Literature Analysis #2

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

1.      Wuthering Heights is a story set in the early 1800s about a girl's reminiscing on her childhood. Nelly was a young servant who worked for the Earnshaws in the manor and she recollects Mr. Earnshaw adopting a young boy by the name of Heathcliff. He joins Mr. Earnshaw's children, Catherine and Hindley, who are at first not very fond of their new "sibling". As time goes on, Catherine begins to love Heathcliff and when Mrs. Earnshaw passes away, Mr. Earnshaw treats Heathcliff like his own. Hindley, on the other hand, continues to detest Heathcliff and gets sent away due to his horrible cruelty towards him. Later, when Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley takes over the manor and takes revenge towards Heathcliff. In the meantime, Heathcliff and Catherine's relationship is like a roller coaster, reaching great highs and also becoming more complicated when she meets a new man, Edgar. Heathcliff hits rock bottom and runs away from the manor after being abused by alcoholic Hindley and heartbroken by Catherine (who becomes engaged and later married to Edgar).
     When Heathcliff returns to the manor, he takes it over as Hindley dies and marries Isabella. He finds out that Catherine has died after giving birth to her child and starts to be cruel towards Isabella, causing her to leave him and take their son with her. Thirteen years later, little Catherine is watched over by Nelly and meets Hareton; meanwhile, Isabella dies and leaves Linton, her son, with Heathcliff. A few years later, little Catherine meets Heathcliff and Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance which lasts until they get married but ends when Linton suddenly dies. Heathcliff takes over little Catherine's place, Thrushcross Grange. Nelly ends the story with the continuation of what is happening presently: little Catherine dates Hareton and when Heathcliff dies, they inherit all he owned. They end up getting married and living in the Wuthering manor.

2. The main theme present in the novel is love and the effects it can have on a person's behavior and life. Heathcliff's passion for Catherine is everlasting, even when they have grown apart from one another. His depression grows deep when he realizes she has moved on to Edgar and he takes in out on his own wife, Isabella. He treats people he should love with such terrible cruelty and basically pushes them away because of it. His devotion to Catherine drive him almost mad in his actions but it also displays how strongly he felt towards her in the beginning and throughout his life.

3. The tone of the novel is different for the ongoing events that occur. At times, Bronte has a passionate voice when the characters describe their love towards each other. "I shall love mine yet; and take him with me: he's in my soul," claiming how she truly cares about her man. Bronte also has moments of an intense tone. Cries for help were said in such extreme words such as, "You have left me so long to struggle against death, alone, that I feel and see only death! I feel like death!" The majority of the novel also has a gloomy outlook on the tragedy that occurs over the years. "Terror made me cruel," and "Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves," reveal the depressing emphasis the novel had about life.

4. Imagery
- "I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes..."
- "The contrast resembled what you see in exchanging a bleak, hilly, coal country for a beautiful fertile valley"
- "He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee."
Similes
- "Catherine's face was just like the landscape--shadows and sunshine flitting over it in rapid succession; but the shadows rested longer, and the sunshine was more transient..."
- "And his voice and greeting were as opposite as his aspect."
- "Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire."
Diction
- "If I imagined you really wished me to marry Isabel, I'd cut my throat!'
- "Kiss me again, but don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me."
- "Be with me always--take any form--drive me mad! only DO not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!"
Metaphors
- "It was not the thorn bending to the honeysuckles, but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn."
- "Don't get the expression of a vicious cur that appears to know the kicks it gets are its desert, and yet hates all the world, as well as the kicker, for what it suffers."- "One is gold put to the use of paving-stones, and the other is tin polished to ape a service of silver."
Paradox
- "She was never so happy as when we were all scolding her at once."
- "A melancholy sweeter than common joy."
- "You must e’en take it as a gift of God; though it’s as dark as if it came from the devil."