The literary quality of Wuthering Heights is remarkable. The use of English language is in top standards in every sense: narration, action, description, portrait. The novel even contents the experiment of Joseph's jargon. His gibberish is hardly decipherable: "Aw wonder how yah can faishion to stand thear i' idleness un war, when all on 'em's goan out!". All and all, I think that Emily could have been sensitive at the incapability of humble people of her time to speak, read and write properly, if not at all. And, precisely because of her dedication to study, along with her preference for a rural and quite life, Brontë's story was rather unique. She started as a teacher in the law school at Halifax and wrote poetry. She had to feel veneration for the English language. I don't think that the mockery of Cathy (both mother and daughter) towards the uneducated and ill-bred Heathcliff and, later, Hareton is gratuitous. The latter can hardly read the inscription at the entrance of the premises of Wuthering Heights and Cathy's taunts were about to re-write the wretched story of her mother. The fact that, dead Heathcliff, Cathy and Hareton chirp in love next to the hearth of fire while she teaches and he learns is a foremost expression of the power of love in the eyes of the romantic Emily Brontë. This detail must be important, because it is what allows re-editing the whole story in the right way.
My dear M. put name for me to a second literary resort: "media res". The novel starts at some point in the middle of the story. As a matter of fact, Wuthering Heights starts in 1801, twenty years ahead of the beginning of Ellen Dean's tale, and finishes about two years later. The tool seems not to be completely original, though, as we find it applied in Frankenstein. There, Shelley starts when Victor is saved from the Arctic ice where he was persecuting the monster. The story is written by a sailor (Victor dies finally) and also spred many years backwards and only a small time forward.
The multiple narrators is also an important feature of both novels. In Frankenstein the book is written by a sailor; in Wuthering, Mr Lockwood, Heathcliff's tenant in Thrushcross Grange. The writer, though, gives way to a second character in the course of the story to tell parts of the action: the all-efficient housekeeper Ellen Dean takes the job in Wuthering Heights, while Victor does the job in Frankenstein.
Now, although both novels share these elements, do not take for it that are comparable in quality. Wuthering Heights is far, far more brilliant, delicate, thoughtful, rich. Powerful. It is the work of an exquisite English scholar. The novel's characters are deep and profound and the land so real. You can almost smell the grass of the moor in summer, stumble across its undulations, feel the snow and the hail, to be revive next to the reviving fire. You can kneel mesmerized to the red and sunset of the spring. Feel the breeze, feel the rain. And birds, and insects and the trot of the horse. Everything is so real, so true. And all the real passions of humans within such a real environment. I wrote countless notes on the margins of my edition as I read through: "It is so, it is so". "Oh...". That was all I could say.
Furthermore, in Wuthering Heights there is not only a second narrator, but many. It is amazingly good: sometimes, in two contiguous pages there are several "I" (how many "I" are written? Thousand?), all of them referring to different narrators and, still, it made sense! I got myself to jot down all narrators and circumstances of Wuthering Heights:
1.- Mr Lockwood pays a visit to his landlord, Heathcliff. The night breeds terrible and, much dis-comfortably, he had to spend the night in Wuthering Heights. Mr. Lockwood introduces the characters. The atmosphere is hostile and gloomy.
2.- The tenant, as anyone of us might, feel the next days in "low spirits and solitude" and, seeks the conversation of nice Ellen Dean, the wonderful housekeeper. She goes back twenty years ago and starts the story.
3.- The night Heathcliff returned alone to the house after the incident of Cathy and the dog in Grange he, the boy, tells what happened.
4.- During Mr. Lockwood's convalescence, Nelly Dean continues with the story.
5.- The miserable and unhappy Isabella, unfortunately married to Heathcliff, finally escaped from the house. She sends a letter to Nelly and we know what happened from the letter... It is stunning to read Isabella confessing she was giving Heathcliff a hard time on purpose -so unhappy she was-and that she had to leave to spare her life.
6.- Then, Nelly pays a visit to Wuthering Heights.
7.- With Mr. Lockwood in convalescence, Ellen continues.
8.- Proceeds Isabella, when came to the Grange after Catherine's death. I've just realized that Cathy mother died almost immediately after Cathy daughter was born. The scene of Heathcliff under the rain in the yard, howling like a beast with sorrow, on one side; Ellen is left with a baby girl no-one cares about, on another.
9.- Ellen continues.
10.- Then it comes the story of Catherine escaping Wuthering Heights to run to the Grange and meeting Heathcliff's son, Linton and Hareton. She tells the story to a crossed and disappointed Nelly. Sooner of later, the dangers of the world that every mother -or tutor- fears for her daughter break through.
11.- Here it comes the episode of Linton's death, Cathy's father. It grips your heart. Ellen is kidnapped during four or five days, so Heathcliff can do and undo as he pleases with Cathy. The story of the developments of those days is told by Zillah. Ellen run into her in the moor sometime after. Zillah is the counter-ego of Ellen, the housekeeper of Heathcliff, but "narrow-minded and selfish". The story is in current time already.
12.- Mr Lockwood acts as a messenger-boy for Ellen, who is forbidden to see Cathy. Here it comes the scene of the letter.
12.- Mr Lockwood finishes the story. He is in business around the area and visits Wuthering Heights, about a year later. Meets Ellen: Heathcliff is dead and she tells him his final days. The final comments are Mr. Lockwood's.
(PLEASE, LEAVE YOUR COMMENT).
My dear M. put name for me to a second literary resort: "media res". The novel starts at some point in the middle of the story. As a matter of fact, Wuthering Heights starts in 1801, twenty years ahead of the beginning of Ellen Dean's tale, and finishes about two years later. The tool seems not to be completely original, though, as we find it applied in Frankenstein. There, Shelley starts when Victor is saved from the Arctic ice where he was persecuting the monster. The story is written by a sailor (Victor dies finally) and also spred many years backwards and only a small time forward.
The multiple narrators is also an important feature of both novels. In Frankenstein the book is written by a sailor; in Wuthering, Mr Lockwood, Heathcliff's tenant in Thrushcross Grange. The writer, though, gives way to a second character in the course of the story to tell parts of the action: the all-efficient housekeeper Ellen Dean takes the job in Wuthering Heights, while Victor does the job in Frankenstein.
Now, although both novels share these elements, do not take for it that are comparable in quality. Wuthering Heights is far, far more brilliant, delicate, thoughtful, rich. Powerful. It is the work of an exquisite English scholar. The novel's characters are deep and profound and the land so real. You can almost smell the grass of the moor in summer, stumble across its undulations, feel the snow and the hail, to be revive next to the reviving fire. You can kneel mesmerized to the red and sunset of the spring. Feel the breeze, feel the rain. And birds, and insects and the trot of the horse. Everything is so real, so true. And all the real passions of humans within such a real environment. I wrote countless notes on the margins of my edition as I read through: "It is so, it is so". "Oh...". That was all I could say.
Furthermore, in Wuthering Heights there is not only a second narrator, but many. It is amazingly good: sometimes, in two contiguous pages there are several "I" (how many "I" are written? Thousand?), all of them referring to different narrators and, still, it made sense! I got myself to jot down all narrators and circumstances of Wuthering Heights:
1.- Mr Lockwood pays a visit to his landlord, Heathcliff. The night breeds terrible and, much dis-comfortably, he had to spend the night in Wuthering Heights. Mr. Lockwood introduces the characters. The atmosphere is hostile and gloomy.
2.- The tenant, as anyone of us might, feel the next days in "low spirits and solitude" and, seeks the conversation of nice Ellen Dean, the wonderful housekeeper. She goes back twenty years ago and starts the story.
3.- The night Heathcliff returned alone to the house after the incident of Cathy and the dog in Grange he, the boy, tells what happened.
4.- During Mr. Lockwood's convalescence, Nelly Dean continues with the story.
5.- The miserable and unhappy Isabella, unfortunately married to Heathcliff, finally escaped from the house. She sends a letter to Nelly and we know what happened from the letter... It is stunning to read Isabella confessing she was giving Heathcliff a hard time on purpose -so unhappy she was-and that she had to leave to spare her life.
6.- Then, Nelly pays a visit to Wuthering Heights.
7.- With Mr. Lockwood in convalescence, Ellen continues.
8.- Proceeds Isabella, when came to the Grange after Catherine's death. I've just realized that Cathy mother died almost immediately after Cathy daughter was born. The scene of Heathcliff under the rain in the yard, howling like a beast with sorrow, on one side; Ellen is left with a baby girl no-one cares about, on another.
9.- Ellen continues.
10.- Then it comes the story of Catherine escaping Wuthering Heights to run to the Grange and meeting Heathcliff's son, Linton and Hareton. She tells the story to a crossed and disappointed Nelly. Sooner of later, the dangers of the world that every mother -or tutor- fears for her daughter break through.
11.- Here it comes the episode of Linton's death, Cathy's father. It grips your heart. Ellen is kidnapped during four or five days, so Heathcliff can do and undo as he pleases with Cathy. The story of the developments of those days is told by Zillah. Ellen run into her in the moor sometime after. Zillah is the counter-ego of Ellen, the housekeeper of Heathcliff, but "narrow-minded and selfish". The story is in current time already.
12.- Mr Lockwood acts as a messenger-boy for Ellen, who is forbidden to see Cathy. Here it comes the scene of the letter.
12.- Mr Lockwood finishes the story. He is in business around the area and visits Wuthering Heights, about a year later. Meets Ellen: Heathcliff is dead and she tells him his final days. The final comments are Mr. Lockwood's.
(PLEASE, LEAVE YOUR COMMENT).
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