Well, hello all! I sincerely hope you are all doing well. Because I am indecisive (And to throw in a little more options), I will be posting three sections of my lit review down below. Enjoy!
- Motif:
Burning candles are often used as a symbol for life, its fragility, and its inevitable end. Much like life, a small flame is a force that burns brightly in the darkness for a brief time, has an effect on its surroundings, but eventually will either burn out or be snuffed out in a mere instant. In Wuthering Heights, this symbol is a commonly used motif that foreshadows the death of a character, as candles make an appearance in every major death scene of a character. From when Joseph “Took the candle and looked at [Earnshaw]” (36) right after Mr. Earnshaw dies, to when Nelly holds a candle at its side when Heathcliff was dying, even to when Lockwood places a candle on his windowsill moments before a ghost Catherine tries to climb through his window, the candle has always been present for a character’s death or limbo between life and death. As so many of these characters die rather suddenly of various illnesses, the fragility of their lives is perfectly represented by the fragile light of the candle, and sometimes serves to portend the death of a character pages in advance to showcase the flickering and dimming of their life force.
7. Archetypes:
As feet are the basis for human travel and mobility, this part of the body is commonly seen in literature as an archetype for freedom. (#FAAAFF) This archetype makes many appearances throughout Wuthering Heights , often to insinuate a character loosing their freedom to eventually join higher society. One example of this can be seen when Catherine and Heathcliff are running from a dog in Thrushcross Grange, where the dog bites down on Cathy’s foot with, “his huge purple tongue hanging half a foot out of his mouth and his pendant lips streaming with bloody slaver” (41). While this did temporarily inhibit Catherine’s physical freedom of mobility and forced her to stay at Thrushcross Grange for five weeks, her foot injury sequestered her freedom in more ways than one. The injury and subsequent stay at Thrushcross Grange turned her from a free spirited girl who would “sing, laugh, and plague anyone who would not do the same” (35) into “a stranger by her grand dress” (47), who perfered to have tea with Edgar Linton rather than run wild and free with Heathcliff. As a whole, damage to a characters foot in Wuthering Heights is often an indicator of the character loosing freedom to an external force, be it the physical or mental entrapment of the individual.
10. Any Lit Element: Extended Metaphor
When discussing Heathcliff’s upbringing and treatment of Hareton, she begins to speak in metaphors to discuss the principles of nature vs nurture, stating “I could detect a mind owing better qualities than his father possessed. Good things lost amid a wilderness of weeds, to be sure, whose rankness far overtopped their neglected growth” (169). Despite being born with a mind containing positive qualities, Nelly compares this to a great thing lost in a sea of weeds. As weeds are seen as undesirable plants growing in a garden and sucking the life-force of other plants, they likely represent how Heathcliff’s neglect for removing the “weeds” (symbol for negative forces) of Hareton’s life ends up draining the good from him, and he would eventually be smothered by the evil of the world. Nelly moves on elaborate on her plant metaphor, stating there is “evidence of a wealthy soil, that may yield luxuriant crops under other and favorable circumstances” (169). As soil is the basis for all plant growth, Nelly stating that Hareton has “wealthy soil” suggests that she believes that Hareton was born with a great deal of potential to become an exemplary person, and had he been given more favorable circumstances and treatment during his upbringing, he would have yielded a more bountiful contribution to the world and to those around him. As a whole, Nelly’s metaphor ties into the extended metaphor that is seen countless times in the book, relating humans to plants or trees that are shaped and twisted by their surroundings.
Also, I came across a video today that gave me an odd feeling of hope. I’ll link it right here, fell free to watch it if you feel like it!
Cheers!
Dawn and Dusk 
Those are all profound forms of analysis! No wonder you could not pick just one.
I saw those videos! It is so cool to see how communities come together!
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