Wuthering Heights Gothic Themes
- Created by: NatBSly
- Created on: 26-10-19 00:40
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- Gothic Literature in Wuthering Heights
- SETTING AND WEATHER
- Enclosed, haunted, deteriorated, imprisonment.
- ''building old and dark at first'' 20
- ''proof that the place was haunted […] its swarming with ghosts and goblins!'' 3
- ''among a wilderness of crumbling griffins''
- Even the narration has an element of trapped
- A decaying shell of what was once a thriving world.
- ''when beneath its walls, I perceived decay had made progress'' 20
- ''mental deterioration; he acquired a slouching gait'' 8
- Architecture.
- Wild and remote.
- ''on that bleak-top the earth was hard with a black frost and the air made me shiver through every limb'' 2
- ''[the chapel] lies in a hollow, between two hills: an elevated hollow, near a swamp'' 3
- ''dark evening for summer: the clouds appeared inclined to thunder''
- ''the storm came rattling over the heights in full fury. There was a violent wind, as well as thunder'' 9
- ''the frosty air that cut about her shouldres as keen as a knife'' 12
- Enclosed, haunted, deteriorated, imprisonment.
- CHARACTERS
- Protagonist saved after a fall from grace, and seeking revenge on others.
- Heathcliff getting revenge on Hindley, Hareton (turns him against Hindley) and Cathy.
- ''he pays Dad back for what he gies to me- he curses Daddy for cursing me'' 11
- ''Hareton... lives in his own as a servant deprived of advantages and wages'' 3
- Heathcliff getting revenge on Hindley, Hareton (turns him against Hindley) and Cathy.
- Heroine trapped by an aristocratic villain.
- Cathy is trapped by Heathcliff and forced to marry Linton, and is then treated badly after he dies.
- ''that lass owes me her services for her bread; I am not going to nurture her in luxury and idleness'' 15
- In a way, Nelly is also trapped an manipulated within the lives of the characters as she narrates the story.
- ''I'll take measures to secure you woman!'' 13
- Cathy is trapped by Heathcliff and forced to marry Linton, and is then treated badly after he dies.
- Psychological torment, guilt, self-division and paranoid delusion.
- Characters are constantly tormented by their love- should they be with who they love regardless of society?
- ''a maniac's fury kindled under her brows: she struggled desperately to disengage her from Linton's arms'' 12
- The Victorian audience could have seen madness in the characters as supernatural and a foreign idea that they disagreed with, instead of seeing it as emotion.
- ''tossing about, she increased her feverish bewilderment to madness, and tore the pillow with her teeth'' 12
- ''soon I found her delirious strength much surpassed mine'' 12
- Characters are constantly tormented by their love- should they be with who they love regardless of society?
- Characters paralyzed by past.
- The children are 'haunted' by their parents pasts in who they are forced to marry and how other characters treat them.
- ''Hindley calls him a vagabond and won't let him with us, not eat with us anymore'' 3
- The children are 'haunted' by their parents pasts in who they are forced to marry and how other characters treat them.
- Gothic Hero.
- Interestingly, the story does not seem to have a hero but rather an anti-hero, Heathcliff, who we are meant to feel sympathy for.
- Protagonist saved after a fall from grace, and seeking revenge on others.
- ATMOSPHERE
- Mystery
- Fallen world.
- Thrills of ferafullness.
- The thrill and terror of Lockwood seeing Catherine's ghost.
- Claustrophobic.
- In a way, the framed narration makes the characters and the reader feel trapped in the stroy.
- THEMES
- Secrets.
- Ancient vs modern, Fantastic vs realistic.
- Romantic ideas, and the rejections of them.
- Encroachment of the past onto the present.
- 2nd generation are deeply affected by the actions and prejudice of their parents.
- Violence
- Many of the characters show violence, both externally and internally, to themselves and to others.
- ''Hindley threw [the iron weight], hitting [Heathcliff] on the breast, and down he fell'' 4
- ''[Cathy] irresistibly impelled by the naughty spirit within her, slapped me [Ellen]'' 8
- ''[Heathcliff] I have no pity! I have no pity! The more worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails'' 14
- Many of the characters show violence, both externally and internally, to themselves and to others.
- SUPERNATURAL
- Ghosts.
- In chapter 3, Lockwood is visited in a dream by Catherine's ghost who is creepy and gory.
- ''''Come in!'' he sobbed. ''Cathy do come Oh do- once more!'' 3
- ''her spirit- I have a strong faith in ghosts; I have a conviction that they can, and do exist; among us!'' 15
- ''a child's face looking through the window'' 3
- In chapter 3, Lockwood is visited in a dream by Catherine's ghost who is creepy and gory.
- Dreams.
- In chapter 3, Lockwood has two dreams: one with religious symbolism and another with Catherine's ghost.
- ''the intense horror of a nightmare came over me''
- In chapter 3, Lockwood has two dreams: one with religious symbolism and another with Catherine's ghost.
- Danger and death.
- There are many deaths and illnesses that impact the people in the family.
- ''he lay an image of sadness, and resignation, waiting his death'' 14
- ''cheeks are hollow, and your eyes bloodshot. Like a person starving with hunger, and going blind with loss of sleep'' 20
- ''he died quietly in his chair one October evening'' 5
- ''he died true to his character, drunk as a lord'' 3
- Catherine's ghost represents death and danger (as she tries to attack Lockwood).
- There are many deaths and illnesses that impact the people in the family.
- Ghosts.
- GOTHIC SUBLIME
- SETTING AND WEATHER
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