Oppositions in the Gothic Genre LO To explore

Oppositions in the Gothic Genre LO: To explore the use of oppositions in Wuthering Heights

e r n e G c i h t o G n AO 4: e e r G w re Critic And • “Gothic is a genre that resides on the borders and extremes of experience; it thrives on oppositions and division” • “it has at its heart, uncertainty, the unsettling and indefinable” • “Bronte presents her readers with mirror images, doubles and oppositions”

Oppositions in Wuthering Heights • What oppositions have we encountered so far? A world in which these types • Good vs evil of oppositions are fixed is a stable and morally certain • Innocence vs guilt world. • Freedom vs inprisonment Bronte presents a world where these oppositions are • Moral vs immoral constantly changing/shifting/merging • Natural vs supernatural into each other. • Living vs dead This creates the unsettling Gothic tone. It also helps • Heights vs Grange create the feelings of terror and horror.

Character Oppositions in Wuthering Heights • • Cathy and Heathcliff Lockwood and Heathcliff Cathy and Catherine Heathcliff and Hindley Heathcliff and Hareton Heathcliff and Linton Heathcliff and Edgar Linton and Hareton Character doubles are another, separate form of Gothic opposition. Names are repeated throughout the family tree creating confusion and disorientation. Boundaries are crossed and broken by characters and the often pass on inherited traits.