Thomas Hardy employs an `omniscient' narrator in his rural novel `Return of the Native', as he attempts to mimic classical tragedy by uniting the essential elements of time, place and action. The fact that the novel was originally intended to be of a five book structure, with monthly instalments, ending with a final, devastating climax, coupled with the numerous classical references to "Hades." "Hercules" and "Prometheus", shows even further Hardy's desire to create an immensely tragic novel, void of a desire to please societies middle-class novel reading public. Although it was to be this novel which eventually underwent serious revision, `Wuthering Heights' would have ultimately appeared as more baffling to Victorian readership. Here most of the action has passed before the novel begins, which causes a string of narrators to be used for various effect. We are rarely given differing viewpoints on the same event, and, combined with the almost anti-chronological nature of `Wuthering Heights', the story is often seen as difficult to interpret. The fact that Bronte does not comment directly upon her characters allows us to create our own decisions and opinions, as we are intended to be fully aware of the bias nature of the majority of her narrators.
It is of the utmost importance that it is not the author who tells the story; `Wuthering Heights' employs a narrative frame. Nelly Dean tells the story to Mr Lockwood, and he relates it to us. The first person narrator of the novel is therefore far removed from the actual experiences of the story. We begin in 1801, with a first person narrator, Mr Lockwood, who arrives onto the scene almost by chance, one who may have "fixed on" a completely different par...
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...ve books, mirroring the five acts of a Greek tragedy, with a prologue and epilogue, and a chorus to comment on the action. It was to maintain the Aristotelian unities of time, place and action. Problems arise due to the strict moral attitudes of the Victorian audience. Due to the extreme nature of Hardy's tragedy, and the convention of omitting grotesque or distressing material from finished works, a sixth book was added, in order to purge complaints of Hardy portraying an unnaturally depressing world. Within this sixth book, we see loose ends being tied as in the final chapters of `Wuthering Heights', as Thomasin and Diggory marry successfully, creating a considerably more upbeat atmosphere to end upon. This is done without abandoning the novels sombre undertones, as Clym is left eternally isolated, still unable to fit into the society which he yearns to improve.
When initially diving into a novel, it is common knowledge that there is an already preconceived agreement of trust that the reader instills in the story’s narrator. The reader virtually always relies on the narrator to illustrate the story in an honest unbiased manner, but the story teller in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights appears to break the chains of trust understood by the audience. The novel is heard through the keen ears of Mr. Lockwood who is being told the history of the Earnshaws, Heathcliff, and the Linton family by his housekeeper, Ellen Dean. Establishing herself as the primary narrator, Nelly reminisces upon her experiences at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. She fails to give Lockwood and ultimately the reader a precise narration of the affairs that took place in the past. Throughout her vivid flashback, Nelly on numerous occasions lessens the impact of her role and participation in certain events to keep her hands clean from the tragedies that more or less ruined those among her presence at Wuthering Heights.
Wuthering Heights is a classic in which Emily Bronte presents two opposite settings using the country setting. Country settings are often used as a place of virtue and peace or of ignorance and one of primitivism as believed by many city dwellers. But, in the novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte has used Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights to depict isolation and separation. Wuthering Heights setting is wild, passionate, and strong and Thrushcross Grange and its inhabitants are calm, harshly strict, and refined and these two opposite forces struggle throughout the novel.
The tone in Wuthering Heights is dreary and melancholy. This style provides the dark atmosphere to the story. Most of the story is conveyed through the narration of Ellen Dean. Setterfield uses a similar style in her story. Most of the story in her book is told by Vida Winter. The technique of flashbacks is used in both books. In both novels the two characters Lockwood and Margaret start out the story from their perspective, later the narrator changes. Wuthering Heights’s Mr. Lockwood hears the story from Ellen Dean (Nelly) much like Margaret hears the story from Vida Winter in The Thirteenth Tale. The two stories are broken up into sections due to interruptions made by the storyteller and situations that arise. The story of Wuthering Heights is told through flashbacks recorde...
In the novel Wuthering Heights, author Emily Brontë portrays the morally ambiguous character of Heathcliff through his neglected upbringing, cruel motives, and vengeful actions.
Shapiro, Arnold. “‘Wuthering Heights’ as a Victorian Novel.” Nineteenth Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 16. Eds. Joann Cerrito and Paul Kepos. Detroit: Gale Research, 1992. 108-110.
The dual narrator arrangement of Wuthering Heights begins with Mr. Lockwood, the naive new tenant of Thrushcross Grange. He seems to be quite the social person and goes to visit Heathcliff who is not so social and actually seems downright inhospitable. Due to weather conditions at the time (which Lockwood was not wise to go out in) Lockwood becomes stranded at Wuthering Heights where he feels quite unwelcome. While spending the night at Wuthering Heights, the curious Lockwood snoops through some books where he find things inscribed by Catherine. He hears the voice of Catherine calling, and calls for help. Heathcliff then runs after the girl who is not in fact a girl, but Catherine's ghost. Heathcliff embraces this ghost and dies with her in his arms. That pretty much sums up the narrative present and Lockwood's role as narrator. Out of curiosity (Lockwood's most important personality trait), he asks Nelly Dean questions about Heathcliff and the girl. At this point Nelly takes over the role of narrator and we shift into the narrative past.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is a novel about lives that cross paths and are intertwined with one another. Healthcliff, an orphan, is taken in by Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights. Mr. Earnshaw has two children named Catherine and Hindley. Jealousy between Hindley and Healthcliff was always a problem. Catherine loves Healthcliff, but Hindley hates the stranger for stealing his fathers affection away. Catherine meets Edgar Linton, a young gentleman who lives at Thrushcross Grange. Despite being in love with Healthcliff she marries Edgar elevating her social standing. The characters in this novel are commingled in their relationships with Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
Narratology divides a ‘narrative into story and narration’. (Cohan et al., 1988, p. 53) The three main figures that contribute a considerable amount of research to this theory are Gerard Genette, Aristotle and Vladimir Propp. This essay will focus on how Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights can be fully appreciated and understood when the theory is applied to the text. Firstly, I will focus on the components of narration Genette identifies that enhance a reader’s experience of the text. Secondly, I will discuss the three key elements in a plot that Aristotle recognises and apply these to Heathcliff’s character. In the final section I will apply part of the seven ‘spheres of action’, Propp categorises, to Heathcliff’s character. However, not all of Narratology can be applied to a text. This raises the question; does this hinder a readers understanding and/or appreciation of the text? This paper will also address this issue.
Present readers might perceive that Thomas Hardy's viewpoint in the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge is severe and depressing. However, most people adored Hardy during his living years. In an era when the Industrial Revolution was bringing dramatic and sometimes disturbing changes to England, he celebrated the nation's roots in its rustic past. In an era when new ideas like Darwin's theory of evolution challenged long established religious beliefs, Hardy showed that even the simplest people have, at all times, dealt with comparable eternal questions: How are humans to live? What determines an individual’s destiny? Are humans self-determining beings? He spoke directly to the concerns of people vacillating on the verge of a new era. Though he dealt with key questions, Hardy was an immensely popular author for the reason that he believed in writing a good story. In addition, he liked writing about common people: their troubles, their success or failures, were in his vision, the most important material for an author.
Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte, has 323 pages. The genre of Wuthering Heights is realistic fiction, and it is a romantic novel. The book is available in the school library, but it was bought at Barnes and Nobles. The author’s purpose of writing Wuthering Heights is to describe a twisted and dark romance story. Thus, the author conveys the theme of one of life’s absolute truths: love is pain. In addition, the mood of the book is melancholy and tumultuous. Lastly, the single most important incident of the book is when Heathcliff arrives to Edgar Linton’s residence in the Granges unannounced to see Catherine’s state of health. Heathcliff’s single visit overwhelmed Catherine to the point of death.
First, Wuthering Heights is a contribution to the theme of the novel because it sets the mood for the scenes taken place inside the house. The house is first introduced to the reader during a storm. The house stands alone and the land around it is described as dreary and foreboding, which creates a mood of isolation. “On the bleak Yorkshire moors” describes the Yorkshire moors physical appearance. The estate has little vegetation and is more weathered, which moors are, as they are jutting, bare rocks towards the ocean. Wuthering Heights is an old stone house with gothic architecture and bleak interior. The people that live in Wuthering Heights are bitter and act violent. The characters of the story act wild when they are at Wuthering Heights, compared to other places in the novel. The setting of the house enforces the actions of the Earnshaws’, and Heathcliff. The name of the estate even sets a theme of gloom in the novel. Lockwood says Wuthering is, “a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather” (12).
Many critics and commentators think of tragedy as a broad thematic concept that covers the majority of Hardy’s work (Wright, 2003; Brooks, 1971; Goodheart, 1957; Lawrence, 1936; Johnson, 1923). D. H. Lawrence (1936) comments that tragedy is a central concept in many of Hardy’s novels and places Hardy as a great writer of tragedy at the same level as Sophocles, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy. The tragic approach to understanding Hardy’s work is very old. The first one to discuss it on tragic grounds seems to be Lionel Johnson. His book The Art of Thomas Hardy, first published in 1894, drew attention to the tragic elements in Hardy’s works. The assumption was that Hardy’s works reflect a sad tragic tone, an insistence on man’s unhappiness in modern world, and a preoccupation with the different facets of human experience. Johnson (1923) and Lawrence (1936) point out that his novels become dramatic representations of the sufferings of his heroes and heroines. The suffering of the characters, often allied to the difficulty of moving into a more modern world whose hostility is reflected in the painful coincidences in the plot, usually ends in the death of the hero or heroine.
...e. On a very simplistic level, it is attractive, the name ‘Wuthering Heights’ sounds to the ear a more mysterious and enigmatic choice than Thrushcross Grange. But it can be assumed that the author had made the choice of naming the novel based on reasons that run deeper than mere attractiveness. The setting is vital to the plot, and as Wuthering Heights and its presence directly or indirectly precipitates a major part of the action, the choice is an apt one. In conclusion,the characters’ relation with Nature runs deep, and this too has been highlighted forcefully by the title, that keeps reminding the reader that in ‘Wuthering Heights’, the setting is the thread that runs through the entire narrative holding it together, and halfway through the novel, we can almost perceptibly feel the throb of Nature that is alive, that is at work, and that has a will of its own.
Laar, Elisabeth T. M. The Inner Structure of Wuthering Heights: A Study of an Imaginative Field. The Hague: Mouton, 1969. Print.
"Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heath cliff’s dwelling. ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. (Bronte