1. family and parenting
2. children

Cut-out for study copy
Examiners look for (a) your understanding of how literary features work; (b) how these features convey meaning to
the reader; (c) your awareness of the “context” of the extract. The first “E” (the extract in context) can be analysed
separately from your interpretation of the extract in your introductory paragraph. L-E-P will help you “close read”
evidence, paying attention to why linguistic or literary techniques and choices are made by the writer.
Essential Steps
What and How
E
Definition the significance of the extract in the context
of the whole story / plot – the “big picture”
Extract in context
Examples the first time the reader hears Catherine
speak, the transition from primary to secondary
narrator, first psychological insight into Heathcliff
What is the ‘purpose’ of the extract within WH?
Definition the bread and butter of literature – the
techniques used by the writer to convey meaning
L
Literary / linguistic feature
Examples direct discourse/dialogue, free indirect
discourse, monologue, dramatic action, reporting
verbs, adverbials, pronouns, modals, adjectives,
interjections, rhetorical questions, imperative
(directive), subjunctive, comparative, superlative,
intensifiers, exclamation, pauses, dashes, stops,
images, metaphors, alliteration, frame narration,
“simplicity”, circumlocution, convoluted, juxtaposition
How is the narrative told to the reader?
E
Effect of feature
Definition the “feeling” or “quality” the reader gains
from this particular feature
Examples stuttering, agitated prose, sense of
catharsis, haunting quality, urgency, imposing,
commanding, aligns the reader with the speaker,
comic, ironic, mocking, poignant
What qualities does the feature have?
Definition what this feature reveals about theme,
setting, character, the speaker or narrator or what
Brontë is suggesting to her (enlightened) reader
P
Purpose of feature
(Note that this is linked to the “extract in context”)
Examples shows Nelly’s complicity with the Lintons,
highlights extreme contrast between TG and WH,
suggests Hindley’s innate childishness, Brontë’s reader
sees here the early beginnings of Heathcliff’s desire for
revenge, Brontë suggests that her reader should
question Nelly’s intentions...
What is conveyed to the reader?
Why is this important at this point in the text?
Cut-down feature cut-up
Ignore at your own peril! These truly are the bare fundamentals for presenting your understanding of how
Wuthering Heights is a literary text and not a novel you read just for ‘content’.
Literary / Linguistic Features
General Effect or Purpose
Pronouns
Establishes intimacy or distance between the speaker
and another character
Eg. Catherine’s use of “we” to
represent Heathcliff and her
Modal Verbs
Eg. Heathcliff’s shift from “shall be”
to “like to be” to “will be” in Ch V
Tentative possibility (can, may)
Assertive obligation (must, will, should, shall)
Ambiguity (can, may)
Certainty (will, must)
Verbs
Eg. Catherine “snatch[es]” and
“pinch[es]” Nelly in spite
Passive verbs (eg. I was fed) can suggest objectification,
while active verbs (eg. I murdered him on court) imply
will, desire, power, agency.
Dynamic verbs (eg. hit, run) indicate action and control,
contrasted by stative verbs (eg. know, am).
Use of present continuous tense (eg. walking, driving)
can create a sense of immediacy.
Direct Discourse
Frequent use of dialogue / ‘reported
speech’ by both narrators
‘Monologue’
Eg. Heathcliff’s “soliloquy” in Ch V
Provides reader semblance of objective, direct narration
of events (but not necessarily). Also puts the reader
closer to the “reality” of the story
Reveals ‘accurately’ and in great detail a character’s
thoughts, desires and psychological state. Similar
function as the use of the letter.
Often used by Brontë to present inner anxiety / unease, “monologues”
are protracted dialogues where one character speaks without
interruption by speech or narration.
Reporting Verbs
Eg. use of “exclaimed” in lieu of
simply “announced”
Adverbs / Adverbials
Eg. Catherine (as told by Nelly) to
reply “peevishly” and “rising to her
feet” like a child
Adjectives
Eg. Lockwood’s detailed description
of Heathcliff as “dark-skinned”,
“rather slovenly”, “rather morose”.
Conditional clause
Parts of a sentence that start with
“if”, “unless”, “when”, “except”
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Illustrates vividly the manner of speech, in turn relating
something about character or character relations
Also conveys the “behavioral” aspect of speech (more
on action and gesture) to suggest aspect of character(s).
Enhances presentation of setting or character but also
reveals something about the speaker (from his / her
choice of words).
Presents the degree of possibility of things happening,
from impossible to remote to likely to near-certain.
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Interrogative
Questions fielded by characters to
gain information or to intimidate
Questions and rhetorical questions (you know?) can
suggest the power of the speaker over the ‘addressee’.
We usually assume that the ‘askee’ is privileged over the ‘asker’.
Questions however can be imposing or patronising, highlighting that
the ‘interrogator’ is in control.
Imperative
Eg. Nelly’s demand for Catherine to
simply, “Answer”.
“Remember this.” “Write this down.” Short lines without
a subject (eg. you, my students, worker-ants) are
demands, commands, directives that imply the agency or
power of the speaker.
Exclamatory
Can express unfettered or even exaggerated sense of
excitement, joy, anxiety, rage. Reader encouraged to
doubt characters who exclaim all the time. It’s irritating!
Seriously! Yes, really!
Conjunctions
Used to communicate contrast, similarity, addition,
subtraction, cause and effect. Conjunctions can be split
into coordinating, correlative, subordinating.
Eg. Lockwood exclaims, “This is
certainly a beautiful country!”
But, and, or, yet, so, also, both,
because, althought etc.
Dash
Frequently - frequently - used in
Brontë’s dialogue. The one defining
feature you cannot miss.
Interrupts previous line. Draws attention to incomplete
lines and fragmentation of thought / speech patterns.
A character with a lot of dashes in his or her speech is
likely to be overwrought with emotion, distressed,
anxious as he or she stutters, rants or rambles.
Italics
Intensifies what the italicised word usually conveys. The
italicisation of “her” focuses the reader’s attention on
Heathcliff’s ‘servility’ to Catherine and Catherine only.
Also suggests something about the narrator’s subjective
viewpoint (Nelly is emphasising her own speech!)
Intensifiers
Words such as “very”, “extremely”, “exceedingly”
enhance meaning or effect deliberately. This can reveal
more about the speaker’s own position, bias, judgement.
Eg. Catherine’s power over Heathcliff
– “how the boy would do her bidding
in anything”
Eg. Nelly’s use of “very” to describe
how “spiteful” Catherine is
Comparative / Superlative
Eg. Nelly declares Heathcliff “the
most unfortunate creature ever born”
should Catherine marry Edgar.
Frame Narrative
The “story” of Heathcliff, Catherine
et al is communicated through the
central “plot” of Nelly narrating to
Lockwood.
Comparative words (more, better) highlight the contrast
between two subjects. The superlative (most, best,
worst) marks the strongest possible degree. Both
features signal the speaker’s own interpretation.
The disynchronous syuzhet (plot) distances the reader
from the fabula (chronological story). At times, Brontë
deliberately pulls the reader away from his emotions,
almost asking him to analyse her “hero” and “heroine”.
*Note that this list of effects is generic. You should tailor the “effect” to the context of the extract, relating for
instance, how the reader gets closer to what Catherine is contemplating in that chapter. The skilled Literature
student must illustrate how this “effect” on the reader serves a purpose in Brontë’s narration; remember that the
Earnshaws, the Lintons, Heathcliff et al are not real people but constructs by a revered 19th century author!
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Essay Cut-and-Paste
Chapter IV
Isabelle Leong
+ Extremely succinct
+ Sharp analysis of literary and linguistic features
+ Awareness of (specific, contextual) effect
- Almost discusses narratology (shift in narrator and its ‘purpose’) but that’s…
E This extract in Chapter IV marks the ‘transfer’ from Lockwood to Nelly Dean as the central
narrator in Bronte’s frame narrative, simultaneously marking for the reader his entrance into
a more veritable account of both the Earnshaw and Linton households.
Bronte’s narrators in Wuthering Heights can be said to only be reliable to a certain extent,
especially in Lockwood’s case, where more often than not he is prone to comic
misjudgement. They are both keen observers, however, who present Heathcliff, Hareton,
and Catherine’s lives to us to the best of their ability, this perception and interpretation of
theirs naturally somehow coloured by their own opinions. We as readers are thus
encouraged to question the information relayed to us about these three characters.
By L continually questioning Nelly Dean about the history of the characters, Lockwood
already introduces new questions about them to the reader, who has yet to be initiated into
this part of the story. He asks Nelly whether “Heathcliff let Thrushcross Grange” because he
wasn’t “rich enough to keep the estate in order”; L the use of the interrogative here shows
that P he himself is fairly uncertain about the characters’ histories and this in turn P provokes
the very question in us readers of Heathcliff’s motives for remaining in Wuthering Heights,
and what significance Wuthering Heights holds for him. P This cements Heathcliff as a
mysterious character whose intents never seem to be openly displayed. In this case
Lockwood is very much like us, the critical reader trying to decipher the characters –
however, he is the one who introduces thought-provoking questions surrounding the
characters’ history, and is thus always one step ahead of us.
Lockwood, in this extract, almost seems a device utilized by Bronte to allow the reader to
probe into the mystery that surrounds the ostensible ostracisation of Hareton. He questions
Nelly about whether the Earnshaws are an “old family”, and Nelly responds that “Hareton is
the last of them” – yet for some reason still unbeknownst to both Lockwood and the reader,
Hareton has been “cast out like an unfledged dunnock”. L The words “cast out” seem to
suggest an E assertion of power by a supposedly higher authority over Hareton, yet how is it
possible that he be relegated t o such a lowly position when his own surname is “carved over
the front door” of the very house he lives in? A dunnock being a small bird that follows and
feeds the cuckoo, is “unfledged”, rooted to no one specific place and almost condemned to
wander in search of its own identity / purpose in life, and P this begets the very question of
the reason for Hareton’s outcasting. We uncover his story with the aid of Lockwood, who as
an outsider, with no previous involvement or initiation into the characters’ histories, poses
questions to the one person who can give him answers: Nelly Dean.
Catherine Heathcliff is also, for the first time, directly exposed through dialogue as someone
not entirely content with her life, seen in Lockwood’s voiced opinion to Nelly. He states that
while “Mrs Heathcliff” “looked very well”, he did not “think” she looked “happy” – L the
word “think” here indicates a E tentativeness about Lockwood, for he has no basis on which
to make the claim, P emphasizing his opinion of Cathay as something based purely on
objective perception. Yet we as readers are inclined to believe him; while the true story of
Cathy is only revealed later in the text and we discover Lockwood’s initial assumption to be
startlingly accurate, we seem to rely on Lockwood as our guide through the stories of these
characters, taking what he says into genuine consideration. This mention of Cathy’s apparent
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unhappiness prefigures what will be disclosed to us later – how Cathy was forced into
submission by Heathcliff and forced oppression in Wuthering Heights.
L Nelly Dean, in this extract, serves as the facilitator to Lockwood’s narration. While in other
sections of the novel she relates the story entirely on her own – all within Lockwood’s outer
narrative – here she is the one who supplies answers to Lockwood’s probing questions,
credible answers at that for she intently observes her surroundings and has been a constant
fixture in the lives of the characters. L She states mainly facts in response to Lockwood’s
questions; when he asks her whether Heathcliff is not rich enough to keep [Thrushcross
Grange] in order”, she answers that “he has nobody knows what money”. Yet she
sometimes completes her responses with L subtle interjections of her own opinions, for
example commenting that it is strange that people who are “alone in the world” “should be
so greedy as Heathcliff”. This hints at P a possible inability to sympathise with Heathcliff’s
plight, while also introducing a different take on Heathcliff’s evident miser-like qualities. Thus
Nelly Dean cannot quite be labeled as a P purely objective narrator, she as housekeeper and
someone familiar to the family’s history will naturally still be prone to a certain degree of
subjectivity.
Lockwood therefore serves as the instigator and Nelly Dean the facilitator in this extract,
with Lockwood’s stance being the clear outsider and Nelly Dean being the narrator who has
daily insight and experience in the characters’ lives, and hence is substantially more
believable. The two narrators in this extract play important roles in relaying the characters’
lives and histories to us, and while not always plausible or entirely reliable, especially in
Lockwood’s case, they in fact are the ones who introduced new perspectives or ways of
thought on the characters’ lives, and thus cannot be undermined.
Chapter VI
Ow Kai Zhen
+ Very fluent, engaging style
+ Use of language analysed with skill
- Lacks understanding of extract’s “place” in the novel
- Could do with more cross-referencing to Heathcliff later in the story (non-chronological)
In this extract, Heathcliff is presented a person who is more familiar with nature than with
the formal setting of a house and society. He speaks with excitement when describing the
exquisite setting of the Linton’s house, but scorns it by adding that he would not “exchange,
for a thousand lives, [his] condition here”. This indicates Heathcliff’s stance towards the two
Linton siblings and P makes mockery of the rather immature way in which both siblings
treat each other. He also expresses his love for Catherine and his ardent admiration of her
by comparing to the “idiots” and two Linton siblings, who are seen as being rather weak.
Bronte’s use of Heathcliff as a narrator (inaccurate statement by student here) while still
using the voice of Nelly allows the reader to see a clearer, and perhaps less biased opinion
of the two Linton siblings, as Heathcliff was a child at that time and his innocence might have
given readers the assurance that he was telling the truth. Moreover, Heathcliff’s narrative is a
ridicule of the behaviour of the Lintons and at the same time portrays them as a rather weak
foil to Heathcliff, who “despise” them.
Heathcliff appears to be the one who staunchly refuses to be blinded to societal norms,
“escaped from the wash-house”. The word “escape” clearly draws a parallel between
Heathcliff’s physical escape from the confinements of the house and his unwillingness to be
entrapped in a place that does not interest him. He regards the outdoors as “liberty”, once
again indicating the fact that he delights more in the “park” than at home. This can also be a
reference to Heathcliff’s desire to rebel against authority imposed on him against his will
and he purposely heads towards the Lintons’ house just to make fun of them, “burning their
eyes out before the fire”. As such, we can see that Heathcliff and Catherine were both
mischievious and had typical behaviour of young children, “eleven, a year younger than
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Cathy”, who refuse to submit to the control of adults and are very free-spirited, doing as
they please, “a ramble at liberty”.
At the same time, Heathcliff expresses his dislike for his social environment by the use of
rhetorical questions, asked rather for effect than for an answer. Furthermore, the listing of
two rhetorical questions in a row only serves to reiterate Heathcliff’s extreme unhappiness
towards the activities he finds dull, “reading sermons”, “set to learn a column of scripture
names”. From this, it can be clearly seen that Heathcliff is very much a child of nature who
does not like to be bound to the table to study. The questions he asks have a tone of
childish innocence in them, indicating yet again Heathcliff’s character as a child.
Catherine and Heathcliff’s obvious enjoyment in the outdoors shows a stark contrast against
the Lintons. The narrative places the description of the Lintons’ house after Heathcliff’s
account of their activities outdoors. Although the Lintons have a “beautiful” house with
expensive furnishings, “crimson-covered chairs and tables”, their past times are entirely
different from that of Catherine and Heathcliff. In comparison to them, Heathcliff and
Catherine appear to be more mature, “we did despise them”, and Heathcliff’s love for
Catherine also surfaces, “When would you catch me wishing to have what Catherine
wanted?” Once again, the question is asked not for an answer, but rather to highlight the
differences between the shallow sibling rivalry that the Lintons have and the powerful love
that Catherine shares with Heathcliff.
Heathcliff’s narrative, however, ends with a scene of violence, “painting the house-front with
Hindley’s blood”. This highlights the underlying fierce passion and violence that he would be
roused to and perhaps also prefigures Heathcliff’s desire for revenge on Hindley eventually.
The narrative builds up tension after the argument of the two siblings, which Heathcliff
dismisses through mocking them, “That was their pleasure to quarrel”. As such, “flinging
Joseph off the highest gable” is indicative of what Heathcliff has the capacity to carry out.
His lack of affection for the others in the extract, except for Catherine, also underlines his
feelings towards her. It can also be inferred thus that Heathcliff can be cold and cruel, calling
the Lintons “idiots” but also pleasant and loving towards Catherine, “I had Cathy by the
hand”. As a result, the complexity of his nature is seen throughout the contradictory
personalities that Heathcliff embodies.
The narrative presents Heathcliff and Edgar Linton in a direct comparison. Edgar is rather
weak, “weeping silently” and in stark contrast, Heathcliff is more active, “we ran”. The
personality clash between the more “civilized” Edgar and Heathcliff can immediately be
seen. However, Edgar’s role as a rather spoilt child, “petted things”, gives readers an insight
to the behaviour of children in the upper class society, and forces one to question if such
children are really better off than those who revel in the carefree natural surroundings like
Heathcliff. Once again, Edgar is a foil for the character of Heathcliff, who is presented as
having a more forceful personality and more likeable than that of Edgar. The exclamation
marks in Heathcliff’s narrative, “The idiots!” clearly indicates his disgust towards the
attitudes of the children and also serves to emphasise his general dislike of such society in
general, preferring the outdoors instead.
Although the setting of the house is presented in a very “beautiful manner” with the use of
adjectives and colours like “gold” and “silver chains”, the immediate behaviour of the
children is anything but enviable. The use of words like “red-hot needles” and “warm hair”
indicate the anger that Edgar and Isabella have towards each other over a trivial issue. As
such, the gorgeous description quickly followed by an ugly fighting scene has a slight irony
to it as it indicates how beauty can be skin-deep. Although the house seems beautiful on first
impression, the behaviour of the inhabitants is less so, and is another indication of
Heathcliff’s ability to penetrate through the façade and see society for what it truly is.
Heathcliff and Catherine are associated with nature, as if seen by their position hiding on a
“flower-pot”. Heathcliff’s lack of envy of the two siblings indicate his affliction with the wild
and how he feels more at ease around them. He also appears to have a sense of adventure
and a willingness to explore into the unknown, indicative of how he can be both loving and
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extremely cruel. Heathcliff epitomizes opposites – his love and desire to explore and
“glimpse” the “Grange Lights” turns out to be dangerous after all as Catherine “fell down”
and eventually becomes discovered by the family. Similarly, the language of violence and
“blood” imagery underline extent that Heathcliff can go when roused.
The imagery and conflict in the extract between society and Heathcliff, a product of the wild,
presents Heathcliff as someone with passions that run deep. Although he does not take to
people easily, calling the Lintons run deep. Although he does not take to people easily,
calling the Lintons “idiots”, when he is roused, Heathcliff can be both tender to Catherine,
“had Cathy by the hand”, and those he loves, while at the same time showing extremely
hatred of those he resents and bears grudges against, “Hindley’s blood”. The parallel
between Heathcliff and the unpredictable wild is also highlighted in this extract.
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