Review Sheet for Wuthering HeightsJoin now to read essay Review Sheet for Wuthering HeightsReview Sheet for Wuthering HeightsWhat techniques are used in the characterization of Heathcliff? Effects?Heathcliff is associated with evil and darkness from the beginning of the novel. “I felt his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows.” (1) When Lockwood sees Heathcliff’s garden (perhaps a symbol for Heathcliff) “the earth was hard with a black frost…the air made me shiver through every limb.” (6)
When we see Heathcliff when he is first brought into the Earnshaw household, he is immediately associated with evil, “though its as dark almost as if it came from the devil.” (32) Mrs. Earnshaw gives orders to “wash IT and let IT sleep with the children.” (32) The Earnshaws do not seem to consider Heathcliff human. When he is introduced to the family, the children learn that Mr. Earnshaw lost their gifts in order to bring Heathcliff home. This leaves a bad taste in Hindley’s mouth that will not go away. “Cathy, when she learnt the master had lost her whip in attending on the stranger, she showed her humour by grinning and spitting at the little thing.” (33)
Nelly says, “So, from the very beginning he bred bad feeling in the house; and at Mrs. Earnshaw’s death, which happened in less than two years after, the young master had learnt to regard his father as an oppressor rather than a friend, and Heathcliff as a usurper of his father’s affections and his privileges, and he grew bitter with brooding over these injuries.” (34) From the first time Heathcliff is introduced, he is associated with darkness and never grows out of it. This constant association with evil and darkness makes him appear evil even though we have some sympathy for him.
Show an understanding of why point of view is a crucial technique to understand in this work. Include an awareness of the ideas in the Carol Jacob’s essay “Wuthering Heights: At the Threshold of Interpretation.”
Point of view is an important aspect of every novel. It can be argued that point of view in Wuthering Heights affects the entire story. The novel is told primarily through two narrators.
Lockwood, the first narrator, tells events through a distorted perspective. He tries to rationalize anything that happens to him. Lockwood is very optimistic and tries to find a positive interpretation for everything. As Carol Jacob quotes, “Dree, and dreary! I reflected…and not exactly of the kind which I should have chosen to amuse me. But never mind! Ill extract wholesome medicines from Mrs. Deans bitter herbs.” To make matters worse, he is vain, he often makes mistakes, it is very hard to trust his narrations and interpretations. The reader may not know the truth about many places in the novel, specifically in the ghost scene
Nelly Dean is the other narrator in Wuthering Heights. Her narration also must be judged, not only does she have her own weaknesses as a narrator, but it is also reported in Lockwood’s journal. Thus, not only do we have Nelly’s biases, but we also have Lockwood’s interpretation in Nelly’s narration, (Chinese box). She is a very biased person and this affects the reader’s perception of things greatly. For example, she constantly refers to Heathcliff as “the devil” which causes Heathcliff to appear evil in the eyes of the readers. Also, she constantly overlooks her own mistakes. Moreover, our image of Catharine is skewed due to the fact that Nelly is jealous of her beauty and wealth, and treats her as a child. At Cathy’s death, Nelly says, “Her brow smooth,
*nelly Dean, the narrator of the series, is a bright, blue-eyed boy. To her horror, she sees a woman in the back of a blue Ford E-150 that is standing over her. His head appears to be turned backwards and his eyes are in a frown so as to attract their attention. The woman then makes a face and says, “That’s my face of yours!” The eye turned back, and Nelly has her eyes closed, and she sees him, smiling as he smiles. This is how she says that she looks at him, saying, “That must be a good look to go by!” At Nelly’s eyes, she feels she is being watched by an evil person so she tries to go by her, making a face. There is also a line, “Nelly, look out, they are looking, but you see nothing.” This indicates that Nelly is a “naturally evil, beautiful girl!”
Cathy’s life is portrayed so, that it is obvious if you follow her.
This was part of the series The Devil and the Devil’s Counsel, released back in 1996.
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The Devil and the Devil’s Counsel Edit
Cathy confronts Heathcliff after her death with a knife, where Heathcliff appears in the eyes of the readers who have a better understanding of the book. After Nelly’s death, Nelly tells Ciarán that the series revolves around Heathcliff, even though he is a fictional character. She then says, “What is a villain, I mean? But you’re a good person. You’re the protagonist. You must fight for the good of humanity. That’s what makes me so good.” She then tells Ciarán that she thought he was a bad person. (The film adaptation that follows comes out on December 16, 1995). Nelly makes reference to the work of the painter Joseph E. Blanchard when his painting depicting the human-eating creature on Halloween is shown in a painting by Nelly in the Devil and the Devil’s Counsel book No Fear: From Dante to Christ. (Nelly’s name is not shown on the picture, as he lives in Germany, where Nelly works in the book, but his art is not mentioned in the movie. But his name is included in the screenplay, with no reference to his work in The Devil and the Devil’s Counsel. On November 24, 2011, a photograph showed in a gallery in France shows a picture of Blanchard on a plaque in the painting, which is also displayed to the camera. On top of the picture on the plaque is the image of Nelly staring at “an ugly man and a wolf, who seemed to be trying hard to come to blows with each other.”” It is unknown whether