Sample Barthesian Reading of Wuthering Heights (Ch. 14, final paragraph)

by Holly Mickelson

English 632: Seminar in Narrative Theory

 

Dree, and dreary! I reflected as the good woman descended to receive the doctor; and not exactly of a kind which I should have chosen to amuse me; but never mind! I'll extract wholesome medicines from Mrs Dean's bitter herbs; and firstly, let me beware of the fascination that lurks in Catherine Heathcliff's brilliant eyes. I should be in a curious taking if I surrendered my heart to that young person, and the daughter turned out a second edition of the mother!

Dree and dreary! *REF. Literature (Gothic tradition). **REF. Linguistic Code: local color. ***ACT. "to exclaim": exclamation. ****Additionally, Lockwood's repetition of Nelly's term, coupled to his own phrase, reminds us through whose perspective we are hearing the tale; his imposition into the narration, even so casually, sets up a binary of participant vs. observer. SYM. Antithesis: A: participant. B: observer. *****HER. Enigma 1: what is the truth? And, of course, since much of the story is related to Lockwood through one or more other non-participants, we are also forced to question the truth of the narrative, the reliability of the information and the reliability of the narration.

I reflected... and not exactly of a kind which I should have chosen to amuse me. *ACT. "to consider" 1: awareness of thought.

I'll extract wholesome medicines from Mrs Dean's bitter herbs. *ACT. "to take": passive acquisition. **SYM. Antithesis: A: master B: servant.

let me beware of the fascination that lurks in Catherine Heathcliff's brilliant eyes. *ACT. "to consider" 2: development of thought. **HER. Enigma 1: who is Catherine Heathcliff? ***HER Enigma 2: Is Catherine Heathcliff a threat to Lockwood? How? When? This question is further suggested through words--"fascination"; "lurks"; "brilliant";--all of which suggest something other than the ordinary. Lockwood is indeed fascinated with the inhabitants of Wuthering Height, as we see by his return to Wuthering Heights, from his pressing of Nelly Dean to continue telling the story, and his own internalizing of bits of information about the family.

I should be in a curious taking if I surrendered my heart to that young person *ACT. "to consider" 3: to further refine thought. **SYM. "surrendered my heart" links Catherine Heathcliff to the young beauty on the beach; Lockwood wonders if giving in to Catherine will release him from the "spell" of being cruel. ***REF. Code of Marriages, as discussed by Barthes (63). **** HER. Enigma 2: snare. While this line suggests one way to break the Catherine/ Heathcliff story would be for Catherine Heathcliff to marry "out" of Wuthering Heights--to marry Lockwood and to break the pattern suggested by the use of Folkloric time--there are too many barriers: Lockwood's status as outsider/ city dweller, his unreliable observations, and his role as narrator. [Note: this code is bordering on ACT; that is, the reader is concerned here with the resolution of the plot rather than with the resolution of a hermeneutical problem.]

and the daughter turned out a second edition of the mother!. *ACT. "to consider" 4: to assign an outcome. **REF. Code of Marriage: suggestion that Catherine Linton was not a good wife. ***SYM. enscription of texts: the "issue" of Catherine becomes a replication or "edition" which reminds the reader they are reading a constructed text; seemingly random actionss and objects have been deliberately placed by the author. "Turned out" doubles Emily Brontë with Catherine Earnshaw/ Linton; both "produced" a sort of heir through "labor."

 

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