Wuthering Heights Characterisation
A mindmap of the characters in Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte, published in 1847.
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?- Created by: Zoe
- Created on: 30-05-13 16:27
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- Characterisation in Wuthering Heights
- Narration
- Frederick Jameson: the aim of the classical narrator is to 'restore the coordinates of a face to face story telling institution'
- The presence of a narrator is comforting
- They must be a 'survivor'
- Narrator has authority
- The presence of a narrator is comforting
- They must be a 'survivor'
- Most narrators = male
- Interesting that Bronte chooses 1 male and 1 female narrator
- Most narrators = male
- Nelly Dean's narration outranks and dispossesses Lockwood's
- Interesting that Bronte chooses 1 male and 1 female narrator
- Interesting that Bronte chooses 1 male and 1 female narrator
- The presence of a narrator is comforting
- Neither narrator is entirely impartial
- Pierre Macherey: formulates a means of reading the 'not said'
- Reader is able to read between the lines
- Catherine Belsey: 'inadequacies...do not prevent the reader from seeming to apprehend the real nature of the relationship'
- Bronte plays with our expectations of characters
- Extend their influence beyond the grave
- Share each other's names
- Exemplify contradictions
- Cathy
- First intro is a signature of a ghost
- As elusive and forbidden to Heathcliff as she is incomprehensible to Lockwood
- Starts and ends as an enigma
- 'Catherine Earnshaw - Catherine Linton - Cathering Heathcliff''
- Fractured social identity
- Tries to combine passion with social convention
- 'I am Heathcliff'
- Fractured social identity
- Cannot stabilise her identity because Heathcliff is enigmatic too
- Capable of ruthless destruction
- Heathcliff
- Mysterious capacity for self invention
- Defies conventional categories of characterisation in the novel
- 'Heathcliff...both for Christian and surname'
- Radically outside social patterns and conventions
- Byronic Hero
- Melancholic and brutal
- Romantic Hero
- Intrusion into an transformation of a conventional and socially limited world
- Encompasses vast philosophical opposites
- Love and death
- Culture and nature
- Evil and heroism
- Clifton Snider: Heathcliff as a vampire
- Evidence for his bloodthirstiness
- Disturbs conventional structure of the novel
- Lack of formal education places him in an inferior 'degraded' social position
- Mysterious capacity for self invention
- Edgar
- Represents world of conventional morality
- Feminist critics Gilbert and Gubar: Edgar's masculinity roots from his social power
- Possible to read him as effeminate
- Can be read as lacking spirit
- Conventionally, lacks the vigour that characterises C&H
- Lacks C&H's ghostliness
- No internal contradiction
- He remains in his place during the novel
- Isabella
- Only ever seen in relation to other characters
- Infatuation with Heathcliff is a direct result of her cultural life
- Can only read him as a Romantic hero
- Gynocriticism: brutal realities of Isabella's position as the battered wife
- Linton
- Signifies the unnatural union between Heathcliff and Isabella
- Signifies unnatural union between passion and convention
- 'Ailing, peevish creature' shows the impossibility of such a reunion
- Signifies the unnatural union between Heathcliff and Isabella
- 'Ailing, peevish creature' shows the impossibility of such a reunion
- Love and convention emerge as corrupted by each other
- Singular view of the world (like both his parents)
- Makes himself available for manipulation because of his inability to see anything in any but his own terms
- Hareton
- Structurally repeats Heathcliff's 'degradation'
- Relationship with Cathy mirrors c&H's
- 'he wanted to be presentable' Hareton
- 'Nelly, make me decent' Heathcliff
- Unwavering love for Heathcliff
- '...how she would like him to speak ill of her father?'
- Fails to inherit rightful property
- Inability to read coupled with repetitious doubling of names
- Inheritance requires a stable system of patriarchal legitimacy and uncontested identity
- Surrogate/symbolic Heathcliff
- Development of character relies on education
- Cathy 2
- Achieves her identity at the price of her mother's
- Union with Hareton is a Romantic conclusion that transcends central conflicts in the novel
- Restores a traditional novelistic plot of courtship and marriage
- Restores the Victorian ideal
- Domestic bliss
- Note: Cathy has the upperhand in the relationship
- Nelly
- Gives the story substance and credence
- Partial
- Moves effortlessly from Grange to Height
- Dual roles
- Housekeeper at Grange - house of culture
- Housekeeper at the Heights - house of nature
- Dual names
- Ellen/Nelly
- Q.D Leavis: 'the normal woman, whose truly feminine nature satisfies itself in nurturing all the children'
- Ideology for Victorian readings
- Narration
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