wuthering heights thematic & structural considerations
TRANSCRIPT
Wuthering Heights
Thematic & Structural Considerations
Industrial Revolution-1847
• “Marked by rapid, violent social changes”1. Land ownership was a part of the gentry class2. Genteelness was about birth rights and moral character3. The economy was becoming more cash-based4. The middle class was created because of this and more
powerful than landowning gentry
Changes political powerChanges rules of social acceptance
Implications of Social Change
Textual Evidence• Ch2-Lockwood’s blunders• Ch 5-$ as status as explained
by Nelly• Ch 6-Hindley making Heathcliff
a servant• Ch 7-Heathcliff wants to be
like Edgar• Ch11-Heathcliff lowers status
of Hindley*source of motivation for
revenge (theme)
Social Class
Women’s Right MovementNovel was published at the beginning of this movement in England
It was about voting rights
It was about married women’s property rights so they were the same as unmarried women.
Textual Evidence
Textual Evidence
Thematic Considerations: Death
Death & Burial Customs
Pre-1823• Insanity vs. self murdered• Felo-de-se• Suicide was subject to even
greater ignominy • Could be buried at a cross-
roads with a stake in the heart.
Customs• Property could be forfeited to
the Crown if discovered as a suicide
• Superstition-mirrors caused the soul to flee from the person and caused their death (suicide?)
• If you talk of death to the person and they commit suicide, you were an accomplice and would be subject to the law as well
Death & Burial Customs
After 1823• Suicides could be legally
buried in the churchyards but below wall so no one could step over grace and disturb the soul
Customs• Buried in the church yard in
the evening (hour + place)• No minister need to come• Nothing to be said over the
person (lack of Christian burial)
Closed Family System
Psyco-analytic Criticism
Character Considerations
Closed Family System• Focus on the family rather
than the individual on isolation
• Temper their love to detach from the family destruction
• Victims, triangulation, and scapegoating
Wuthering Heights• Bildungsroman focus on Cathy &
Heathcliff
• Contrast to Romanticism in many ways
• The disappearance of God in literature so the focus is on human relationships as substitutes
• Shift in focus could signify pre-oedipal focus on mother to father; eventually allows the integration of “self” again
Character Considerations
Bildungsroman• Mostly about a single individual’s
growth within the context of a defined social order
• The growth is somewhat a quest story
• Some form of loss or discontent jars the character away from home
• Process of maturity is long, arduous, and full of repeated clashes between desires and social order that is unbending
• Spirit and values of the social order become a part of the character and the protagonist then becomes a part of society
Byronic Hero Vs. Anti-Hero• Antithesis of a hero• Considered incompetent,
unlucky, tactless, clumsy…