Women in Literature: Sex, Love, and (Playing by or Breaking) All of the Rules:Wuthering Heights

This unit focuses on literature by women about women (and men). The readings explore the roles of females, specifically during the late Romantic – early Victorian periods in England. The two novels in the unit offer two different looks at this society and students will examine how the main characters, while appearing to be so different, actually contain many similarities.

Essential questions for learning and understanding:

  • What different attitude toward “female accomplishment” does the novel present? To what extent do these different attitudes function as a critical commentary on female education and gender relations?
    Where is the line between romantic passion and dangerous obsession?
  • In character, is consistency a virtue?
  • Can any man or woman be wholly good or evil?

The main assignment for this reading is a creative journal, of sorts. I will expect a maximum of 15 well-done “journal” entries. I will provide you will the start of the journal and you will be responsible for completing it with your own entries that cover the entire novel and are of sufficient depth that I feel that you have completed a thorough analysis of the novel. The ideas that I have given to you for the journal are not mandatory except for the house entry (completing the descriptions of the two houses). The AP prompt does not require an essay. It does require annotation and thesis statement. Get creative but these entries must have DEPTH to them. For example, if it is just a drawing of a character with no accompanying quotes, you will not score well on that entry.

We will have a Socratic Seminar at the end of the novel using these topics as beginning points for discussion.

  1. Analyze Young Cathy in comparison to her mother Catherine. Is she a better woman? Morally better? More ‘mature’ in some important sense? Who is a more intriguing, complex character?
  2. Heathcliff’s psychological/ spiritual state as he approaches death deserves exploration. Is it presented as a good state to be in? Is it a possible conclusion to a paradigmatic case of pure “romantic” love?
  3. How do WutheringHeights and Thrushcross Grange and their respective inhabitants symbolize the forces of storm and calm? Does the ending of WutheringHeights reflect the reconciliation of these forces?
  4. In light of the events within the novel, is Heathcliff a fiend from hell or a victim of social prejudice (class struggle)?
  5. Argue in detail, with textual support from the entire novel, whether or not WutheringHeights is an example of Gothic fiction.

You may use the book and any critical articles that I give to you in your discussion of these topics. You may also use your journal entries as reference points when you are speaking.