Realism and

Wuthering Heights (Chapter

IX)

Critical Realism (Victorian Era)

Introduction: Victoria I and Victorian Era:

i. Queen Victoria I （ 1837-1901 ）

1. It is a time of great economic, social and political development.

Britain became the World-workshop.

Britain got a nickname “A Sun-never-Setting Empire”.

English was widely spoken throughout the world.

ii. Literature in Victoria’s Era

What is Realism

1. Time:

• The 2nd half of the 19th century

• 2. Motto:

• Gustave Courbet said: “I can’t paint an angel because I’ve never seen one.”

• Realism: describe people as what they really are.

• Romanticism: depict what the writer thinks life should be like.

• 3. Emphasis:

• lay emphasis on fidelity to actual experience.

The Brontë Sisters

1. The three sisters:

• (1). Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) Jane Eyre (1847)

• (2). Emily Brontë (1818-1848) Wuthering Heights (1847)

• (3). Anne Brontë (1820-1849) Agnes Gray (1847)

2. Life:

• (1). Poverty haunted them, leading to their early death.

• (2). The Isolation of moor inspired them, contributing to their enormous literary achievements.

Charlotte Brontë (1816-55)

Anne Brontë (1820-49)

Emily Brontë (1818-1848)

Haworth

•

Bronte Bridge

Brontë Seat

Wuthering Heightsby Emily Brontë

Wuthering Heights

The Earnshaws(Wuthering Heights)

The Lintons(Thrushcross Grange)

Hindley (died) Hareton

Catherine (died) Edgar (died) Cathy

Heathcliff (died) Isabella (died) Linton (died)

Summary of the story of Wuthering Heights

1. Heathcliff was raised up in Wuthering Heights and developed love with Catherine.

2. He was bullied and insulted after the old master’s death.

3. He left Wuthering Heights for dignity.

4. He took a revenge on the both families several years later.

5. He succeeded but he saw it was useless. He died as a defeated man.

Chapter IX

Love declaration and Heathcliff’s disappearance

Beginning Part of Chapter IX

1. Characters:

Hindley, Hareton, Ellen and Heathcliff

2. Place:

Kitchen, Wuthering Heights

3. Analysis of Hindley (cruel, hysterical, morbid, drunk, cold-blooded)

(1). Cruel to his own son

(2). Cruel to Ellan

(3). Cruel to Heathcliff

Beginning Part of Chapter IX

Conclusion:

1. Hindley: Cruel man, hysterical man, morbid man Life style: drinking and cursing every one

2. Ellen She is angry with him and manages to protect Hareton to sust

ain a decent living for all.

3. Heathcliff

He has no way but to curse him.

Middle Part of Chapter IX (Love)

1. Characters:

• Catherine, Ellen and Heathcliff

2. Place:

• Kitchen, Wuthering Heights

3. Two Premises:

4. focus:

• Love among Catherine and Edgar and Heathcliff

(1). Reasons: handsome, young, cheerful, rich and he loves her

(2). How deep? (P 207, Par 2-4) Enjoy the present

• (3). Doubtful for her decision

•

When You Are OldW. B. Yeats

• When you are old and gray and full of sleep,

• And nodding by the fire, take down this book.

• And slowly read, and dream of the soft look,

• Your eyes had once, and of their sorrows deep

• How many loved your moments of glad grace

• And loved your beauty with love false or true,

• But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you.

• And loved the sorrow of your changing face.

• And bending down beside the glowing bars

• Murmur, a little sadly, how love fled.

• And paced upon the mountains overhead

• And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

• She said: “Here, and here! In whichever place the soul lives—in my soul, and in my heart, I’m convinced I’m wrong.”

• (P. 207 ， Para. 8)

Middle PartLove: Catherine and Heathcliff

I. The 1st dream (P. 208, Last Para.):• She dreamed she was in heaven.

II. Reasons not to marry Heathcliff

• Catherine said: “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now.” (Para. 1, P. 209)

• Catherine: “Did it strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars?” (Para. 1, Lines 7-8, P. 210)

Wuthering Heights

•

Middle PartLove: Catherine and Heathcliff

1st Love Declaration (Para. 1, P. 209,)

“Heathcliff is more myself than I am. His soul and my soul are the same. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

2nd Love Declaration (Para. 1, P. 210) Total devotion for Heathcliff and sheer naivety as would-be

Mrs. Linton

Catherine: 3rd Love declaration (P. 210, Last Para.)

• My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods;

time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes

the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal

rocks beneath--a source of little visible delight, but

necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always

in my mind—not as a pleasure, any more than I am

always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.

“I am Heathcliff!”

…not because he is handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same…. (Para. 1, Lines 4-5, P. 209)

…there is, or should be, an existence of yours beyond you. (Lines 5-6, Last Para., P. 210)

…any more than I am always a pleasure to myself,

but as my own being. (P. 210, Last Para.)

He’ll be as much as to me as he has been all his lifetime. (Para. 1, Lines 4-5, P. 210)

Heathcliff’s Love DeclarationBefore Catherine’s Death

I believe I know that ghosts

have wandered on earth. Be

with me always—take any form

—drive me mad! Only do not

leave me in this abyss, where I

cannot find you! Oh, God! It is

unbearable! I cannot live

without my life! I cannot live

without soul!

“Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy?”

iii. The Third part (P. 211-218)

1. Characters: Catherine, Nelly, Hindley, Joseph, the Lintons and other villagers

2. Setting: Wuthering heights and Thrushcross Grange

3. Plot:

Disappearance of Heathcliff;

Fever of Catherine

Catherine’s marriage

(i). Look for Heathcliff

(ii). Keep his disappearance a secret

(iii). End

Heathcliff Came back and his love Declaration to Catherine

Heathcliff shouts: “Because misery, and degradation and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart, — you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”

“I love my murderer, — How can I love your murderer?”

The causes of their Tragic Love: Heathcliff and Catherine

1. Social climate hierarchical society and restrictive habit pattern

2. The intensity of human passion(1). The external environment should be taken into account includin

g the moor and the Wuthering Heights, which undoubtedly nourish a wild and whimsical Catherine and a rebellious and eccentric Heathcliff.

Passion is sometimes both destructive and self-destroying.(2). Heath is a symbol prevailing in the novel, standing for vitality, un

conformity and eternity, a witness of their love.

3. Emily Brontë’s own character All these above make this tragic love story a world classic and its author an immortal in world literature.

RemembranceEmily Bronte

• Cold in the earth, and the deep snow piled above thee!

• Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave!

• Have I forgot, my Only Love, to love thee,

• Severed at last by Time’s all-wearing wave?

• Now, when alone, do my thought no longer hover

• Over the mountains on Angora’s shore;

• Resting their wings where heath and fern-levers cover

• That noble heart for ever, ever more?• ……

End of the novel

But the country folks, if you asked them,

would swear on their Bible that he walks.

There are those who speak to having met

him near the church, and on the moor,

and even within this house.

I lingered round them, under that benign

sky: watched the moths fluttering among

the heath and harebells, listened to the

soft wind breathing through the grass,

and wondered how any one could ever

imagine unquiet slumbers for the

sleepers in that quiet earth.