Wuthering Heights

Question 1

Allusions in Wuthering Heights

Answer 1

After a lightning bolt strikes Wuthering Heights on the night Heathcliff runs away, Joseph and Nelly both react with allusions to biblical patriarchs and prophets:

We thought a bolt had fallen in the middle of us, and Joseph swung onto his knees, beseeching the Lord to remember the Patriarchs Noah and Lot; and, as in former times, spare the righteous, though he smote the ungodly. I felt some sentiment that it must be a judgment on us also. The Jonah, in my mind, was Mr Earnshaw, and I shook the handle of his den that I might ascertain if he were yet living.

Question 2

Foreshadowing in Wuthering Heights

Answer 2

When Lockwood spends the night at Wuthering Heights, he sees young Catherine Earnshaw’s signature repeatedly scratched into the ledge beside his bed. Catherine’s signatures foreshadow much of the novel’s drama:

The ledge, where I placed my candle, had a few mildewed books piled up in one corner; and it was covered with writing scratched on the paint. This writing, however, was nothing but a name repeated in all kinds of characters, large and small—Catherine Earnshaw, here and there varied to Catherine Heathcliff, and then again to Catherine Linton.

Question 3

Imagery

Answer 3

When Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights for the first time, the novel uses melancholy, Gothic imagery to indicate that the neighboring house is a forlorn, isolated, tempestuous place. Lockwood’s visit also foreshadows the whole history of the place that Nelly will tell Lockwood about over the course of the novel.

Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr Heathcliff’s dwelling, ‘Wuthering’ being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there, at all times, indeed: one may guess the power of the north wind, blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few, stunted firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun.

Question 4

Wuthering Heights as a character

Answer 4

1. It’s described in ways that give it a distinct personality: stormy, rugged, and isolated, just like many of the characters (Heathcliff).
2. WH often feels oppressive or inhospitable, especially when characters are trapped there:
   
   • Catherine Earnshaw famously says, “I am Heathcliff!”—her identity is deeply tied to the house where they both grew up.
   • Later, characters like Isabella and Cathy Linton experience literal and emotional confinement there.
   • Becomes a prison under Heathcliff’s control.
3. The house embodies themes:
   - Nature vs. Civilisation: WH is raw, passionate, and resistant to social norms.
   - Revenge and Generational Cycles: the house endures as generations suffer through the consequences of past actions.
   - Death and the Supernatural: it holds ghosts, memories, and unfinished emotional business.

Question 5

The supernatural in Wuthering Heights

Answer 5

1. Catherine’s ghost appears at a window and begs to be let in.
2. Near the end, a shepherd boy sees Heathcliff and ‘a woman’ as ghosts.
3. In the days leading up to his own death, Heathcliff behaves as if he’s being haunted or drawn into the spirit world.
4. After both Catherine and Heathcliff are dead, local people claim to see: two locals walking in the Moors, and a boy claims he was threatened by a couple he believed to be Heathcliff and Catherine’s ghosts.

Question 6

Gothic moments in Wuthering Heights

Answer 6

1.Heathcliff bribes the sexton to exhume Catherine’s grave, open her coffin, and remove the side of the coffin facing away from Edgar Linton’s grave. He did this so he could see her face one last time and, when he died, have his own coffin placed beside hers.

2. Heathcliff’s obsession with Catherine’s ghost: after Catherine’s death, Heathcliff becomes consumed with her presence.
3. The house itself is Gothic: remote, storm-battered, dark, and old. The word “wuthering” suggests violent wind, symbolising the emotional and physical chaos inside.
4. Descriptions of the wild moors, bleak weather, and eerie silence heighten the Gothic atmosphere.
5. Violence and madness: Hindley’s descent into alcoholism and cruelty.
   Heathcliff’s emotional and psychological abuse of young Cathy, Linton, and Hareton. Isabella’s description of Heathcliff as a monster and her escape from Wuthering Heights.

Question 7

The role of ghosts in Wuthering Heights

Answer 7

Ghosts, or the references to ghost, carry deep symbolic and thematic meaning. The ghosts aren’t just spooky details; they represent the powerful emotional and psychological forces that drive the novel.

1. Haunting of the past, that it refuses to die in the novel.Characters are trapped by old grievances, past wrongs, and inherited trauma, especially in the second generation.
2. Symbol of entrapment: ghosts are often trapped between worlds, like Catherine’s spirit, unable to rest.
   Similarly, the characters are trapped in cycles of revenge, suffering, and isolation. The ghosts reflect this sense of being stuck, unable to move on, forgive, or forget.
3. Psychological turmoil: many of the ghostly encounters can be read as expressions of mental and emotional breakdown: 1. Lockwood’s dream of Catherine’s ghost. 2. Heathcliff’s visions and hallucinations near the end of his life. These moments blur the line between the supernatural and the psychological, showing how grief and guilt can manifest as haunting.

Question 8

Narration in Wuthering Heights

Answer 8

The main story is told second-hand, filtered through two main narrators:
1. Mr. Lockwood, the outsider who visits Wuthering Heights and becomes curious about its history.
2. Nelly Dean (Ellen Dean), the housekeeper, who recounts the events of the past to Lockwood.
This frame narrative structure creates a story-within-a-story effect, adding layers of perspective and unreliability.

Unreliable narrators:
Neither narrator is entirely trustworthy:
Lockwood is naive, judgmental, and often misreads people and situations. He only knows what others tell him.
Nelly is closely involved in the events she describes, and her account is shaped by her biases, emotions, and moral judgments. This forces the reader to read between the lines and question the truth behind what’s being told.

This causes limited ommiscience: the narrators can only report what they see, hear, or are told, so many events are told second-hand or through dialogue. This lack of full omniscience adds a sense of mystery and uncertainty, enhancing the novel’s Gothic tone.