Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights is praised and celebrated for many reasons, including for its unique narrative style. It is told by Mr. Lockwood, the current tenant of Thrushcross Grange, who commissions his housekeeper Nelly Dean to tell him the story of his neighbours at Wuthering Heights. He records her stories in his diary, which forms the great majority of the novel. While Nelly Dean and Lockwood are the principal narrators, there are brief interruptions by other characters, including Isabella, Zillah and Joseph. With this narrative style employed by Bronte in the novel, some special dangers and disadvantages inevitably emerge. The story is told often at second or third hand by Nelly, and her accuracy in recalling dialogue from the past is questionable; both narrators possess biases and limitations; and finally the story is recounted out of chronological order, and consists of stories within stories. There are also advantages to this notably that this intricate style provokes interest, as well as evokes suspense in the novel.
It is seen that the story is never directly narrated through the perspective of a participant in the novel. Instead, it is told in diary entries and recorded memories of conversat
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His vanity and unfamiliarity with the story lead him to occasionally misunderstand events, and we can see this in his incapacity to understand Heathcliff and Catherine's love: "I could fancy a love for life here almost possible; and I was a fixed unbeliever of a year's standing. Another advantage to this writing style is how suspense is built. It seems improbable that she should recall these dialogues verbatim after a period of almost twenty three years, and perhaps she may have embellished or replaced forgotten dialogue with her own ideas: "… to follow my story in true gossip's fashion, I had better go on; and instead of leaping three years, I will be content to pass to the next summer - the summer of 1778; that is nearly twenty three years ago. Nelly questioned her motives and put her down for being materialistic: "You love Mr. What makes this style effective is the readers ability to overcome most of these disadvantages, as well as the rarity of this method in the 18th century, and the suspense created. Because the story is told through flashbacks, and is recorded in diary entries, it is often presented out of chronological order. Wuthering Heights is notably different, as it is told solely by the characters in the novel, most notably Lockwood and Nelly Dean.
A final disadvantage to this narrative style is that it can be quite confusing at times. As an outsider, he is unused to rural ways and is surprised at what he finds Yorkshire life to be. This disadvantage can be overcome with careful reading, as well as hints from the narrator as to who is speaking. It is also confusing because the narrative itself consists of stories within stories within stories. When Lockwood is hearing Nelly tell the stories from Wuthering Heights, she often has to stop to carry on with other duties.
Approximate Word count =
1343
Approximate Pages =
5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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