Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights" has been known to me as a literary classic throughout my life, but I have never attempted to undertake its reading until now. Boy, did I not know what I was in for... After reading the first fifteen chapters I find myself perplexed in a few different ways, but simultaneously interested and anticipating an more complex explanation of my confusions.
The most obvious confusion I come across in my reading of this novel's exposition is the ambiguity of the different characters and their relationships to one another. The initial descriptions of the characters seem somewhat vague, which leads me to confuse which one Nelly is referring to and when. I find myself forgetting if Nelly is talking about Heathcliff, Hindley, or Hareton, because their names are so similar and we know so little about each one; or which Catherine she is referring to in each situation. Honestly, I get the suspicion that Bronte wanted her readers to feel somewhat confused about the different characters and where they came from. I think she does this both to spark an interest in the rest of the characters' stories, but also to force the reader to pay close attention to her writing style and attention to detail.
One of the other main aspects I find myself confused, or curious, about are the characters feeling towards each other. It seems to me, that throughout our initial introduction to the main characters that there are a lot of feelings and opinions among each person about all of the others. It seems that in Bronte's views no one goes unjudged; justly or not. I am wondering what will end up happening between Heathcliff and Catherine early on in my reading, but as I continue I am mainly curious about Heathcliff, and how he will behave as he ages. Also, Nelly's character seems to be subdued to me. For someone who has seen so much of the lives of the people she is describing she must have had strong feelings and opinions about them that she does not fully disclose, but she herself must have been more involved in the unfolding of events than she leads us to believe.
Finally, I am anxious to continue my reading to find out Lockwood's character's final actions. I want to know what his role in all of this is going to be.
I am beginning to agree with you that the confusion is intentional.
ReplyDeleteThe does not however keep me from disliking it. If I cannot connect with the story and characters withing I tend to be come frustrated and want to quit. If it were not for the fact that this is a required reading I would put it down and never pick it back up.
I am in agreement with Obi's required reading comment. She does intentionally make the story confusing and jumpy. The only problem I have with this style of writing is that it feels (as a reader) underdeveloped. I get the sense that the author is inexperienced and is experimenting with something that doesn't work. One is tempted to label the issue as a modern reader's lack of attention span, but that kneejerk reaction doesn't play out in my opinion. The work just seems poorly constructed, if not poorly written.
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ReplyDeleteThis story confuses me quite a bit as well. Learning about all of the characters at once posed great difficulty for me when trying to remember the significance of the role each character portrays in the story. However, I find it easier to comprehend the story much when writing down a brief synopsis of each character I come across in the chapters. That way, I am able to go back and review my notes when Brontë re-introduces a name previously mentioned in Wuthering Heights.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, I agree with you about your suspicions. I am pretty sure it was Brontë's intention to confuse her readers and take them out of their comfort zone. Nevertheless, I am almost certain that everything will make sense by the end of the story, when all masked details are unveiled.
I felt this way at the beginning as well, but I do feel it was intentional to the story's mysterious aspect. The repetition of names and last names seems to be the biggest reason for this. When you mentioned that Bronte seems to make sure that every character is judged, it made me think that not only does she do this, but she also creates a group of people who know everything about one another - there is nothing kept a secret. It's kind of an interesting picture to paint.
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