Wuthering Heights
In the first two chapters, Lockwood tries to read the residents of Wuthering Heights, trying to decipher their relationships and personalities, etc. Focusing on one or two of these attempts, consider what Lockwood's perceptions suggest about his abilities to read a situation. Given that he is the narrator, how does the opening set us up as readers of the novel?
Brontë's narrators are neither close to nor particularly sympathetic towards her two main characters. What is the effect of filtering Heathcliff and Catherine's story through Lockwood's and Nelly Dean's accounts?
How does the isolation and location of the novel's northern Yorkshire setting influence the tone and events of the story? Are there symbolic elements to the descriptions of the houses and their landscapes?
How is Lockwood's dream about Jabez Branderham connected with the larger themes of the novel? (Note: Seventy Times Seven refers to Matthew 18: 21-22).
What are important elements of the scene in the old bedchamber, and the dream in which Lockwood shatters the windowpane? In what form does Catherine's voice enter the story? What brings the ghost to the casement window'? Analyze the scene, which precedes her appearance carefully. Why does the ghost appear to Lockwood and not to Heathcliff?
What are some unusual structural features of the novel - its frames, multiple narrators, time gaps, and dreams? Does it remind you of other novels you have read?
How does the novel present religion? Critics made much of the reference to the ruined kirk at the end of the novel, but what other references appear there? What role does it play in the life of its characters?
What purpose is served by the character of Joseph? What is significant about his social class and language?
How does Heathcliff first enter into the Earnshaw family? How does each of the various members of the family respond to him? Discuss his early relationship with Mr. Earnshaw, Catherine, or Hindley.
Why do you think Mr. Earnshaw brought home Heathcliff to his family? What does the novel indicate about Heathcliff's origins?
How do you explain the negative reactions of others to him? What do you make of the fact that he is often referred to as a "gypsy," and described as dark?
How do Heathcliff and Catherine, first see the Linton family? What do they observe the Lintons doing, and how do they respond to the scene? How does the Lintons' behavior change after Catherine is brought into the house? What are the implications of that shift?
How does the novel treat themes of motherhood and parenting? Are there good parents in the novel? Which characters suffer from childhood neglect? What consequences follow harsh and arbitrary child-rearing practices?
What factors cause Heathcliff's degradation? Does the novel imply that these could have been remedied? When he complains to Nelly, does she give him good advice?
What are Heathcliff's feelings toward Catherine, and to what extent are they reciprocated? According to her speech to Nelly, what are her emotions toward Heathcliff? How would you interpret her speech?
What events precede Catherine's marriage to Edgar? Are any of these symbolic? Is it a happy union? What forms of disagreement do the young couple have?
Why are there so many eruptions of violence in the novel'? What do these repetitions of violence suggest? Or if you choose, consider this question in light of Charlotte Brontë's concerned comment: “Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know: I scarcely think it is".
How do assumptions about social class affect the relationship of characters to each other? Are members of all social classes given equal attention?
Consider all of the scenes of figures looking into windows, or trying to look into them: Lockwood's second visit to Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff and Catherine at the Linton's window, Lockwood revisiting Wuthering Heights at the end of the novel. What is the effect of this repetition? How does it position the reader of the novel?
Consider all of the triangulated relationships in the novel: Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar foremost; but also Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley, Heathcliff, and the younger Catherine, Hareton, and Linton. What do they suggest about the structure of desire?
In what respects can Heathcliff's story be read as the revenger's tragedy? In what way does it replicate the traditional arc of Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge dramas (the cause for revenge - its planning and implementation - the tragic aftermath)
In the novel Catherine, Heathcliff and various other characters make suppositions regarding the nature of Catherine and Heathcliff's life after death. Does the text of the novel seem to arrive at any conclusive notion about that?
What echoes of other literary texts can you find in Wuthering Heights? (among the texts to consider: Shakespeare [especially The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear], Paradise Lost, Romantic poetry)
(by Florence Boos. Norah Ashe, Monika Mazurek)