NAME ______Period ______
Wuthering Heights Socratic SeminarPacket
1. Some critics contend that Brontë intended Wuthering Heights to be a cautionary tale aboutthe dangers of loving too excessively. Does the novel communicate that message?
Explain why or why not.
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
2. Wuthering Heights is partly a story of revenge. Is Heathcliff justified in the actions he takes? Do you excuse or justify his treatment of Isabella, his son Linton, and young Cathy? Despite Heathcliff’s vengeful acts, does heremain sympathetic to the reader? Does he achieve revenge at the end of the novel? Why or why not?
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
3. Does Heathcliff show strength or weakness in his actions throughout the novel, beginning in childhood? Who does Heathcliff blame for his situation? How does he protest? Does he ever accept responsibility for his actions? Does he accept responsibility for the death of Catherine? Is he responsible for her death?
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
4. Analyze the function of the second generation of characters, and identify thecorrelations between characters of the first and second generations. In what way dothese characters continue or resolve the conflicts of their parents?
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
5. Identify the characteristics of the two households, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross
Grange. What does each home seem to represent? How do the characteristics of thehomes extend to the characters that reside within them?
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
6. Who is the most admirable character in the novel? Who is the least admirable? Why?
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
7. What are the most powerful symbols in Wuthering Heights? What elements of the supernatural did you find the most affective? How do these symbols affect meaning in the novel?
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
8. How could Heathcliff have stopped the course of events that destroyed him psychologically before they destroyed him physically? Is there an inevitability to the course of the tragic events that destroyed both Catherine and Heathcliff? Or are they both victims of their own personalities? Does either character have a “moment of truth?”
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
9. In Wuthering Heights, one of the main conflicts present during the majority of the novel is the love triangle going on between Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar. What do all of the triangulated relationships in the novel suggest about the structure of desire?
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):
Wuthering Heights Socratic Seminar Packet
Overarching Question to Consider:
10. What conceptions about the human condition did the experiences of Heathcliff and Catherine give you, as a reader? Did Hareton and Cathy learn anything from the tragedy of Heathcliff? Did Lockwood and Nelly come to any conclusions about Heathcliff and Catherine? What makes Wuthering Heights a “good book?”
Your Prepared Response (use a quote from the text as evidence to back up your ideas):
Notes from seminar(what others said):