Reading the question

Reading the Question

In the lesson we took a look at English Literature Unit 3 June 2010’s exam paper, and focused on what the question is asking you do - as well as identify the key assessment objective (AO2, AO3 AND AO4).

We looked at a section A question for The Pardoners Tale;

• “In spite of the fact that both the Pardoner himself and the Tale are sinister, they are also comic.” Consider The Pardoner’s Tale in the light of this comment.

The AO2 focuses on the terms; "sinister" and "comic". Basically these two terms are the hint for what kind of A02 analysis you should be doing.

The phrase "Consider" and “In spite” focuses on AO3 in the sense that when you see these style of words you should recognise that it’s for you to start an argument. The “In spite” part hints that there are both sinister and comic elements in the Pardoner and Tale. The “consider” or another synonym of it suggests other interpretations of the comment.

Finally the A04 is a bit tricky, but from looking at past exam papers we deduced that it is usually a term that could have different meanings across a time period. For example the terms “comic” and “sinister” have a different meaning to Chaucer’s contemporary audience, compared to a post modern. For example sinister for Chaucer revolved around God, sin, Death and Afterlife; in fact all of these notions link to religion – thus hence we can deduce that “sinister” was a lot to do with religion. However, Carter who is surrounded by a post modern society could value sinister in criminals. Hence the element of “sinister” varies in different time periods.

This analysis is common to every question. You can do the same for all of them, so I recommend analysing two each for section A, and two for section B. I realise this blog is short, but this activity will help you be more specific when answering questions. The only way to be specific and detailed when answering questions is by first understanding what the question is exactly asking you to do. Eventually understanding what the question is asking us will become nature, with lots of practise.

Homely Gothic
We discussed how the Gothic in the Victorian time represented a longing for a more unified and spiritual way of life. The Gothic achieved this by the use of nostalgic ghost (for those drama monkeys that missed the lesson nostalgic means having a feeling of reminisce about something you once had. Like a car you once loved but then you get a new car but there is a feeling of something missing, maybe the clutch is not as good as the old one).
We read an article called ‘Homely Gothic’ this article discussed how in the industrial revolution there came about a movement to a more factual way of life where everything would happen for a reason. This meant that people started to find the answers to questions that religion could not answer in science. This time was close to the time of the book by Darwin ‘The Origin of Species’ which was published in 1859 this was the time when the phrase ‘death of religion arose’ as people where given the assurance that science provided. But this lead to a sense of disunity among the people that where left torn between the blind belief in religion or a factual scientific way of life. But people started to feel a certain void that once was filled by the believe in the supernatural and the unknown. The Gothic provided this by exploring feeling that there are things which are greater than us and don’t always happen in a result to a cause but because they just do. We then said how the Gothic was seen as an escape from this boring way of living where everything was black and white; this meant the Gothic took people on excursions beyond the everyday world.
We then read the bit on ‘Sins of The Father’ which dealt with how in the time of the Victorian society the home was seen as the last place where one could refuge from a sense of loss of unity. Bronte uses this as her setting where she shows the home is not as perfect as people thought it was, Bronte shows that instead of being a place where the heart is, she takes the view that it is the heart of where all pain and oppression begins. ‘Wuthering Heights’ goes against the idea of ‘The angel of the house’ where Catherine refuses to remain as this angelic creature but carries out escapades with Heathcliff.
We then had to do an essay thesis statement for the essay that was due on Monday. So if you haven’t done it yet and have been praying for the question; your prayers have been answered as hear it is:
How far do you agree ‘Wuthering Heights challenges social norms and is therefore a Gothic text?
We did a good example of how a good introduction and first paragraph should be like; it’s on learning recourses under Mr Sadgrove English.

Linguistics
In our lesson on Thursday we started by having to identify all the language feature that are found in Wuthering Heights, like symbols, motifs, semantics and themes. We then looked at the how the linguistics that are used in Wuthering Heights help to tell the story, and how a chain of sentences create this feeling of excitement which is followed by a sentence that kills the flow of joy all together.
We looked at the use of pronouns such as ‘I’ personal, but opinionated. We see this in the opening of the novel when Lockwood narrates his meeting with Mr Heathcliff and excessive use of the word I which shows the reader that Lockwood is a very opinionated character and also one that is very self –centred narrator. The use of ‘it’ is also found in the novel regarding Heathcliff “it looked intelligent”. ‘it’ is used as in regard to objects, this also creates the fear of the unknown which in the time of the British empire was a common fear due to the amount of nations that where colonised. We then focused on dynamic verbs and how they used to give the text an energetic feeling with the use of words such as “ran” creating movement in the text “she bounded before me” as Nelly narrates when she and Cathy go out on her sixteenth birthday. This is used to amplify the excitement and mood of the text.
Then we discussed the use of nouns which are used to give the text a sense of realness and believability. They are used so the reader can connect with the text and not feel like an outside observer. The dates “1801”, seasons and diary entrees also make the story more reliable. Sentence length also plays an important role in the novel. They are used after a long sentence that is complex and compound, the sentence normally leaves the reader with a question mark “It's a pity she could not be content” that is behind all the enjoyment there is always something that the character is worried about, which in the case of Cathy is her sick father. Semantic fields are also used in the novel with regards to many things. For example in regards to the Grange and the first description that we get of the place, words like carpet, crimson, shimmering and soft tapers gives the place a feeling of heaven on earth where all is well and happy, yet this not the case when we look at the following cluster of words which reveal the true nature of things at the Grange. Words like shrieking, weeping and “red-hot needles” gives the reader a completely different feel of the Grange which is more like hell the heaven.
After that we looked at a couple of extract that we were from Wuthering Heights and had to identify the linguistic feature that they had. We saw how they were dominated with the pronoun ‘I’ that is used by our narrators Lockwood and Nelly showing how opinionated they are. We also found semantic fields in regards to Heathcliff as Nelly narrates about him. Words such as degradation, black fire, depressed, roughness and stern show that Heathcliff as an evil character which is later described as “imp of Satan”.
And hear is the bit we all love... the home work. We have to an essay the question was “The mystery inherent in the story confers Wuthering Heights as a Gothic novel”. Discuss.
We wrote a sort of plan on what should be in the essay
• Fragmented narrative/nouns and time
• Ambiguous- TC WH oppositions blurred
• Life and death
• Parasitic- feeds on Victorian categorisation
• Gothic context- how the Gothic is more of a mode then a genre
• Thesis statement. Mysterious elements create uncertainty and fear making the novel of the Gothic mode

Section B Questions

Section B Questions

The section B question that we focused the lesson on was:

“Writers often use the Gothic literary genre in order to challenge or destabilise the beliefs and conventions of society” Discuss this statement in relation to three texts.

 We began to talk about how we could interpret this question. We said how it could be related to Julian Wolfrey’s article in which he said "Gothic exists in relation to mainstream culture in the same way as a parasite does to its host". We discussed how this related to the word ‘Destabilise’ in the question. Wolfrey’s says that the Gothic acts much like a parasite which feeds on the ‘deep wounds’ of society in order to evoke fear and anxiety from readers. In other words the Gothic seeks to reveal to society its own fears. It aims to morph these fears into the traditional stock characters and wild, isolated settings of the Gothic in order to illuminate society’s own fears to itself, thus destabilising ‘the beliefs and conventions of society’.

Following this we split up into groups of three and was each given an article relating to a specific text. We then had to extract quotes from these articles and find quotes within the text that we could relate to these. My specific text was ‘The Bloody Chamber’ and a quote that we picked out was:

“Otherness takes centre stage”  - in discussion to this quote by Fred Botting we talked about how, in The Bloody Chamber ‘Otherness’ does indeed take centre stage. Carter does not stick to the traditional ‘methods’ of the gothic. The stock manly, boisterous characters typical of the Gothic are replaced with noble heroines who are often in a position of power over their male counterparts. In relation to The Bloody Chamber itself we talked about the shifts in power within Carter’s stories. One of many examples is in ‘The Erl-King’ in which we see our female narrator strangle the Erl-King with his own hair while he lays in her lap.

Finally with all of our quotes and critics points we began to link the general ideas of our quotes to all three texts rather than just one. To do this we constructed a ven diagram in order to demonstrate clearly which points linked to which text and whether any points would be relevant for all three texts. Some examples of the quotes from my groups ven diagram are linked to below:

(Very simplified but you get the idea)

Ven Diagram

The significance of chronological events in “Wuthering Heights”

The significance of chronological events in “Wuthering Heights”

During this lesson we mainly studied the effect of Bronte’s order of events. The non chronological order holds significance on many different aspects of the novel.

We looked at Bronte’s use of multiple narratives and the effects of this. We each drew a picture to try and represent what we believed to show how Bronte used the frame narrative to tell of

Bronte's writing

About

Lockwood's re-encounter

Of what

Nelly told him

She interpreted

From Isabella's letters.

Next we looked at the order of events within Wuthering Heights. Bronte's uses of non chronological events can be seen as confusing so we split into groups and rearranged the events to what they would have been if told chronologically.

We then summarised what was gained and lost through Bronte’s use of non chronological narrative and decided:

Gained

• An further understanding of Heathcliff’s character
• Sympathy for Heathcliff
• A stronger understanding of family relationships and relations
• A more stable understanding of characters emotions toward each other
• Clarity in relation to the novel as a whole
• A more comfortable reading experience with more relatable characters

Lost

• The “uncanny of the monumental”
• The gothic aspects of obscurity
• The gothic aspects of ambiguity
• The mystery of Heathcliff (to a certain extent)
• The use of Lockwood as a narrator (as Nelly would have to tell the whole story)
• The uncomfortable and non relatable characters.

As a result I personally believe that Bronte's time scheme is used to allow the elements of the gothic to invade and feed on the mainstream literature that is “Wuthering Heights”. Without Bronte's time scheme the gothic intervention in “Wuthering Heights” would decrease drastically due to the loss of obscurity of the plot and the ambiguity of characters. Bronte's time scheme and with-holding of information makes any judgements or decisions made by the reader at the start of the novel a contradiction of themselves later on in the novel. This occurs when intentions behind actions are revealed; A good example of this would be Heathcliff’s revenge and then the discovery of his abuse as a child at the hands of Hindley and the way the “dark skinned gypsy brat” is never truly accepted by his “family” with the exception of Catherine, and even she questions his humanity later on in the novel.

Religion in 'The Pardoner's Tale'.

Started of the lesson with interprating this picture and how the wolves praying on the bodies could represent religion in medival society and its power and dominance upon its members.

"It is in the corruption of religion that the text becomes horrific". How far do you

think this assessment of 'The Pardoner's Tale is justified?

We then went on to highlighting key words in the question which later on helped with noting down what needs to include in this essay question, such as;

• David Punter's definition of Horror + Terror
• The church being a 'parasite' to middle-age society/ the Gothic amplifying and 'feeding off' deeper wounds already present in members within society.
• Questioning the question= e.g. it can be horrific to an extent but not without the element of terror.

We then went on to focusing on the word 'Corrupt' and what it could mean;

• Exploitation
• immorality
• taking advantage of ones position and status.

By reading pages 73- 76 and underlining (with pencil!) the important points on religious context within the middle ages and its significance in The Pardoner's Tale. Examples:

Religious Context- Chaucer's presentation of this in The Pardoner's Tale

• The state of the soul is important to the Cristian faith/ preparing for the 'next life'- The Pardoner uses this ideology in order to manipulate the congregations fears and anxieties.


• Money could be paid as a substitute to penance. It could then be used by the Church for its various religious and charitable purposes- Yet the Pardoner uses it to convince people who want the pardons and him having the power to provide it, becomes a profitable racket.


• Preaching was a highly developed technique in the middle ages, it had an agreed structure- The Pardoner draws examples from scriptures or other authoritative writers, fitted in at suitable moments throughout the sermon to justify his preaches.


• The preacher is not giving his own self- generated thoughts but he is passing on the word of God- Yet the Pardoner states that he thoroughly enjoys his powers of persuasion. To help him gain money from 'selling' pardons.


• 1/3 of the countries wealth going to the church- Description of Pardoners value of church as an institution to fill up his pocket.


• Church had political power which went to people within the church- The Pardoner abuses his power and position given to him by the church.

• Preaching intended to bring people closer to Christ- Sermon on avarice (attempt for own gain)


• Preaches were only allowed to preach the word of God- The Pardoner makes his own pronouncement on the authority of his relics.

Parasites

"Gothic exists in relation to mainstream culture in the same way as a parasite does to its host"
Julian Wolfreys, Victorian Gothic

The idea of parasites and the parasitic was the topic of today's lesson. Most of the lesson was spent reading and summarizing from the article in which the quote was taken from. (if you missed the lesson, you can probably get the article from Mr Sadgrove).

The article discusses the period of Gothic as a genre, starting with the Castle of Otranto in 1764, and ending with Frankenstein in 1818. (Note the fact that none of the texts we are studying are from this period. Wuthering Heights was published in 1847, The Pardoner's Tale in the late 1300's and The Bloody Chamber in the 70's.)
Wolfreys states that after this period, the Gothic becomes more of a mode than a genre. The definition of mode in literature being:
an employed method or approach, identifiable within a written work

Wolfreys says that the 1840's and 1880's:
'is read implicitly as the time of the Gothic's subordination, translation and marginalization.'
Because of this, Victorian (1837-1901) Gothic is an 'evacuated' genre, as it is marginalized.

Wolfreys goes on to discuss the themes within Gothic literature (incest, homosexuality etc.) stating that the Gothic is 'the articulation of the human psyche'
Furthermore, Wolfreys quotes critics such as Eve Kosofsky Sedgewick, David Punter, and Robert Miles to back up his point that the Gothic takes the fears of contemporary society, and reconstitutes it into a literary form. He rounds off with a discussion (for want of a better word) of the heterogeneity of the Gothic, as it is hard to stick it to a discernible period.
The article ends with the statement:
'It is as if the phantoms of the gothic arrive so as to illuminate in encrypted form the Victorians to themselves'

Is Wuthering Heights a Gothic novel?
In our lesson last week we started by having to write a blurb about Wuthering Heights and had to write it like it’s a Gothic novel. This is my blurb: Heathcliff a man bound by the love he has for the daughter of Mr Earnshaw Catherine and vows that not even death can separate them. Lockwood an 18th century gentlemen uncovers the mysteries world of the Heights through the narration of Nelly. We enter a world where things are intertwined and crossing the boundaries of life and death.
We then had to do a list of all the Gothic elements in Wuthering Heights. The list consisted of elements like:
• Oppression (Isabella)
• Wild and isolated settings (the Heights)
• Liminal (Heathcliff)
• Blurring of distinctions
• The Macabre (Gruesome language)
• Terror and horror (Lockwood’s dream about Cathy/ the letters from Isabella)
• Supernatural (Heathcliff and his origins)
• The uncanny
We then read an article on ‘Beyond Feature spotting’. In the article we read about how the critic Kelly Hurley sums up the ways in which the literary Gothic has been variously defined:
Kelly Hurly says that in the gothic there are stock characters, the imperilled young heroine and stock events, like her imprisonment by and flight from the demonic yet compelling villain. The settings that the Gothic consists of are also fixed settings such as, the gloomy castle, labyrinth, underground spaces; the torture chamber of the inquisition. The recurring themes in the Gothic are that it’s preoccupied with taboo topics such as incest, sexual perversion, insanity and violence. It’s depiction of extreme emotional states, like rage, terror and vengefulness style. The article also discussed how the story is confusing because of the shifts in the narrative frame and narrative disjunction.
We then looked at the piece on ‘The castle of Otranto’, and how Professor Otto identifies how this novel was the first Gothic novel written. He says that this novel laid the platform for other novel’s to build on, things like the father and son rivalry, forbidden passion, the uncanny returns of the past in the present. He also speaks about the revelation of what has been hidden or repressed; the tomb as a liminal space between life and death or between rational and irrational.
We then looked at the article on texts; we noticed from this that the Gothic is mainly found in texts that have been written in 1760 and 1830. This would mean that Wuthering Heights does not qualify as a Gothic, because it was written in 1847. The article even speaks of Frankenstein as more of a scientific text then a Gothic novel, even though it has many Gothic elements.
Motifs were the next that we focused on. We saw ideas that where found very often in Gothic texts, such as the maiden that is locked away in a castle and held captive by a powerful villain that is both attractive and at the same time dangerous. The maiden is a very famous motif in the Gothic, seeing someone defenceless and weak. Ghosts are also a common motif as they always appear in Gothic texts, and mostly sighted towards the end.
Moods also contribute to the making of Gothic texts, we see how horror is used for gross physical shock, but terror is harder to pin down being more shadowy and more insubstantial. Taking all this in to account we found out that the central mood for the Gothic is fear.
The task that we had in class was to pass around the sheets we got, we did this in 14seconds. The other class did it in 8seconds, so let’s try and beat that.

Pardoners Tale Oppositions and partial linking to Wuthering Heights

Our focus of the lesson was directed at discussing the view that, “the Pardoners tale combines the macabre with a sermon on avarice” (The question is also the homework).

The literal meaning of “Macabre” is gruesome, and the “sermon on avarice” is the sin of greed (money, in this case). I personally feel these two motifs in the tale are the gothic elements within the pardoners tale. If you refer to your check sheet of gothic elements, you will see that the abuse of power and the graphicity of death (gruesomeness) are conventional elements of the gothic.

We later furthered our understanding of the prescence of macabre in the Pardoners Tale with a few quotes; “a privee theef man clepeth deeth” and “with his spere he smoot his hetre atwo”. The intensity of the image establishes a sense of Gothicism.

However we later went of to discuss if this facet of the Gothic alone can label the story itself as a Gothic text – or if the tale just has essences of the Gothic.

Comparing other texts to the PT

We later attempted to analyse oppostions in the Pardoners tale, mine were as following; “life and death”, “Heaven and Hell”, “Civilised and Uncivilised”, “Justice and Corruption” and “Nature of the Pardoner, and the conflicting expected morales of a clergyman” and “The old man vs rioters”. These oppositions, like in Wuthering Heights, blur what readers ussualy accept as distint notion, and produce highly ambivalent texts.

We refered to some A03 to further our perception on the opposition of “life and death” from the reputable Gothic critic David Punter; discovering that Death is both a blessing and a curse in the Pardoners Tale. This is due to the rioters seeking Death as a curse, and the old man wanting Death to come and put himout of his misery.

Further development of idea’s

Chaucer has centered the tale around the notion of corruption within the church, (however this concept of the church for contemporary readers, is the “politics” of the middleages; The Pardoners Tale is a universal text to many different era’s, as “corruption”is still present and therefore applicable to the modern era.

Chaucer’s linguistic has elements of the Gothic at present, but neither evokes terror or horror from the reader. Essentially Chaucer does not create a Gothic text, but one which is parodixial of the politics in the middleages.

Lesson on Pathetic Fallacy

Pathetic fallacy comes from the old language derivative

Pathetic = pathos (which comes from the greek word meaning suffer)

Fallacy = fallacia ( which comes from the latin word meaning deciet)

John Ruskin wrote in 1856 that the aim of Pathetic fallacy was to :

"signify any description of inanimate natural objects that ascribes to them human capabilities, sensations, and emotions"

However for Ruskin it was seen as a derogatory. He objected to such usage because, however attractive or dramatic it may be, it "morbidly" attributes life and human intent to nature and is part of "a falseness in all our impressions of external things", which I think means he thought it was not truthful to represent such inanimate objects with human attributions.

We then looked at a short clip from Lord Of The Rings, and watched and listened out for how the clip had used Pathetic Fallacy to create atmosphere:

Sounds - the flowing of the river, jingling on gandalf's carriage, birds chirping, Gandalf singing, all suggest positivity

Weather - A bright sunny day, reflecting a normal day

Colours - bright greens, and yellows all show everything to be cheery and happy.

We then looked at some extracts of famous texts and highlighted where the author had used pathetic fallacy.

Charles Dickens in "Great Expectations" set the scene on a "raw afternoon" as it is getting dark, which sets a fearful scene taking place in a "distant savage place".

Bram Stoker in "Dracula" has the "falling sunset throw into strange relief the ghost-like clouds" and an "oppressive sense of thunder" creates a tension from the weather.

John Steinbeck manipulates the weather in "Of Mice and Men" to being a "hot day", "where the water is warm" to suit the story.

Then we looked on how Emily Bronte had used pathetic fallacy in "Wuthering Heights" in two extracts. One from Chapter 9, included a "very dark evening" when the thunder was "growling", the wind was "violent" and a storm came over the heights in "full fury", causing havoc and destruction as a tree falls across the roof. This perhaps reflects Catherine's emotive state as she is agitated and anger as she fears she has lost Heathcliff, or you could argue the weather infact represents Heathcliff rage as he overhears Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him.

Similarly in Extract B from Chapter 10, Bronte manipulates the weather to reflect the general mood at Thrushcross Grange, Nelly has been picking apples ( a nice enjoyable chore ) and it is a "mellow evening" just as the sun is setting and the moon is out also. The air is "soft" and "sweet" and suits the peace before Heathcliff returns and stirs things up.

Homework is to comment on Extracts C & D,

Read up to Chapter 16 and fill out the chapter summaries

And find links in the story between buildings and locations and characters

Enjoy!

Death Personified

In our lesson on Friday we set out to finish the Pardoners tale, and we did (YEAH).
We began the lesson by looking at quotes from the tale, then analysing them in detail.
The first quote we looked at was,



“A privee theef man clepeth Death”

The ideas we came up with after we analysed this quote where: that firstly we looked at the word “privee” which means stealthy. This meant that Death was the type of being that would creep up on people without them being aware of the fact that they would meet their doom.
We then looked at the word “theef” which meant thief, and we said that Death according to Chaucer was this messenger from god that came to steel the lives of people in an unjust way. “Like the thief of god” asked one person? It is said in the tale that Death came as a form of punishment for the wicked that have committed one of the deadly sins. Yet we read that he also takes the lives of children. This could be used as evidence that death is unfair.
The next quote was:

“And with his spear he smoot his heart atwo”
We looked at the sounds that appear in this quote such as the “o” sound which is used to emphasis the pain that the spear causes to the person when Death takes their lives. These sounds create the sound of something being sliced open and the heart being ripped out. We also noticed that this quote is more graphic and vivid then the first. Which could mean that as the Pardoner is nearing the end of his tale he wants his audience to be in a state of fear, and then seek his council for help. This would be an opportunity for him to sell his fake relics.
The next quote was:

“False traitor”
We found in this quote a double negative. This is used to add emphasis on being a traitor. Again we find that Death is associated with being unjust to people.
The last quote that we looked at before we read an article on
“Death Personified”
Was:
“Ne Death, alas, ne vol nat han my lyt”
As we where very aware of the time we had to move on to the article, so all we noticed was that there where very negative words used in this quote about the Death.
The article we read spoke about how Chaucer uses apostrophes not the punctuation mark, but the literary term for the rhetorical technique of conveying extreme emotion to an abstract idea or personified objects. The examples used are that we noticed the use of “o” at the beginning and an exclamation mark at the end.
In the article we also highlighted Miller suggested. This was that the tree beneath which the men find the treasure could tie in with the Pardoner’s initial message that money is the root of all evil.
The article discussed many other points but these where some of the points we highlighted.
We then read the tale and finished it. The tale ended with all the three men dying because of their greed for the gold. Towards the pardoner addresses the pilgrims that they should repent for the sins that they committed if they did not want their fate to be like those of the three men. He also tells them to kiss his relics and buy them from him if they want to travel safely without breaking their knacks.
The pardoner says that the first person to pay should be the host. We said that this could be because the host might be the one with the most money. The host feels offended by this and exposes the Pardoner for being a liar, which leaves the Pardoner speechless. The knight calms everything down, and the Pardoner and the host ride off together.


The home work was that we should do the questions that we got on “The Pardoners tale”, “Wuthering Heights” and “Bloody chamber”
Do as much as you can at least one a day of each.
I know we all have other home work but we should as much questions as we can, because practice makes perfect.

Death......

19th Octorber 2010...
Within this lesson we analyse the representation of death in the pardoners tale. Discussing how death is not only a retrabution for the wicked sinners but also takes a form of a character in the tale.
Death is personified, it is a supernatural horror that is established within the journey of the tale. The idea of a “theif called death” stealing the souls of men may disrupt the modern audience, as they are not used to seeing world such metaphorical terms, but this was a device that Chaucer uses in order outline social myths. Despite his graphic descriptions of the horrible physical effects of gluttony and drunkeness, and his outraged tone, the pardoner in his long triade against sin from lines 199 - 373 only once mentions death as direct consequence of commiting a sin. He says as an aside that manslaughter (307) can resulting from the gambling, when people fight over the disputed result of a game or bet. The pardoner never directly mentions the outcome of the other sin he’s decribed as being fatal.

(Thesis statement:)- Death is personified, it is presented in order to manipulate the readers through the notions of fear and social morals.

Thesis Statement!!! (The Pardoners Tale)

How is Death presented in The Pardoner's Tale?

• Death is personified, as a supernatural horror that walks the earth, showing no mercy to both old or young, rich or poor, good or bad. He is aware of sins and thus, robs people's life's merciless of their actions.
  

Thesis statement

Death is presented as a character, that is personified by the use of imagery that seems both harsh and shows no mercry.He also does not discriminate aginst age or gender.

Heathcliff: Ambiguity and Ambivalence

We started the lesson with a 3 2 1 exercise (3 statements about Heathcliff, 2 questions, and one analogy.) Here are mine:
3: - Heathcliff is a Byronic hero
- He is linked to Satan, bordering on a personification
- He is represented by the moors

2: - What makes Heathcliff into a hero?
- Why is Heathcliff such a devilish character?

1: -Heathcliff is like a hurricane a hurricane, he leaves destruction where he goes, but there are still those who chase after him.

We then read an article called Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know, by A-level student, Bethany Sims. The article focused on the links between Heathcliff, Victor Frankenstein and Byron. find it here.

The article's main point was that both Frankenstein and Heathcliff are Byronic heroes, and it drew inspiration from Byron's life to reinforce this point. the idea that byronic heroes are 'mad, bad and dangerous to know' is something that Mr Sadgrove advises us to remember. But it seems that this idea has turned Byron into a character type, rather than an individual person with a reputation.

Byronic hero: An anti-hero who is a romanticized but wicked character. Conventionally, the figure is a young and attractive male with a bad reputation. He defies authority and conventional morality, and becomes paradoxically ennobled by his peculiar rejection of virtue. In this sense, Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost may be considered sympathetically as an antihero, as are many of Lord Byron's protagonists (hence the name). From American pop culture, the icon of James Dean in Rebel Without a Cause is a good example. Other literary examples are Heathcliffe in Wuthering Heights and the demonic Melmoth in Melmoth the Wanderer. Byronic heroes are associated with destructive passions, sometimes selfish brooding or indulgence in personal pains, alienation from their communities, persistent loneliness, intense introspection, and fiery rebellion.

After reading the article, we worked together as a class to find points from the article:
Heathcliff and Byron are:
-Remote, unknowable, and criminally notorious.
-their masculinity makes them seductive, making women to them like 'moths to a flame'
-They are enigmatic, monumental and impressive.
-They both have a promise of 'dangerous pleasure'

We then worked on different critical interpretations of Heathcliff:

-Heathcliff as a social outcast and misfit
-Heathcliff as a fairytale creation
-Heathcliff as a demon, an inhuman monster

After this, we worked as a class to plan an essay:

What contribution does Heathcliff make to our reading of Wuthering Heights as a gothic novel?

We started with a thesis statement. this statement should remain apparent through each paragraph of any essay. for this essay, the thesis statement was:

Ambivalent character- uncertainty and ambiguity surround him like the gothic.

The homework is to plan and write this essay: which, I think is due the monday after half-term.

What's In A Name?

To start with we analysed the names of our frame narrator Lockwood and our central character Heathcliff.

As a class we talked about the oppasition of these two name. The soft sounding ‘Heathcliff’ and the much harder sounding ‘Lockwood’. The soft ‘t’ and ‘f’ sounds in Heathcliff we said opposed his nature. The melifluous sound of his name does not match his much rougher nature and the various descriptions of him as a ‘imp of Satan.

Lockwood’s name on the other hand, a much harder sounding name with its hard sounding ‘k’ and ‘d’ sounds gives us a very hard hitting name for a character who describes himself as a misanthropist and who often makes false deliberations as a frame narrator; confusing blizzards for small snow showers and mistaking dead cats for a pile of dead rabbits.

We went on to talking about the words with which these two names are made up of. ‘Cliff’ in Heathcliff presents the reader with images of danger or limitations. As we know this is very closely match to the nature of Heathcliff, his aggressive attitude towards Hindley shows a very extreme and hazardous side to Heathcliff’s personality. ‘Heath’ in Heathcliff however, gives the reader a very different image. A heath is described as an area of ‘flat uncultivated land with low shrub’.  The word ‘uncultivated’ shows no growth or an area not being cared for, as for Heathcliff as a person, we see an air of isolation about him throughout the. A ‘dark skinned gypsy brat’ from Liverpool that is taking in by the caring Mr Earnshaw is greeted with hostility by his step-brother Hindley and never seems to be truly accepted by the inhabitants of Thrushcross Grange or Wuthering Heights. He is constantly regarded with satanic references as a ‘devil daddy’ or ‘that devil Heathcliff’.

In the name Lockwood we see the word ‘Lock’. We discussed how the word ‘Lock’ implies a sense of being closed in or security. Lockwood is a reserved character and this description seems to fit with his misanthropic nature.  We could say that Lockwood is ‘Locked’ within the story of ‘Wuthering Heights’. When Lockwood; a quiet and reserved character is presented with the far more passionate and expressive nature of Heathcliff he feels like he must ‘prostrate’ himself in front of Heathcliff. David Punter would deem this ‘uncanny of the monumental’ and it is this that has ‘Locked’ Lockwood within personality and the novel.

We then went on as a class to discuss Nelly. We discussed the different names associated with Nelly. Mrs Dean is quite a formal name used by Lockwood, it shows respect and perhaps mutual friendship. Heathcliff calls her Nelly, this is much more informal and shows how Nelly is more sympathetic to Heathcliff and this has led to him taking a liking to her.  We discussed how Nelly could relate to Iago from Shakespeare’s ‘Othello’. We said that perhaps; Like Iago, Nelly is overlooked by other characters and perhaps no one would suspect Nelly to distort the truth or to give more of her opinion than unbiased truths. This is similar to the way that Iago is overlooked by Othello.

As a class we then went on to read Paul Cheetham’s article on ‘The problem of Heathcliff’ which considers ‘the hero at the heart of Emily Bronte’s Novel. The article had several sections:

Monster.

In this section Paul Cheetham talks about the origins of Heathcliff and how ‘Bronte’s choice of the impersonal pronoun appears very deliberate’. He says how Heathcliff is constantly refered to as ‘it’ and how several characters go on to describe Heathcliff’s eyes as ‘a couple of black fiends...like devil spies’. The satanic references here show how hated Heathcliff was by his new family.

Cheetham also describes Heathcliff as possessing a liminal space in the eyes of character such as Nelly who is ‘uncertain whether to regard him as a worldly visitor’. In this case Nelly is unsure if Heathcliff is of this world or not; this places Heathcliff in a liminal space between being satanic; and of hell, or of being human, cheetham says that this adds to the obscurity of Heathcliff and makes his position all the more ambiguous.

Satanic Associations.

In this sections Cheetham discusses the various references in the novel about Heathcliff being of hellish descent. Cheetham talks about how even Nelly (who he says is the most loyal and sympathetic towards Heathcliff) is unsure of his origins and deliberates ‘is he a ghoul or a vampire?’. Cheetham talks of the text being littered with words such as ‘fiendish’ and ‘diabolical’ and relates this to John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’, he says how Milton’s character: Satan , relates to heathcliff in the way that ‘your bliss lies, like his, In inflicting misery’.

To sum up Cheetham talks of Heathcliff being consumed by a fervent passion for revenge; both on Hindley (for abuse as a child) and on Edgar Linton (for his union with Catherine).

What can redeem him?

In this short section Cheetham ponders how Heathcliff could possibly redeem himself. He says that a ‘mystical fusion’ of Catherine and Heathcliff as a couple is remarkable for a character as dark as Heathcliff. the article then discusses how Catherine’s confession of love to Nelly in chapter 9 is a great show of love littered with ‘hard and painful’ words. Words such as ‘miseries’ and ‘not as a pleasure’ to conclude this section Cheetham says that ‘it is the nature and effect of that love’ that can redeem Heathcliff.

Transcendental love.

in this final section of his article Cheetham discusses how the love that Heathcliff and Catherine share is one so strong that it must ‘require something beyond marriage for its consummation’. Cheetham says how Heathcliff comes close to achieving this goal in chapter 29 when he sets about digging up Catherine’s grave with intent to ‘hold her in his arms’. But at a crucial moment Bronte intervenes and leads the reader away from a scene of necrophilia and merely has Heathcliff ‘hear the sighs of Catherine’s ghost’.

Finally Cheetham says how the couple eventually achieve this consummation at the end of the novel when both of them are dead and Heathcliff and Catherine are ‘free to roam the moors for all eternity’

Homework.

·         Write summary of Paul Cheetham’s article. (Each section in detail)

·         Two paragraphs on personal views of Heathcliff.

·         Finish detailed analysis of the various names Heathcliff is called.

Understanding The Pardoner's Tale

We began the lesson looking at the word ‘whilom’, which is mentioned in The Pardoner’s Tale on the first line. Ms Bullbeck asked us to look at the significance of the word in the tale. This is what we came up with;

• Vague
• From the first line of the tale
• tale - fantasy, ambiguity, not factual
• once or 'once upon a time'
• unreliable
• Chaucer started the tale in a 'fairytale' way - reference to The Bloody Chambers (fairytale beginnings)
• The beginning
  
  

In previous lessons we had looked at the prologue and the portrait of ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’ which gave us an introduction to the character of the Pardoner, and an insight to the actual tale. The word ‘whilom’ in the first line of the tale had already given us an idea that the tale itself would not but very reliable, due to the meaning of the word; ‘once upon a time’, which is a phrase commonly used in the beginning of fairytales, which are not always true stories.
In the next stage of the lesson, we were asked to analyse lines 177-198 of ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’, making notes on the type of character Chaucer was creating through the Pardoner, also making not of the language he used to do this.

In groups of 3, we found it easy to translate the lines, however, analysing the meaning behind the lines was more challenging. From lines 177-198, we found that Chaucer was introducing a group of people which would be the focus in the tale, they came across as self-destructing people, as they would be ‘drinking beyond their capacity’ and be attending places including brothels and places to gamble. As we have discovered the Pardoner is someone who wants to be a saviour, which helps Chaucer to create an interesting tale, using this contrast of ‘destructive’ characters.
We also made not of the fact that it is common in human nature for people to feel better about themselves when they hear or read about people who are so ‘destructive’, for example, the group of people Chaucer has introduced to us in the beginning of this tale. This group of people are exceeding limits, such as the limits of nature and religion, which was not the norm in the middle ages. As the pilgrims in the middle ages were very religious people, it became obvious to us that they would be shocked when listening to this tale, as drinking and gambling was not good religious behaviour. This allows the Pardoner to distinguish himself from these types of people he is describing, making himself out to be a good religious figure.

In the next stage of the lesson, we also began to analyse lines 197-374. Mrs Bullbeck introduced the idea to us that from this point of the tale, Chaucer introduces an apparent digression. In this part of the tale we have 2 functions;
· Dramatic function – delays the story and maintains tension and expectation
· Thematic function – enlarging on various kinds of sin and makes the story that follows more hard hitting and impacts more on the Pardoner’s audience.

In our groups of 3 we continued to analyse and translate lines 197-374, in my group we discovered that the Pardoner is using religious stories and examples to refer to drinking and its consequences, and he then begins to talk about gluttony. He uses this religious imagery to make the pilgrims understand his point of view. Chaucer uses this language to show the reader how important religion was at this time, as using biblical figures is significant to the pilgrims, as they all look up to and admire such figures. However, when they are told about such religious figures sinning, the Pardoner makes himself look like a better person to admire, building trust with them. In this part of the tale, the Pardoner begins lines with ‘O’ – which is referred to in the book as ‘a convention of preaching. The repeated ‘O’ at the beginning of these lines is intended to draw attention to their content.’

Towards the end of the lesson, Mrs Bullbeck then gave us some background information on some of the religious context referred to in this section of the tale. The Pardoner refers to a religious figure called Herod, who was a King who ordered the head of John the Baptist on a plate when he was drink; showing that he has made a rational decision under the influence!

Another religious figure called Lot was also referred to in the tale; he was someone whose daughters got him drunk and forced him to sleep with them so they could have children; another consequence of drinking!

After being introduced to these religious figures, I found it helpful to do my own research about these people independently. I looked on http://www.wikipedia.org.uk/, and typed in the names of some of the people mentioned, and got some background information, it was quite useful.

HOMEWORK!!

For homework we were asked to look at lines 243 – 374 of ‘The Pardoner’s Tale’. Also to translate these lines and annotate them with any ideas we have.

DUE TUESDAY

I found this website helpful to understanding the tale in general;

http://www.jsu.edu/depart/english/gates/pardprt.htm
http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/pardoner.htm


It will also help with the translation of lines 243-374 for homework

Lesson on Oppositions in Wuthering Heights

Mr Sadgrove began the lesson showing us this picture, first of all most of us saw a Mr Sadds' face but when we looked again we saw a person sitting out in the country.

We then filled out a table where we matched a list of adjectives to their appropriate character from the novel. Mine is below.

Earnshaws - Wild

Lintons - Civilised

Catherine Earnshaw - Nature

Hindley Earnshaw - Hateful

Frances Earnshaw - Hostile

Catherine Linton - Nurture ( she is nurtured and brought up by Heathcliff to become miserable and distant )

Edgar Linton - Tame

Thrushcross Grange - High Status

Isabella Linton - Weak

Heathcliff - Outsider

Hareton Earnshaw - Uneducated

Joseph - Religious

Lockwood - Human ( not that he is the most human characteristically but he is the most "normal" character who is most like the audience )

Nelly - Obedient

Wuthering Heights - Stormy

We then read an article called "Life on the Edge - Opposition and Fragmentation in Wuthering Heights" by Andrew Green which I have summed up below - you can access the article by clicking the link above

Green points out that the gothic genre "thrives on opposition and division and has at its heart, uncertainty, the unsettling and the indefinable" and we see this in Wuthering Heights from what we learned about the liminal. There are many oppositions in the novel and instead of having clear boundaries between the two forces, they often crossover and break down, the borders become unclear and this puts the reader at unease as they can't distinguish or feel comfort in feeling they know what is what. For example the character Heathcliff is liminal and the audience at some stages don't know whether he is a good character or is evil, and this uncertainty is an aspect of the gothic. The obscurity leads to fear beacuse "a novel in which such oppositions remained distinct would present a reassuring, morally certain world" when the gothic is all about creating a world where things aren't stable, but unreliable. "It is on this borderland that fear resides"

As David Punter suggests "(Gothic works are) fragmentary, inconsistent, jagged" and these fragments can be found in what makes up Lockwoods narrative. Lockwoods diary consists of fragments of Catherine's dairy, letters from Isabella, stories from Nelly and what Lockwood himself sees. The story being fragmented destabilises the reader, and again places the reader in a world of uncertainty. Even pointed out was "Brontes manipulation of the names, ensures that the reader, like Lockwood is repeatedly destabilised"

The oppositions in character also provide a sense of unclarity. At the beginning of the novel Lockwood identifies himself as similar to Heathcliff " Mr Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair" however this similarity is instantly disproved with the differences between them when Lockwood watches Heathcliff in awe and not being able to understand Heathcliff's anguish at calling out for the ghost to return, he thinks it is folly ( stupid). Even the two's names oppose (wood vs heath[ an open area]). Lockwood "represents aceptable gentility (elegance)" and Heathcliff "is brutal without the patina ( appearance) of civilisation". But the set position of these characteristics are again blurred, it is never that simple. Lockwood may appear to be a perfect gentleman but in Chapter 3 he violently rubs the wrists of Catherines ghost against the broken window glass "to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes", and Heathcliff may appear to be a cruel misanthropist but later we are shown the pure passion he loved Catherine with. Catherine even breaks the opposition between self and other, when she declares "I am Heathcliff".

Green tells us that in Wuthering Heights "the rules by which we expect the world and society to operate are not simply broken, they are shown not to apply" and this is what creates the obscurity and then the fear of the gothic.

We were then rudely interrupted by the fire alarm!!!

But after (and during) that we read another article The Semantic Fields of Wuthering Heights which went like this...

Semantics in its simplest is the linking of clusters words that share similar meanings. In two descriptive extracts of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights we grouped words together that were similar. Wuthering Heights had a representation of being stormy, hostile and unwelcoming, but when we find these group of words: [ culinary utensils, copper saucepans and tin cullenders, oatcakes and clusters of legs of beef, mutton, and ham, chimney, roasting, boiling, or baking ] the place can feel quite homely and cosy. And with Thrushcross Grange we see words like: [ beautiful, splendid, pure, shimmering, heavenly, happy, soft, gold and silver ] but then this is contrasted with what is going on in this "splendid" place: [ screaming, shreiking, weeping, shaking, yelping and accusations ]. From using a sematic approach clusters of words can seem more powerful together and linking the words together can really emphasise a point for future essays.

The liminal and boundaries

The liminal and boundaries

Alright, Mr. Sadds I took your advice and I haven’t typed out the whole class word for word, I have taken what I think are the main points made in the lesson and summed them up.

In the lesson we focused on “the liminal” and boundaries within Wuthering Heights

The liminal is a term that means “the condition of being on a threshold, between or on the margin of”

The liminal is simply the unfixed position between any two oppositional terms.

A boundary is “a line or plane indicating the limit or extent of something” however if you didn’t know that you don’t deserve to be in an English A level class… do you?

For the liminal to be argued, you need to observe strong oppositions (i.e. boundaries) that create a suitable threshold.

Heathcliff
Heathcliff is situated on the boundary between life and death due to his name. Heathcliff’s name originally belonged to the name of Mr Earnshaw’s dead son; therefore he is trapped on the boundary due to his being alive opposing the nature of his name creating death leaving him on the threshold between the two boundaries.

Personally, I found it more difficult to apply the liminal to characters then I did to objects, motifs or symbols. The liminal is a lot easier to identify within objects, an example of this is the window providing a threshold between life and death.

There are a lot of instances that suggest the window is a threshold, these are a few good examples.

Lockwood’s Dream
We have Lockwood’s dream, in which Lockwood “knocking my knuckles through the glass” breaks the boundary between life and death. This is then followed by the ghost of Catherine directly contacting the living (Lockwood) suggesting that the restrictions separating the two worlds has been broken. However Lockwood creates a boundary of books which we identified in class as being symbolic of civilisation and life re instating the barrier that was originally created by the window.

Heathcliff’s plea
As soon as Lockwood explains what he was screaming about Heathcliff’s realises Cathy’s ghost was present at the window and with this he “wrenched open the lattice” he then pleads for Cathy’s ghost to return, once again we see the windows open frame acting as a barrier between the realm of the living and the dead

Cathy’s death
When Cathy dies she opens the lattice to “feel the wind blow in from the moors” she asks for the window to be open claiming that she wishes for her soul to run free over the moors, this is another prime example of how windows represent the afterlife and the threshold between life and death. This suggests that Cathy needs the window to be open for her transcendence into the next life.　

However the window is not only a barrier between life and death, within class we read and agreed that window represents many other things such as the threshold for nature vs. culture and in Catherine’s case acted as a prison.　

Lockwood’s sexual desires

The nature vs. culture observation was made when we observe Lockwood’s dream in the chapter 3 the letting in of a young girl into his room could suggest sexual desire (nature) then as his desires start to get out of control (cross the barrier of the window) he panics and cuts his sexual desires off by stacking books (culture) as a protective barrier against such desires using the culture that surrounds him as a defence mechanism.

Cathy’s imprisonment
The main point we have for this interpretation of the window is that Heathcliff directly addresses it within the novel. He claims that “If Catherine had wished to return, I intended shattering the great panels to a million fragments, unless they let her out”

Guys I did some more reading and found this article I found it to be quiet helpful when doing research: http://www.shmoop.com/wuthering-heights/symbolism-imagery.html

It explains a lot about the other symbols we learnt of in class,

HOMEWORK!·
2 paragraphs on Bronte’s use of symbols/motifs
(Use the model as example and refer to critic)·

2 paragraphs summing up the idea of the liminal and how it is communicated through symbols/motifs (Windows/doors/ghosts/dreams)

Read to chapter 6 -> complete chapter summaries　

This is Badgroves example that you should use for your homework

Example of writing about the uncanny Chapter 3 of ‘Wuthering Heights’ serves as an example of what many Gothic critics deem ‘terror’ – the psychologically unsettling and disturbing element at the heart of many gothic texts. Lockwood, forced to stay at the heights, is confronted with the ghost of Cathy as ‘the intense horror of nightmare’ comes over both him and the reader. This feeling, what Freud would deem the ‘uncanny’ is created by the invasion of the ‘unheimlich’ into the world of the ‘heimlich’. In Freud’s terms, the rational self, (Lockwood) is assailed by the ghost and the ‘tenacious gripe’ of its ‘ice cold hand’. The ‘unhome-like’ ghost is (in this case literally) trying to force its way in to the home, a place where it paradoxically does and doesn’t belong. The language, like elsewhere in the novel, is characteristically violent and the imagery disturbing in its vividness. The so called ‘gentleman’ Lockwood, resorts to pulling Cathy’s ‘wrist on to the broken pane… till the blood ran down.’ This sense of the uncanny can be related to the wider concerns of the novel and is also played out in its narrative structure. Fragments of journals and letters (which are essentially unheimlich to the frame narrator Lockwood) are filtered through the multiple narrators to create a powerful sense of ambiguity to the extent that we as readers are alienated by the text. We do not belong in a world of such excessive characters and passions. Punter deems this ‘the uncanny of the monumental’ suggesting that we are forced to ‘prostrate ourselves’ before the Heathcilffs, Draculas, Marquis’ and Frankensteins of the literary world. 　　

TEAM SADGROVE….PEACE OUT!!!!!

The Pardoner's prologue continued

We started the lesson with a close look at the part of the prologue we had already read, identifying descriptions of material things within the text, these are some of what we found:
-Bulles
-Crystal stones
-Cloth

After this, we read the rest of the pardoner's prologue annotating as we went along, establishing that the pardoner is hypocritical and cold; he campaigns against the love of money but also is in love with money, and he doesn't care where it comes from:

'I wol have moneie, wolle, chese, and whete,
Al were it yeven of the povereste page,
Or of the povereste widwe in a village,
Al sholde hir children sterve for famine.'
(162-165)

The Pardoner will stop at nothing to get money, and doesn't think twice of shaming widows into paying for pardons.

We also identified two references to snakes, perhaps suggesting that the Pardoner is devil-like, due to the biblical reference that he talks 'venom' and stings with his tongue:

'For whan I dar noon oother weyes debate,
Thanne wol I stynge hym with my tonge smerte'
(126-127)

'Thus quyte I folk that doon us displeasances;
Thus spitte I out my venym under hewe
Of hoolynesse, to semen hooly and trewe.'
(134-136)

After reading the rest of the prologue, we separated into groups and discussed imagery and irony within the Pardoner's prologue. (If you want the sheet, you can probably get it from Mrs Bulbeck)

The class generally had trouble with the definition of irony, due to its numerous applications into real life. The dictionary definition of irony in literature is:

'A technique of indicating, as through character or plot development, an intention or attitude opposite to that which is actually or ostensibly stated.'

For example, in Oedipus the king, Oedipus searches for the murderer of the King of Thebes, when it is in fact himself who had committed the murder.

We identified points of irony from the Pardoner's prologue, for example:

'What, trowe ye, that whiles I may preche,
And wynne gold and silver for I teche,
That I wol lyve in poverte wilfully?'
(153-155)

The irony in this statement is that, as a Pardoner, he is obliged to live in poverty.

The homework for the lesson is the essay:
How does Chaucer establish the character of the Pardoner in the portrait and his prologue?

This is intended to be done in 100 minutes as it is cover for lesson on Friday, as it is teacher's training day. due in for the next lesson, which is Tuesday.

The Uncanny by Shaun Akturk

We started off by understanding Freud's theory of; "Heimlich" (Something homelike - a feeling of something that is "agreeable" and "acceptable") and the "Un-heimlich" (The un-homelike - something that the reader feels "out of place" or "falsely placed"). We as literature students must understand that these terms do not oppose each other. "The Un-heimlich sets up a different kind of existence". It is clear through the word “different" the uncanny is a scenario of ambivalence, and not the expected ideas of opposition.

The Uncanny is the Heimlich invading the Un-Heimlich or vice versa.

We later attempted to understand and discuss what David Punters adaptation of "The Uncanny" in relation to Gothic meant. Specifically looking at chapter 3 of "Wuthering Heights" Lockwood’s dream contains strong links the uncanny, as far as David Punter is concerned. Punter, states that dreams are constructed by the Heimlich (Evidently, even the most bizarre ideas of the dreamer, put forward in the dream are considered Heimlich, as it is conjured up through a Heimlich character.)

The uncanny, can be found both in the structure and characters chronology of W.Heights. The layered structure which narrates from a mix of past and present, something Punter describes as the "fabric of time". In which the Un-heimlich being the past invading the Heimlich present. Readers will see this in the filtered narration, in its structure and physically upon characters. The narration sequence ranging from the past Nelly reveals and the present of Lockwood. Catherine Linton's ghost a character of the past attacks the Heimlich present, that Lockwood lives in literally - Lockwood tells us his "fingers closed on the fingers of a little ice-cold hand!...The intense horror. The fact that the horror facet of Gothic literature is exposed here evokes a similar sense of fear from the reader. Furthermore this is a prime example of "the uncanny". Punters notion of the uncanny suggest that what is possible, likely and authorised in literature is in fact "unstable" in Gothic - ultimately anything is possible. Writers use the uncanny, as gaps in a kaput shield, which readers use to hide away from the monsters such as Dracula, Frankenstein monster and Catherine Linton.

We were asked to write up about the uncanny...Here is mine its a bit weak but, I just wanted to be able to revise from it easily later on in the year...

"Lockwood thinking pattern of reality is disturbed, because of his touching of the "ice-cold hand" his logical understanding is in invaded by the Un-heimlich - a physical sense of horror from the Heimlich character Lockwood. Freud concept of a combination between the Heimlich and Un-heimlich (the uncanny) is exposed to a gothic text because of Punters own ideas. Where he suggests the narrative structuring of Wuthering Heights is evidently contains strong references to the notion of the Un-heimlich invading the Heimlich.

The "fabric of time" whereby the past invades into the universal Heimlich of present time - is exactly what happens in W.H. The generic chronological order of narration is not present in W.H and this creates an enigmatic and ambivalent text, where readers are disturbed by the misunderstood layers of an unorganised and unstable text. The filters that create the story are provided by Nelly a symbol of the past, and Lockwood a more present and modern character. The invasion of "Catherine Linton’s... Ice-cold finger" affects the pragmatic world of Lockwood. Readers are positioned to view the order of events just as Lockwood does. If we were to consider ourselves Lockwood it would be acceptable to say that our own misshapen understanding chronological events and the supernatural, surface and evoke a genuine sense of fear (containing both horror and terror elements).

Characters are also trapped into this sense of the uncanny. Heathcliff character feels the invasion from the "different" Lockwood. The reader a character in it self, is categorized into the "uncanny of the monumental". The excessiveness of Heathcliff over powers our own worldly concerns and displaces our understanding of a conventional style of life, because of the extremeness and distorted equilibrium in the world of the Wuthering Heights and the its Heimlich characters."

It would be good if everyone could write their own essay on this blog, and place a comment as it will help everyone else in developing their own ideas.