Skip to main content

For Friday: Bronte, Wuthering Heights, Chs.1-6


We'll start with our next novel slowly, just reading the first six (or so, get as far as you can) chapters for Friday. This novel is a little trickier to read than Frankenstein, though it has a lot in common with that equally famous work. I think you'll see shades of Wollsonecraft, Austen, and Shelley here, though Bronte offers us an even more complex view of human relationships than we've seen so far in this class (though she's probably more like Wollstonecraft than anyone else). 

 NOTE: You can also read the Biographical Notice and the Preface by Charlotte Bronte that precedes the novel if you like; it will give you some unique insights into the work by Emily Bronte's sister, who had a difficult relationship with her sister (and the novel itself). 

 Q1: Like Frankenstein, this novel employs a frame narrative, with Lockwood telling his story, which is also his account of Mrs. Dean's narrative of Heathcliff and company. Why do you think Bronte chooses to have a man introduce the story, but a woman tell the brunt of the tale? Why not simply have her tell the entire story and do away with Lockwood entirely? (note: Shelley does more or less the same thing, but excludes female narrators entirely). 

 Q2: In Charlotte Bronte's 1850 preface of the novel (Charlotte was her sister, who wrote Jane Eyre), she writes that "Whether it is advisable to create things like Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcely think it is" (xlix). Based on our previous readings, what might strike readers as shocking about this novel? Why is Heathcliff so objectionable? Other aspects?

 Q3: When Lockwood meets Mrs. Heathcliff, he reflects, "she has thrown herself away upon that boor, from sheer ignorance that better individuals existed! A sad pity--I must beware how I cause her to regret her choice" (13). What does this reveal about Lockwood's character and reliability? Is he a Victor-like character, or something quite different? Do we trust him as our principal narrator? 

 Q4: All of our novelists are interested in the idea of education, particularly the education of children. How does Bronte take up this theme in the novel? Does she believe that children are inherently bad or evil, as Earnshaw and Joseph clearly do? Or is innocence corrupted by cruel experience? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For Monday: Short Lecture on Colonialism and Mansfield

As a way to introduce you to some of the themes we'll be exploring with our last two books, I've recorded a short lecture (about 18 min.) that I would have discussed with you in class if we were still meeting. I know 18 minutes is a lot to watch in a single stretch, so feel free to start and stop, or simply leave it playing in the background. However, I think it will help you see and understand some of the larger ideas going on behind the scenes in Mansfield's stories.  AFTER you watch the video, answer the following question as a COMMENT below: "Since many women in the early 19th century tried to hide their identity as a woman by adopting a male name, or writing more 'male' stories, how do you think colonial writers did the same? That is, how did they hide their colonial identity in writing to sound more 'English'? What might they have had to hide, or ignore, or not reveal as a writer? (This will count toward your participation grade, since I can...
40 comments
Read more

Short Lecture on Being "Weak" in Mansfield's Stories

Before we race to the end of Mansfield's stories, I wanted to discuss some of the major themes we've encountered in several of them, particularly "Daughters of the Late Colonel," "The Life of Ma Parker," "Mr. and Mrs. Dove," and "Marriage a la Mode." Watch the video to hear some of my thoughts on these stories, most of which are drawn from your responses to the reading questions. It's a little longer than the last one, but still only about 25 minutes (sorry)!  After you finish, answer the following question as a COMMENT on the blog.  Q: Talking about emotions, love, death, or otherwise being "weak" was very taboo in British society at this time. What subjects or relationships do you feel are taboo in our own society? And I don't just mean awkward subjects (abortion, politics, etc.), but what emotions or experiences would you have trouble discussing with your parents, your siblings, your friends, and even your sig...
32 comments
Read more

For Friday: Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"

“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections in Early Childhood” (pp.51-57): read the entire poem, but the questions will only focus on Stanzas 1-7 NOTE: This is a longer poem, though it’s broken up into short stanza chapters.  Read it slowly, and focus on each stanza as an individual poem.  Then consider how each one develops a general ‘story’ or narrative about Wordsworth’s life.  Consider this, too, as a kind of mid-life crisis poem: Wordsworth feels himself pulling away from the innocent joys he used to experience in life, and the poem is an attempt to find himself—and to convince other readers to find themselves in the thickets of adulthood.  Answer TWO of the following... Q1: According to Stanzas 1-4, what causes the poet to feel distanced from the natural world?   What has come between him and his imagination/emotions?   In Stanza 2 he writes that “But yet I know, where’er I go,/That there hath past away a glory from the earth...
25 comments
Read more