Lesson 2 Heathcliff

WUTHERING WUTHERING HEIGHTS HEIGHTS Names play an important role in Wuthering Heights. Early in the novel, for example, the love story is foreshadowed in the names scratched onto the window sill. The circle is marked out as Catherine Earnshaw who marries and becomes Catherine Linton, who marries and becomes Catherine Heathcliff , who marries to become Catherine Earnshaw. Write 'Heathcliff' on an A4 sheet. Write all the associations you have for each part of the name. (heath - cliff). Do the same for Lockwood. Do names influence our perception of character?

HEATHC LIFF

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HEATHCLIFF my landlord (Lockwood)

black villain (Nelly)

‘fierce, pitiless, wolfish man’ (Catherine [1], ‘you vagabond!’ (Hindley)

‘You may come and wish Miss Catherine welcome, like the other servants’ (Hindley)

dark-skinned gypsy (Lockwood) ‘an unreclaimed creature, without refinement – without cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze ‘Your worthless friend!’ and (Nelly to Catherine [1]) whinstone’ (Catherine [1]) ‘brute of a lad’ (Hindley) A capital fellow! (Lockwood) ‘Frightful thing!’ (Isabella)

‘Heathcliff ... being of the lower orders’ (Catherine [1]) ‘imp of Satan’ (Earnshaw,

‘that foolish boy’ (Nelly)

[Earnshaw told] a tale of his seeing it starving (Nelly)

Mrs Earnshaw was ... asking how he could fashion to bring that gipsy brat into the house. (Nelly)

‘Judas! Traitor!’ (Nelly)‘wicked man’ (Catherine [2] quoting her father Edgar Linton)

‘wicked man’ (Catherine [2] quoting her father Edgar Linton) ‘Mr Heathcliff ! master!’ (Nelly)

‘Mr Heathcliff ! master!’ (Nelly)

WUTHERING WUTHERING HEIGHTS HEIGHTS ‘the scoundrel’ (Nelly) ‘the fiend’ (Isabella quoting Hindley in her account to Nelly)

HEATHCLIF F

‘a hero of romance’ (Heathcliff ’s version of Isabella’s perception of him) ‘Papa’ (Linton)

‘hellish villain!’ (Hindley recounted by Isabella)

‘uncle’ (Catherine [2])

‘brute beast!’ (Isabella)

‘that devil Heathcliff ’ (A servant)

‘that wretch’ (Edgar)

goblin (Nelly)

‘ungrateful brute’ (Catherine [1])

a ghoul, or a vampire? (Nelly)

Heathcliff was the mortgagee (Nelly)

‘my Heathcliff ’ (Catherine [1])

‘low ruffian’ (Edgar)

‘Poor wretch!’ (Nelly)

‘He’s a lying fiend, a monster, and not a human being’ (Isabella)

‘father’ (Linton)

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Since its publication, Wuthering Heights has been a battleground for literary critics. Heathcliff – and Emily Brontë’s presentation of him – is often at the centre of the debate. Should we read him as: – a monster without redeeming features – a social outcast – an isolated individual misunderstood by those around him – a representative of a class struggle – the hero of a love story – something else altogether?

HEATHCLIF F

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1. Focus on one of the readings (See handout) and discuss the ways in which the evidence from the novel has been used to explore and support the critic’s interpretation. (You might also go on to think about ways in which you could add to, or challenge, this particular reading of Heathcliff and his role in the novel.) 2. Share your thoughts on the ways in which textual evidence has been selected and analysed to support the different readings.

HEATHCLIF F

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HEATHCLIF F

You are now going to explore one of these readings in more detail, selecting and analysing your own textual evidence in order to construct a convincing interpretation of Heathcliff ’s character.

3. Working in pairs, share out the different critical readings of Heathcliff listed here. – Heathcliff as a child of the storm. – Heathcliff as a social outcast and misfit. – Heathcliff as ‘female’. – Heathcliff as a Romantic or Gothic hero. – Heathcliff as a fairy tale creation. – Heathcliff as a product of circumstance. – Heathcliff as a demon, an inhuman monster. 4. Find a piece of evidence which supports that critical perspective from the selected quotations on the handout. Alternatively, find evidence of your own from the text. 5. Go on to analyse the quotation to provide support for the critical reading you have chosen.

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HEATHCLIF F Use what you have learned through the analysis and discussion to answer the question below, inserting into the blank space the argument that you would most like to support. ‘Heathcliff is best seen as _____________’. How far and in what ways do you agree with this view?