Term
| How is Wuthering Heights classified? |
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Definition
| Gothic romance; love story; poetry masquerading as prose; psychological, realitstic, and social novel. |
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Term
| Who are the important minor characters in Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| Isabella; Lockwood; Joseph; Zillah; Mr. and Mrs.Earnshaw; and Mr. and Mrs.Linon. |
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Term
| Who are the main Characters in Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| Catherine; Heathcliff; Edgar; Hindley; Young Cathy; Linton; Hareton; and Nelly Dean. |
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Term
| What are the significant ordered pairs in Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| TWo houses (Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange); two generations; two pairs of children; and paired points of view in the narration (Lockwood and Nelly Dean) |
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Term
| What role does social class play in Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| Catherine, being a member of a lower class, uses social status as a major criteria for establishing a marriage, which is why she refuses to marry Heathcliff. Isabella is just the opposite. She is drawn to the wild, mysterious Heathcliff, even though he is beneath her social class. |
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Term
| Explain the significance of, "I am Heathcliff" in Wuthering Heights. |
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Definition
| Catherine says this to Nelly Dean as she discusses her connection with Heathcliff. Heathcliff does not overhear this line, and thus, he leaves to seek his fortune and make himself worthy of Catherine. She marries Edgar and bears him a child, but Heathcliff is the onl one for her. Her ghost returns to haunt Heathcliff after her death. |
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Term
| In Wuthering Heights, how do the two main houses contrast? |
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Definition
| The wild, windy moors of Wuthering Heights contrast with the calm, orderly parks of Thrushcross Grange. The contrast in setting contrasts with the characters from each estate. |
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Term
| What are some of the thematic topics developed throughout Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| Alienation (isolation, imprisonment); childhood; class issues; enduring loss; forgiveness; friendship; inevitability; jealousy; love; manipulation; nature; obsession; role of religion; and revenge. |
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Term
| What is the narrative structure of Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| Lockwood's narrative frames the initial story, telling the beginning and the end. Nelly then relates the majority of the action from her outsider's point of view. In essence, readers are eavesdropping rather than experience the action. |
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Term
| In Wuthering Heights, what are Heathcliff's characteristics that show him to be an example of a Byronic hero? |
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Definition
| Arrogant; defiant, disdainful; gloomy; handsome; haunted, moody, mysterious, passionate; remorse-torn but unrepentant; self-reliant; and theatrical. |
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Term
| In Wuthering Heights, why is Catherine Earnshaw considered a femme fatale? |
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Definition
| She is a beautiful woman who uses her looks for her own advantage, or, in other words, she uses sex as a weapon. She resists the male-dominated aspects of her life and society as well as the traditional expected role and forms of behavior. |
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Term
| In Wuthering Heights, how would you characterize Heathcliff? |
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Definition
| Critics are divided in theory regarding the focus of Heathcliff's revenge: lost position at Wuthering Heights; loss of Catherine to Edgar; or assertion of dignity as a human being. Curiously, his commitment to higher love and passion for Catherine does not include forgiveness. Heathcliff hates and loves equally; therefore he is equally despised and pitied. |
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Term
| What are some of the most important symbols in Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| Wuthering Heights (the farmhouse); Thrushcross Grange, the moors, Catherine throwing the key into the fire; Nelly intertwining Edgar's and Heathcliff's hair in the trinket around Catherine's neck; and starvation. |
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Term
| What are some of the motifs developed throughout Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| Animal images; civilzed versus wild; class and race; death; disres; diabolical violence; doors; doubling; dreams; education; emotional intensity; fears; ghosts, imprisonment; money; passion; rebellion; religious imagery; repetition; revenge; storms; violence; and windows. |
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Term
| What are the characteristics of a gothic romance present in Wuthering Heights? |
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Definition
| Atmosphere of dread and suspense; cemeteries; entrapment, the devil, isolated setting; revenge; ghosts; unreliable narrator; childhood; innocence; effects of death on children; emotion favored over reason, imagination favored over logic; individual favored over societal norms; and love of nature. |
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