Solving the Mystery of "Wuthering Heights"

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1.In attempting to solve the mystery embedded in the story line of Emile Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, one feels compelled to make interpretations rendered hermeneutically blind with regards to the account of the story comprising the text. While reading Wuthering Heights, the reader perceives ellipses or gaps in the narrative of the novel. The reader must still, however, frame a reading of the novel, which lacks a narrative centre. These prolonged moments of indeterminacy allow the reader to respond by concretizing an imaginary account of what has been left untransmitted. The primary narrators, Lockwood and Nelly have display limited perspective on the events narrated, which are questionable as there exists a great unrest underlying the narration and the events narrated. In order to compensate for this loss in the storyline, the reader replaces it with interpretation and imagination, thereby fabricating a reading in spite of the several instances of narrative absence present throughout the text. These moments of non-transmission classify Wuthering Heights as a narrative of transmission. An example of this is displayed at one point in Nelly’s narration during which she skips three years, the time during which Heathcliff had disappeared. The withdrawal of this tale provided me with a unique opportunity to fill this narrative gap between the time of Heathcliff’s disappearance and Nelly’s intradiegetic narration.

2. To maintain a high level of authenticity in the construction of this fan fiction, I ensured as best as I could, that the genre, form, style, and characterization used within the fan fiction mimicked that of Emily Bronte’s. Wuthering Heights can be classified as a Gothic novel. It was designed to both horrify and f...

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...ude that Heathcliff is a well-educated, sophisticated gentleman who is literate. It also reveals Heathcliff’s most intimate thoughts and reflections, so that the reader is able to gain a better understanding of Heathcliff’s character, one that is caring for Catherine, thereby depicting a side of him that is not always displayed, thus attempting to compel the reader to sympathize with him. This is similar to Bronte’s style of writing as she dictates the story in such as way so as to avoid diverting our sympathy and interest from the wilder characters such as Heathcliff, tending to depict more civilized characters as despicably silly and weak.

7.In constructing my fan fiction so as to imitate the genre, form, style, and characterization of Wuthering Heights, I maintained a high level of authenticity, while simultaneously filling one of the novel’s narrative absences.

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