Wuthering Heights LAQ

Wuthering Heights

By Emily Brontë 

General

1.    Well, I have to say that Wuthering Heights is a depressing “love story” filled with the do’s and don’ts of marriage in the eighteenth century. Lockwood is a guy who is traveling and decides to rent Thrushcross Grange from a guy named Heathcliff. One day while visiting his landlord’s house, it starts to snow and he is trapped for the night at Wuthering
Heights. He stays in a room where “Catherine” is written all over the place so he decides to snoop and finds diaries that peak his interest in the family dramas of the Linton’s and Earnshaw’s. Lockwood is so curious that he asks the servant, Nelly, to gossip. She does and tells of the horrors that have beheld the family. Catherine Earnshaw’s father adopted a son (gipsy kid so the siblings didn’t respect him like a brother) that got emotionally attached to Catherine. The kids (Catherine and Heathcliff) are playing around and they wander into the Linton’s backyard (they sneer at the pomposity that is the Linton’s children). Catherine is attacked by the guard dogs and forced to stay a few weeks while she recovers.  She returns back to Wuthering Heights a changed girl; she has become the pompous kid she had sneered at before. Catherine and Heathcliff develop this awkwardness between them and eventually Heathcliff is kicked out by Hindley, who deeply abhors his step-brother. In Heathcliff’s absence, Catherine marries Edgar Linton because of the status quo. I believe the author wants to point out that you can’t escape love. Heathcliff and Catherine loved each other so much that it took Catherine dying to figure that out. The only reason people married in the eighteenth century was to build a reputation. Catherine even said that “I know he (Heathcliff) couldn’t love a Linton, and yet he’d be quite capable of marrying your fortune and expectations” because you marry in order to gain social status. The author wanted to emphasize that you should marry because you love someone because you don’t want to regret marrying a person because it would benefit you. People in the eighteenth century weren’t happy and well it sucks for them for living in that time period.

2.    Having a defined social class can hinder your choice of who a person can marry. Catherine and Heathcliff loved each other but they couldn’t be together because she had Earnshaw blood and he was a gipsy orphan. He wasn’t rich nor did he act with civility. Hindley detested Heathcliff because he was the favored boy even though he wasn’t even related to Mr.  Earnshaw. Currently, you are able to marry whom you want but there are still cultures that inhibit or strongly advise against certain people of a different class. I can run off to Vegas and marry whom I want but I’d rather go to school first.

3.    Wuthering Heights has a gloomy and sickening atmosphere. I thinks its because of all the hate and years without love that has transformed the atmosphere into a sickening one. When Lockwood first arrives and is forced to stay at Wuthering Heights he dreads it, “I was sick exceedingly, and dizzy and faint; and thus compelled, perforce, to accept lodgings under his roof (page 23).” Also haunted by the ghost of Catherine Linton,” I suppose that she wanted to get another proof that the place the haunted, at my expense (page 30).” Lockwood says this when a girl grabs his hand from outside his window. The girl is the late Catherine Linton but she is dead so it is her ghost. Generally, everyone is sarcastic and spats out every sentence, “I shall have naught [sic] to do with you, and your mucky pride, and your damned, mocking tricks (page 297)!” The people that reside at Wuthering Heights are forced to live there by Heathcliff and therefore are unhappy giving off a bad aura of hate.

4.    Brontë utilizes imagery and symbolism to incorporate important elements to the story. The imagery of the ghost of Catherine Linton was pretty scary and adds to the tone, “My fingers closed on a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me; I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it, and a most melancholy voice sobbed.” The houses are a symbol of power. It is Heathcliffs goal to become weathly and own Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights. “Heathcliff’s deliberate designing (page 101)” was to conquer both houses so that he would have all the power. Catherine is the one thing he couldn’t have yet he did in a way. He couldn’t marry her because of the status quo but he possessed her heart and she his, “With my heart stopped, and my cheek frozen against hers (page 274).” The setting is in England in a small secluded area away from town. Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights are very close to each other. Brontë describes the area as being “damp and wet”. The time is 1800 which explains the importance of the status quo. As previously mentioned, the tone is gloomy and sickening, “I was sick exceedingly, and dizzy and faint; and thus compelled, perforce, to accept lodgings under his roof (page 23).” Also haunted by the ghost of Catherine Linton”. Some themes are love and revenge. Heathcliff wants revenge because Hindley treated him worse than dirt, “I'm trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don't care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!” Even though Heathcliff had so much hate filled inside him, he still loved her and not even life or death could ever hinder their affections, "We've braved its ghosts often together, and dared each other to stand among the graves and ask them to come. But, Heathcliff, if I dare you now, will you venture? If you do, I'll keep you. I'll not lie there by myself: 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 (chapter 12)!"

Characterization:

Direct characterization:

•     Catherine Linton says that Miss Linton is basically full of herself and her pretentious aura. "It was no hint that your company was superfluous; we didn't care whether you kept with us or not." (page 102)
•     Lockwood says that Heathcliff has a "genuine bad nature" (page vii)

Indirect characterization:

•     Lockwood is forced to stay inside of Wuthering Heights because a storm has hit outside making it impossible for anyone to see. He begs for a place to stay before Heathcliff finally allows him to stay in the servants' quarters instead of the guest room. Obviously, Heathcliff has no empathy and does nothing without an action benefiting him.
•     Young Catherine Linton is a vex of a person. She sneers and talks back to Heathcliff every chance she gets. She refuses to serve Lockwood when instructed by Heathcliff just to spite him

2. Does the author's syntax and/or diction change when s/he focuses on character?  How?  Example(s)?

•     The diction definitely changes but it depends on the character. Most of the characters are rich so they have been educated. There is a servant, Joseph, who doesn't use proper diction. Joseph speaks like this,  "Whet are ye for? T' maister's dahn i' t' fowld." Everyone else is educated so they speak normally. 

3. Is the protagonist static or dynamic?  Flat or round?  Explain.

•      Heathcliff is the protagonist. I would say he is dynamic because he goes from a loving orphan child to  an adult filled with rage. He couldn't be with the one he loved because he was financially at a disadvantage. He returned to exploit Catherine's brother, Hindley, who spited him for so long as a child. He returns to plunder Hindley's wealth and try to obtain Catherine's Heart once more. 
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4. After reading the book did you come away feeling like you'd met a person or read a character?  Analyze one textual example that illustrates your reaction.

•     Catherine and Heathcliff love each other and they live in a time where it was forbidden and highly looked down upon for a gipsy man and a middle class lady to be together. I truly came away feeling like I was there in the background just observing. Heathcliff loves her so much and he feels so deeply about her that he believes no one can truly love her like him, “If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day.” It's not unrequited love or a love where one loves the other more. No, its a love where both feel it and both would be lost without each other, “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.” When Catherine dies, Heathcliff feels so alone, “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living. You said I killed you--haunt me then. The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe--I know that ghosts have wandered the earth. Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad. Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you! Oh, God! It is unutterable! I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” Even if she haunts him and terrorizes him, he wouldn't care because he would have the opportunity to see her. To have someone you truly love and for them to be in your lives, that's the greatest thing that can happen to you. And then to have them be ripped from you because its looked down on in society was obviously bull. They loved each other and they suffered much sadness because they couldn't be together. If they were allowed to be together, they would be happy and Wuthering Heights would no longer be haunted. Instead of a gloomy atmosphere, there could have been laughter and kids running around. Well I think, to heck with people and their bigotry. If two people love each, who are you to judge them? If your religious, they shall be judged by someone higher than you, who gives you the right to play god. So yeah, I have a personal perspective so I think these characters are very much real and they exist in present day but not with the names Catherine and Heathcliff but with other names and other social issues that "perturb" the parental figures. Well, its not the parent's happiness that is no the line, it is the offsprings' and it should be the decision of the offspring to love who they want. To love the person that will make them happy.