both wuthering heights and Thrushcross Grange.  Ever since Catherine died, Heathcliff has been tortured by the memories of Catherine.  He forgets his schemes of revenge, forgets even to sleep and eat. He therefore loses interest in hate and revenge. “I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing”, and he chooses suicide to end his life, not for he feels guilty of sin, he just found out that except Catherine, he has nothing to live for, and his life like Wuthering heights is bleak and gloomy.

             Heathcliff therefore never finds peace through his revenge.  In fact, the only time he truly finds happiness is when he gives up his plan for retaliation, unknown to him that “Revenge is like biting a dog that bit you” to quote Austin O’Malley.  This reflects Heathcliff’s immature need to propagate agony in those who have offended him.  His plan for revenge on Edgar and Catherine is to marry Isabella, who is ignorant of love and of men.  He desires to hurt Edgar because of his marriage to Catherine by making her jealous.

 

THEME OF POWER AND SOCIAL CLASS

 

             Power and class are explored in this novel as it has always been in nineteenth century.  England, where social class is determined by the amount of power people had.  In the Victorian Era, social class was not solely dependant upon the amount of power a person had, but rather, the source of income, birth and family connections played a major role in determining one’s position in society.  Most people accepted their place in the hierarchy.  In addition to money, manners, speech, education and values revealed a person’s class.  The main classes were the elite class, the middle class and the working class.

             In the novel for instance, the Lintons are the most elite family and Thrushcross Grange is superior to Wuthering Heights, yet they are not members of the upper class of society, rather they are the professional middle class.  The characters in the novel feel the need to raise their societal status and in most cases they either fall at doing so or end up depressed and alone.  Heathcliff for instance, changes his social status the most and seeks to dominate everything and everyone throughout the novel.  He starts as a homeless orphan on the streets of Liverpool.  Fortunately, a respected gentleman Mr. Earnshaw takes Heathcliff away from Liverpool to the countryside in northern England and raises him as his own. Thus, Mr. Earnshaw elevates Heathcliff from the lower class to the aristocrat class as a country gentleman.  The residents of wuthering Heights immediately reject Heathcliff, but his child-like desire to be accepted makes him want to remain in spite of the physical and emotional abuse.  His ability to endure this abuse, creates a desire in him to upgrade his social position.

              Moreover, when Catherine rejects Heathcliff because he cannot advance her socially. he leaves Wuthering heights to change into a wealthy gentleman.  He returns to prove to Catherine that he can be a powerful and respected member of the society.  His love for her consumes him and obsesses over her to prove himself to her.  His obsession with Catherine represents his desire for power and status.  Heathcliff’s desire to own Catherine demonstrates his appetite for power, class and to heighten his social status because she embodies everything he wants, wealth power and recognition from society.  Catherine’s death ignites his desire for power because the desire for power motivates him exceedingly when she dies. Her death causes him to spin out of control and become even more obsess with power.  Now that he has nothing left, he feels the need to be wealthier and more powerful. 

Heathcliff’s desires to want to dominate everything and everyone around him make him a “Capitalist Villain” and not a “Marxist Hero” because he does not want to destroy the social classes he wants to control them.  Because of these desire, Heathcliff does anything to acquire more power including using and abusing those closest to him.  He uses the Linton to establish this.  His union with Isabella elevates his social status.  He then exploits Isabella Linton to gain more money and land.  Heathcliff  believes that by marring her, he will collect the Linton’s inheritance when Edgar dies.  He sees Isabella as an asset to those at his disposal because of her youth and nativity.  Worse still Heathcliff also manipulates his son, Linton thereby forcing him to marry Catherine when his inheritance plan with Isabella backfires.

             Contrarily, Catherine’s desire for power differs tremendously from Heathcliff because instead of chasing after social status, she desires to maintain hers.  Her high born status means that she does not like to work for her social class like Heathcliff.  Catherine’s desire for power stems, she desires to maintain a high social status.  She is an incredibly narcissistic character because she only thinks of herself and does everything to better her status regardless of the feeling of others.  She does not think of why she loves Edgar and only sees herself  being the lady in the neighborhood with the highest social status.  She makes a selfish decision and leaves Heathcliff, who represents a non-society based relationship that would lower her social status, and marry Edgar because she knew he can elevate her on the social ladder because the Linton have a higher level of respect in society than the Earnshaw family.  The only normal and socially correct relationship occurs between Catherine Linton and Hareton Earnshow.  Young Cathy and Hareton are the only children in the novel, born of pure aristocratic blood.

 

 

Violence

 

             Violence is also evident in the novel, and it is shown at the beginning of the story, when Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff home, Jealous of their father’s affection for Heathcliff, Catherine and Hindley l

 

ook at this poor child with contempt, Heathcliff is the object of violence.  He seems to be a quiet child, even when Hindley beats him.  The bad treatment he suffers makes him a violent and hateful man in the future.  Even the servant, Joseph, beats Heathcliff until his arm begins to ache.  Hence Heathcliff doesn’t know a better way to express himself than to be coarse.  He doesn’t learn to be kind, nor does he want to learn.  The main characters in the novel are wild by nature and act impulsively.  The narrator says: “At fifteen Catherine was the queen of country side.  There was no one as beautiful as her, but she was a difficult person to like. She always wanted her own way, and could be very rude”.  Catharine acts impulsively and often slaps Ellen in the neck.  She is not that strong but she is bad tempered – sometimes exhibits her violent nature on the people around her.

             Catherine and Heathcliff’s temper lead to a lot of inevitable quarrels. Everything that happens too Heathcliff in his childhood makes him a cruel person.  Adult Heathcliff is brutal to Hindley, he also wants to get revenge on everyone who hurt him.  His love turns into hatred and makes him extremely violent.  Bonte regards Heathcliff as “a mere demon”

 

 

Death and Destruction

 

So many deaths are recorded in Wuthering Heights.  Things turn out to be in bad shape when Mr. and Mrs. Earnshaw die leaving rivaling sibilings to fend for themselves. In addition to mourning the children love to learn about love in a loveless environment. Nearly every character is afflicted with death at a young age, which creates a fixation on death for the character.  There is no doubt that her father’s death influenced Catherine not only did she have to deal with mourning, the loss of her father, but Catherine and Heathcliff are left in the care of her abusive brother, Hindley.  In addition, Catherine’s sister-in-law, Frances, dies during childbirth and Edgar’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Linton, die of an illness.

  For Heathcliff, living without Catherine is a fate worse than death.  He actually feels like a part of him dies with her and begs to haunt him rather than leaving him when she dies while giving birth to her daughter, Cathy, Death of one person is also used to inflict pain on others.  Heathcliff reveals to Nelly. “You know, I was wild after she died, and eternally from down to down, praying her to return to me – her spirit – I have a strong faith in ghost.  I have conviction they can and do exist among us”.  Shortly after the birth of young Cathy, Catherine dies.  Here death is used to break point which triggers Heathcliff to his certainly mad obsession and vengeance. Shortly before Heathcliff’s madness he makes arrangements to be buried next to Catherine in her grave.  Heathcliff and Catherine are finally together and Cathy and Hareton are free to marry without Heathcliff’s interference.

 

 

CHARACTERIZATION

 

Heathcliff

 

             Heathcliff is the villain hero of the novel because the story centers on him.  He is also Byronic hero, that is a type of romantic hero with dark character, blooding ostracized from society in some way.  He is the foster son of Mr, Earnshaw, foster brother of Hindley and Catherine, husband of Isabella and father of Linton.  Mr. Earnshaw finally finds him on the street of Liverpool and brings him home to Wuthering Heights.  He falls in love with Catherine, and it leads him to control and belittle or manipulate nearly everyone around him. Despite his many lovable deeds, he is not a complete bad guy.  He is a poor orphan who finds material success but not what he really wants-the love of Catherine.

             Heathcliff suffers in the hands of Hindley when his foster father Mr. Earneshaw dies.  He abuses Heathcliff and treats him as a servant, because of his desire for social status, Catherine marries Edgar Linton instead of Heathcliff, His humiliation and misery prompts him to spend the rest of his life seeking revenge on Hindley, his beloved Catherine and their respective children, Hareton and young Catherine.

                  Heathcliff is a powerful, fierce and often a cruel man, He acquires a fortune and used his extra ordinary power of will to acquire both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, the estate of Edgar Linton.  Heathcliff is also very class conscious, his desire to marry Catherine is born out of a decision to elevate his social status.

             He is also very vindictive; he is a complete believer of eye for an eye ideology. Although he and Catherine Earnshaw profess that they complement each other, he spends most of his life contemplating and acting out revenge.  He is abusive, brutal and cruel.  His act of revenge is based on his lost position at wuthering heights, his loss of Catherine to Edgar.  Heathcliff hates deeply as he loves.

     To everyone but Catherine and Hareton, Heathcliff seems to be an inhuman monster or even incarnate evil. He is a man of stormy emotions who hates humanity because he has lost out as a rebellious hero who function as law unto himself.  He is both despicable and pitiable.

 

 Catherine Earnshaw

 

             Catherine is the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw who falls in love with Heathcliff, the orphan Mr. Earnshaw brings home from Liverpool.  Catherine loves Heathcliff so intensely that she claims they are the same person.  However the desire for advancement motivates her to marry Edger Linton instead Catherine is free-spirited spoilt and often arrogant.  She is given to fits of anger and she is torn between her wild passion for Healthcliff and her social ambition.  She brings misery to both men who love her.

             Despite she dies halfway through the novel, Catherine is defined by her struggle between her love for the wild Heathcliff and her relationship with proper Edgar, and in death she exudes enduring power on Heathcliff all the way until his death.

     Her transformation begins when she’s attacked by one of the Linton’s dogs spending five weeks recovering at Thrushcross Grange.  She undergoes a dramatic transformation into a proud proper young lady.  She begins a romance with Edgar Linton despite she is still in love with Heathcliff, as she confesses to the housekeeper, Ellen.  This makes her very gullible.  When Heathcliff eavesdrops, only to hear Catherine says she can’t marry Heathcliff because it would degrade her and he leaves for three years.

             Catherine maintained an impressive and powerful presence in the novel even after her death. Both of them explore their surrounding together and share each other’s feelings.  Catherine believes she can find all the pleasures of life with Edgar but Heathcliff’s love remains alive in her heart’ desire, but instead she goes for the one her mind suggested.

             She is intensely passionate and generally finds it difficult to withhold her emotions or hide her passion. When it comes to her marriage, she grows self-centered and decides to marry Edgar in the hope of a better life.  She had never feel the kind of intense love that she had felt for Heathcliff and afterwards she laments her decision. She ends up getting bound in a relationship where she left everything but not the kind of love she wanted in her life.

             Ellen describes her as being defiant, unruly, adventurous and still adorable.  Her stubbornness becomes the cause of all her sorrows.

 

 Edgar Linton

 

 Edgar is Catherine’s husband and Heathcliff’s foil, both in terms of personality and also physical appearance.  Edgar is youthful, slender and soft featured with fair skin and blue eyes.  Edgar is more well-mannered than Heathcliff.

              Edgar Linton is a relatively kind, moral and good-mannered individual. Although to be fair, Heathcliff is a bully.  So he never really got the chance to develop appropriate manners.  Edger also, has a weak personality as opposed to Heathcliff’s savage tyrannical nature.

             Edgar is not passionate, mysterious or brooding unlike Heathcliff.  He is basically a decent and faithful guy, which for purpose of the story makes him a little boring.  He is well dressed, well behaved and rich, living a pampered life down at Thrushcross Grange, Edgar really does not have much to worry about.  His attitude towards Heathcliff is one of extreme superiority, because he represents a chance for social elevation.  This attracts him to Catherine because Edgar is rich, a gentleman, ever wiling to pamper and adore her.

            Edgar seems to have a masochistic streak (enjoyment some people find unpleasant).  The narrator describes him as she puts it, “He possessed the power to depart as much as a cut possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed or a bird half eaten”. He is weak and gullible because disflowing his sister, Isabella for marrying Heathcliff does not make any sense, and he appears like a fool for believing Cathy’s marriage to Linton Heathcliff could work.  He represents the typical Victorian hero, possessing qualities of constancy and tenderness, however, and a non-emotional intellectual, He loves Catherine but love alone is not enough to sustain their relationship. He ends up losing everything his wife, his sister, his daughter and his home to Heathcliff because most times good does not always overcome evil.    

 

Mr.  Lockwood

 

             Lockwood is a frame-narrator and a wealthy gentleman who comes to spend a year in the country at Thrushcross Grange.  Heathcliff, as the owner of Thrushcross Grange is Lockwood’s landlord.  He meets Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights during his first visit and this reveals an important clue about his character.  Lockwood completely misjudges Heathcliff, Not only is Lockwood depicted as a poor judge of the character of others, but he is also not very self aware.

             After the heir-rising night spent at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood becomes curious about Heathcliff, and the other inhabitants of the house. Nelly Dean is about eighteen years and he decided to ask her about Heathcliff.  Lockwood than sets up the frame story or story within a story when he presses Ellen to talk about Heathcliff.  Ellen’s story becomes the second narrative in the novel.  Lockwood becomes the audience for Ellen’s story just as the reader is the audience for Bronte’s novel Ellen’s also shares some parts of the story to Zillah and Joseph (servants).  Lockwood is the only narrator who does not witness the strange events that have shaped Heathcliff into the man Lockwood meets when he takes up residence at the Grange.

              Most importantly, Lockwood serves as mediator of all that he hears from Nelly (Ellen’s) Dean.  His narration frames the narration of Ellen Dean whose narration in turn frames other narration such as Isabella.  Therefore, one of Lockwood’s functions is to distance us from the narration through a series of framing narratives – a key gothic technique to confuse narration,

 

 Isabella Linton

 

              Isabella is the sister of Edgar, the wife of Heathcliff and Linton’s mother Isabella is said to be infatuated with Heathcliff.  Soon Catherine and Isabella begin to quarrel over Heathcliff when Isabella remarks “ I Love him than ever you loved Edgar; and he might love me, if you would let me” Isabella wrongly believes that Catherine is in love with Heathcliff and that she is preventing Heathcliff from loving her, Isabella experiences Heathcliff’s brutality first hand.  She flees to Linton where she gives birth to Heathcliff son.

              She seems too weak and spoilt, Her upbringing protects her from any true understanding of evil and she is always in the shadow of Catherine stronger personality, to which she is foil.  She is described in chapter 10 as “a charming young lady of eighteen infantile in manners through possessed of keen wilt keen feelings and keen temper, if irritated”.  Soon, Heathcliff begins to maltreat her which is not contrary to Edgar’s earlier warning.  After several months of their marriage, Isabella then realizes her mistakes and she therefore sends a long letter detailing her hostility and hatred. for Heathcliff who has made it clear that he married her only because he is now the heir to the Grange.  Isabella grow to despise her vengeful, tyrant husband.  She blames the death of Catherine on Heathcliff. This infuriate Heathcliff to a deep and passionate anger, which results in yet another brawl between himself and Hindley, Seeing it as a chance to flee, Isabella escapes.  Wuthering Heights and her disastrous,  terrifying marriage one and for all.

            Isabella is witty, sensitive, temperamental and shallow; she has a capacity for strong attachments, as shown in her falling hopelessly in love with Heathcliff, who in turn takes advantage of her blind affections, leading them both into their tormenting marriage.

 

 Nelly Dean formally know as Ellen Dean)

 

             Nelly is the chief narrator of Wuthering Heights.  She is a sensible, intelligent and compassionate woman. She grew up alongside Hindley and Catherine Earnshaw and she is deeply involved in the story she narrates.

She has strong feelings for the characters in her story and these feelings complete her narration.

Nelly is a maid at Thrushcross Grange at the beginning.  She gives Lockwood the full doze on the history of both houses, the Grange and Heights.  She’s loyal to the Linton family of Grange and to certain members of the Earnshaw family, the owners of Wuthering Heights. That loyalty influence her narrations at times. She is also very opinionated, and she’s willing to express herself both positively and negatively.  She really dislikes Heathcliff and it is  revealed through her narration.  She uses sassy comments about Heathcliff and other characters.  She says Heathcliff looks like demon or a ghoul.

             Nelly is romantic at heart and she exaggerates things to heighten the drama both as a character in the story and the person telling the story.  For example, she encourages Heathcliff to invent a noble background for himself.  Nelly is an unreliable narrator because she is telling her own version of the story that occurred at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.  She is telling her own version of the story someone else hold her too.  Everything Lockwood hears about the history of these people and these two houses is filtered through Nelly.

            She is loyal to both Hareton Earnshaw and Cathy Linton because she raises them when their mothers died shortly after giving birth to them.  Her attachment to them is strong, and her opinion of them is higher than others. 

She reveals this to Lockwood, “I shall envy no one on their wedding day; there won’t be a happier woman than myself in England”

            Nelly is information bearer, for she is able to make us understand the intensity of the love that Catherine feels for Heathcliff when Catherine says, “Nelly, I am Heathcliff he’s always, always in my mind – not as a pleasure any more than I am always a pleasure to myself but as my own being.

 

 Young Catherine (Cathy)

 

             Cathy is the first daughter of Edgar Linton and daughter of first Catherine.  This first Catherine begins her life as Catherine Earnshaw and ends it as Catherine Linton.  Her daughter begins as Catherine Linton and assuming that she marries Hareton after the end of the story, goes on to become Catherine Earnshew.

             However, Edgar’s influence seems to have tempered young Catherine’s character. She is a gentler and more compassionate than her mother.  She is the only child of Catherine and Edgar.  Her mother dies a few hours after giving premature birth to her about half-way through the novel.  Her father, Edgar calls her Cathy, while Heathcliff refers to her as Catherine, because he called her mother Cathy as in expression of his immerse affections and love for her.

             Cathy is a very curious and mysterious girl.  At the age of thirteen, she sneaks out of Wuthering Heights, the house to which she is not allowed to travel because Heathcliff, Edgars enemy resides there.  Healthcliff implores Cathy and his son, Linton, to fall in love and marry.  As a result of his encouragement.  Cathy and Linton grow close.  When Ellen forbids Cathy form visiting wuthering heights, both Cathy and Linton take to writing letters to each other.  When Edgar fails ill with distress and Heathcliff keeps Cathy and Ellen at the Heights until Cathy finally agrees to marry Linton.

 

 Hareton Earnshaw

 

              Hareton is the son of Hindley and Frances Earnshaw Hareton is Catherine’s nephew.  After Hindley’s death, Heathcliff takes custody of Hareton, and raises him as an uneducated field worker, just as Hindley had done to Heathcliff himself.  Thus Heathcliff pushes Hareton to seek revenge on Hindley, Illiterate and quick tempered, Hareton is easily humiliated, but shows a good heart and a deep desire to improve himself.  Hareton is Heathcliff’s revenge target.  Firstly, Hareton’s father, Hindley had maltreated.  Heathcliff badly after Hareton’s mother, Frances died. Heathcliff is jealous of the attention that Hareton got during that time.  He treats Hareton badly.

            After Linton’s death Cathy and Hareton have a tense relationship.  At the end of the novel, we find out that Heathcliff is dead and Cathy and Hareton now own wuthering heights – free of Heathcliff’s negatively, the love between Cathy and Hareton transform the house when Hareton marries Young Catherine.

 

 Hindley Earnshaw

 

             Hindey is Catherine’s brother and Mr. Earnshaw’s son.  After his father’s death, he inherits the estate.  Hindley begins to abuse young Heathcliff. terminating his education and forcing him to work in the fields.  When Hindley’s wife,  Frances dies shortly after giving birth to their son,  Hareton. he resorts to alcoholism. He is smart, calculative and manipulative scheming to elevate his own social status by pressuring a marriage between his sister, Catherine and Edgar Linton, of the socially well-off Linton family of Thrushcross Grange. Hindley’s meanness is enhanced by his love for drinking and gambling.

This habit of his makes Heathcliff gain control of Wuthering Heights, as Hindley mortgages the house to Heathcliff for more gambling money, and his drinking spree makes him more abusive.  He neglects his son, Hereton and heats Heathcliff even more.  He eventually drinks himself to death, letting Heathcliff run wild with his plots for revenge on Hindley, Edgar and others.

            Hindley is a jealous son and the cause of this act of jealousy begins when Hindley’s father,  Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff home from the street of Liverpool.  Hindley refers to Heathcliff as an imp and a demon, and wishes horrible things on his adaptive brother.  This is because Hindley is the heir apparent to the Wuthering Height and he does not want Heathcliff to partake in it, since he does not also want anyone to get his father’s attention.

 

 Linton Heathcliff

 

             Linton is Heathcliff’s son by Isabella.  He is weak and sickly.  Linton is the product of the loveless marriage between Isabella Linton and Heathcliff.  Isabella truly thought she found love in Heathcliff but soon after they marry, she discovers that Heathcliff only married her to get revenge on her brother, Edgar Linton, for marrying his Catherine. 

     A few years later, Cathy and Linton begin a romance when they are forbidden by Edgar from seeing each other, resorting to writing letter of which Ellen burns the letters.  This time, Linton’s illness has progressed. Linton’s health begins to deteriorate.  It is clear that Heathcliff despises Linton, he treats him contemptuously, there by forcing him to marry the young Catherine, using him to cement his control over Thrushcross Grange after Edgar Linton’s death, Linton dies not long after his marriage.

 

 Mr. Earnshaw

 

             He is Catherine and Hindley’s father.  Mr. Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff and brings him to live at wuthering heights. He prefers Heathcliff to Hindley, but nevertheless bequeaths wuthering heights to Hindley when he dies.  It is a puzzle that Mr. Earnshaw prefers Heathcliff as Ellen says “I wondered offer what my master saw to admire so much in the sullen boy who never, to my recollection, repaid his indulgence by any sign of gratitude”.

 

Mrs. Earnshaw

             She is Catherine and Hindley’s mother who neither likes nor trusts the orphan, Heathcliff when he’s brought to live at her house.  She dies shortly after Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights.

 

 Joseph

 

             He is a fanatically religious elderly servant at Wuthering Heights.  He is strange, stubborn, and unkind and he speaks with a thick Yorkshire accent.

 

 Frances Earnshaw

 

             She is Hindley’s silly wife who also treats Heathcliff cruelly, she dies shortly after giving birth to Hareton.

 

 Mr. Linton

 

             He is Edgar and Isabella’s father and the owner of Thrushcross Grange whom Heathcliff and member of the gentry, muses his son and daughter to be ill-mannered young people.

 

 Mrs. Linton

 

             She is the snobbish wife of Mr. Linton who hates Heathcliff and does not want him close to her children, Edgar and Isabella.  She teaches Catherine to act like a gentle woman in order to acquire in her social ambition.

 

 Zillah

 

             The house keeper at Wuthering Heights during the latter stage of the narrative.

 

 Mr. Green

 

             He is Edgar Linton’s lawyer, who arrives too late to obtain Edgar’s final instructional to change his will, which restricts Heathcliff from taking over Thrushcross Grange.

 

NARRATIVE TECHNIQUES

 

 First person point of view

 

The first person method of narration is the technique which the novelist employs, where one character tells the story, that is, Nelly (Ellen) Dean.The reader reads the story from the perspective of this narrative.  There are three narrative levels in Wuthering Heights.  They are divided into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary narrators.

            The primary narration shows that the entire novel is a written record of all the incidents narrated to Lockwood by Nelly Dean.  He is thus, the primary narrator and the primary narrate (the person to whom the story is told).  This method of narration is the first person past written method. Lockwood belongs here.

            Nelly (Ellen) Dean is also the secondary narrator who narrates all the incidients to Lockwood.  The method of narration is the first person past/present spoken method.  Nelly Dean begins telling the story in Chapter 4.  “Before I come to live here”, she commences.  In the tertiary narration, some of the incidents are first narrated by the different characters, first to Nelly the Secondary narrator who in turn narrates them to Lockwood, the primary narrator.  Heathcliff’s oral accounts is Chapter 6 and 33; Isabella’s letter in Chapter 13 which is read out to Lockwood combining the written and oral method.  The story is given to the reader in the form of Mr. Lockwood’s diary, but the story is told to him through Nelly Dean.

            These narrators can be regarded as unreliable because they have their own perspective on events and other characters, and that can influence the things they include or don’t include in their narration.  For instance, Nelly, the narrator is fond of Cathy Linton and Hareton Earnshaw, so her kind of narration favours them.  She dislikes Heathcliff so her narration is less favourable towards him.

 

Symbolism  

     Symbols provide in-depth understanding of the prose narrative.  They include the following:

 

(i) Wuthering Heights:  The title of the novel is symbolic of the incidents in the story “Wuthering” refers to that which is windy or willowy.  It represent instability or “unsettled”. This is symbolic of the events or series of conflict in the novel, some of which result to numerous death and a few others resolved in the end.

 

(ii) The Moors: Moors are open areas, wet, wild and infertile. As the play opens.  Lockwood fears walking through the moors at night.  Catherine and Heathcliff spend much of their childhood rambling on the moors, symbolizing their wild nature.  Both of them are buried on the moors because of the wild personality they represent, Moors also symbolize danger, so does the love between Catherine and Heathcliff.

 

(iii) Whether: The serious winds present at the Heights symbolize the hardness and the problem that the inhabitants need to battle with.  Wind and rain for instance, are present when Mr. Earnshaw dies and when Heathcliff departs from Wuthering Heights and when Heathcliff dies.

 

(iv) Ghosts:  Ghosts in the novel are ambiguous.  They portend danger and they also symbolize past events.  Their appearance at the Heights helps the character to remember them.  Ghost also add an element of mystery and excitement to the story.  The appearance of Catherine’s ghost also emphasizes just how much Catherine was in love with Heathcliff.

 

(v)  Suspense and Palimpsest Narration:  Emily Bronte creates atmosphere and suspense using her own artistic technique known as palimpsest which involves the use of narratives within narratives, Bronte uses Lockwood and Nelly (Ellen) Dean to narrate the events in the novel. The use of suspense is great which span from the progression of the first generation character and that of the second generation.  The reader should be spellbound to know what happens to Heathcliff but are mystified when he turns a new leaf before his eventual demise.

 

Elements of Gothic novel in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights

              What makes a work gothic is a combination of at least some of these elements

1.      Ruined buildings which arouse a pleasing sad mood.

2.      Extreme land scape like extreme weather.

3.      Supernatural manifestation like the presence of ghosts.

4.      A passion driven, willful villain hero or villain.

5.      Horrifying or terrifying events or threat of this happening.

Some of the elements of Gothic novel invented by Horace Walpole, have also made their way into Bronte’s Wuthering Heights.  In true gothic fashion, there is usually love story crossing the boundary between life and death as we have seen in the union between Heathcliff and Catherine and is transgressing from one social class and family tie.  Also, Bronte follows Walpole in Portraying the tyrannies of the father and the cruelties of the patriarchal family.

            Also, Bronte has incorporated the gothic element of imprisonment and escape, flight, the persecuted hero wooed by a dangerous and a good suitor, ghost, a mysterious foundling necrophilia and revenge.  Heathcliff for instance, imprisons Cathy and Ellen, all in a bid to have Cathy married out to Linton.

             There is weather which buffeted Wuthering Heights, the traditional Castle and like the conventional Gothic hero-villain.  Heathcliff is a mysterious figure who destroys the beautiful women he woos and who asurps inheritance.  There is the hint of necrophilia in Heathcliff’s views of Catherine’s corpse and his plan to be buried next to her and a hint of incest in their being raised as brother and sister.

 

Likely 2021-2025 WAEC NECO QUESTIONS

 

1.       Examine the theme of love in the novel

2.     Discuss in detail how the theme of power and class is treated in the novel

3.     Compare and contrast Catherine and Isabella as characters

4.     Discuss Wuthering Heights as a Gothic novel.

5.      To what extent can Heathcliff be regarded as a misogynist and a vindictive

  Character?

6.     Assess the role of the supernatural in the novel and comment on

  its importance

7.     Attempt a character portrait of Edgar

8.     How is the theme of death and destruction treated in the novel?

9.       Discuss the role and character of young Catherine

10.                        Write short notes on the following (i) Young Cathy  (ii) Hareton

  (iii) Lockwood

11.                          Examine the theme of revenge as a tool used by character to get back

  at themselves.

12.                         Discuss any three narrative techniques employed by the novelist.

13.                        Assess and discuss in details any three major themes in the novel.

14.                         How would you rather assess the nature of love between Catherine

  and Heathcliff and Catherine and Edgar?

15.                          Assess Heathcliff’s act of greed and ambition in the novel.

16.                          Examine the theme of hatred as one of the dominant themes in the novel

17.                        Comment on the assertion “it is Jealously that fuels or ignites violence

  in the novel”  Discuss.

18.                        Discuss Heathcliff as a Byronic hero in the novel

19.                         Comment on Catherine Earnshaw’s transformation in the novel, bringing

  out its contribution to the novel.

20.                        Discuss the conflict between nature and culture.

21.                          Relate the appropriateness of title of the novel, Wuthering Heights to

  the incidence in the text.

22.                          Assess the relationship between Lockwood and Heathcliff

23.                        Explain what role Nelly plays in Wuthering Heights.

24.                        Discuss Emily Bronte’s portrayal of religion in the novel

25.                        Examine the relationship between gender and power in Wuthering

  Heights.