Stylistic Features of Wuthering Heights Essay Example

creates separation between the different classes.

Class structure, as an approach shows the many inequalities that exist between the different classes. Bronte shows how the control over education allows the upper class power over the working class. It is in this way that education is used as a form of social and class oppression. This can be especially seen through the relationship between Hindley and Heathcliff. Hindley, as a member of the upper class is able to deny Heathcliff . The reader sympathizes with Heathcliff, the gypsy oppressed by a rigid class system and degraded as "rascal" or "fiend. But as Heathcliff pursues his revenge and tyrannical persecution of the innocent, the danger posed by the uncontrolled individual to the community becomes apparent.

Wuthering Heights also has the elements of a Gothic novel. The novel provokes greater consideration of morality than the usual action-driven Gothic novel. Wuthering Heights has plenty of spooky Gothic qualities, like imprisonment, dark stairways, stormy weather, nightmares, extreme landscapes, melancholy figures, moonlight and candles, torture and excessive cruelty, necrophilia, a supernatural presence, madness, communication between the living and the dead.

In the Gothic tradition, Bronte features tyrannical fathers and a troubled family line. In this case, the threat comes from Heathcliff, the outsider, who causes havoc by usurping the family line and taking all of its property. The novel has both religious ideas, and the ideas of the supernatural. The character Joseph is the religious figure of the novel, always reciting from the Bible and damning the other character to hell for their sinful acts. Heathcliff is most likely the evil spirit or even the devil.

He

was first described in the novel as“you must e’en take it as a gift of God; though it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil”. Heathcliff even asked Cathy to haunt him before her death, “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest, as long as I am living! You said I killed you – haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers. I believe – I know that ghosts have wondered on earth”. The Narrative Techniques in Wuthering Heights Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is notable for the narrative technique she employed and the level of craftsmanship involved in it.

Bronte writes in a dreary, melancholy style that provides the dark atmosphere to the story. Wuthering Heights has a very complicated narrative structure. There are only two obvious narrators; Lockwood and Nelly Dean but the novel is almost a drama, because dialogue plays a great part. A variety of other narratives are also interspersed throughout the novel. The reason for this is that the whole action of Wuthering Heights is presented in the form of eyewitness narrations by people who have played some part in the narration.

Wuthering Heights has a multi-layered narration, each individual narrative reveal a new level of the story. Mark Schorer praises Wuthering Heights as, “one of the most carefully constructed novels in the language”. In the novel we find two times of reference: “present narrative”, that is a kind of “present time”, when Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange, meets his landlord, Heathcliff, and asks Nelly Dean to tell him the story of his landlord. “Past narrative”, that is a kind of “past time”, where the events

told by Nelly Dean took place.

Both are interrelated and got mixed during the novel. The time reference goes backwards and forwards very easily. The images in the novel, which are vivid and powerful, contribute to its style. The figures of speech are effective. Nelly describes Edgar's unwillingness to leave the Wuthering Heights after his quarrel with Catherine through a powerful metaphor: "He possessed the power to depart, as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed, or a bird half eaten. " One of the most striking features of Emily Bronte's style is its lyrical quality.

In the novel the young Cathy's description of her ideal way of spending a summer day, contrasted with that of her cousin Linton. "He wanted all to lie in an ecstasy of peace; I wanted all to sparkle and dance in a glorious jubilee. " The language of the novel also portrays human beings, establishing the cultural differences between man and the social world he enters. Lockwood's speech is mannered, bookish, and delightfully free from dialect. In spite of his lack of education, Heathcliff is able to address Lockwood, with elaborate politeness.

Joseph's language is different from the language Catherine uses. His is the typical dialect spoken by a servant, while Catherine's speech is typical of a well-to-do young lady who grew up in the country. Nelly Dean's language is a fine with a slight regional flavor. The language successfully reveals part of each character's background. Heathcliff is introduced in Nelly's narration. His story, in the words of Nelly, is "a cuckoo's story", Heathcliff is the usurper. The use of

the imagery strengthens the inhuman aspect of Heathcliff.

In the novel Heathcliff is most likely the evil spirit or even the devil, he was first described to the reader as, “you must e’en take it as a gift of God; though it’s as dark almost as if it came from the devil”. Then Isabella writes Ellen “Is Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil? ” Heathcliff is physically transformed into a gentle man but it is difficult for Heathcliff to fit in it because of his brutal personality. He is shown as a true gothic villain but his emotional complexity and the depth of his motivations and reactions make him much more than that.