Book Review
Wuthering Heights is a story about a young gypsy boy named
Heathcliff who is found by the head of the Wuthering Heights household.
Heathcliff grew up as part of the family then suddenly has his status ripped
away leading to the women he loves marrying someone else and an intriguing
story of revenge and tragedy.
Emily Brontë wrote Wuthering heights in an era where this
genre of book would be socially unacceptable, and shocking to those who read
it, which intrigued everyone. This book
is opposite of what that era would have been like giving one of the main
characters (Catherine) a power that females didn’t have at the time, and gave them
something to read in order to get that experience. Wuthering Heigths is a book written in combination of first and
third person, and is told mostly from Nelly’s (one of the house caretakers) point
of view and occasionally from Lockwood’s (a tenant at Thrushcross Grange) point
of view. Wuthering height is a
romance/ Gothic fiction novel. We see romance throughout the novel with
Catherine and Heathcliff, their children, Catherine and Linton and many others,
inevitably making it a book filled with love and romance; but with a twist. We see this aspect of the novel with the
appearance of a ghost, and of the nightmares the characters experience in the
book as well as the things the main characters say and do. “…and stretching an arm out to seize the
importunate branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a
little, ice cold hand!”
Emily Bronte has a strong use of literary devices to help keep you
interested in the story being told. The literary devices most often seen are
symbolism and foreshadowing. One of the most common piece of symbolism
is the moors by Wuthering Heights, it symbolises Catherine and Heathcliff as
well as the wildness and naturalness they feel when near each other. As for foreshadowing it is seen on every page
of the book from when we see Catherine’s Ghost then again when Heathcliff
starts flirting with Isabelle, it shows us that in the future Catherine will
die and something bad is bound to happen between Heathcliff, Isabelle and Catherine.
I would recommend this
book to anyone 16+, if you are not good with old English the book is difficult
to understand within the first 50 pages, but soon after come to understand it
is a story being told not experienced. When Nelly beings telling the story from
her point of view we are opened up to a whole new level of interest and wonder.
Together, Bronte’s use of literary devices and the shocking turns the book
takes is able to keep you captivated and wondering what unexpected direction
the book will take next, and who revenge will fall upon.
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