Wuthering Heights

Section One: Emily Bronte's whakapapa

Emily Bronte is an English novelist who lived from 30 July 1818 until 19 December 1848 . She had a short but illustrious career as an author and Wuthering Heights is arguably her most widely known work.

Pick at LEAST THREE of these sources and be able to write about what motivated Emily Bronte to write her stories.

Section Two: Important Context for Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte lived in a very different time to what we do in 2021. In the 1800s, women were treated much differently. When Emily (and her sister, Charlotte) first published their work, they used male names to be taken more seriously as women were expected to be a mother and a wife and not much more. Read the following links and find out more about the context in which Emily Bronte as this will help you understand her writing better.

Section Three: Close reading Wuthering Heights

Read Wuthering Heights for the first time. As you do, complete this task:

1. Character map - on a piece A3, write down each of the characters as you come across them. Draw arrows between the characters to denote their relationships and add in adjectives that describe each character and at least one quote for each characters.

After completing your first reading of Wuthering Heights, complete these tasks to set you up for a close analysis of Jane Eyre.

1. Audience positioning. Write down five words that describe how you feel after reading this book. For example, sad, happy. These adjectives will become your tools for discussing the impact on the audience. So always keep them in front of you.

2. Figure out of the theme. What's this story about? To do this, work through these questions:

   1. Who's the main protagonist?

   2. What challenges do they face?

   3. How do they face these challenges?

   4. How do they change over the course of the narrative?

   5. What main ideas are thrown up by the adventures of the protagonist and what do you learn about these ideas?

3. Some big questions to consider about Wuthering Heights (Source: ThoughtCo.)

• What is important about the title?

• What are the conflicts in Wuthering Heights?

• How does Emily Bronte reveal character in Wuthering Heights?

• What are some themes in the story? How do they relate to the plot and characters?

• What are some symbols in​ Wuthering Heights? How do they relate to the plot and characters?

• Are the characters consistent in their actions? Which of the characters are fully developed? How? Why?

• Do you find the characters likable? Are the characters persons you would want to meet?

• Does the story end the way you expected? How? Why?

• What is the central/primary purpose of the story? Is the purpose important or meaningful?

• How does the novel relate to feminist literature?

• How essential is the setting to the story? Could the story have taken place anywhere else?

• What is the role of women in Wuthering Heights? How are mothers represented? What about single/independent women?

• What elements of the story, plot, characterization, etc. are the most controversial? Why do you think the book was banned? Do you believe the book should remain banned?

4. Think about which chapter you remember best. It is now time to reread this chapter, thinking about these things as you go:

• 1. What is the title of the chapter?

  2. Who is the main protagonist of this chapter? What are they doing, thinking about, reacting to?

  3. Identify TEN main quotes from this chapter - note these and justify why you have chosen each one.

  4. Identify language features that the author employs in this chapter and explain why you think she used it.

Resources to help you analyse the story

Section Four: Some other takes on Wuthering Heights - stretching your thinking

It's important to stretch your thinking on your book by reading some other people's interpretations of it. Have a read of these reviews and interpretations and then complete these questions:

• What do your reviews say about your text?

• What do the reviews say about the theme and characters?

• What do the reviews say about why the book was written?

• What questions do you start to think about as you read these reviews?

Section Five: Research

Below are the Level Two and Three research options. Work with your teacher to ensure that you are on the right pathway.

Level Two Research

Level Two research asks you to pull an issue out of your text and learn more about it so that it increases your understanding of your text. Click this link to find out what you need to do.

Level Three Unit Standard Written Texts Research

Level Three Unit Standard research asks you to use articles and book reviews to learn more about the author and what they are writing about so that it increases your understanding of your text. Click this link to find out what you need to do.

Level Three Achievement Standard Critical Texts Research

We are now going to stretch our thinking of the text by engaging in critical text research. What this means is that we read how experts have interpreted, understood and thought about the text so that we can understand better ourselves. Below are some critical texts that relate to this text and to understand what the research project is asking you to do (as well as how to do it), click here.

The following are critical texts that relate to Tu. Some will have a direct link, naming the novel directly, and others will be linked by the insight they provide about the background or motivation of the author to write her story.

In no way should you read all of these, cover to cover. You need to be more strategic; look at the titles, read the contents page to pick which sections of the book are best to read, skim and scan to identify sections of chapters that you need to read closely and take notes from - look for keywords from your questions, use subheadings to identify relevant sections.

Not all of these critical texts will answer your questions; so look for the ones that do. Pick three to four to read and take notes from.

Also, if you find that you aren't answering one of your questions, and/or your reading is taking you in a new and unexpected direction, simply change your questions and hypothesis in line with what you are reading - this is what research is; learning and changing what you think as you learn more.