The document provides context and summaries about Emily Bronte and her only novel Wuthering Heights. It discusses Bronte's biography and background. It then summarizes the plot of Wuthering Heights, focusing on the passionate but thwarted love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff. Key details are provided about the setting, characters, and nonlinear narrative structure of the novel. The document also includes excerpts from the novel itself that describe Catherine's deep love for Heathcliff and her reasons for ultimately marrying Edgar Linton instead.
1. By Emily Brontë
A lesson with FCE Class
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2. Respect? Money?
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3. Emily Jane Brontë (July 30,
1818 – December 19, 1848)
was a British novelist and
poet, now best remembered
for her only novel Wuthering
Heights, a classic of English
literature. Emily was the
second eldest of the three
surviving Brontë sisters,
being younger than
Charlotte and older than
Anne. She published under
the masculine pen name
Ellis Bell. She was born in
Thornton in Yorkshire.
For more information visit
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Bronte
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4. Wuthering Heights is Emily Brontë's only novel. It was first published in
1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and a posthumous second edition
was edited by her sister Charlotte. The name of the novel comes from the
Yorkshire manor on the moors on which the story centres (as an adjective,
wuthering is a Yorkshire word referring to turbulent weather). The
narrative tells the tale of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet
thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this
unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights)
Setting (time) : The action of Nelly's story begins in the 1770s; Lockwood
leaves Yorkshire in 1802.
Setting (place) : All the action of Wuthering Heights takes place in or
around two neighboring houses on the Yorkshire moors—Wuthering
Heights and Thrushcross Grange. (www.sparknotes.com/lit/wuthering/facts.html)
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5. The narrative is non-linear, involving several
flashbacks, and two narrators - Mr. Lockwood
and Ellen quot;Nellyquot; Dean. The novel opens in
1801, with Lockwood arriving at Thrushcross
Grange, a grand house on the Yorkshire moors
he is renting from the surly Heathcliff, who
lives at nearby Wuthering Heights. Nelly takes
over the narration and begins her story thirty
years earlier, when Heathcliff, a foundling
living on the streets of Liverpool, is brought to
Wuthering Heights by the then-owner, the
kindly Mr. Earnshaw, and raised as his own.
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6. Earnshaw's daughter Catherine becomes
Heathcliff's inseparable friend. Her brother
Hindley, however, resents Heathcliff, seeing him
as an interloper and rival. Mr. Earnshaw dies three
years later, and Hindley (who has married a
woman named Frances) takes over the estate. He
brutalises Heathcliff, forcing him to work as a
hired hand. Catherine becomes friends with a
neighbour family, the Lintons of Thrushcross
Grange, who mellow her initially wild personality.
She is especially attached to the refined and mild
young Edgar Linton, whom Heathcliff instantly
dislikes.
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7. Some two years after that, Catherine agrees to marry
Edgar. Nelly knows that this will crush Heathcliff, and
Heathcliff overhears Catherine's explanation that it
would be quot;degradingquot; to marry him. Heathcliff storms
out and leaves Wuthering Heights, not hearing
Catherine's continuing declarations that Heathcliff is as
much a part of her as the rocks are to the earth beneath.
Catherine marries Edgar, and is initially very happy.
Some time later, Heathcliff returns, intent on
destroying those who prevent him from being with
Catherine.
Read the rest of the story at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights
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8. Now read the handout.
(extract from Chapter 9)
Main topic:
Catherine‘s motives to marry Edgar
Online reading:
www.literature.org/authors/bronte-
emily/wuthering-heights/chapter-09.html
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9. What are the reasons Catherine decides to
marry Edgar? Do you agree with her?
How would you describe her character based
on this extract?
What do you think about Nelly‘s reactions?
Why does Catherine‘s attitude change towards
the end of the extract?
Can you predict what will happen next?
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10. This video belongs to a BBC series and depicts
the entire discussion between Catherine and
Nelly.
Find out what Catherine says about Heathcliff.
You Tube link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR3ho8ohOa4&fea
ture=related
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11. 'This is nothing,' cried she: 'I was only going to say that heaven
did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with
weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so
angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on
the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy.
That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I've
no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in
heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought
Heathcliff so low, I shouldn't have thought of it. It would
degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never
know how I love him: and that, not because he's handsome,
Nelly, but because he's more myself than I am. Whatever
our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and
Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or
frost from fire.'
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12. ‗Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into
nothing before I could consent to forsake
Heathcliff. Oh, that's not what I intend - that's not
what I mean! I shouldn't be Mrs. Linton were such
a price demanded! He'll be as much to me as he
has been all his lifetime. Edgar must shake off his
antipathy, and tolerate him, at least. He will, when
he learns my true feelings towards him. Nelly, I
see now you think me a selfish wretch; but did it
never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married,
we should be beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton I
can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my
brother's power.'
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13. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely
contained here? My great miseries in this world have
been Heathcliff's miseries, and I watched and felt each
from the beginning: my great thought in living is
himself. If all else perished, and HE remained, I should
still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he
were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty
stranger: I should not seem a part of it. - 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.
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14. What was Catherine‘s dream?
How does it relate to her marriage to Edgar?
How does she really feel about Edgar? What
metaphors does she use to express that?
What deeper reasons does she have for
marrying him?
How does she feel about Heathcliff? How does
she express that?
How will this love story end in your opinion?
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15. ‗Wuthering Heights‘ performed by
Hayley Westenra:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkTF5DRBxpI
The song was initially performed and written
by Kate Bush who derived her inspiration from
this novel.
For more information about the song visit:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights_(song)
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16. Out on the winding, windy moors Ooh, it gets dark! It gets lonely,
We'd roll and fall in green. On the other side from you.
You had a temper like my I pine a lot. I find the lot
jealousy Falls through without you.
Too hot, too greedy. I'm coming back, love,
How could you leave me, Cruel Heathcliff, my one dream,
When I needed to possess you? My only master.
I hated you, but I loved you,
too. Too long I roamed in the night.
I'm coming back to his side, to
Bad dreams in the night put it right.
You told me I was going to lose I'm coming home to wuthering,
the fight, wuthering,
Leave behind my wuthering, Wuthering Heights,
wuthering
Wuthering Heights. Ooh! Let me have it.
Let me grab your soul away.
Heathcliff, it's me, I‘m Cathy, Ooh! Let me have it.
I've come home and I´m so cold, Let me grab your soul away.
let me in your window You know it's me--Cathy!
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17. ―. . . Heathcliff . . . shall never know
how I love him . . .
he's more myself than I am.
Whatever our souls are made of,
his and mine are the same . . .‖
―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.‖
Catherine Earnshaw
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