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.