The most important characters and their relations

DEAR STUDENTS! Pay special attention to 2 paragraphs in bold which you are to translate in a good substantial way as well as the words after the text! Good luck!

Emily Brontë was born on 30 July 1818 in Thornton, near Bradford in Yorkshire, to Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë. She was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë and the fifth of six children. In 1824, the family moved to Haworth, where Emily's father was perpetual curate, and it was in these surroundings that their literary gifts flourished.

Early life and education

After the death of their mother in 1821, when Emily was three years old,[3] the older sisters Maria, Elizabeth and Charlotte were sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge, where they encountered abuse and privations later described by Charlotte in Jane Eyre. Emily joined the school for a brief period. When a typhus epidemic swept the school, Maria and Elizabeth caught it. Maria, who may actually have had tuberculosis, was sent home, where she died. Emily was subsequently removed from the school along with Charlotte and Elizabeth. Elizabeth died soon after their return home.

The three remaining sisters and their brother Patrick Branwell were thereafter educated at home by their father and aunt Elizabeth Branwell, their mother's sister. In their leisure time the children created a number of paracosms, which were featured in stories they wrote and enacted about the imaginary adventures of their toy soldiers along with the Duke of Wellington and his sons, Charles and Arthur Wellesley. Little of Emily's work from this period survives, except for poems spoken by characters .When Emily was 13, she and Anne withdrew from participation in the Angria story and began a new one about Gondal, a large island in the North Pacific. With the exception of Emily's Gondal poems and Anne's lists of Gondal's characters and place-names, their writings on Gondal were not preserved. Some "diary papers" of Emily's have survived in which she describes current events in Gondal, some of which were written, others enacted with Anne. One dates from 1841, when Emily was twenty-three: another from 1845, when she was twenty-seven

At seventeen, Emily attended the Roe Head girls' school, where Charlotte was a teacher, but managed to stay only three months before being overcome by extreme homesickness. She returned home and Anne took her place.[6] At this time, the girls' objective was to obtain sufficient education to open a small school of their own.

Adulthood

Emily became a teacher at Law Hill School in Halifax beginning in September 1838, when she was twenty. Her health broke under the stress of the 17-hour work day and she returned home in April 1839. Thereafter she became the stay-at-home daughter, doing most of the cooking and cleaning and teaching Sunday school. She taught herself German out of books and practised piano.

Constantin Heger, teacher of Charlotte and Emily during their stay in Brussels, on a daguerreotype dated from circa 1865

In 1842, Emily accompanied Charlotte to Brussels, Belgium, where they attended a girls' academy run by Constantin Heger. They planned to perfect their French and German in anticipation of opening their school. Nine of Emily's French essays survive from this period. The sisters returned home upon the death of their aunt. They did try to open a school at their home, but were unable to attract students to the remote area.

In 1844, Emily began going through all the poems she had written, recopying them neatly into two notebooks. One was labelled "Gondal Poems"; the other was unlabelled. Scholars such as Fannie Ratchford and Derek Roper have attempted to piece together a Gondal storyline and chronology from these poems.[7][8] In the fall of 1845, Charlotte discovered the notebooks and insisted that the poems be published. Emily, furious at the invasion of her privacy, at first refused, but relented when Anne brought out her own manuscripts and revealed she had been writing poems in secret as well.

In 1846, the sisters' poems were published in one volume as Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. The Brontë sisters had adopted pseudonyms for publication: Charlotte was Currer Bell, Emily was Ellis Bell and Anne was Acton Bell. Charlotte wrote in the "Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell" that their "ambiguous choice" was "dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because... we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice[.]" Charlotte contributed 20 poems, and Emily and Anne each contributed 21. Although the sisters were told several months after publication that only two copies had sold, they were not discouraged. The Athenaeum reviewer praised Ellis Bell's work for its music and power, and the Critic reviewer recognized "the presence of more genius than it was supposed this utilitarian age had devoted to the loftier exercises of the intellect."

Wuthering Heights

In 1847, Emily published her novel, Wuthering Heights, as two volumes of a three-volume set (the last volume being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne). Its innovative structure somewhat puzzled critics.

Although it received mixed reviews when it first came out, and was often condemned for its portrayal of amoral passion, the book subsequently became an English literary classic. In 1850, Charlotte edited and published Wuthering Heights as a stand-alone novel and under Emily's real name. Although a letter from her publisher indicates that Emily was finalizing a second novel, the manuscript has never been found.

Death

Emily's health, like her sisters', had been weakened by unsanitary conditions at home , the source of water being contaminated by runoff from the church's graveyard. She became sick during her brother's funeral in September 1848. Though her condition worsened steadily, she rejected medical help and all proffered remedies, saying that she would have "no poisoning doctor" near her.[11] She eventually died of tuberculosis, on 19 December 1848 at about two in the afternoon. She was interred in the Church of St. Michael and All Angels family vault.

I cannot live without my life!

Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.

Wuthering Heights is the only novel by Emily Brontë. It was first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition was edited by her sister Charlotte.

The name of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective; wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.

Now considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights met with mixed reviews by critics when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty. Though Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was generally considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works during most of the nineteenth century, many subsequent critics of Wuthering Heights argued that its originality and achievement made it superior.

After Emily and Anne Brontë died in 1848 and 49, Charlotte Brontë continued to promote the works of her sisters. In the preface to the 1850 edition of Wuthering Heights, Charlotte writes of the novel’s power and her sister’s talent, but she also seems to feel the need to respond to the critics by making excuses for the novel’s “faults.” She blames the novel’s “rusticity” on Emily’s upbringing in Yorkshire, admitting that for those not raised in the North, “Wuthering Heights must appear a rude and strange production.” She also suggests that Emily was seized by inspiration and compelled to write what she did, as if she had no control over her writing; Charlotte writes that when Emily created her passionate, angsty characters, “Having formed these beings, she did not know what she had done.” We can see Charlotte here as a grieving sister trying to protect her loved one’s memory—but in the process, she strips Emily of her creative agency, recasting Wuthering Heights as the product of an almost supernatural vision, rather than artistic genius.

Plot Overview

In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights.

Nelly remembers her childhood. As a young girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the manor, Mr. Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and returns home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly comes to love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the moors. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.

Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife, Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered and favored son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common laborer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with Catherine, however. One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs. Linton works to make her a proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become infatuated with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated.

When Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.

When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have wronged him. Having come into a vast and mysterious wealth, he deviously lends money to the drunken Hindley, knowing that Hindley will increase his debts and fall into deeper despondency. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form she will, she may haunt him, drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her there.

Thirteen years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her temperament is modified by her father’s gentler influence. Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day, however, wandering through the moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays together with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly, whining son even more cruelly than he treated the boy’s mother.

Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors, and makes a visit to Wuthering Heights to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through letters. When Nelly destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl begins sneaking out at night to spend time with her frail young lover, who asks her to come back and nurse him back to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Linton is pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange—and his revenge upon Edgar Linton—will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries Linton. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.

Nelly’s story ends as she reaches the present. Lockwood, appalled, ends his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and returns to London. However, six months later, he pays a visit to Nelly, and learns of further developments in the story. Although Catherine originally mocked Hareton’s ignorance and illiteracy (in an act of retribution, Heathcliff ended Hareton’s education after Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton as they live together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff becomes more and more obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent that he begins speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking on the moors, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and young Catherine inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they plan to be married on the next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.

Cathy's most famous scene in the novel sees a memorable declaration of her feelings for Heathcliff and Linton to Nelly Dean, the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights and the novel's main narrator:

Heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy.

That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I've no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there, had not brought Heathcliff so low I shouldn't have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; and that, not because he's handsome, Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.

Catherine delivers many of the lines which have become synonymous with the work, such as her renowned declaration of love for Heathcliff —

My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods. Time will change it, I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees — my love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath — a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff — he's always, always in my mind — not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself — but as my own being — so, don't talk of our separation again — it is impracticable.

— and the famous ghostly utterance "Let me in your window - I'm so cold!", later used by Kate Bush in her 1978 hit "Wuthering Heights". The entertainment world, indeed, has been so intrigued by the love between Catherine and Heathcliff that many film adaptations of the novel, particularly the 1939 version with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon, cover only half of the story, ending with Catherine's death rather than telling the story of the younger Cathy, Hareton and Linton Heathcliff. Thematically, Catherine is also central to the issues of gender conflict, class division and violence in Wuthering Heights, as well as to the antitheses of good and evil, and reality and fantasy, which pervade the novel.

Here are the most important things to remember about “Wuthering Heights”:

Although “Wuthering Heights” received neither critical praise nor any local popularity during its initial publication, the reading public has changed substantially since 1847, and now both critical and popular opinion praise Emily Brontë's singular work of fiction. Emily would never know that she’d written a book that would become a classic of English literature.

The first person to praise publicly “Wuthering Heights” was Charlotte Brontë, Emily's sister, who wrote a preface and introduction for the second publication of the novel in 1850 and became the novel's first and foremost critic. Yet Charlotte herself was not entirely convinced of all its merits.

Wuthering Heights” is an important contemporary novel for two reasons: its honest and accurate portrayal of life during an early era provides a glimpse of history, and the literary merit it possesses in and of itself enables the text to rise above entertainment and rank as quality literature.

· The Book Was Self-Published. After being rejected by publishers, Emily and Anne paid the considerable sum of 50 pounds to publish Wuthering Heights and Agnes Gray together in one volume. Knowing that female writers weren’t respected, the sisters used male pseudonyms: Ellis Bell for Emily and Acton Bell for Anne. (Charlotte published Jane Eyre that same year with a traditional publisher under the name Currer Bell.)

Emily Brontë uses these characters to explore themes of good versus evil, crime and punishment, passion versus rationality, revenge, selfishness, division and reconciliation, chaos and order, nature and culture, health and sickness, rebellion, and the nature of love. These themes are not independent of each other; rather, they mix, mingle, and intertwine as the story unfolds.

Wuthering Heights” is also a social novel about class structure in society as well as a treatise on the role of women. Readers must therefore look not only to social class when judging and analyzing characters; they must determine what decisions are made by members of a certain class and why these characters made the decisions they did.

On the surface, “Wuthering Heights” is a love story. Delving deeper, readers find both a symbolic and psychological novel. In fact, it cannot be easily classified as any particular type of novel — that is the literary strength that Brontë's text possesses. The novel told from multiple points of view is easily read and interpreted from multiple perspectives, also.

· Hindley Earnshaw Was Similar To Branwell. While Emily was writing the novel, Branwell was living in the same house succumbing to alcohol and opium addiction, a situation that was accelerated by the end of his affair with a married woman named—we kid you not—Mrs. Robinson. In Wuthering Heights, Catherine’s brother Hindley Earnshaw descends into alcoholism after his wife Frances dies. “His sorrow was of that kind that will not lament,” the book says. “He neither wept, nor prayed; he cursed and defied; execrated God and man, and gave himself up to reckless dissipation.”

The most important characters and their relations

Catherine Earnshow

Often viewed as the epitome of the free spirit, Catherine is torn between two worlds. On one hand, she longs to be with Heathcliff, her soul mate: their life together, growing up and playing on the moors, represents the freedom and innocence of childhood. On the other, she recognizes what a marriage to Edgar can do for her socially, and she enjoys those things that Edgar can provide for her. Ultimately, she is self-absorbed and self-centered, and although she claims to love both Heathcliff and Edgar, she loves herself more, and this selfish love ends up hurting everyone who cares for her. Not until she nears death does Catherine turn exclusively towards Heathcliff, abandoning Edgar. Ironically, Heathcliff does not fully forgive her, and because of this, Edgar is the man who gives every appearance of loving Catherine unconditionally.

Heathcliff

To everyone but Catherine and Hareton, Heathcliff seems to be an inhuman monster — or even incarnate evil. From a literary perspective, he is more the embodiment of the Byronic hero (attributed to the writer George Gordon, Lord Byron), a man of stormy emotions who shuns humanity because he himself has been ostracized; a rebellious hero who functions as a law unto himself. Heathcliff is both despicable and pitiable. His one sole passion is Catherine, yet his commitment to his notion of a higher love does not seem to include forgiveness. Readers need to determine if his revenge is focused on his lost position at Wuthering Heights, his loss of Catherine to Edgar, or if it his assertion of dignity as a human being. The difficulty most readers have relating to and understanding Heathcliff is the fact that he hates as deeply as he loves; therefore, he is despised as much as he is pitied.

Edgar Linton

Edgar represents the typical Victorian hero, possessing qualities of constancy and tenderness; however, a non-emotional intellectual is not the type of person who can make Catherine happy in the long run. Edgar loves and understands Catherine more than anyone realizes, but love alone is not enough to sustain a relationship. He ends up losing everything — his wife, his sister, his daughter, and his home — to Heathcliff because good does not always overcome evil. He is a foil for Heathcliff.

Cathy Linton

Cathy's nature, a combination of both her parents, is key to revising the past. Her wildness and willfulness lead her to Wuthering Heights and the problems and pitfalls related therein. Her constant loyalty, good nature, and perseverance, however, eventually restore order and love to the farmhouse, thwarting Heathcliff's plans for revenge. Just as Catherine's presence dominates the first half of the text, Cathy's rules the second. Edgar tries to keep her from Wuthering Heights (and from Heathcliff), but her attraction to a man and her independent nature — characteristics that mirror her mother — once again make Edgar's appeals ineffective.

Main Topics

THEME OF REVENGE

Even though the novel is a great romance, Brontë doesn't follow the strict guidelines of the genre: the revenge plot is just as powerful, if not more so, than the love that pulls Catherine and Heathcliff together. Without revenge as such a predominant theme, “Wuthering Heights” would just be a thwarted love story.
When Heathcliff cannot have the woman he loves, he turns his attention to revenging his childhood tormenter, his adoptive brother Hindley. Because Hindley never lost an opportunity to demean Heathcliff, the "gypsy" grows up determined to destroy Hindley and become master of the two houses. The fact that Hindley already has a tendency to drink and gamble to excess makes Heathcliff's vengeance all the easier.
Without this desire for revenge, Heathcliff would have had nothing to do but pine after Catherine, so revenge becomes a major motivator for his character. On paper, he succeeds in his revenge: thwarting property and inheritance laws, he manages to become owner of the two houses. But by his own admission, revenge loses its thrill in the end. But not everyone is bitter in the novel. It is noteworthy that even though he is sorely abused, Hareton rises above it and becomes a decent person.

THEME OF LOVE

It's tough to really call “Wuthering Heights” a romance, since the two lovers spend so much time making each other miserable. Still, we know Catherine and Heathcliff experience some sort of transcendent romantic and erotic connection. Catherine's love for Edgar Linton, however, is so tied to her desire to be "the greatest woman of the neighborhood" that their love hardly seems to include any romance at all. Meanwhile, Catherine is so derisive of Heathcliff's social standing that early on in the story she questions his capacity to love at all, asking Nelly Dean, "I want to cheat my uncomfortable conscience, and be convinced that Heathcliff has no notion of these things – he has not, has he? He does not know what being in love is?" Still, Heathcliff and Catherine's fanatical, impassioned affection connects to the nostalgia of their childhood and reaches beyond the grave into the afterlife, so there's definitely a love connection going on. All of the other examples of love – or, more precisely, marriage – are diminished in comparison, except perhaps that of Cathy Heathcliff and Hareton Earnshaw, who seem to enjoy a rare experience of genuine affection and mutual respect.

THEME OF REVENGE

Even though the novel is a great romance, Brontë doesn't follow the strict guidelines of the genre: the revenge plot is just as powerful, if not more so, than the love that pulls Catherine and Heathcliff together. Without revenge as such a predominant theme, “Wuthering Heights” would just be a thwarted love story. When Heathcliff cannot have the woman he loves, he turns his attention to revenging his childhood tormenter, his adoptive brother Hindley. Because Hindley never lost an opportunity to demean Heathcliff, the "gypsy" grows up determined to destroy Hindley and become master of the two houses. The fact that Hindley already has a tendency to drink and gamble to excess makes Heathcliff's vengeance all the easier.
Without this desire for revenge, Heathcliff would have had nothing to do but pine after Catherine, so revenge becomes a major motivator for his character. On paper, he succeeds in his revenge: thwarting property and inheritance laws, he manages to become owner of the two houses. But by his own admission, revenge loses its thrill in the end. But not everyone is bitter in the novel. It is noteworthy that even though he is sorely abused, Hareton rises above it and becomes a decent person.

THEME OF BETRAYAL

Considering that Catherine unceremoniously bails on Heathcliff by marrying Edgar Linton, Heathcliff goes pretty easy on her. Heathcliff does disappear for three years, but when he finally accuses her of betrayal, he frames it as disloyalty to herself. Brontë offers all sorts of smaller examples of treachery – such as when Isabella runs off with Heathcliff and Edgar disowns her, or when young Cathy violates Edgar's prohibition against leaving the grounds of Thrushcross Grange. The novel presents more examples of people doing what they want than examples of people abiding by the dictates of loyalty. Betrayal, like revenge, drives much of the plot. If Mr. Earnshaw had not brought Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights in the first place – violating the family's boundaries and possibly even betraying his wife – the whole mess would never have started. Why don't Catherine and Heathcliff just elope?

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1982