Wuthering Heights - Week 1 -- Ch. I - VII

[RM(Alwaysdaddygirl)]

Aloha,

I am behind. Even with updating books read, etc. I hope to catch up soon.

Mahalo,
Alwaysdaddygirl
🇺🇸

[Clarissa]

RM(Alwaysdaddygirl/Salemwitch) wrote: "Aloha,

I am behind. Even with updating books read, etc. I hope to catch up soon.

Mahalo,
Alwaysdaddygirl
🇺🇸"

me too! hope you catch up soon, I am hoping to have a good read today and maybe catch up, I find it such an engrossing book

[Kerstin, Moderator]

Finally joining too :)

What struck me on being introduced to Wuthering Hights is the lack of any caring, welcoming hospitality. Mr. Lockwood arrives and he is treated as if he were an intruder. Everyone is in a dark mood, and the dogs do not respond normally either. The entire setting has something profoundly missing in terms of normal human interaction, something is festering here. Since Heathcliff is the master of the house, all this dysfunction flows from him. One disturbing fact revealed about him so far is that he does not express any gratitude.

[Brittany (Lady Red)]

I noticed that too, and even reading it when young, I thought it was weird

[Clarissa]

Kerstin wrote: "Finally joining too :)

What struck me on being introduced to Wuthering Hights is the lack of any caring, welcoming hospitality. Mr. Lockwood arrives and he is treated as if he were an intruder. Ev..."

I don't want to repeat all my same points, or mention things that are later in novel, because I get so confused with my chapters, but I think the choice of narrative perspective means that Bronte always wants us to be aware of how unreliable Lockwood is as a narrator. I am definitely not going the other way, if WH was a 21 centrury Air B n B it would not be getting great reviews! But I view these early chapters as showing that Lockwood is an intruder, he doesn't belong in this world, but yet the whole story is going to be told by him.

[Kerstin, Moderator]

"I gave due inward applause to every object, and then I remembered how old Earnshaw used to come in when all was tidied, and call me a cant lass, and slip a shilling into my hand as a Christmas box"

The footnote in my edition to this sentence caught me by surprise:

Christmas box: The custom of giving a present of money (often a small box) to servants or the poor on the day after Christmas Day gave rise to its appellation "Boxing Day."

I had often wondered what "Boxing Day" meant.

[Cindy, Moderator]

Kerstin wrote: ""I gave due inward applause to every object, and then I remembered how old Earnshaw used to come in when all was tidied, and call me a cant lass, and slip a shilling into my hand as a Christmas box..."

I never knew what Boxing Day was, either! Thanks for enlightening us, Kerstin! :)

[Brittany (Lady Red)]

Ironically, I found out what Boxing Day was because of Victorian novels

[RM(Alwaysdaddygirl)]

Clari wrote: "RM(Alwaysdaddygirl/Salemwitch) wrote: "Aloha,

I am behind. Even with updating books read, etc. I hope to catch up soon.

Mahalo,
Alwaysdaddygirl
🇺🇸"

me too! hope you catch up soon, I am hoping to..."

Mahalo! Happy Reading!🤗🇺🇸

[Gabrielle]

Clari wrote: "It is a really interesting choice to introduce Lockwood first. He is a first person narrator beginning the novel, the reader expectation would automatically be that he'd be the main character."

John Irving does this too: introducing first a minor character or a character who's going to disappear soon, then the main ones; it's one of his tricks!

[Clarissa]

Gabrielle wrote: "Clari wrote: "It is a really interesting choice to introduce Lockwood first. He is a first person narrator beginning the novel, the reader expectation would automatically be that he'd be the main c..."

I have not read John Irving for a while, I did love A Prayer for Owen Meany though so much.

[Gabrielle]

Clari wrote: "Gabrielle wrote: "Clari wrote: "It is a really interesting choice to introduce Lockwood first. He is a first person narrator beginning the novel, the reader expectation would automatically be that ..."

In Last Night in Twisted River Irving introduces a character who dies, then the two main character appear only three or for chapters later, if I remember well. I found it a bit too long. This said, I liked this novel which I read years ago, because something in it directly touched me.

[SherryRose]

Clari wrote: "Kerstin wrote: "Finally joining too :)

What struck me on being introduced to Wuthering Hights is the lack of any caring, welcoming hospitality. Mr. Lockwood arrives and he is treated as if he were..."

Yes it’s a story told by Nelly and filtered through Lockwood who seems to be kind of a snob. So by then the perspective is pretty eschewed. Unless Nelly is 100% unbiased and Lockwood doesn’t veer off of her story. Unlikely.

[Cindy, Moderator]

Clari wrote: "I have not read John Irving for a while, I did love A Prayer for Owen Meany though so much. ..."

A Prayer for Owen Meany is on deck for my next read (after I finish Something Wicked This Way Comes, which should be today). I don't know how I've never read this, but I have recently heard SO many people say that it is one of their favorite books that I ran out and got a copy. Should be starting it tomorrow! :)

[Renee, Moderator]

That’s an interesting point about the story coming through Nelly’s bias and Lockwood’s filtration. I wonder if Bronte’s intention was to keep the reader at such a remove. And why?

[SherryRose]

Cindy wrote: "Clari wrote: "I have not read John Irving for a while, I did love A Prayer for Owen Meany though so much. ..."

A Prayer for Owen Meany is on deck for my next read (after I finish Something Wicked ..."

Renee wrote: "That’s an interesting point about the story coming through Nelly’s bias and Lockwood’s filtration. I wonder if Bronte’s intention was to keep the reader at such a remove. And why?"

It’s so hard to say. Even in filtration the story is so powerful that I find myself believing it as I read it.

[Cindy, Moderator]

Renee wrote: "That’s an interesting point about the story coming through Nelly’s bias and Lockwood’s filtration. I wonder if Bronte’s intention was to keep the reader at such a remove. And why?"

From a critical article I read, I learned that the book "is a hybrid novel written at a point in time when romantic fiction was being replaced by Victorian realism. The novel cannot be reconciled to any self-contained view. It does not advocate romance over realism but rather calls into questions the inadequacies of each." It goes on to say that the narrative style is "an evidentiary narrative technique, a Romantic story-telling method that emphasizes the ironic disjunctions between different perspectives on the same events as well as the ironic tensions that inhere in the relationship between surface drama and concealed authorial intentions."

Basically, she keeps us guessing. We are told the story but with no way to know how much of what we are told is the complete truth, other than indisputable facts--someone dies, someone gets married, someone is born. These events cannot be disputed. But who caused something to happen, what was actually said, how it was said, what is being added or left out . . . all of that is open to question.

I don't know why Bronte chose that style; I'm not sure if anyone truly knows. Personally, I think the story, while not very realistic in terms of plausibility, is realistic in theme. In reality, love is not always this beautiful thing that transforms people's lives into a blissful fairy tale. In reality, it is often painful, messy, and destructive. The way the story is presented is also realistic, in my opinion. How much information do we get today that is not filtered through the lens of someone else, or multiple persons? Anecdotes related to us by friends, family, and co-workers are colored by their perspectives; we get perspectives of our friends' lives filtered through the rosy lens of Facebook; we even get our news filtered through the political agendas of varying news channels. How much of what we hear every day can be classified as naked truth, undistorted by someone's bias?

[SherryRose]

Cindy wrote: "Renee wrote: "That’s an interesting point about the story coming through Nelly’s bias and Lockwood’s filtration. I wonder if Bronte’s intention was to keep the reader at such a remove. And why?"

F..."

Very little I bet! We all interpret things in our own way. It’s really amazing to see the opposite views on the news channels so true. If a couple breaks up we never really know the whole truth. Only the 2 involved know the true story. We hear both sides in an exaggerated way.

[Gabrielle]

Cindy, Sherry,

There's never only one truth, that's what is interesting, imo.
Even, unconsciously, I'm sure we say much more than the fact conversation is about.
More than 80% of what we say isn't an information. For example, if you want to tell me to meet you at 12 tomorrow, which needs only 5 words, you'll talk to me for at least 2 or 3 minutes, this is how humans are. And in these two minutes, you'll tell me so many unconscious informations that I'll think: her voice was strange, maybe she's ill, or, her friend won't come, are they still friends?

So many informations not important are said and so many important informations are not said,
Who can really pretend to know why Bronte wrote her novel this way?

[Gabrielle]

Renee wrote: "That’s an interesting point about the story coming through Nelly’s bias and Lockwood’s filtration. I wonder if Bronte’s intention was to keep the reader at such a remove. And why?"

And what if it was not the reader that Bronte intended to keep at such a remove, but herself? After all, she was not free or didn't feel free to reveal what's in her mind, soul and heart.

[Kerstin, Moderator]

Cindy wrote: "How much information do we get today that is not filtered through the lens of someone else, or multiple persons?

Oh my goodness, yes! Even annotated classics are often skewed to please the zeitgeist or any ideological hobby horse. Instead of focusing on background information to better understand the work, there is often ample non-essential commentary. Recently, when we read the 'Tenant of Wildfell Hall' I threw the book across the room and continued with the kindle freebe, it irked me so much.

I'm only in Chapter 10, so I can't quite comment yet on Nelly. What I've noticed so far is that she seems to have a solid moral compass. The mercurial antics of Catherine find no favor with her, or anyone else of this sordid bunch. I'm already asking, why is she still with them?? There are no other situations in the vicinity that became available in all these years? I guess Bronte needed a storyteller.

[SherryRose]

Kerstin wrote: "Cindy wrote: "How much information do we get today that is not filtered through the lens of someone else, or multiple persons?

Oh my goodness, yes! Even annotated classics are often skewed to ple..."

Kerstin, I think Nelly is the most stable one in the household. If these people existed in this century she’d probably be medicated lol How could you stand any of them? Her loyalty to Hindley is very intense though. Maybe there’s a hidden crush? Either that or she’s totally asexual but she’s not open to talk about such things.

[Clarissa]

Kerstin wrote: "What I've noticed so far is that she seems to have a solid moral compass."

I see it more as she presents herself as having a solid moral compass more successfully than the first person narrator, Lockwood does. Or rather Lockwood presents her better than he presents himself! He shows he is definitely concerned with class and has no empathy for servants and maybe she fits his image of what a servant should be like more than the ragtag bunch at Wuthering Heights, even though they do try in their various ways to help him.

[Clarissa]

Cindy wrote: "Clari wrote: "I have not read John Irving for a while, I did love A Prayer for Owen Meany though so much. ..."

A Prayer for Owen Meany is on deck for my next read (after I finish Something Wicked ..."

I hope you enjoy it! It's one of those books I am actually shy to recommend because it hit me so powerfully. If that makes any sense!

And I liked your post about 'Wuthering Heights' related to social media! I've been thinking of it as questioning how we judge others from limited information, but the flip is also about how people present themselves to each other and what information they choose to give. 'Wuthering Heights' is relatively short for a Victorian novel, so it is a physical metaphor for how Nelly is editing the vast tangled story of the Earnshaws and Lintons.

[Gabrielle]

Kerstin wrote: ""I gave due inward applause to every object, and then I remembered how old Earnshaw used to come in when all was tidied, and call me a cant lass, and slip a shilling into my hand as a Christmas box..."

Thank you, I didn't know that.