Lesson Four

In this lesson we were introduced to the idea presented by Freud, a Jewish Austrian neurologist. Freud said, “In general we are reminded that the word heimlich is not unambiguous, but belongs to two sets of ideas, which, without being contradictory, are yet very different: on the one hand it means what is familiar and agreeable, and on the other, unheimlich that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light.”

In this, Heimlich comes from a German word meaning, ‘homes like’, where as un-Heimlich means ‘un-homelike’. Freud thus means that something does not have to be externally alien or unknown but, on the contrary, can be something familiar present in the wrong place at the wrong time. This object being familiar yet strange creates an uncomfortable feeling and adds to the gothic aspect as it treads on the line between fiction and reality itself. An example given in class was of the presence of a bus full of people in an empty street at night. It is not that the bus is an unfamiliar object; it merely is the presence of that bus full of people at night. This is something that is familiar but at the wrong time. Another example of the uncanny is in the picture above.

After being introduced to the idea of the uncanny given by Freud, we then read an article, this tells us the following:

· The uncanny is a sense of life always going on elsewhere, and appears very different from our lives. In the gothic, this sense of life going on elsewhere takes its shape in the form of exotic locations like castles. In chapter three, it is the life of the ghost that’s life merges into the life of Mr Lockwood’s, Provided that he did not just dream the whole incident.

· The celebrities in these stories are uncanny as their lives are something that we can never understand as they are very different form what we are accustomed to. They are displayed to be larger than life and so hey are familiar as humans but unfamiliar as they are leading a completely different lifestyle.

· The Victorian gothic takes the angel of the house idea and promotes in a bad light as it undermine the concept of Victorian homes. This is done through the show of the bourgeois domestic settings. In which the characters include confined and threatened women, the ambivalent figure of a dynamic anti-hero. The weak and ineffectual hero. This represents the drama that creates the sadomasochistic relations between men and women. This is contrary to the ideas of the home being a place of refuge and peace.

We then completed reading chapter three of Wuthering heights, in which Mr Lockwood meets the ghost. This presence of the ghost is an uncanny. It mixes the life of the ghost into the life of Mr. Lockwood, temporarily. After reading chapter three we wrote an answer for the question; how can we relate to Freud’s idea of the uncanny to chapter 3?Refer to Punter and Freud in your answer.

Sources

http://graduate.engl.virginia.edu/enec981/Group/chris.uncanny.html

http://courses.washington.edu/freudlit/Uncanny.Notes.html

Home work

· Finish Chapter summaries up to 5

· Comment on blog post

Ch3:

1. What does Catherine Earnshaw’s diary add to the narrative?

2.How does the portrayal of Hindley and Frances’ relationship contrast with that between Heathcliff and Cathy?

3.How is the extent of Heathcliff’s anguish (sorrow) revealed when he hears of Lockwood’s “dream”?

4.How is suspense built up in this chapter?

Ch4:

1.How is Heathcliff described in this chapter? Examine the language in detail.

2.How do we as readers respond to Heathcliff at this point in the novel given what we already know about him?

Madiha