Context

WUTHERING HEIGHTS
AO4: Demonstrate understanding of the

significance and influence of the contexts in
which Wuthering Heights was written and
received.
1. Emily Bronte truth and myth

There is very little reliable biographical information about
Emily Bronte. Her novel, poetry, a few diary papers

spaced out over a period of ten years, one or two French
essays written while she was in Brussels and three notes
to her sisters friend Ellen Nussey is the sum total of the
primary evidence available.
The gap left by the lack of verifiable evidence has been
filled by myths and apocryphal stories, including the
version created by Charlotte Bronte in the preface to the
second edition of Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte as a
lonely, antisocial genius whose passion was beyond her
control.
In the following extract the critic Peter Miles highlights the dangers and perhaps also the temptations of
reading too much into this sparse biography.
The dangers of biography in Emilys case are many: reading too much
out of surviving fragments of evidence; weighting them too heavily;

filling in the gaps with wishful guesswork which reinforces
presuppositions about Emily, and supposed contrasts with her sisters.
There is the danger of trusting rumour and legend when other evidence
is lacking, and of finding thinly disguised autobiography at large in her
novel and in her poetry. One can easily be tempted to see the lack of
material as fairly reflecting a lack of event and activity in her life, or to
see the enigma of that lack of material as reflecting some enigma in her
personality. The image of a secretive, anti-social mystic, wrapped in
and rapt by her visions, happier communing with animals and the
moors than with people whatever its degree of truth has thrived
within that very lack of evidence about her life, accentuated by
uncertainty about her writing, and perhaps particularly about her poetry.
She is the sphinx, the priestess. (Peter Miles,The Critics Debate:
Wuthering Heights)
Emily Bronte truth and myth

On the sheet are twenty pieces of information about Emily Bronte and
her life. They range from the concrete and verifiable (She worked in a
school near Halifax) to those which depend on interpretation and
extrapolation and which tend to be much more emotive (for example,
She was happier communing with nature than with people).
Begin by sorting the information into two categories:
Verifiable facts
Interpretation
Then select any pieces of information which you think might have
some bearing on a reading of Wuthering Heights. What do you notice?

In what ways might the myth of Emily Bronte relate to the myths and
popular assumptions about her novel Wuthering Heights?
Which readings of the novel are encouraged by the Emily Bronte
myth?
In what ways might this myth limit a full exploration of the novel?
2. Critical and social contexts

In groups, you will now explore four further critical and
social contexts which might affect our interpretation of the

novel:
1. Religion
2. Industrialisation and poverty
3. Property and the law
4. Women
Writing about context

Performance descriptors
Typical answers might

be characterised by the
following descriptions
Band
6
Evaluation of relevant
context is likely to be
contextual factors arising from perceptively evaluated as
the study of texts and genre
part of the argument
Band
5
Analysis of relevant
context is likely to be
contextual factors arising from analysed and integrated
into the argument
Band
4
Explanation of relevant
context is clear within the
contextual factors arising from argument
QUOTATION AND
CONTEXT CARDS
1. Cue Context a Revision Activity

Each group has 36 cards. On one side is a quotation from
Wuthering Heights. The other side includes a chapter and

page reference for the quotation, some contextual
information and a quotation hint.
Use the cards to test your knowledge of the novel, for
example:
read the quotation and ask your partner to supply the context
read the quotation and ask your partner to analyse it
read the context and cue and ask for a fragment from the quotation.
Ext: Develop your own knowledge of the novel by making a
further set of cards, then use them in any of the ways

suggested above.
2. Grouping the quotations

As a group, organise the quotations into:
repeated words or phrases
images that have similar connotations
strong contrasts
any other way that seems to you to be interesting
or revealing.
3. Key aspects and themes

Listed here are some of the key
aspects and themes of Wuthering
Heights.
2. In your groups, try to come up
with three additional aspects or
themes which seem to you
particularly important or
interesting.
Now consider the list of aspects
and themes in relation to the
patterns of imagery you found in
the previous activity. In what ways
does the iterative imagery help to
create and communicate the key
aspects?
The clash of elemental forces

Striving for transcendence
Childhood and family
Confinement and escape
Communication
Revenge
Abusive patriarchs
Suffering
Displacement, dispossession
and exile
Love and hate
The tension between
economic interests and social
class

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS

AO4: Demonstrate understanding of the

1. Emily Bronte truth and myth

Emily Bronte. Her novel, poetry, a few diary papers

out of surviving fragments of evidence; weighting them too heavily;

Emily Bronte truth and myth

some bearing on a reading of Wuthering Heights. What do you notice?

2. Critical and social contexts

social contexts which might affect our interpretation of the

Writing about context

Typical answers might

1. Cue Context a Revision Activity

Wuthering Heights. The other side includes a chapter and

Ext: Develop your own knowledge of the novel by making a

further set of cards, then use them in any of the ways

2. Grouping the quotations

3. Key aspects and themes

The clash of elemental forces

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