Wuthering Heights - Episode 2 - Emily Bronte - Tantrums, Crazy Relationships, Rejection, Revenge!
11/14/20 • 55 min
Wuthering Heights - Episode 2 - Tantrums, Crazy Relationships, Rejection, Revenge!
Hi, I’m Christy Shriver. We’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.
I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to the Love Lit Podcast. Thank you joining us with this educational adventure- we love being here every week with you; Also, as We ask every week, please tell a friend about us or text them an episode- word of mouth pretty is much how we grow. And if you remember, while you’re listening, scroll down to the bottom of your app and hit the five stars or give us a review or both. This week is our second episode in our Wuthering Heights series.
Wuthering meaning strong winds not withering meaning humiliating.- so confusing- although there is a sense where both apply for this book
Yes- I think everyone who first hears that title makes that mistake- I doubt if anyone except Emily Bronte even uses the word Wuthering- I’ve not heard it before. So, blowing through the intro-
Is that a pun
Yes- I thought I’d breeze that one by if I could
Another one gusted right through
Oh my-plowing ahead- by way of review, last week, we introduced, as we always do, the author’s life, and in Bronte’s case a little bit about her incredible family. We also analyzed to some degree chapters 1-3 of the book. We introduced the concept of the frame narrative, if you were unfamiliar with that, and we introduced our first unreliable narrator, Lockwood, a genteel fashionable Englishman who has rented a house from a man who he calls “a capital fellow”, Heathcliff who lives just a little bit up the road in a neighboring estate. As any lodger might be expected to do, he chooses to visit his landlord and ends up spending the night at Wuthering Heights. It’s less than a perfectly hospitable stay; he’s basically run off by his dreams or a ghost (we’re really not sure which), but at the end of chapter three he’s bumbling back across the moor through pits, mounds, swamps through clouds and snow back to his own rental lodging called Thrushcrash grange.
Yes- and in chapter four, he stumbles inside where he is met with his housekeeper, Nelly Dean- who will become our second narrator, and I’ll suggest more unreliable than Lockwood. He asks her how long she’d lived in the house- basically he wants the down low, the 411, the dish, he wants the tea.
And apparently, she’s more than willing to share, and so we all settle in for Nelly’s story. Which today we’ll try to get through chapter 9, maybe a bit into chapter 10.
Charting this book and keeping up with all the back and forth in time is so confusing because the first part of the book is a flashback- but even it jumps around sometimes years at a time. Nelly’s going to tell the story of who is ultimately going to be the main character of the story, a man named Heathcliff. She starts from the time he shows up at Wuthering Heights until the present day or the day Lockwood originally shows up at that house on that day in chapter one- so dates and times, ages and names are all extremely confusing the whole way through the book. In fact, the first time I read this book, I have to be honest, I was so lost, I printed out a family tree and a time chart and kind of kept it next to me while I read with the names and dates on it. But hopefully, we can walk you through that madness and save you the hours of research- if it’s just as confusing for you. We’ve also included a link on our website to a very helpful website wuthering-heights.co.uk- it has a fabulous timeline that I would recommend everyone taking a look at.
Christy, if I may ask, why do so many authors do things like strange narrative styles? Are these things trends or something of the time? Is there a thematic purpose?
Well, of course, yes and yes- they are trends- and they do come and go- but I will say for a book that is this popular for so long, there’s got to be something to it, and I think there is. And we can see this right here at the beginning of chapter 4, but it’s something we can follow through throughout the entire. What Bronte is doing is creating something a a double narration technique- now let me say- doubles is the name of the game in this book- besides two narrators, there are two houses, two love interests, two children, two Cathy’s- there’s basically two of everything the whole way through. But in the case of the narrators, what is does is give you this double perspective- on the one hand you have the guy, Lockwood who comes in from the outside, he’s a stranger and he’s so fascinated with everything he sees. Then on the other hand you have this narrator who we are going to see is extremely intimate with everything that goes on- she’s also invested and has strong opinions about how thing SHOULD be with this family she’s lived with her entire life, and really feels a part of. In some sense she’s an outside observer because sh...
Wuthering Heights - Episode 2 - Tantrums, Crazy Relationships, Rejection, Revenge!
Hi, I’m Christy Shriver. We’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us.
I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to the Love Lit Podcast. Thank you joining us with this educational adventure- we love being here every week with you; Also, as We ask every week, please tell a friend about us or text them an episode- word of mouth pretty is much how we grow. And if you remember, while you’re listening, scroll down to the bottom of your app and hit the five stars or give us a review or both. This week is our second episode in our Wuthering Heights series.
Wuthering meaning strong winds not withering meaning humiliating.- so confusing- although there is a sense where both apply for this book
Yes- I think everyone who first hears that title makes that mistake- I doubt if anyone except Emily Bronte even uses the word Wuthering- I’ve not heard it before. So, blowing through the intro-
Is that a pun
Yes- I thought I’d breeze that one by if I could
Another one gusted right through
Oh my-plowing ahead- by way of review, last week, we introduced, as we always do, the author’s life, and in Bronte’s case a little bit about her incredible family. We also analyzed to some degree chapters 1-3 of the book. We introduced the concept of the frame narrative, if you were unfamiliar with that, and we introduced our first unreliable narrator, Lockwood, a genteel fashionable Englishman who has rented a house from a man who he calls “a capital fellow”, Heathcliff who lives just a little bit up the road in a neighboring estate. As any lodger might be expected to do, he chooses to visit his landlord and ends up spending the night at Wuthering Heights. It’s less than a perfectly hospitable stay; he’s basically run off by his dreams or a ghost (we’re really not sure which), but at the end of chapter three he’s bumbling back across the moor through pits, mounds, swamps through clouds and snow back to his own rental lodging called Thrushcrash grange.
Yes- and in chapter four, he stumbles inside where he is met with his housekeeper, Nelly Dean- who will become our second narrator, and I’ll suggest more unreliable than Lockwood. He asks her how long she’d lived in the house- basically he wants the down low, the 411, the dish, he wants the tea.
And apparently, she’s more than willing to share, and so we all settle in for Nelly’s story. Which today we’ll try to get through chapter 9, maybe a bit into chapter 10.
Charting this book and keeping up with all the back and forth in time is so confusing because the first part of the book is a flashback- but even it jumps around sometimes years at a time. Nelly’s going to tell the story of who is ultimately going to be the main character of the story, a man named Heathcliff. She starts from the time he shows up at Wuthering Heights until the present day or the day Lockwood originally shows up at that house on that day in chapter one- so dates and times, ages and names are all extremely confusing the whole way through the book. In fact, the first time I read this book, I have to be honest, I was so lost, I printed out a family tree and a time chart and kind of kept it next to me while I read with the names and dates on it. But hopefully, we can walk you through that madness and save you the hours of research- if it’s just as confusing for you. We’ve also included a link on our website to a very helpful website wuthering-heights.co.uk- it has a fabulous timeline that I would recommend everyone taking a look at.
Christy, if I may ask, why do so many authors do things like strange narrative styles? Are these things trends or something of the time? Is there a thematic purpose?
Well, of course, yes and yes- they are trends- and they do come and go- but I will say for a book that is this popular for so long, there’s got to be something to it, and I think there is. And we can see this right here at the beginning of chapter 4, but it’s something we can follow through throughout the entire. What Bronte is doing is creating something a a double narration technique- now let me say- doubles is the name of the game in this book- besides two narrators, there are two houses, two love interests, two children, two Cathy’s- there’s basically two of everything the whole way through. But in the case of the narrators, what is does is give you this double perspective- on the one hand you have the guy, Lockwood who comes in from the outside, he’s a stranger and he’s so fascinated with everything he sees. Then on the other hand you have this narrator who we are going to see is extremely intimate with everything that goes on- she’s also invested and has strong opinions about how thing SHOULD be with this family she’s lived with her entire life, and really feels a part of. In some sense she’s an outside observer because sh...
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Wuthering Heights - Episode 3 - Emily Bronte - Tantrums, Crazy Relationships, Rejection, Revenge - Part 2!!!
Wuthering Heights - Episode 3 - Emily Bronte - Tantrums, Crazy Relationships, Rejection, Revenge - Part 2!!!
‘WH episode 3 Script
HI, I’m Christy Shriver and we’re here to discuss books that changed the world and changed us.
And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast. This is our THIRD episode in our series on Emily Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights- and good grief- this book is infinitely complex. Last week we went long talking through chapters 1-9. Before I get any farther, I can’t forget to remind you to please text an episode of our podcasts to a friend and encourage them to listen. Also, give us a rating- preferably 5 stars, we’re trying our best to do our best, but we can’t grow without you. But, back to our story- and what a story it is...today we are going to try to push through til chapter 17. To recap last week we discussed most of the first part of WH. We chronicled the life of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw as they grow up at Wuthering Heights. We discussed the brutal abuses they endured, but honestly for the most part, and especially towards toward the end, we shined the focus on Catherine- and what a trainwreck of a person she is. She’s beautiful, she’s energetic, she’s lively and fun, but she’s also almost entirely about herself...I even used the word I reserve for really complicated situations- maybe even a borderline personality- although, may I reiterate, I would never diagnose a fictional character, but, it’s eerie to me how clearly Emily Bronte describes this most disturbing of conditions...and I should say, before I go further, if you don’t know what I’m talking about but know someone that reminds you of Catherine Earnshaw, research Borderline personality disorder. Emily Bronte predates all of modern psychology, but what she observed and recorded is something many have seen and lived with in their own real world- although we will never know what or who that something or someone was- she nails the lived experiences of many who find themselves as she puts it “honeysuckles embracing the thorn- there were no concessions.
Yes- and this week it is just going to get crazier- this section is action packed- full of complications in the plot line- I find myself having to reread some of this stuff over and over again just to figure out what just happened. Bronte artfully throws you into a world- a windy world, as she reminds you, where you can’t catch your breath, you can’t understand what just happened and sometimes you don’t even know what you’re looking at.
And while the emphasis of the last episode was on Catherine, this week, we will change directions slightly and give more emphasis (although Catherine will always demand attention) but we will devote most of our attention to Heathcliff and the other characters in this unusual tale. As we clearly saw last week and will continue to see onward, life at Wuthering Heights is absolutely nothing short of violently abusive to anyone who ventures through its doors.
And let me point out as we transition from the first generation to the second- Bronte carefully demonstrates for us that the legacy of abuse often does not die with the first generation- what we are going to see here is generational abuse. The children are abused by Hindley and Joseph both physically and verbally but Heathcliff is especially abused emotionally and psychologically- the most damaging of all abuse- and this will all be passed forward.
But, Catherine and Heathcliff are not the only two characters in the book- just as Wuthering Heights is not a story about only one house. This book is about doubles. There are two houses- one chaotic- one peaceful and the peaceful is Thrushcross Grange. There are two sets of children- one set that is wild; the other is tame. There are also two types of defective love- and Bronte explores both of these as well and how this impacts adulthood.
Yes- and looking at these parallel structures makes it easy to categorize. We have these two children from Wuthering heights who are clearly victims of neglect, abuse and rejection. They are unloved and this defines their adulthood. Although Mr. Earnshaw loves Catherine and Heathcliff, he subjects them to the merciless brutal depravation and degradation that is life with Hindley and Joseph- of course this is much more Heathcliff than Catherine.
I want to point out, and it’s easy to overlook because reading Joseph’s dialogue is such a nightmare, I find myself just skipping it, but Joseph is truly a treacherous person and to live under this guy’s physical and mental abuse is something that should not be understated- at one point, Catherine gets so upset she throws her Bible into a dog kennel- and I will also add that he’s abusive to everyone all the way to the next generation as well.
But, suffice it to say, Catherine and Heathcliff grow up in an environment where they are not loved. However, Edgar and isablla,...
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