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Mr. Lockwood

Mr. Lockwood is one of the principal narrators. He is a city gentleman and declares himself a misanthropist. The fact that he is a strange in that land, his behaviour and the differences between him and the rest of the characters makes him a comic figure, although it also gives realism to the story.

There are also other characters less important than these, as Zillah, Doctor Kenneth, Hindley s wife…

SETTING

The action takes place in the Moors of Yorkshire. The characteristic weather of this region is so important that gives the title to the novel; Wuthering Heights.

At the beginning of the novel, Mr. Lockwood explains the meaning of Wuthering , it is a provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather (chapter 1, vol.1), and stormy are the events which take place inside Wuthering Heights as well as outside.

Heights could be related to the almost metaphysical love between Catherine and Heathcliff or to the extreme feelings of some characters.

The landscape and the weather are also reflected in the characters (pathetic fallacy), this is a gothic element of the novel. The wild, uncivilised moors are like the wild, uncivilised people who live there, and the same can be applied to Thrushcross Grange. The second generation will be a mixture of both environments.

In Wuthering Heights, we can also see the contrast of two different worlds; one represented by Wuthering Heights and the other by Thrushcross Grange. In terms of the gothic novel, Wuthering Heights would be the demonic world and Thrushcross Grange the idyllic world. The first one is a stormy world, uncivilised, isolated, wild… but also a functional place, while Thrushcross Grange is the world of calm, domestic, civilised… a place for leisure.

TIME

The story of Wuthering Heights is told through a series of flashbacks.

First, the action takes place in 1801, when Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights (first three chapters). Then, Nelly s story situated us in the past, in1771. She narrates the story of the first generation and afterwards there is a pause. When she continues the narration, twelve years have gone by, we are in 1796, and she tells us the story of the second generation. Nelly stops her narration and Lockwood takes us to the future, 1802, when he visits Wuthering Heights before he abandons the moors. But the same year, in September, he comes back and we go back to the past as Nelly tells him the end of the story.

We noticed that the story begins almost in its climax (chapter 3), this could be a device of the author to create an atmosphere of mystery and suspense.

NARRATIVE

The narrative techniques are that of a story within a story. Except the events Lockwood experiences himself at the beginning and at the end of the novel, Nelly narrates the rest of the story to Lockwood and he translates it to the readers.

There are two interruptions in Nelly s narration; Isabella Linton s letter and what Zillah tells to Nelly. Both interruptions belong to moments in which Nelly is not present. But all the narrators are characters; all belong to the story.

Lockwood as a narrator is not reliable, he cannot understand the characters, we can see this in his incapacity to understand Heathcliff and Catherine s love:

I could fancy a love for life here almost possible; and I was a fixed unbeliever in a love of a year s standing (chapter 7, vol.1). Beside this, Lockwood is an stranger in the region and the houses and he needs a guide: Nelly. She is an eyewitness, although it could mean prejudice.

The fact that there is no omniscient narrator, that there is a third person who place reliance on the events, that we see the story through the eyes of ordinary people and the multiplicity of points of view, make the story much more credible.

DIALOGUE

Part of the story is developed in dialogues between a few characters. In those dialogues the language is direct, simple, with a lot of metaphors. Through them, the characters express their feelings, their passion…

Dialogue also helps to give realism to the story, especially, the character of Joseph and his Yorkshire dialect.

DESCRIPTION

Descriptions are very important to create the peculiar atmosphere of the novel. Although there are little direct descriptions of the landscape, they reinforce the gothic element within the story. This is closely related to the pathetic fallacy , the writer assumes that nature (either weather or landscape) is like the moods of her characters, here, we see the moors in harmony with the characters, and this is idea is central to Wuthering Heights.

According to some critics, the descriptions of the interior of the house have many resemblance with the prose of Walter Scott.

Descriptions are also important in the characterisation of the characters, physically and psychologically.

COMMENTS

Regarding comments, we see that sometimes, Nelly stops the narration to make some comments or judgements about the characters. Nelly is somehow involved in the story so it is normal that she gives her opinions, that is why she is partial, but at the same time, it gives credibility to the story because she helps us to see the contrast between the world of passions (romantic element of the story), and the conventional world (realistic element of the novel). Also, through these comments, we get a picture of the narrator s personality.

THEME

In my opinion, the main subject of the novel is love, but different varieties of

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