Wuthering HeightsAnalysis of structure and theme

form and structure

Death or expulsion of major characters

Hero/ heroine’s assimilation into society (maturation)

tragic pattern of rise then fall

comic patter of fall then rise

ThemeWuthering Heights centers

around the moral agency of forgiveness: without the power to forgive, without the mercy, men are doomed; with it, they can transcend outward circumstances and inward tension and arrive at the moral and psychic maturity upon with civilization rests.

Union of oppositesThe Heathcliff-Catherine story is a story

of hate, vengeance, isolation, and death

The Hareton-Cathy story is one of forgiveness, love, integration, and life.

The moral failure of Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar relies on the next generation to rectify.

Cathy’s moral maturity allows for the “rise” at the end of the novel.

Elder Catherine“I’ll take no revenge on [Edgar’s] folly

—I can afford to suffer anything hereafter.” ◦p. 100 (Signet), 93-94 (Bantam)

“You and Edgar have broken my heart, Heathcliff.”◦p. 155 (Signet), 149-150 (Bantam)

“I won’t upbraid you!”◦p.158 (Signet), 152 (Bantam)

How can we believe Catherine’s forgiveness?

Younger Cathy“I felt I must forgive him: and

though we should quarrel the next moment, I must forgive him again.”◦p. 243 (Signet), 238 (Bantam)

“I don’t hate you. I’m not angry that you struck me. Have you ever loved anybody…?”◦p. 262 (Signet), 258 (Bantam)

“Say you forgive me, Hareton, do!”◦p. 299 (Signet), 295-6 (Bantam)

the frame storyLockwood’s two dreams:

◦ Rev. Jabes Branderham preaching of the “unforgiveable sin”

◦ Ghost of Cathy (we see a union of aggressive defense and civilized order in Lockwood)

The dreams set us up for a “realistic” view of a fantastic history.

Likewise, Nelly Dean reveals a realism and sensibility

Lockwood’s dismissal of the supernatural balances Nelly’s superstition◦ p. 319 (Signet), 316 (Bantam) ◦ p. 320 (Signet), 317 (Bantam)

the frame storyThe marvelous irony at work in

Emily Brontë’s handling of the frame enables her to expose the limitations of the very personae through whom she has lured us into accepting the hard truth which she wishes to convey– the frightening world of undisguised dark and light impulses.

the frame storyCivilization, Emily Bronte suggests, rests

ultimately upon the maturity of individual men and women, but their maturity in turn depends upon the health of the civilization into which they are born

Heathcliff, the stray waif, is the embodiment of an undifferentiated power for good or evil, which it is in civilized society’s hands either to channel and make creative or to thwart and make destructive.

The tragedy is that civilization in 1785 was unable to channel his exceptional energy into creative action.

Compare the two parablesWhy does younger Cathy have

the capacity for true forgiveness and psychic maturity that elder Cathy lacks?

How is Hareton able to escape the fate of Hindley and/or Heathcliff?

Think of the elements of light and dark.

The parable

Through Wuthering Heights, Bronte teaches us that the blending of psychic impulses—of hate and love, of revenge and forgiveness—is “growing up.”