Critical articles

Question 1

Marxist critique view

WH- “soci - economic novel.”

Answer 1

• Industrial Revolution led to changes. inc. social unrest. ie what defines a gentleman.
• Middle-class Capitalists seizing power (Heathcliff) from gentry (Lintons.)
• Necessity in preserving old ways/ shared power between gentry and Capitalists?

Question 2

Psychoanalytical view around Heathcliff and Catherine being the same.

Answer 2

• Catherine (ego) Heathcliff (id.)
• Catherine rejecting part of her self in marrying Edgar leads to her death?
• You can’t separate id and ego, they are parts of single person!
• Jung: Heathcliff is a shadow of darkest parts of Catherine.

Question 3

Psychoanalytical view around Heathcliff’s “obsession” with Catherine.

Answer 3

• Monomaniac, as Victorians would describe.
• “The disease of going to extremes.”
• Symptons = insomnia, hallucinations (things Heathcliff suffers from.)

Question 4

Critique view on religion in novel.

Answer 4

• “thirst for religious experience that isn’t Christian.”
• Emptiness that comes from change in world, Industrial Revolution, hope for afterlife.

Question 5

Feminist view

Answer 5

• Catherine not holding on to Heathcliff, but rather, her childhood.
• Childhood: sisters equal to brothers, this is why Catherine refuses to sexually mature.

Question 6

Idea of breaking barriers portrayed how?

Answer 6

• Doubling.
• “restrictive civilisation” vs “unrestrained natural forces.”
• Gothic vs Romanticism.
• Realism vs fantasy

Question 7

Critique view of “I am Heathcliff.”

Answer 7

• Catherine taught to worship men.
• She wants to share his male sovereignty.
• She likes the IDEA of Heathcliff whom she has held since childhood.
• Heathcliff = symbol of childhood, she wants him because she wants to go back to when she was “half-savage.”