The expansion of the British empire

The expansion of the British empire and the rise in emigration sharply affected how the middle class Victorians thought of home in the nineteenth century. Through examining Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) and Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘The Beach of Falesá,’ (1892) discuss how the representation of home, in both the national and the domestic sense, is NOT represented in a fixed way, challenging middle class notions of social propriety and social norms. Support your discussion by providing specific examples from the works. Make sure you use and cite your sources properly.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS
DR.JULIE LEO
INTRODUCTION TO PART. 2
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At home with the victorians:
John Ruskin- ‘sesame and Lilies’(1865)
‘ place of Peace; the shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror and
division’.
‘ wherever a true wife comes, this home is always around her’.
Coventry Patmore- ‘The Angel in the house’.
Isabella Beeton- Mrs. Beeton’s book of household management.
‘there is no more fruitful source of family discontent than a house wife’s
badly cooked dinners and untidy ways.
Osborne house
The Victorians and abroad
• Imperial goods and products were conspicuous in Victorian homes.
• Tea , sugar, spices, cotton, opium, wool, gold , rubber and many
other commodities arrived at British ports on a daily basis.
• Queen Victoria- Empress of India-jan1,1877
• Osborne house- Agra carpet, a model of Mughal palace, and an
Indian painting collection.
• Millions left Britain’s shores to trade, fight in wars, administer a new
empire or settle in other countries.
Wuthering Heights
by
Emily Brontë
Emily
Brontë
1818 – 1848
Wuthering Heights
A song originally performed by Kate Bush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEWIUtEDq5o
Out on the wiley, windy moors
We’d roll and fall in green
You had a temper, like my jealousy
Too hot, too greedy
How could you leave me?
When I needed to possess you
I hated you, I loved you too
Bad dreams in the night
They told me I was going to lose the fight
Leave behind my wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy come home
I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window
Oh it gets dark, it gets lonely
On the other side from you
I pine a lot, I find the lot
Falls through without you
I’m coming back love, cruel Heathcliff
My only one dream, my only master
Too long I roam in the night
I’m coming back to his side to put it right
I’m coming home to wuthering, wuthering
Wuthering Heights
Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy come home
I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window
Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away
Oh let me have it, let me grab your soul away
You know it’s me, Cathy
Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy come home
I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window
Heathcliff, it’s me, Cathy come home
I’m so cold, let me in-a-your window
Northern England is reputed to be very cold and
harsh; it is Viking territory. Like the older Heathcliff in
Wuthering Heights, it is unwelcoming to strangers.
Northern Yorkshire. In the foreground heaths.
Plot Structure: Frame Tale
To tell her story, Brontë uses two narrators,
Mr. Lockwood and Ellen Dean, called Nelly.
Lockwood, who rents Thrushcross Grange,
begins the narrative; Nelly takes it over after
he asks her to tell him the story of Heathcliff.
Lockwood and Nelly thus combine to form a
picture, Lockwood acting as the “outer
narrator” who frames the picture and Nelly
acting as the “inner narrator” who paints the
picture.
Opening (chapters 1 to 3
• In 1801, Mr Lockwood, a wealthy man from the south of England, rents
Thrushcross Grange in the north for peace and recuperation. He visits his
landlord, Mr Heathcliff, who lives in a remote moorland farmhouse,
“Wuthering Heights,” where he finds an odd assemblage: Heathcliff seems
to be a gentleman, but his manners are uncouth; the reserved mistress of
the house is in her mid-teens; and a young man seems to be a family
member yet dresses and speaks like a servant.
• Snowed in, Lockwood is grudgingly allowed to stay and is shown to a
bedchamber where he notices books and graffiti left by a former inhabitant
named Catherine. He falls asleep and has a nightmare in which he sees the
ghostly Catherine trying to enter through the window. He cries out in fear,
rousing Heathcliff who rushes to the room. Lockwood was convinced that
what he saw was real. Heathcliff, believing Lockwood to be right, examines
the window and opens it hoping to allow Catherine’s spirit to enter. When
nothing happens, Heathcliff shows Lockwood to his own bedroom and
returns to keep watch at the window.
• At sunrise, Heathcliff escorts Lockwood back to Thrushcross Grange.
Lockwood asks the housekeeper, Nelly Dean, about the family at Wuthering
Heights, and she tells him the tale.
Heathcliff’s childhood (chapters 4 to 17)
• Thirty years earlier, Wuthering Heights is occupied by Mr Earnshaw,
his teenage son Hindley, and his daughter Catherine. On a trip to
Liverpool, Earnshaw encounters a homeless boy described as
“dark-skinned gypsy in aspect”. He adopts the boy and names him
Heathcliff. Hindley feels that Heathcliff supplanted him in his father’s
affections and becomes bitterly jealous. Catherine and Heathcliff
become friends and spend hours each day playing on the moors.
They grow close.Hindley is sent to college. Three years later,
Earnshaw dies and Hindley becomes the master of Wuthering
Heights. He returns to live there with his new wife, Frances. He
allows Heathcliff to stay but only as a servant.The climb to Top
Withens, thought to have inspired the Earnshaw’s home in
Wuthering Heights.A few months after Hindley’s return, Heathcliff
and Catherine walk to Thrushcross Grange to spy on the Lintons
who are living there. After being discovered, they try to run away but
are caught. Catherine is injured by the Lintons’ dog and taken into
the house to recuperate while Heathcliff is sent home.
• Catherine stays with the Lintons and is influenced by their fine
appearance and genteel manners. When she returns to Wuthering
Heights, her appearance and manners are more ladylike and she
laughs at Heathcliff’s unkempt appearance. The next day, knowing
that the Lintons would visit, Heathcliff tries to dress up in an effort to
impress Catherine, but he and Edgar Linton get into an argument
and Hindley humiliates Heathcliff by locking him in the attic.
Catherine tries to comfort Heathcliff, but he vows revenge on
Hindley. The following year, Frances Earnshaw gives birth to a son,
named Hareton, but dies a few months later. Hindley descends into
drunkenness. Two more years pass and Catherine and Edgar Linton
eventually become friends while she becomes more distant from
Heathcliff. While Hindley is away, Edgar visits Catherine, and they
declare themselves lovers soon after.
• Catherine confesses to Nelly that Edgar proposed, that she
accepted, and that this is despite the fact that she does not
love Edgar—she loves Heathcliff, but cannot marry him
because of his low social status and lack of education. She
hopes to use her position as Edgar’s wife to raise Heathcliff’s
standing. Heathcliff overhears this, and in despair he runs away
and disappears without a trace. Distraught by Heathcliff’s
departure, Catherine makes herself ill out of spite. Nelly and
Edgar thus begin to pander to her every whim to prevent her
from becoming ill again. Three years pass, Edgar and Catherine
marry, and live together at Thrushcross Grange.
• Six months later, Heathcliff returns, now a wealthy gentleman.
Catherine is delighted; Edgar is not. Edgar’s sister, Isabella,
soon falls in love with Heathcliff, who despises her but
encourages the infatuation as a means of revenge. One day, he
embraces Isabella, leading to an argument with Edgar. Upset,
Catherine locks herself in her room, and begins to make herself
ill again through spite and jealousy.
• Heathcliff takes up residence at Wuthering Heights, and spends his
time gambling with Hindley and teaching Hareton bad habits.
Hindley dissipates his wealth and mortgages the farmhouse to
Heathcliff to pay his debts. Heathcliff elopes with Isabella Linton; two
months later the couple returns to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff
hears that Catherine is ill and, with Nelly’s help, visits her secretly.
However, Catherine is pregnant, and the following day she gives
birth to a daughter, Cathy, shortly before dying.
• After Catherine’s funeral, Isabella leaves Heathcliff and takes refuge
in the south of England. She too is pregnant, and gives birth to a
son, Linton. Hindley dies six months after Catherine, and Heathcliff
thus finds himself master of Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff’s maturity (chapters
18 to 31)
• After twelve years, Catherine and Edgar’s daughter Cathy grows into a
beautiful, high-spirited girl. Edgar learns his sister Isabella is dying,
and so he leaves to retrieve her son Linton in order to adopt and
educate him. Although Cathy rarely leaves the borders of the Grange,
she takes advantage of her father’s absence to venture farther afield.
She walks to the moors where she meets Hareton, and from him learns
of Wuthering Heights and discovers she has not one, but two cousins:
Hareton in addition to Linton.When Edgar returns with Linton, a weak
and sickly boy, Cathy wants him to stay but Heathcliff insists that he
live at Wuthering Heights instead.Three years pass. Walking on the
moors, Nelly and Cathy encounter Heathcliff, who takes them to
Wuthering Heights to meet Linton and Hareton. Heathcliff hopes that
Linton and Cathy will marry, so that Linton would become the heir to
Thrushcross Grange. At this point, Lockwood arrives and Nelly’s tale
catches up to the present day. Some time passes, and after being ill
for an extended period, Lockwood grows bored with the moors and
informs Heathcliff that he will be departing from Wuthering Heights.
Ending (chapters 32 to 34)
• Eight months later, Lockwood returns to the area by chance. Given
that his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange is still valid, he decides to
stay there again. He finds Nelly living at Wuthering Heights and
inquires about what had happened since he left.
• She explains that she moved to Wuthering Heights to replace the
housekeeper, Zillah, who had departed. She explains that Hareton
had an accident and was confined to the farmhouse. During his
convalescence, he and Cathy became close. While their friendship
developed, Heathcliff began to act strangely and had visions of
Catherine. He stopped eating and after four days was found dead in
Catherine’s old room. He was buried next to Catherine.
• Lockwood learns that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New
Year’s Day. As he readies to leave, he passes the graves of
Catherine, Edgar, and Heathcliff, and pauses to contemplate the
quiet of the moors.
Family tree
Character
Map
of
Wuthering
Heights
Main Characters
Heathcliff The main character.
Orphaned as a child, he is constantly
on the outside, constantly losing
people. Catherine Earnshaw’s
decision to marry Edgar Linton
almost destroys their relationship.
He spends most of his life
contemplating and acting out
revenge. He is abusive, brutal, and
cruel.
Catherine Earnshaw
The love of Heathcliff’s life. Wild,
impetuous (heftig, oppfarende,
snarsint), and arrogant as a child,
she grows up getting everything she
wants. When two men fall in love
with her, she torments both of them.
Ultimately, Catherine’s selfishness
ends up hurting everyone she loves,
including herself.
Genealogy
Characters… http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html
Mr. Earnshaw: Owner of Wuthering Heights and father of two children,
Hindley and Cathy. He adopts a street waif, Heathcliff, and dotes on the
child, arousing jealousy in Hindley. After Mr. Earnshaw dies, Hindley
inherits Wuthering Heights and makes Heathcliff a common stable boy and
field laborer.
Hindley: Earnshaw’s son, who torments Heathcliff when the latter is a small
child many years younger than Hindley. After Hindley inherits Wuthering
Heights, he continues to mistreat Heathcliff.
Frances Earnshaw: Hindley’s wife. Like Hindley, she maltreats Heathcliff.
She dies after the birth of Hareton.
Edgar Linton: Elegant aristocrat at Thrushcross Grange whom Cathy marries
to gain social position and the finer things of life.
Isabella Linton: Edgar’s naive sister. Heathcliff marries her to spite Edgar and
Cathy, then treats Isabella cruelly.
Young Catherine: The daughter of Edgar Linton and Cathy.
Hareton: The son of Hindley Earnshaw and his wife, Frances.
Linton: Sickly child of Heathcliff and Isabella.
Joseph: A crabby old servant.
Zillah: A housekeeper.
Type of Work
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html
• Wuthering Heights is a novel of romance, revenge, and
tragedy.
• It exhibits many characteristics of the so-called Gothic
novel, which focuses on dark, mysterious events.
• The typical Gothic novel unfolds at one or more creepy
sites, such as a dimly lit castle, an old mansion on a hilltop,
a misty cemetery, a forlorn countryside, or the laboratory of
a scientist conducting frightful experiments.
• In some Gothic novels, characters imagine that they see
ghosts and monsters. In others, the ghosts and monsters are
real.
• The weather in a Gothic novel is often dreary or foul: There
may be high winds that rattle windowpanes, electrical
storms with lightning strikes, and gray skies that brood over
landscapes. (The word wuthering refers to violent wind.)
Themes
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html
Theme 1: Love gone wrong. Relationships in Wuthering Heights
are like the moors: dark, stormy, twisted. Cathy loves Heathcliff but
marries Edgar Linton. Heathcliff loves Cathy but marries Isabella
Linton. Mr. Earnshaw loves his adopted son, Heathcliff, better than
his biological son, Hindley, causing Hindley to despise Heathcliff.
Linton and young Cathy are forced to marry.
Theme 2: Cruelty begets cruelty. Hindley’s maltreatment of
Heathcliff helps turn the latter into a vengeful monster. In
developing this theme, Emily Bronte is ahead of her time,
demonstrating that suffering abuse as a child can lead to inflicting
abuse as an adult.
Theme 3: Revenge. Heathcliff’s desire to get even against all who
wronged him is at times so strong that it subverts his other emotions,
including love.
Theme 4: Lure of Success and Social Standing. Cathy marries
Edgar after becoming infatuated with his image as a cultured
gentleman with wealth enough to meet her every need. Isabella
marries Heathcliff after becoming infatuated with an idealized,
romantic image of him.
Themes
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html
Theme 5: Class distinctions. Heathcliff’s fury erupts after Cathy decides
to marry “up” into the world of the Lintons, and not down into the world
of Heathcliff.
Theme 6: Fate. The entire novel depends on the forces unleashed when
Mr. Earnshaw happens upon an orphan child, Heathcliff, on a street in
Liverpool and returns with him to Wuthering Heights.
Theme 7: Prejudice. The upper crust, the Lintons, look down upon the
lower crust, Heathcliff and his kind.
Theme 8: The moors as a reflection of life around them (or vice versa)
and life beyond. The dark, stormy moors–where only low-growing
plants such as heather thrive–symbolize the passionate and sometimes
perverted emotional lives of the residents of Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange. In the gloomy wasteland, the Yorkshire folk,
including Heathcliff himself, sometimes report seeing ghosts of people
buried in the moors.
Climax
http://www.cummingsstudyguides.net/Bronte.html
Most analysts of Wuthering Heights maintain
that the climax of the novel occurs when Cathy
dies, unarguably a decisive turning point.
However, one may fairly conclude that the
climax comes earlier–in particular when
Heathcliff overhears Cathy say she intends to
marry Edgar Linton. This event deeply wounds
Heathcliff, causes him to abandon Wuthering
Heights, and triggers the dreadful events that
follow.
Activity.3
• What does Lockwood’s account of the exterior of the
house and the first sighting of inhabitants lead us to
anticipate?
• Lockwood- wuthering as descriptive of the atmospheric tumult
to which the house is exposed in stormy weather.
• The effects of the north wind.
• Old joseph and his savage master prepared us to find
connection between the inhabitants of the Heights and the “the
excessive slant of a few, stunted firs at the end of the house’
and the range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one
way, as if craving alms in the sun’.
• 2nd visit of Lock wood-snowstorm sets-the gate is locked and
he has to climb before running up the flagged causeway
bordered with straggling gooseberry bushes and knocks on the
farmhouse doors, is a reminder of the chilly reception he before
enjoyed and a premonition of turbulence to come.
I was only going to say that heaven didn’t seem to be my home, and I broke my heart with weeping to
come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out, into the middle of the
heath on the top of Wuthering Heights, where I woke sobbing for joy.” This view of Catherine
presents the novel’s unorthodox view of religion, discuss
.
• The novel presents an unorthodox (uncanny) view of
heaven and hell and life after death. Bronte creates a
heaven on earth for her protagonists to dwell in after
their death. Their heaven is at home on earth rather than
in heaven. Heathcliff is seen as the fallen angel (Satan).
The first reading of books is Lockwood’s reading of
Catherine’s diaries which are a commentary on the
Bible. This presents the heroine’s defiance to the most
authoritative text. Catherine and Heathcliff used to
damage the religious pamphlets given to them by
Joseph.
Natural setting of W.H
• The wild external landscape has a pervasive presence in the text
• Acc. to Nelly Dean- Catherine and Heathcliff loved to run away to
the moors as children.( very few scenes on the moors)
• exterior landscapes- symbolic of events in the story.
• Virginia Woolf- ‘in Bronte’s novels –storms, moors, lovely spaces of
summer weather…. Carry on the emotion and light up the meaning’.
• Most of the atmospheric tumult after the opening storm takes place
indoors.
• Charlotte Bronte- ‘ Emily is a nursling of the moors’.
• W.H is not only the house, nor the only natural setting which the
novel portrays, and Woolf’s but it’s a place of lovely spaces of
summer weather are there aplenty as well as stormy turbulence.
1939 film adaptation
Home at Thrushcross Grange
• W.h- the central importance of the house at the Heights has tended
to dominate the reading experience or at least memories.
• A review of 1847 or Jan1848- the contrast between the 2 houses as
fundamental to the novel : an antiquated farm house, a neighbouring
residence of somewhat more pretending description with their
respective inmates’ these constitute the materials of the mo0st
interesting stories we have read for many a long day’.
Activity.4
• What are the immediate contrasts with
Wuthering Heights?
• In the novel by Emile Bronte, Wuthering Heights, a strong
contrast exist between storm and calm. Wuthering Heights and
Thrushcross Grange, illustrate this concept, as they are binary
opposites in the story, where Wuthering Heights represents
storm, and Thrushcross Grange represents calm. The physical
characteristics of the two places and the people that reside
there are the driving forces for this opposition.
• The name of the residence, Wuthering Heights, in itself shows
us how this storm is illustrated. “Wuthering” meaning subject
to persistent blustery or noisy winds and”Heights”referring to
the hill on top of which it resides. There are physical storms
described in the book that “[rattle] over the Heights in a full
fury”(p. 248), that have “growling thunder, and great drops” (p.
248) .
…
• On the night of Mr. Earnshaw’s death “a high wind blustered
round the house […] it sounded wild and stormy” (p. 43). The
house is described by the author as cruel one, the “narrow
windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners are
defended with large jutting stones”. Furthermore, there are in
the house cruel dogs that bite Mr. Lockwood upon his arrival.
These dogs are said to be “robbing [the] wood of pheasants” .
The vegetation also illustrates the misery of the house, there
are “a few stunted firs at the end of the house” (Chapter I) and
“a range of gaunt thorns” (p. 4), the word “gaunt” demonstrates
effectively the coldness of the house. The physical description
of the house makes the reader believe that Wuthering Heights
is not a calm place.
• Wuthering Heights representing the storm,
lodges fierce people. Wuthering Heights is
a “perfect misanthropist’s heaven” (p. 4).
…
• The best example is Heathcliff. He spends most of his life
seeking revenge by ruining other people lives. Isabel asks “Is
Mr. Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he the
devil?”(p. 137). He is one of the causes of the death of
Catherine, Hindley, Isabella and Linton. He is described to have
“black eyes [that] withdraw so suspiciously under their brows”
(p. 5). Catherine, whose ghost haunts Heathcliff until he dies, is
another resident of Wuthering Heights that is wed to Edgar, but
cannot move on from her love from Heathcliff and dies. Hindley
the third tenant”neither wept nor prayed” (p. 136). He dies of
alcohol poisoning after trying to kill his enemy, Heathcliff. All
these characters illustrate the negative atmosphere that
subsists in the house.
• Thrushcross Grange in contrast is a calm place. It is the
opposite of Wuthering Heights. It is a “beautiful, a splendid
place carpeted with crimson” (p. 48). The reader encounters a
form of happiness that he could otherwise not find at
Wuthering Heights.
…
• As the Heights is set in a stormy environment, Thrushcross
Grange is set in a place that represents calm. The house is set
on a valley with “garden trees” and a “wild green park”,
showing the opposition with Wuthering Heights. The Grange is
seen as a beautiful place for those who occupy Wuthering
Heights. Heathcliff describes Thrushcross Grange the first time
he sees it as “a beautiful, splendid place”, that it was “heaven”
(p. 48). Unlike Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange is
described as a calm, peaceful place.
• The occupants of Thrushcross Grange represent calm as well.
The Lintons are described having “light hair” and “fair skin”(p.
62). They are a polite and respectable family. Edgar Linton is
very gentle, polite and a very loving father. Even after realizing
that his wife Catherine is in love with Heathcliff, he continues to
love her. Isabella Linton is described as being a calm and pretty
girl that however makes the fatal decision of marrying
Heathcliff.
…
• These two houses, which are the two main settings of the
novel, are constantly being put into contrast. From the
beginning of the story the reader is presented with these two
opposite places and slowly sees how the storm of Wuthering
Heights takes over the calm of the Grange. The novel is based
on this contrast between the two houses. The storm of
Wuthering Heights, upon the return of Heathcliff from his
hiatus, starts to take over. In the end, however, the calm of
Thrushcross Grange prevails and good defeats evil.
Activity .5
Account by Nelly of the situation of the Grange.
• Lyrical descriptions- seasons, weather, and landscape
• Pg.360
Mysterious inhabitants
Activity.6
How from your reading of the novel’s opening chapters, do these
inhabitants appear ‘ strange and mysterious’?
From Lockwood’s narrative- entirely disconcerted by the inhabitants of the
house. He cannot understand the behaviour of W.H family, or even work out
what their relationships are one to the other. They are strange and
mysterious enough in themselves, even before the addition of the terrifying
apparition at his window. Strangest of all is Heathcliff. His origins remain
unexplained, as does the source of the wealth and education he aquires
when he temporarily disappears. He has a powerful effect on everybody
else, and apart from Catherine and her father, who feel affection towards
him, the main emotion he inspires is fear.
Heathcliff the Revenger
•
The first indication of Heathcliff’s savage personality is found in the opening chapter
when the dogs – “A brood of tigers”, “fiends” are represented and Heathcliff growls in
unison with them. He informs Lockwood that the bitch is not kept for a pet.
Catherine’s diary provides a clue to the cause of Heathcliff’s savagery and hatred,
“Poor Heathcliff! Hindley calls him a vagabond, and won’t let him sit with us and eat
with us anymore… and swears that he will reduce him to his right place”. Mr.
Earnshaw first describes him thus – “though its as dark almost as if it came from the
devil”.
•
Heathcliff’s dominant personality quickly becomes evident – “You must exchange
horses with me, I don’t like mine”. This incident demonstrates the extent to which
Heathcliff has already been hardened and brutalised. The ragged new-comer to
Wuthering Heights is an image of a human creature reduced to its bare animal
essence, the naked will to live. Nelly’s comments about Heathcliff’s ability to
withstand pain supports this point of view, “He would withstand Hindley’s blows
without winking or shedding a tear”. Heathcliff’s dominant will was being fed by Mr.
Earnshaw’s favouritism, when he dies this changes, Heathcliff then suffers the
tyranny of Hindley. From this point on, the revenge theme begins in the novel.
Heathcliff’s recollection of the Grange in Chapter 6 is tied this first inkling of revenge,
“If I might have the privilege of flinging Joseph off the highest gale and painting the
housefront with Hindley’s blood”.
….
• Heathcliff’s language at the Grange, indicated a malevolent attitude,
“I’ve vociferated curses enough to annihilate any fiend in
Christendom”. Heathcliff’s hatred for the Linton family is traceable to
this moment – “Yet the villain scowls so plainly in his face, would it
not be a kindness to the country to hang him at once before he
shows his nature in acts as well as in features”. Catherine’s stay at
the Grange precipitates a further decline in Heathcliff’s behaviour.
When she returns he is dirtier than before – “I shall be as dirty as I
please and I like to be dirty and I will be dirty”. Later he confides to
Nelly the purpose of his meditations, “I am trying to be settle how I
shall pay Hindley back. I don’t care how long I wait if I can only do it
at last” – “I only wish I new the best way. Let me alone and I’ll plan it
out, while I’m thinking of that, I don’t feel pain”. Now the novel’s
counter-theme to the love story becomes clear – Heathcliff’s long
premeditated ruthless revenge gradually increasing in scope with all
the force of Heathcliff’s primitive unchanging will behind it.
…
• From this point on, there is in Heathcliff a subordination of all other
feelings except revenge.
• Now the prince-in-disguise is destined to become a demon, taking
on in fact the fiendishness that Nelly had seen lurking in his eyes as
a child. Heathcliff’s development in this light is traced to Hindley “His treatment of the latter was enough to make a fiend of a saint”.
Truly it appeared that Heathcliff was possessed of something
diabolical at that stage, he delighted to see Hindley degrading
himself past redemption and became daily more noticeable for
savage sullenness and ferocity. His disappearance follows his
learning of Catherine’s engagement – further disappointment – thus
widening the scope for revenge.
• The returning Heathcliff, despite his outwardly civilised facade, was
still demonic in air, “A half civilised ferocity lurked yet in the
depressed brows and the eyes full of black fire”.
• In describing Heathcliff to Isabella, Catherine sees him “as a fierce
pitiless wolfish man … and he’d crush you like a sparrow”. Catherine
marks the change in him, his speech has acquired a new
hammerblow rhythm, “What new phase in his character is this”,
ponders Catherine. She sees beneath his unreclaimed nature
something of his diabolism, and she compares Heathcliff to Hindley,
“It is as bad as offering Satan a bad soul. Your bliss like his lies in
inflicting misery”. The marriage to Isabella and his pursuit of
ugliness helped to strip the mask of civilisation and releases the
central characters in their raw animal states. From here on the plot
is dominated by the demonic revenge – from here on Heathcliff strips
all others of all the trappings of personality except passion. Sadism
now replaces love, and violence is a necessary part if we are to
experience this hellish world. In Chapter 14, we see the real
Heathcliff and his preoccupation with Catherine leads him into a
torrential harangue, “2 words will comprehend my future – death and
hell”. To Isabella he says, “She degenerates into a mere slut”.
• His talk here is insistent and driven home by a cruel logic. His
violent images and use of hyperbole, express an impetuous will, that
cannot accept opposition and his rhetoric hardens as it gathers
momentum to a language of absolute imperatives, “The nuisance of
her presence outweighs the gratification to be derived from
tormenting her”. His logic depends on a refusal to admit any
compromise with passion, any form of mediocrity.
• This leads us to the completion of his revenge against Hindley and
his becoming master of the Heights. The fight between them is
described by Isabella with violent language, Heathcliff is described
in demonic terms, “sharp cannibal, teeth, basilisk eyes”. Now with
victory over Hindley achieved and Edgar retreated in sorrow, the
violent aspect of revenge gives way to patience and legalistic guile.
To complete his revenge over the Lintons, Heathcliff employs these
latter tactics – the marriage between Linton and Catherine is
patiently contrived.
•
The question of succession, shrewdly investigated, his
guardianship over his son, the decisive cot sill to the inheritance of
the Grange. Heathcliff’s final thirst for revenge is quenched however
by his failure to remain passionate. In the final chapters of the novel,
he is torn between two competing passions, that for revenge and
that for sympathy and fondness for Hareton. Finally he possesses
no ability to prevent the future happiness of the younger generation
and deprived of his passion, dies.
Activity.7
Appearance, speech and behaviour of Heathcliff in the first
chapter.
The outdoor setting in Wuthering Heights is a
reflection of the emotional status of the characters and
the themes of the novel, discuss
.
• The meaning of Wuthering (noisy wind that blows across the
moors). It seems that the rough situation on the outside is an
extension to the interior turbulent family life (overshadowing). The
characters suffer from emotional turbulence during their childhood
and this affects their lives as adults. The life and characters of the
novel are wuthering as the place they in. They are a human
extension of the setting. Wuthering Heights as a place is in itself a
uncanny environment (locus suspects) : a suspect place. There is
something un-homely going on in the heights and this extends to the
characters.
There is more than one narrator in Wuthering Heights, who are they?
what credibility do they have? What purpose does this kind of multiple
narration serve in the novel?
• Lockwood starts and ends the story, the initial narrative starts in 1801 and he closes
•
•
•
•
in 1802 , within this frame Nelly’s narrative covers the span of the previous twenty
years in the lives of the first generation, Catherine and Heathcliff, the second half of
the novel gives the story of the second generation. It is like a ‘Chinese box’
according to the critic Terry Eagleton, narratives within narratives.
*narration:
There are two main narrators in the novels: Lockwood, the tenant at the Grange who
introduces the novel and provides a frame for the whole, and Nelly the maid of the
two families.
Lockwood is a cultivated person from the south. We first see Wuthering heights and
its inhabitants through his eyes and judgment. The people are strange and he doesn’t
feel at home. He is a first person narrator, objective but doesn’t know the whole story.
Lockwood’s inability to explain the weirdness of events and people takes us to Nelly’s
stories because she knows the roots of the matters (the childhood traumas) while
Lockwood meets the second generation of the two families and enters the story
towards the end. Another first person knowledgeable narrator but subjective.
…
•
•
•
•
Nelly is the stable character among the lot. She is the representative of Victorian
ideals, home and domesticity but she is not a totally objective first person narrator
because she is more inclined to take the side of the Lintons in any dispute as they
represent the homely family (who wouldn’t love the Lintons?!). Some critics saw her
as the voice of convention and narrow minded prejudice.
We cant depend on any of the narrators: the first doesn’t know everything and the
second knows but is prejudiced.
There could be a third narrator also: the voice of Catherine through her diaries (the
shadow). Catherine is trying to get back into the house and the course of the story
through Lockwood’s reading of her diary and in Nelly’s reported dialogue. This is
important because it gives us the back story needed to understand events in the
present.
The letters such as the one written by Isabella could also present a fourth narrative
voice and this multiplicity of authors makes the readers even more bewildered in
deciding who is the authority in telling the story! (novels told in the form of letters are
known as epistolary). Sometimes, as critics said, the burden of interpretation lies on
the reader because of the lack of any authorial comment.
WUTHERING
HEIGHTS:ABROAD
• Activity .1
• Conflict between northern rural values and
the more urban cultures of the south of
England.
• To lockwood- north is other
• To the inhabitants of north- london and
south are foerign
• Heathcliff- appearance foreign and his
origin unknown.
The uncanny
• The uncanny (“the opposite of what is familiar”) is a
Freudian concept of an instance where something
can be both familiar yet alien at the same time,
resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably
strange. Because the uncanny is familiar, yet
incongruous, it often creates cognitive dissonance
within the experiencing subject, due to the
paradoxical nature of being simultaneously attracted
to yet repulsed by an object. This cognitive
dissonance often leads to an outright rejection of the
object, as one would rather reject than rationalize, as
in the uncanny valley effect.
Wuthering Heights and
Romantic poetry
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Is a romantic drama
Phrases and rhythmic repetitions
Musical language
Prose is described as poetic when these qualities are prominent
Diction- reminiscent of poetry
Dramatic poem delivered by Heathcliff
Rhyming 4 syllable adverbs- create an insistent rhythmic portrayal of
the mental disturbance they describe.
• Constant echoes of poetic language of Bible, John Milton
Wuthering heights and
romanticism
• Ref.pg:388
• Portrayal of natural world and romantic
reunion
• Mirror sibling love
• Constant evocation to natural world
• Every mood and season in nature
W.H and the world within
• Pg.391
The Sign Of The Four
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Author :Arthur Conan Doyle
Country:United Kingdom
Language :English
Series
Sherlock
Holmes
Genre:Mystery novel
Publisher:Lippincott’s
Monthly Magazine
Spencer Blackett (book)
Publication date:February
1890
summary
• In 1888 a client, Mary Morstan, comes with two puzzles for Holmes.
The first is the disappearance of her father, British Indian Army
Captain Arthur Morstan in December 1878. According to Mary, her
father had telegraphed her upon his safe return from India and
requested her to meet him at the Langham Hotel in London. When
Mary arrived at the hotel, she was told her father had gone out the
previous night and not returned. Despite all efforts, no trace has
ever been found of him. Mary contacted her father’s only friend who
was in the same regiment and had since retired to England, one
Major Sholto, but he denied knowing her father had returned. The
second puzzle is that she has received 6 pearls in the mail from an
anonymous benefactor once a year since 1882 after answering an
anonymous newspaper query inquiring for her.
•
With the last pearl she has received a letter
remarking that she has been a wronged woman and
asking for a meeting. Holmes takes the case and
soon discovers that Major Sholto had died in 1882
and that within a short span of time Mary began to
receive the pearls, implying a connection. The only
clue Mary can give Holmes is a map of a fortress
found in her father’s desk with the names of
Jonathan Small and three Sikhs named Dost Akbar,
Abdullah Khan, and Mahomet Singh.
• Holmes, Watson, and Mary meet Thaddeus Sholto, the son of
the late Major Sholto and the anonymous sender of the pearls.
Thaddeus confirms the Major had seen Mary’s father the night
he died; they had arranged a meeting to divide a priceless
treasure Sholto had brought home from India. While quarreling
over the treasure, Morstan — long in weak health — suffered a
heart attack. Not wanting to bring attention to the object of the
quarrel to public notice, Sholto disposed of the body and hid
the treasure. However he himself suffered from poor health and
an enlarged spleen (both due to malaria, as a quinine bottle
stands by his bed). His own health became worse when he
received a letter from India in early 1882. Dying, he called his
two sons and confessed to Morstan’s death and was about to
divulge the location of the treasure when he suddenly cried
“Keep him out!” before falling back and dying.
•
The puzzled sons glimpsed a face in the window but the only
trace was a single footstep in the dirt. On their father’s body is
a note reading “The Sign of Four”. Both brothers quarreled
over whether a legacy should be left to Mary Morstan and
Thaddeus left his brother Bartholomew, taking a chaplet and
sending its pearls to Mary. The reason he sent the letter is that
Bartholomew has found the treasure and possibly Thaddeus
and Mary might confront him for a division of it.Bartholomew is
found dead in his home from a poison dart and the treasure is
missing. While the police wrongly take Thaddeus in as a
suspect Holmes deduces that there are two persons involved in
the murder: a one-legged man, Jonathan Small, as well as
another “small” accomplice. He traces them to a boat landing
where Small has hired a launch named the Aurora
• With the help of his Baker Street
Irregulars and his own disguise Holmes
traces the launch. In a Police launch
Holmes and Watson chase the Aurora and
capture it but in the process end up killing
the “small” companion after he attempts
to kill Holmes with a poisoned dart shot
from a blow-pipe. Small tries to escape but
is captured. However the iron treasure box
is empty; Small claims to have dumped
the treasure over the side during the
chase.
• Small confesses that years before he was a soldier of the
Third Buffs in India and lost his leg in a swimming accident
to a crocodile. After some time, when he was an overseer
on a tea plantation, the Indian Rebellion of 1857 occurred
and he was forced to flee for his life to the Agra fortress.
While standing guard one night he was overpowered by
two Sikh troopers who gave him a choice of being killed or
being an accomplice to waylaying a disguised servant of a
Rajah who sent the servant with a valuable fortune in
pearls and jewels to the British for safekeeping. The
robbery and murder took place and the crime was
discovered, although the jewels were not. Small got penal
servitude on the Andaman Islands, and after twenty years
he overheard that Sholto has lost money gambling. Small
sees his chance and makes a deal with Sholto and Morstan
– Sholto will recover the treasure and in return send a boat
to pick up Small and the Sikhs.
•
Sholto double-crosses both Morstan and Small and
steals the treasure for himself. Small vows
vengeance and escapes the Andaman Islands with
an islander named Tonga. It was the news of his
escape that shocked Sholto into his fatal illness.
Small arrives too late to hear of the treasure’s
location but leaves the note which refers to the name
of the pact between himself and his three Sikh
accomplices. When Bartholomew found the treasure
Small planned to only steal it but claims a
miscommunication led Tonga to kill him as well.
• Mary Morstan is left without the bulk of the Agra
treasure, although she will apparently receive the
rest of the Chaplet. John Watson falls in love with
Mary, and we learn at the end that he has proposed
to her and she has accepted.
DETECTIVE FICTION
• The Mystery of Marie Rogêt”,
often subtitled A Sequel to
“The Murders in the Rue
Morgue”, is a short story by
Edgar Allan Poe written in
1842. This is the first murder
mystery based on the details
of a real crime. It first
appeared
in
Snowden’s
Ladies’ Companion in three
installments, November and
December
1842
and
February 1843.
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle
• Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL
(22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a
Scottish physician and writer who is
most noted for his fictional stories
about the detective Sherlock Holmes,
which are generally considered
milestones in the field of crime
fiction. He is also known for writing
the fictional adventures of a second
character he invented, Professor
Challenger, and for popularising the
mystery of the Mary Celeste. He was a
prolific writer whose other works
include fantasy and science fiction
stories, plays, romances, poetry, nonfiction, and historical novels.
GOLDEN AGE DETECTIVE
NOVELS
• The period of the 1920s and 1930s is generally referred to as
the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. During this period, a
number of very popular writers emerged, mostly British but
with a notable subset of American and New Zealand writers.
Female writers constituted a major portion of notable Golden
Age writers, including Agatha Christie, the most famous of the
Golden Age writers, and among the most famous authors of
any genre, of all time. Four female writers of the Golden Age
are considered the four original “Queens of Crime”: Christie,
Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham. Apart
from Ngaio Marsh a (New Zealander) they were British.
• Various conventions of the detective genre were standardized
during the Golden Age, and in 1929 some of them were codified by
writer Ronald Knox in his ‘Decalogue’ of rules for detective fiction,
among them to avoid supernatural elements, all of which were
meant to guarantee that, in Knox’s words, a detective story “must
have as its main interest the unravelling of a mystery; a mystery
whose elements are clearly presented to the reader at an early
stage in the proceedings, and whose nature is such as to arouse
curiosity, a curiosity which is gratified at the end.” In Golden Age
detective stories, an outsider — sometimes a salaried investigator or
a police officer, but often a gifted amateur — investigates a murder
committed in a closed environment by one of a limited number of
suspects.
• The most widespread subgenre of the detective novel became the
whodunit (or whodunnit, short for “who done it?”), where great
ingenuity may be exercised in narrating the events of the crime,
usually a homicide, and of the subsequent investigation in such a
manner as to conceal the identity of the criminal from the reader
until the end of the book, when the method and culprit are revealed.
According to scholars Carole Kismaric and Marvi Heiferman, “The
golden age of detective fiction began with high-class amateur
detectives sniffing out murderers lurking in rose gardens, down
country lanes, and in picturesque villages. Many conventions of the
detective-fiction genre evolved in this era, as numerous writers —
from populist entertainers to respected poets — tried their hands at
mystery stories.”[13]
…
• Many of the most popular books of the Golden Age were written by
Agatha Christie, who produced long series of books featuring her
detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, amongst others, and
usually including a complex puzzle for the reader to try to unravel.
Christie’s novels include, Murder on the Orient Express (1934),
Death on the Nile (1937), and And Then There Were None (1939).
Also popular were the stories featuring Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord
Peter Wimsey and S. S. Van Dine’s Philo Vance.
• The “puzzle” approach was carried even further into ingenious and
seemingly impossible plots by John Dickson Carr — also writing as
Carter Dickson — who is regarded as the master of the “locked
room mystery”, and Cecil Street, who also wrote as John Rhode,
whose detective, Dr. Priestley, specialised in elaborate technical
devices, while in the US the whodunnit was adopted and extended
by Rex Stout and Ellery Queen, among others. The emphasis on
formal rules during the Golden Age produced a variety of reactions.
Most writers were content to follow the rules slavishly, some flouted
some or all of the conventions, and some exploited the conventions
to produce new and startling results.
FEATURES OF A DETECTIVE
FICTION
• The detective must be memorable .
• Fictional detectives are expected to be
both clever and a bit out of the ordinary.
They must have some small habit ,
mannerism , eccentricity , interest , talent
– anything that sets them apart from the
crowd.
• The crime must be significant .
•
Traditionally, the detective novel is constructed around a
murder or a great theft . Murder is a crime that cannot be
reversed or made amends for; thus, it is a crime worth the
detective’s (and the reader’s) time and efforts to solve.
• The criminal must be a worthy opponent .
• In real life, crimes are committed by ordinary, everyday,
sometimes dull and stupid people. However, if fictional
detectives are to show off their considerable skills, they must
match wits with adversaries of equal cleverness . The mind of
the criminal is often the intellectual equal of the detective’s.
The conflict becomes a battle of intellects between the
detective, his/her opponent, and the reader.
•
All the suspects , including the criminal, must be presented
early in the story.
• Half the fun of reading a good detective story comes from the
mental contest between the reader and the detective in a race
to solve the crime. The reader must be able to safely assume
that the perpetrator of the crime is one of the main characters
in the story, not someone whom the author is going to slip in
on the unsuspecting reader in the next-to-the-last chapter.
• All clues discovered by the detective must be made available
to the reader.
• Like not springing any surprise suspects, this is another “fair
play” rule to which the author must adhere. The reader must be
given the same opportunity to solve the crime as the detective,
and this means getting the same evidence at the same time it is
made available to the detective. Of course, an author may
deliberately mislead the reader ( red herrings !), as long as his
fictional detective is similarly deceived.
• The solution must appear logical and obvious when the
detective explains how the crime was solved.
• The reader must be convinced that he could have come to
exactly the same conclusion as the detective. In the end, the
reader must see how all the little tidbits of information fit
together like so many pieces of a jigsaw puzzle . It is for this
reason that detective stories are so appealing.
• OVERALL, The detective must be memorable , The crime must
be significant . The criminal must be a worthy opponent . All
the suspects , including the criminal, must be presented early
in the story. All clues discovered by the detective must be
made available to the reader. The solution must appear logical
and obvious when the detective explains how the crime was
solved.
THE SIGN OF FOUR
• IN THE SIGN OF 4, S.Holmes, the ‘only unofficial consulting
detectives’ and the ‘last and highest court of appeal in
detection’ tells us more than once about the scientific method
of investigation that practices the science of deduction.
• Deduction for Holmes is an infallible methodology, and as
readers of detective fiction we are encouraged to adopt it.
• As the onus is on the detective to prove guilt or innocence with
complete certainty, detective fiction, like the testimony and
cross examination offered in a courtroom, is evidence-based,
empirical and factual.
• Detective fiction abounds in significant and insignificant detail.
Significant details
Insignificant details
1. Another crucial aspect of the classical
detective’s method is that the writer
often has to concentrate on seemingly
insignificant details. This appears as
puzzling at first, yet it always turns out
to be an effective maneuver that helps
to solve the crime. The terms
rationality and control are highly
important for the psychology of the
detective. The distance implied in
these terms always has to be
maintained in the classical detective
story.
1. It fleshes out the scene, place, person
or event described. It has no first hand
value as evidence, but can help the
readers to form their opinions.
2. It provides valuable informationabout
a case, a sequence of events, or a
person. It is hard empirical evidence,
and will be useful.
Publishing detective fiction
•
A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle, introducing his new characters, “consulting detective”
Sherlock Holmes and his friend and chronicler, Dr. John Watson,
who later became two of the most famous characters in literature.
•
Conan Doyle wrote the story in 1886, and it was published the
following year. The book’s title derives from a speech given by
Holmes to Doctor Watson on the nature of his work, in which he
describes the story’s murder investigation as his “study in scarlet”:
“There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless
skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose
every inch of it.” (A “study” is a preliminary drawing, sketch or
painting done in preparation for a finished piece.)
•
The story, and its main characters, attracted little public interest
when it first appeared. Only 11 complete copies of Beeton’s
Christmas Annual 1887 are known to exist now and they have
considerable value. Although Conan Doyle wrote 56 short stories
featuring Holmes, A Study in Scarlet is one of only four full-length
novels in the original canon. The novel was followed by The Sign of
the Four, published in 1890. A Study in Scarlet was the first work of
detective fiction to incorporate the magnifying glass as an
investigative tool.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1.Chapter 1: The Science of Deduction
2.Chapter 2: The Statement of the Case
3.Chapter 3: In Quest of a Solution
4.Chapter 4: The Story of the Bald-Headed Man
5.Chapter 5: The Tragedy of Pondicherry Lodge
6.Chapter 6: Sherlock Holmes Gives a Demonstration
7.Chapter 7: The Episode of the Barrel
8.Chapter 8: The Baker Street Irregulars
9.Chapter 9: A Break in the Chain
10.Chapter 10: The End of the Islander
11.Chapter 11: The Great Agra Treasure
12.Chapter 12: The Strange Story of Jonathan Small
The Victorians and abroad
• India in London- India the largest of
Victorian Britain’s imperial possession.
• http://bakerstreet.wikia.com/wiki/John_Wat
son
The mutiny
• Indian Mutiny, also called Sepoy Mutiny,
• Indian Mutiny: Indian troops widespread but unsuccessful rebellion
against British rule in India in 1857–58. Begun in Meerut by Indian
troops (sepoys) in the service of the British East India Company, it
spread to Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, and Lucknow.
• To regard the rebellion merely as a sepoy mutiny is to underestimate
the increasing pace of Westernization after the establishment of British
paramountcy in India in 1818. Hindu society was being affected by the
introduction of Western ideas. Missionaries were challenging the
religious beliefs of the Hindus. The humanitarian movement led to
reforms that went deeper than the political superstructure. Lord
Dalhousie had made efforts for the emancipation of women and had
introduced a bill to remove all legal obstacles to the remarriage of
Hindu widows. Converts to Christianity were to share with their Hindu
brethren in the property of the family estate. There was a widespread
belief that the British aimed at breaking down the caste system. The
introduction of Western methods of education was a direct challenge
to orthodoxy, both Hindu and Muslim.
Causes of the mutiny
• The causes of the Indian Mutiny which erupted in Meerut on
May 10, 1857, and raged across north and central India for more
than a year, have long been the subject of Indo-British
historical debate.
• The immediate trigger was the introduction of the Enfield rifled
musket which had cartridges greased with pig and cow fat,
causing offence to Muslim and Hindu soldiers respectively.
• More sophisticated historical readings find a range of causes
for the bubbling discontent that led to open rebellion – the
punitive tax collection system, a succession of British
territorial seizures and the rise of aggressive Christian
evangelism among them.
• However it was the refusal to bite into those Enfield musket
cartridges that led, on April 24, to the imprisonment of 90
soldiers of the Third Indian Cavalry in Meerut. They were
sprung from jail on May 10 by the mutinous sepoys, who then
marched on Delhi.
• Important activities: 3,4 &7
In the Round Tower at Jhansi
by Christina Rossetti
• Christina Rossetti was a poet who grew up in
England during the Romantic time period. She
published her first poetry collection, “Goblin
Market,” in 1862, and went on to publish many more.
She was influenced by famous poets such as Anne
Radcliffe, John Keats and Dante Alighieri. Many of
her poems were focused on death. One poem in
particular, In the Round Tower at Jhansi, focuses on
a very difficult form of death. This is not only a work
of literature, but a work of history as well. Jhansi
was a place where many people were killed during
the Sepoy Mutiny. The couple in the poem was a real
couple, but the fate of Skene and his wife is still
debated.
In the Round Tower at Jhansi
by Christina Rossetti
• The first stanza of the poem makes it clear that there is a war going
on that has devastated many. Rossetti writes,
A hundred, a thousand to one; even so;
Not a hope in the world remained:
The swarming howling wretches below
Gained and gained and gained.
• It is significant that they are in a tower. Rossetti doesn’t have to
literally tell the reader that they are in a tower because choosing the
word “below” makes that clear. They are hiding from the people
below. Using the phrase “howling wretches” shows that these
people outside are dangerous and intend to kill the couple. The
repetition of the word “gained” is very effective in showing that there
isn’t much time left for decisions.
• In the following two stanzas, the reader sees more of the
relationship between these two people and how much they love one
another.
Skene looked at his pale young wife:’Is the time come?’ – ‘The time is come!’Young, strong, and so full of life:
The agony struck them dumb.
Close his arm about her now,
Close her cheek to his,
Close the pistol to her browGod forgive them this!
• The word “pale” shows that this young woman is scared. The man
makes a decision that is difficult, but necessary. He has to kill his
wife to protect her. It’s a tragedy and once again Rossetti used
repetition to get a point across. The word “young” is used twice in
one stanza. The woman is young and will never have a chance to
really live. In the following stanza, there is vivid imagery that shows
what the couple is doing. The individuals are holding one another
because they know their lives will soon be over. Readers can see
this painful picture in their mind. It’s also clear that the word “close”
is very important. The couple is emotionally close and also holding
each other close as each of them prepares to die. Before they do,
they say a few last words to each other.
‘Will it hurt much?’ – ‘No, mine own:
I wish I could bear the pang for both.’
‘I wish I could bear the pang alone:
Courage, dear, I am not loth.’
• The man calls his wife “mine own,” showing how much he loves her.
He also says he is not “loth,” which means unwilling. He is making a
choice to do this because he feels it is what’s best. Rossetti ends
with the stanza,
Kiss and kiss: ‘It is not pain
Thus to kiss and die.
One kiss more.’ – ‘And yet one again.’
‘Good-bye.’ – ‘Good-bye.’
• “Kiss” is written four times in this short stanza. The man is kissing
his wife to distract her from what he has to do. He is trying to make
this death as easy as possible because he loves her so much.
Although these stanzas are not descriptive about the surroundings
and don’t give a lot of imagery, the reader can still envision this
heartbroken couple saying goodbye and feel the pain. The man also
repeats the word “goodbye,” to make it clear that they really are
saying goodbye to one another.
• “The Round Tower at Jhansi” was a tragic poem about the realities
of war. Although it may not all be historically accurate, it still depicts
events that could be caused by war. It will always be remembered
as one of the most well-written war poems of all time.
The expansion of the British empire and the rise in emigration sharply affected
how the middle class Victorians thought of home in the nineteenth century.
Through examining Emily Brontë’s Withering Heights (1847) and Robert Louis
Stevenson’s ‘The Beach of Falesá,’ (1892) discuss how the representation of
home, in both the national and the domestic sense, is NOT represented in a
fixed way, challenging middle class notions of social propriety and social
norms. Support your discussion by providing specific examples from the
works. Make sure you use and cite your sources properly.
Important guidelines:
1. Using the E-library may be beneficial to your essay. Make sure the sources
you cite are academic.
2. Divide your essay into 5-6 body paragraphs and discuss each point you
develop in a separate paragraph with examples and quotations from the
works.
3. The word count should range from 1000-1100 words.
4. Revise the final document before submission to avoid typos and
grammatical mistakes. 5. Use the Harvard style of documentation.
https://guides.library.uq.edu.au/referencing/uq-harvard-version-for-printing
Helpful sources:
Brantlinger, P. (1988) Rule of Darkness: British Literature and Imperialism
1830-1914, Ithaca, Cornell University Press.
Hall, C. (2002) Civilising Subjects: Metropole and Colony in the English
Imagination, 1830- 1869, Cambridge, Polity Press.
Hillis, J 1982, ‘Wuthering Heights: Repetition and the Uncanny,’ in Fiction and
Representation: Seven English Novels, Cambridge, Harvard University Press,
pp. 42-72.
Stevenson, R.L. (2008) ‘The Beach of Falesa’ in South Sea Tales (ed. R. Jolly),
Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Watson, N, Shafquat, T 2012, Romantics and Victorians. London, Bloomsbury
Academic.
Marking Descriptor
LeJeune, J 2017, “The Violent Take It by Force”: Heathcliff and the Vitalizing
Power of Mayhem
in “Wuthering Heights”, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Moussa, P.A. & Mehrvand, A. 2014, “Unwelcomed Civilization: Emily Brontë’s
Symbolic AntiPatriarchy in Wuthering Heights”, International Journal of Comparative
Literature &
Translation Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 29-34.
Marking Descriptor
LeJeune, J 2017, “The Violent Take It by Force”: Heathcliff and the Vitalizing Power of
Mayhem
in “Wuthering Heights”, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
Moussa, P.A. & Mehrvand, A. 2014, “Unwelcomed Civilization: Emily Brontë’s Symbolic AntiPatriarchy in Wuthering Heights”, International Journal of Comparative Literature &
Translation Studies, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 29-34.
GRADE
CONTENT
LANGUAGE & ORGANIZATION
A
Excellent answers showing confident and wide-ranging knowledge of core material, good
understanding of any relevant theory, and a capacity to address the question in a structured,
direct and effective way, thoughtfully and with insight. Originality of thought or ideas from
outside the course are an added asset. Examples are to the point.
– Has an introduction defining the plan of essay.
– Body divided into several paragraphs – Conclusion which directly relates arguments to
topic.
– Evidence that essay has been edited.
– Error-free grammar & register.
– Wide range of specialized terminology.
– Consistent in-text citation and form of referencing
B to B+
Very good answers showing secure knowledge of course materials. Adopting an analytical
approach and
– First four criteria above maintained
– Demonstrates extensive grammar control.
providing relevant discussion covering most of the key issues. Distinguished from A answers
by being less insightful or by showing less comprehensive knowledge of the course.
– Terminology specialized but less varied.
– Minor Inconsistency in in-text citation and referencing
C to C+
Competent answers reflecting adequate knowledge of the more directly relevant course
material and concepts, with reasonable structure and adequate coherence related to the
question set.
– Introduction and/or conclusion short but still satisfactory.
– Evidence of editing.
– Less grammar control than above.
– Good range of specialized terminology.
– Inconsistent in in-text citation and referencing
D
Answers which omit some concepts /evidence and/or lack coherence /structure, and/or
make minor errors while still demonstrating basic understanding. Or Bare pass answers
which show awareness of some relevant material and attempt to relate it to the question.
– Introduction and/or conclusion short but acceptable.
– no evidence of editing.
– Few grammatical errors that impede communication.
– Above average range of specialized terminology.
– Slightly confused introduction and/or conclusion, but body still fair.
– No evidence of editing.
– Some error types that impede communication.
– Fair range of specialized terminology. – Inaccurate in-text citation and referencing
F
Answers which attempt to draw upon relevant material but do not reflect sufficient
knowledge of the course and/or neglect the focus required by the question, and/or are
incomplete in some important aspects whilst being acceptable in others.
– No introduction and /or no conclusion. – Body badly organized or irrelevant.
– Poor grammar control (extremely limited range of grammar & register).
– Limited or not specialized range of terminology.
– No in-text citations and no referencing
THE BEACH
OF FALESA
Robert Louis Stevenson
A230b – Nuha Alotaibi
STEVENSON AT HOME
While Edinburgh was Stevenson’s birthplace and
home for much of his life, the breadth of his
reading and the frequency of his travels suggests
that by the 18805 he was thinking of himself as a
citizen of the world, rather than the inhabitant of
a single city or place.
Looking at the poems ‘Travel’ and ‘Foreign Lands’
should give you an understanding of how ideas of
home and abroad were related to one another in
Stevenson’s life and writing.
As with all Victorian residences, the major aim of
the distribution of space is clearly to separate
public from private spheres, thereby maintaining
the privacy and respectability of the family.
Servants are kept as far from the main bedrooms as
possible; they have their own entrance in the
basement, separate from the main family entrance
on the ground floor.
“FOREIGN LAND” & “TRAVEL
As both Poems indicate, Stevenson’s interest in the wider world outside
home started in early childhood.
“Foreign Land” draws upon two senses of the word ‘foreign‘: foreign as in
strange or unfamiliar; in this case, like the ‘next door garden’ (l. 5) that he
has seen for the very first time; but also foreign in the sense of abroad
rather than home; in this case, the ships heading out through the Firth of
Forth, and the imaginary road leading to ‘fairy land’.
n the poem ‘Travel’, Stevenson presents a more conventional, exoticised
vision of abroad; here, abroad is everything home is not. Stevenson’s
language in ‘Travel’ is insistently visual; he lists and describes all the
things encountered in travelling abroad that are not to be found at home.
This poem captures the spirit of adventure and romance that was still
associated with travel and exploration in the nineteenth century.
THE BEACH OF FALESA:
A HYBRID FORM
The story is best defined as a novella or a short novel, a work of prose fiction
between 20,000 and 40,000 words in length; it is therefore a hybrid (or mixed)
form – too short to be considered a novel, too long to be a short story.
Stevenson wrote ‘The Beach of Falesa’ to be serialised in instalments in a
newspaper, rather than in a single number of a magazine; this form of
serialisation, in short weekly chunks, determined the length of the work.
It was guaranteed a large readership, but the unfamiliarity of the topic and the
foreign words in the title necessitated the addition of a subtitle (‘Being the
Narrative of a South— Sea Trader’) to make the story understandable to a mass
British readership.
The content matter of the story caused problems. One of the central premises of
the plot is that John Wiltshire, the Scottish trader in Falesa, tricks Uma into
marriage through a false contract, lasting one night. This was too much for the
editor who considered the plot to be scandalously indecent
THE BEACH OF FALESA:
A HYBRID FORM
‘The Beach of Falesa’ is a hybrid work not only because it is too short to be a
novel and too long to be a short story,
but also because of its content: it mixes realism with more romantic and poetic
modes; it even gives a central place to the supernatural.
In this work, as in several other tales that he wrote at the time he experimented
with different genres and styles of writing.
Stevenson was beginning to move away from adventure romance and towards
realism.
The story has elements of both the realist fiction and the adventure romance.
The plot, the adventure of the story is less important than its representation of the
manner of various social groups. It is a novel of manners.
ACTIVITY 3 P 450
We notice the opening paragraph is the poetic and descriptive language
used by the first-person narrator, later identified as the Scottish copra
trader John Wiltshire.
The opening paragraph describes his first glimpse of the island, Falesa, as
their boat approaches landfall. Wiltshire arrives in a time of transition,
‘when it was neither night nor morning’, with the moon setting, but the sun
not yet having risen. His language is full of strongly visual imagery
conveying the beauty of the natural world: the ‘broad and bright’ moon,
the pink dawn, and ‘the daystar [that] sparkled like a diamond’.
He engages all his senses in describing his first impressions of the island:
the smell of the ‘wild lime and vanilla‘, the cool temperature of the breeze
blowing in his face.
Stevenson’s opening paragraph sets the scene for his British readers,
encountering this story about the Pacific on the other side of the world. He
draws in his readers by letting them see Falesa for the first time as
Wiltshire does, through the perspective of his first-person narration.
ACTIVITY 3 P 450
In the next three paragraphs, Stevenson moves our viewpoint from the
general to the specific; he does this literally, with Wiltshire looking
through the captain’s telescope to get a closer look at the shoreline. What
Wiltshire sees immediately takes us from the world of the imaginary
paradise island to the often grubby reality of the life of a nineteenthcentury foreign trader in the Pacific.
Stevenson uses the captain’s dialogue with Wiltshire to provide us with
the ‘back-history’ of the trade settlement at Falesa, and indicate the
peculiar problems of the place.
Stevenson draws upon the adventure romance and travel writing traditions
and the expectations of his readers before showing them the reality of life
on Falesa, which, despite its beauty, is far from being an exotic island
paradise. In doing so, Stevenson takes his traditional readers, who might
have been expecting another adventure story, into new territory: a realist
account of contemporary life in the South Pacific, witnessed first hand by
the author.
NEW REALISM
Despite the fact that the plot of ‘The Beach of Falesa’ deliberately uses the
supernatural (the taboo around Wiltshire’s house, and the islanders’ belief
in Tiapolo or the devil), Stevenson’s narrative deals With these phenomena
in a realist fashion.
Case’s cave of evil spirits is exposed as a fraud concocted with luminous
paint and Aeolian harps, while Wiltshire maintains a resolute scepticism
about the effectiveness of both island beliefs and Christianity.
While Falesa is an imaginary island (no such place exists), Stevenson
took great pains to make his representation of island life as accurate as
possible, basing many of the attitudes, practices, beliefs and aspirations
of the islanders on the Samoans whom he interacted with on a daily
basis.
NEW FORMS OF ENGLISH
As a Scot, Stevenson was aware of the differences of dialect, accent and
usage in the British Isles. In his essay, The foreigner at Home,” Stevenson
contends: “it is not only when we cross the seas that we go
abroad…Ireland, Wales and the Scottish mountains still cling, in part, to
their old Gaelic speech.”
Parts of the novella are not written in the standard literary English found
in serialized fiction.
He uses dialect and slang–Polynesian, mainly Samoan ones in the
narrative.
Stevenson’s story attempts REALISTICALLY to represent a new, evolving
and still unstable dialect of English—Pidgin.
Pidgin: a new language that emerged out of the trading relationships on
the beach between different communities (American, Chinese, European,
various Pacific languages. across the Pacific.
TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE:
The British and foreign Bible Society (1804) was the first to give formal
recognition to Pidgin and variations of it that became national languages
in the Pacific.
For millions of people in Africa, Asia, Americas and the Pacific, their first
encounter with literacy and the printed book was often through a
translated Bible.
In the story, Uma uses an English-based Pidgin to communicate with her
husband, Wiltshire. Also, Pidgin was used by Islanders to negotiate with
outsiders.
Linguistically, in this depiction of the domestic life of Wiltshire and
Uma, the story swaps the categories of home and abroad for its
Victorian British readers.
Stevenson’s attempt to reproduce Pidgin English reflects his
commitment toward realism in the story.
DOMESTIC LIFE:
ACTIVITY 4 P 453
The opening page of Chapter 5 presents some of the
complications of Wiltshire’s home life, and also
indicates the global circulation of books and ideas by
the end of the nineteenth century.
Wiltshire brings out the Bible in an attempt to placate
Uma, and prove that he will be unscathed by venturing
into the windward side of the island at night; however,
Uma questions the efficacy of the Bible (‘She swore a
Bible was no use’) against the island spirits.
Wiltshire resorts to the Bible because he is clearly
unable to persuade her otherwise, despite his
apparently superior British knowledge and her alleged
‘Kanaka [i.e. native] ignorance’.
While Wiltshire as the narrator speaks in standard
colloquial English, Uma’s responses (as represented
by Wiltshire) show the word order and simple
structure of Pidgin English. Stevenson’s commitment
to realism is at its clearest here in its depiction of an
everyday marital argument.
DOMESTIC LIFE:
ACTIVITY 4 P 453
Far from resigned passivity, and despite
her own fears of the aitus (devils) in the
windward side of the island, Uma
secretly follows Wiltshire into the cave,
and the inevitable final bloody
confrontation with Case.
This episode of swearing an oath on the
Bible demonstrates their marriage in the
spirit as well as the letter of the law.
For all Wiltshire’s scepticism towards the
missionaries and religious symbols, and
in spite of Uma‘s superstitious regard for
the spirits of the island, the couple have
a common, textual point of reference:
the Bible printed in Blackfriars and
shipped to the other side of the world.
‘The Beach of Falesa‘ reminds us of
the increasing interconnectedness
brought about by trade and empire.
However, this interconnectedness,
as Wiltshire and Uma’s domestic life
shows, brought with it problems as
well as opportunities.
Chief among these perceived
problems was the prospect of the
mixing of the races and the dilution
of British values and certainties
that may occur as a result.
STEVENSON IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC
He was fascinated by island life wherever he encountered it in his travels.
This image offended Victorian sensibilities; not only undermining their racial
and cultural identity, but accepting this relationship (where the woman is the
dominant), thus undermining the central belief of Victorian ideal of home:
female subservience to male power.
His new life engaged with the peoples, cultures, and places.
Contact Zone: social spaces where cultures meet and clash, often in contexts
of asymmetrical relations of power: colonialism, slavery..
In The Beach of Falesa, the narrative is played out on this contact zone.
ACTIVITY 5 P 457
Wiltshire’s initial response to Case is one of instinctive racial and national
solidarity.
Wiltshire is deprived of contact with his countrymen: ‘l was sick for white
neighbors’, he tells us (p. 4).
On closer inspection, he finds Case difficult to place. While the smart
clothes ‘would have passed muster in the city‘, Case’s complexion is
curiously yellow (jaundice? alcoholism? too much sun? — we aren’t told)
The initial excitement at meeting a fellow Briton on Falesa is replaced by a
growing sense of uncertainty about Case’s social, national and moral standing;
“No man knew his country, beyond he was of English speech”.
Case is evidently not what British Victorian readers would recognise as ‘a
gentleman’.
Wiltshire’s own racial solidarity gives way to the recognition that Case
does not represent the values or principles of home.
HOME VS. ABROAD
Wiltshire’s engagement with Case highlights one of the central
problems that European imperial expansion in the nineteenth century
presented for fixed ideas about race and nationality.
On the one hand, British traders, missionaries and settlers were
expected to be ambassadors of British virtues, and to remain faithful to
those values however long they spent ‘abroad’.
On the other hand, their increasing distance and dislocation from the
values of ‘home’, and the fact that the contexts of social class and
kinship meant far less, resulted in the inevitable dissipation of the
racial and national attitudes that they had brought with them.
HOME VS. ABROAD
In ‘The Beach of Falesa’, Case has spent so long in the Pacific that he no
longer has a discernible nationality beyond the fact that he is Englishspeaking.He has a Samoan wife who ‘dyed her hair red, Samoa style’ 5) and
his first (and most enduring) act is to arrange a marriage for Wiltshire.
For Wiltshire, the choice is clear: marry a Polynesian woman or remain a
bachelor.
Racial and national categories, as with the ideas of home and abroad,
were increasingly destabilised by the realities of trade, imperial
expansion, and emigration and settlement.
Ironically, the further the British ventured from home, the more
strictly they tried to live by the ideals and principles of the mother
country; and yet, making a new home abroad invariably meant creating
a new, mixed way of life.
WHITES VS. NATIVES P XV
The native characters in the story are not romanticized, indeed some are
presented as foolish or cynically opportunistic. They are presented -as humanly
imperfect, but the whites, Case and Randall, are the sources of evil and objects
of disgust: as Stevenson wrote: “almost all that is ugly is in the whites?”
Wiltshire observes it, yet cannot abandon the racist assumptions which
permeate his narrative. This makes the story particularly interesting as a
first-person narrative: Stevenson foreshadows Conrad in his use of a
narrator who is partly complicit with, partly critical of, and not fully
conscious of his own place within,imperialism.
After all his experience of the duplicity and corruption of white men in the
islands he writes, of the need to find husbands for his half-caste daughters.
Wiltshire’s lack of self—awareness and his refusal to modify his
preconceptions in the light of his experience make his narrative an
unconscious satire on the assumptions of racial and cultural superiority
held by most of Stevenson’s European contemporaries.
ACTIVITY 6 P 458
The last three paragraphs provide a postscript to Wiltshire‘s life on Falesa, and
make us realise that the main action of the narrative happened some years
earlier, for Wiltshire has since moved away from the island, and has had children
with Uma who are nearly grown up.
He ascribes Uma’s faults not to her character, but to her race (‘that’s natural
in Kanakas’. Wiltshire’s own racial prejudices are clear throughout the story;
he is dismissive of the islanders for their alleged lack of logic, and frequently
uses racially offensive terms (‘Kanaka’).
He does not want his daughters to marry Pacific islanders, despite their own
mixed ancestry: ‘i can’t reconcile my mind to their taking up with Kanakas’.
Wiltshire is unapologetic about his prejudice, he accurately reflects the
unthinking prejudices of many Victorian British traders. settlers and emigrants.
However, he has been successful in making a home for himself and his family in
the Pacific, unlike the missionary Tarleton.
Revealingly, Wiltshire no longer rulers to Britain as home, but rather as ‘a
white man’s country’ .
CONCLUSION
Set in an exotic, fictionalised and unidentifiable location, with a plot
involving an interracial romance, the supernatural and a fight to the
death between good and evil, ‘The Beach of Falesa’ was as far from the
domestic world of most late Victorian readers as can be imagined.
Stevenson combines elements of the adventure story with romance and
travel narrative, while Wiltshire’s sometimes sardonic first-person
narration helps maintain the reader’s interest.
However, ‘The Beach of Falesa’ is also a domestic story — the account
of Wiltshire’s establishment of a life with Uma — written in an
increasingly realist style. This clearly reflected the lives and lifestyles
Stevenson was witnessing in the six years he spent in the Pacific.
THANK
YOU
A230b
Nuha Alotaibi