Lesson: - Framing and Time shift: -

At first we were told to draw a picture to represent the following statement: - At one point in the novel, Bronte writes about Lockwood’s writing about Nelly Dean’s account of Isabella’s letter that tells of Joseph’s report of what Heathcliff is saying.

This is displayed above. Through out the book Bronte stays the same as the writer, Lockwood and Nelly stay the same, and however the rest of the people may differ according to the event.

Debating on the reason for the numerous narrators and framing, we reached a variety of results. Bronte uses this to make it more exciting. This is not a linear method of telling the story but it seems to be effective in presenting confusion, and providing a sense of ambiguity. If it were linear there would be positive and negative effects.

Positive effects

· Less ambiguity, thus the reader will be able to be more involved into the story. They will be able to feel what the characters feel and be able to sympathetic towards a number of characters.

· It will become easier to understand, this is as the readers will be able to understand the way characters view each other. Readers will have a clear understanding of the novel as a whole.

Negative effects

·Uncanny of the monumental would be lost.

·The lack of confusion will be present. This is because a decrease in the impact of the gothic elements on the reader, as the presence of multiple frames, and the time change is one of the key elements of the gothic features of the novel. Hence the novel can be seen to be more of a romantic novel rather than a gothic one without the presence of the narrative confusion.

·Heathcliff’s mysterious, the lack of timing and by having the events not in linier order we are unaware of Heathcliff as a victim until later on. This idea of Heathcliff as a victim of society’s judging eyes is not shown at first. If it was in linear order then the mystery related to Heathcliff’s actions would be revealed. Hence the main protagonist would have been an open book for readers to judge.

We then looked at the views of Paul Norgate, Jenny Oldfield and Hilda D. Spear.

Paul Norgate: -

·This is what the story actually is “itself be seen as part of the story”. He suggests that with out the confusing narrative structure the story would not be worth “bothering” at all. Hence the narrative structure is what the story is about. Giving it in a linear method would not do it justice as it would have lost its effect.

·He describes the content as to be “manageable” hence implying that the content of the plot in ordinary (intricate ordinariness) and it is only the narrative structure that gives the story a particular meaning and character.

Jenny Oldfield: -

·Time is shown to be very important in the purpose of validating the “structured experiences”. She states that it is a method of giving the past events of the character such as Heathcliff’s as “the past is central to the understanding of his final state of mind”.

·It is through this manipulation of time that we are able to witness Heathcliff’s suffering. “to beguile me the spectra of hope, through eighteen years”

Hilda . D. Spear: -

·The reader often forgets that they are reading the story from the eyes of a different observer; hence they during its chronological part get drawn in to the action present in the novel. Lockwood and Nelly often interrupt in order to reminding the reader that it is a story. This momentarily decreases the “tension” felt in the novel by the readers. “Each of these interruptions occurs at a point when there is a powerful build-up of emotions in the reader; they serve momentarily to lower the tension thus allowing the next build pup to begin from a slightly lower point.”

Homework:- What do the narrative structure and setting of the novel add to our reading of the Wuthering Heights as a whole?