This lesson we looked at the narrative structure over the three texts we are studying.

This lesson was essentially a plan for a section B essay. Within the lesson the first thing we did was split into two's and then try and look for different patterens within the narrative structure. We were particularly looking for fragmentations within the narrative. For example we found that Carter forces her view onto the reader through interruptions in the text where she talks directly to the reader.- e.g. In the lady of the house of love when she interupts with different parts of jack and the beanstalk.





We also discussed how this was Uncanny. This different story or unheimlich story was interrupting our story.- Arguably this could make us feel uncomfortable.





The lesson was just basically filling out the table and discuissing why we thought different parts were fragmented.

Our homework was to just finish the table

Historical Context (AO4) 22/11/10

In this lesson we analysed many aspects of historical context for Wuthering Heights that we can include within future essays. These aspects included:

- The fear of otherness/all things foreign, this was due to the expansion of the British Empire and the fear of 'other' coming into society.

- The Victorian idea of order such as; Social order, there was a clear distinction between the higher and lower classes, something which Bronte exploits through Heathcliff. Also, the gap between men and women, women were seen in the role of 'The Angel of The House' (Coventry Patmore). The Great Exhibiton of 1851 is an example of the Victorian's order. (shown below)

- The Victorians were also fearful or cautious of the effects of the Industrial Revolution and scientific advances.

- Wuthering Heights belonging to the Gothic mode and acts as a 'cultural parasite' as Bronte uses most or all of the above.

We then read the 'Homely Gothic' article, and were asked to highlight this sheet and then note some important details of the article. Here are some of my notes;

- Victorians came disaffected with the present, which led to a 'cultural sense of spiritual desolation and aimlessness'.

- These fears and disaffection were perhaps down to advances in technology and the development of theories, due to the Industrial Revolution and scientific advances.

- The Victorian Gothic texts act/serve as an escape from society.

- 'The extravagant effects of the Gothic and Romantic elements tended, in 19th century fiction, to refracted through the domestic world central to realism'.

- The home however could also be considered a 'prison' aswell as a refuge. Something which Bronte uses, 'Uncanny movement between past and present are Gothic elements signalling an untamed and wild invasion of the home rather than comfortable domestification'.

We were then set an essay question and started by writing our own thesis statements, which we then revised into one class statement;

'Wuthering Heights' challenges ideas central to Victorian society- home/gender, class, an escape from capitalism and modernity. It also acts as a mirror/parasite playing on societies fears, as such it belongs to the Gothic mode.

Our homework was to then write this essay question which was 'how far do you agree that 'Wuthering Heights' challenges social norms and is as a result a Gothic text?'

Lesson: 19/11/2010

Analysing the Language and Style of ‘Wuthering Heights’:


This lesson, our starter encouraged us to think about the language features that we could use in an essay about ‘Wuthering Heights.’ All of the ideas we came up with as a class were big, grand, “Hollywood features” (to quote Mr Sadgrove) – features that always stand out and are generally the first things we write about in an essay.
We chose things like:
• Josephs Yorkshire dialect
• Names (Heath – cliff vs. Lock – wood)
• Pathetic Fallacy
• Semantic fields/lexical clusters

We were then given a grid of linguistic features that are much more hidden within the text, and are perhaps not noticed by us at first glance, but still have a huge impact on the way we read the novel. We also looked at a passage from the novel and tried to identify some of the features used in it.

Here are some examples of the features we looked at in detail:
• Pronoun use --> Use of different types of pronouns (e.g. personal, inclusive, removed) have a different effect on our reading and interpretation of the characters and text as a whole – For example; when Nelly is talking about Catherine she repeatedly uses “I” and “She” to separate both of them and remind us that she is the narrator.
• Dynamic verbs --> These are verbs that express action. They give the text a more energetic and realistic/tangible effect. For example; Cathy’s actions are often described using dynamic verbs such as “bounding” which shows she is at the centre of the action and is an energetic character, whilst Nelly describes herself using verbs like “watching” and “listening” which shows that she takes a step back from the action.
• Modification --> This is when adjectives, adverbs or verbs are added before or after a noun to make the text richer – it used for descriptive passages or phrases. For example; “sweet, warm, sunshine”
• Nouns --> Nouns used on their own (without modification) tend to make the text seem more real and less exaggerated.
• Sentence length --> Writers will use a combination of short, simple sentences and long, complex sentences. Sentences of a shorter length are commonly used to deliver powerful messages or ideas or increase the pace of the text whilst sentences of a longer length are good for descriptions and can reflect a characters disorganised state of mind (e.g. Lockwood and Heathcliff)
• Semantic fields --> We may find groups of words with similar meanings or connotations in a certain passage – Remember the exercise we did in a previous lesson to compare the semantic fields in the descriptions of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.
• Figurative Language --> This includes the use of metaphors, similes and personification which can make the text richer, poetic and romantic. They help the writer to get across a picture of how they imagine the character being or acting. They also exaggerate important characteristics in a character or place.
• Dialogue V narration --> Dialogue (reported conversation/speech) can make a text seem more realistic and also introduce the views or different characters apart from the narrator and the course of the narration.


To consolidate all of what we had learnt about language features we then split into groups/pairs to look at separate extracts from ‘Wuthering Heights’ and try to find language feature within these and the effect they have.


Homework:

“The language and style of ‘Wuthering Heights’ makes it a Gothic novel” Discuss this view...

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?

Pathetic Fallacy - Lesson 21/10/2010

Before this lesson we all had a rough idea about what Pathetic Fallacy is and how it is used. Our starter was to write a facebook status on our current thoughts on the definition of this term; for example, Charlotte thinks that pathetic fallacy is when you use the weater or inanimate objects to represent the mood in a text.

John Ruskin (1856) defined Pathetic Fallacy as: "to signify any description of inanimate natural objects that ascribes to them human capabilities, sensations and emotions". In other words it is a form of personification. Interestingly it has been said that the use of this method is derogatory as it does not describe the true appearence of things to us. The term itself comes from the Greek word "pathos" which means suffering/experience and is linked with the capability of feeling empathy.

In order for us to get a better picture of how pathetic fallacy can be used, we watched a short clip from the Lord of the Rings and we made note on the sound, light, colour amd weather features that we could see. From this we could think about the affect that these features had on the mood that was reflected to the audience. All of the colours in the clip were bright and vibrant (blue, yellow and green) and the weather was clear and sunny which made us feel as if the characters were quite happy, joyous and hopeful. Also we could hear birds tweeting in the background as representation of the hope of the characters.

After we had a visual example of how pathetic fallacy is used, we were able to look closer at literature to see how the author can create similar effects (feeling the mood through the inanimate) through the use of words. In groups of 2/3 we were given a scenario and asked to compose a short passage incorpoarating elements of sound, light, weather and colour to give our desired effect. For example; me and Chris had to write about about a man in a carriage on his way to the "strange and mysterious castle of count dracula" so we sed sounds such as the wheels of the carriage "crashing off the ground rhythmically alongside the constant rumble of thunder" to add suspence and represent his anticipation to reach his destination. There was mist and rain to show that there is something bad to come and also how he is blind to what he will have to face. The only light in the forest is a "sudden flash of lightning which represents that what he will see is going to be dangerous.

Finally we drew all our knowledge of pathetic fallacy together to see how it is used in Wuthering Heights. We analsed two different extracts A and B (on sheet). Extract A presented us with the night that Heathcliff has run away after hearing that Cathy will marry Edgar; they are all waiting for him to return to the Heights. In this passage ther was a clear representation of both Cathy's and Heathcliff''s feelings. "The clouds apperared inclined to thunder" just as Cathy wanted to go an get him back and the "approaching rain" was personified to be "certain to bring him home", again reflecting Cathys longing to get him back safely. In contarst to this, the "growling thunder" can be seen as Heathcliffs threatening and anger-filled reply to Cathy - blocking out her chances of him returning soon.

Extract B shows Nelly in the garden the night that Heathcliff returns. This extract had relected Nellys very calm and laid back mood as she walks through the garden. This is shown through the description of the "mellow evening" and "the sweet,soft air". However there is an ominous and eery feeling in the background caused by the "undefined shadows" representing Heathcliff that "lurk in the corners"; a description which shows how unknown and sectretive Heathcliff is. Also, "the moon looked over the high wall of the court" showing that Nelly is not alone and reflecting how Heathcliff is watching her and creeping up.

At the end of the lesson we created a staus update based on our new, deeper understanding of pathetic fallacy and how it is used.

Homework:

1. Analyse the use of pathetic fallacy in extract C and D(see sheet) and the impression it gives us about the places that are described.
2. Write 4 timed assays over the half term holiday
3. Read the rest of volume 1 and complete chapter summaries
   

MONDAY 17th October 2010
In today’s lesson our initial activity was to complete a task 1, 2, 3. With number we had to write down three things we knew about Heathcliff. Number 2 was to write to questions about Heathcliff and number 3 would be an analogy of him e.g. - Heathcliff is like marmite; you either love him or hate him (sir’s example).
Contrary to this we read an article about Heathcliff comparing him to Lord Byron and Frankenstein. The article talked about many things such as:

• Heathcliff being a parody to an aristocrat – The article stated that Heathcliff guarded himself with a mysterious required wealth but is unable to come across as anything other than a fake. For example he is “dirty”, “ragged” and “as black as t’chimbley” yet owns a large estate.

• Heathcliff’s fairy tale beginning. Heathcliff’s entrance to the world is intriguingly enigmatic. He is introduced as another world being, as a “gift from God”. He has no separate surname, and his name is inhuman. His name describes a natural phenomenon – Heath – Cliff and like his name his behaviour doesn’t replicate one of which fits the norms of society.
  
• The article also looked at Heathcliff being this underdog, causing us to secretly root for him. Because he represents the loser and the runner up we have a desire for him to get Catherine in the end.

• Also Heathcliff’s appeal comes from his inherent beastliness. There is something innately unnatural or if anything too natural. These animalistic associations cause Heathcliff to be attractive because of the dangerous passions in which he can provide.
  

The next activity done was in groups. We got into pairs and discussed certain comments made about Heathcliff. The comments were:

Heathcliff as a social outcast & misfit
Feedback- Heathcliff has no social and domestic status, yet still remained a threat to the upper class. Some argue that Heathcliff represents the threat in which the lower class poses on the upper class. He is a revolutionist as he jumps from being a servant of Wuthering Heights to owning it.

Heathcliff as a product of circumstance
Heathcliff’s rejection during his childhood justifies his actions now. He has been “hardened to ill treatment”. However there a various reference which would make us think that his devilish characteristics are innate. For example his black eyes- as apparently the eyes are the shadow to the soul.

Heathcliff as a Romantic/Gothic hero
Heathcliff because of his mysteriousness, ruthlessness and power is this romantic hero. His mysterious beginnings amplify his ambiguity even more. However it could be argued that Heathcliff doesn’t fit the role of a Byronic hero and in fact isn’t mysterious as it is easy to explain why he behaves in the manner which does-because of his past.


Towards the latter stages of the lesson we started to look at essay writing. We learnt about thesis statements. Thesis statements are SO important in our essay writing as it gives your essays base to hang your points off. Here is a plan of an essay done in class.

ESSAY QUESTION: What contribution does Heathcliff make to our reading of ‘Wuthering Heights’ as a ‘Gothic’ novel?
THESIS STATEMENT- Heathcliff is a mysterious and unknown character – gothic genre is also mysterious and unknown – no easy judgements
Intro – outline and explain your thesis statement (also consider other views (A03)
• Heathcliff as mysterious gothic figure – fairy tale origins etc
• Byronic Hero (A04 – ‘mad bad...)
• Narrative structure = uncertainty/ambiguity in judgements of everything (reported speech etc)
• HC = radical challenge to society
• Other elements apart from HC that make it gothic OR novel is not gothic at all – MORE ROMANTIC ETC (A03)

lesson 6- monday 4th october

Monday 4th October lesson
In this lesson we recapped on last lesson on illuminate and how we can see evidence of it in Wuthering heights (Wuthering heights and the gothic the sheet). We then moved on to the meaning of semantic fields with the help of the hand-out sheet (the semantic fields of Wuthering Heights). We learnt that semantic field as a definition was a group of words with similar meaning. We searched for evidence for this in both Wuthering Heights and Thursh Cross grange.

We found that in Wuthering Heights (chapter 1) that the semantic field fell under two themes, extreme weather “atmospheric”, “stormy weather" “north wind” and it also fell under the domestic setting theme “squealing puppies” silver jugs” “chatter of tongues” and “cluster of legs of beef”. Bronte creates a unexpected scene of domestic scene within Wuthering Heights making it more to the reader a normal household however whilst creating this theme of domestic setting she also reveals its more sinister side to the household “villainous old guns” and “horse pistols”, Bronte is grafting violence and the domestic setting with when another to show perhaps that Wuthering heights is not a place of simplicity but more a place of confusion, sinister, the unknown this again linking to one of the gothic elements of the unknown.
In Thrush Cross Grange the semantic field can be seen in Chapter 6 of Wuthering Heights. The semantic field fell under again 2 main themes, the first one being a conjured up image of a heavenly place. “beautiful-a splendid place.... crimson” “gold....... hanging in silver chains” all of these words scream to the reader that this is a place that anyone would enjoy being there however as we read on we see that was not that case as we are introduced a shocking change in the vocabulary and instead are introduced to the opposite of a heavenly place. “Screaming” “shrieking as if witches were running red-hot needles” the language betrays the second theme which is a violent imitation of hell. The children are “weeping” and bullying the dog. This is not what the reader would have expected to see at ThrushCross Grange, we expected it to be a place of joy not a place of violence. Bronte has yet again grafted on violence with the home setting but in this case i think personally she did this to create a sense of terror within the reader as we would expect the exterior of high status (ThrushCross grange) to be radiating wealth “gold” “crimson” but also we would expect interior wise for it to be a civilised place which instead Bronte chooses to the show opposite creating the gothic element of terror, that things aren’t what they seem.

Moving on we then looked at another sheet (life on the edge- opposition and fragmentation in Wuthering Heights) which explored opposition in more detail. We found that although opposition existed in the novel we realized that many of the characters fell in between the opposition e.g. Heathcliff is he evil or is he good, he falls in-between the opposition making him the obvious bionic character of the novel. By having these oppositions but then the reader witnessing it collapsing it creates a sense of unsettlement and anxiety within the reader.
We also looked at what a frequent motif in gothic novels. THE ‘DOUBLE’ OR ‘DOPPELGANGER’. The double suggesting exact repetition (twin), the doppelganger suggests the evil side to a character.

In Wuthering Heights, Bronte shows DOUBLE though Lockwood thinking him and HeathCliff as a double “Mr Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us’ however Lockwood soon notices along with the reader that Lockwood and Heathcliff are the opposite to one another. Bronte within this is showing opposition, Lockwood is sensitive, disillusioned bored with society, whereas HeathCliff is the real thing, fuelled by a burning hatred of society. The doppelganger is shown through Lockwood again in the sense that the characteristics of him show that he is a civilised calm sensitive man however this not this case when the reader see his brutal treatment of dogs “ejaculated’, ‘grasped’, ‘knocked’ are all betrayal of the language to reinforce the doppelganger lurks within Lockwood , what establishes it does lurk within Lockwood is his treatment to Catherine in chapter 3 “I pulled its wrist onto the broken pane and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes”. Lockwood expressed such vicious acts of violence that the reader was not expecting from a character like him. David Punter suggests that the gothic novel explores its themes through its structure and this is seen particularly clearly in the destabilising of conventional oppositions in this novel. We see the destabilising of convention when Catherine declares HeathCliff is more herself, by saying this she is destabilising the boundary between the self and the other.

Homework:
Wuthering heights is essentially a novel of oppositions, how far do you agree with this? Read up to chapter 11 and make summary. All of this bundle of work due in next lesson which is next Friday so we have plenty of time

Miss Knights lesson- 5th October

In this class, we reflected on the prologue of the pardoner. We were able to analyse chaucers language and evaluate the perception which Chaucer was reflecting about the pardoner’s and the church through his imagery and ironic language.
At first we identified the chronology of the prologue:

At first the pardoner talks of how he has returned from Rome. He also tales small anecdotes about the relics he has “juped” people about. From this he makes it clear that he has a target audeience thus revealing his conniving nature. Furthermore he plays on the fears of society- such as being a cuckhold thus further revealing his scheming character. He after talks of the theme of all his preachings- “Rodix malorum est cupiditas”

Secondly we began to look his oxymoronic potrayal of himself as a serpeant and a dove. The serpeant being a representation of the devil, and the dove being symbolic of the holy spirit are radical contradictory images and underlying the ironic insignia in which the pardoner represents. In class it was also discussed about how the pardoner presents the image in which he wants to be however inadvertly reveals his true motives. This was clear in the abrupt switch in tone and manner in line 166. He talks of having a “joly wenche” but then quickly refers to his fellow pilgrims as “lordings”.

After this he returns to his original point- “Rodix malorum est cupiditas”, however quickly diverts into another mini achacdote. He almost questions his audience why he should be poor when he has the skill and capabillity of speech to be rich.
After this sumeraising activity we looked at different parts of the text and looked at the imergery and irony used. Through this we were able to see the depraved nature of the pardoner. We saw how he played a paradoxical role to the role he was meant to see – e.g him spicing up preachings. – (pick up sheet from Miss Knight).
After this Miss set us homework –
How does Chaucer present the pardoner in the prologue?-You can go to the W drive and type in W:\Miss Knight\Year 13

The Pardoner's story

I will tell you a story from the times when obscurity and diobolic ending was the only fear that a human being had, the times when holy enlightement was unknown to all of us and most importantly, when the Catholic church started the holy war to free all the souls from the hands of evil.There are three holy substances in this planet and these are water, fire, the air that is essential for us to survive and the earth itself. God said that as humans should respect what is given to us or there shall be catastrophic consequences that would fall onto the shoulders of us the sinners!

Long time ago when these beliefs where still not vanished by greed there was a a person called Paul. He was an isolated man with no hope for tomorrow. Therefore, he was not aware of the goods that the God himself provided for us foolish humans. Paul did not respect our Lord and did not listen to respect the earth; he did not grow the crops nor provided it to others. Also, he did not respect the holy gift the water as he drank it with filthy hands. In addition, he cursed at the fire and said that it is the most useless substance in the world. You may ask why? The devil whispered in his ear to do such thing however, our God couldn’t save him as he was not following the rules of his Sanctuary kingdom. For this reason, the diabolic ending had to come upon Paul; he was a bad believer. Devil the most evil of all souls decided to punish Paul as it was the satisfactory hobbies that he did. So, the fire spread onto Paul and he set on fire. Later, the earth opened up and he fell down to what we call hell. The eternity he will have to suffer there for the sins that he commited.

Lastly, to finish this, may I say that the sins that he commited belongs to each and every one of us. On the other hand, we can get rid of these by the holy water that I can give to you to drink. Sadly, it is hard to get it and for this reason I would need a small donation from all of you but remember people what is more important than the holy enlightment? So, drink it and be freed!

We're all theives

I ride through each season, spring to fall,
With my trusty pig bones and purple shawl

With peters finger, and josephs eye
Through the streets of Yorkshire my voice will cry;
Come hither, come hither, come to me
Salvation is worth this financial fee
If you’re right eye sins pluck it out,
If you’re left hand sins cut it off
But why lose body parts I say?
Come hither come hither and pay this cost!
As they heard, these convictionless words, from every direction they surely came
Holding all kinds of jewellery; silver coins and golden chains;
Pardon me, pardon me, they moaned and cried, together in one whole symphony,
Come hither, come hither, again a cried
Come hither come hither come to me.
And as I was gazing through the crowd I locked into his infuriated glance
His eyes were red, his nostrils flaring, staring at me with a hostile stance
His hair was as white as his pallid collar,
His clerical blouse blowing to and throw
He gestured me into the church:
He was a bishop; I had to go
He slammed the door, in total abhor
And asked if I knew the town’s wealth
These people are in poverty! He cried
And you are worse than King John himself!
Insult after insult, curse after curse
He insulted my family and insulted my worth
Leaving my profits on the wooden floor,
He said I was to pardon the people no more.

The chains of guilt bound me down
And decided to not let me free
So instead I up and left,
And settled down in Canterbury.
I had to go and pay penances and savour the remains of my after life
So I departed to the local cathedral with all my children and my wife
We walked across the local town, and made a checkpoint to go and buy some meat
When I saw pardoner outside the church, preaching loudly on the street.
I thought:

Let me pay my penance now and rid myself of my sinner’s fee
When I looked up towards the pardoner
And found the “bishop of York” staring back at me!

The Pardoner

Morally questionable versus rhetorically skilled

On Wednesday 29th September, our central protagonist, The Pardoner was discussed. After reading about his quintessential vanity portrayed through Chaucer’s feminine description, with 7 lines of the story being about his “heer” and metaphoric descriptions of him being a “gelding or a mare” reinforcing femininity but also pre-pubescent youth, we as readers already get a sense of what we believe the Pardoner is like – before we have even read his tale to the Pilgrims. Analysis of language, such as the simile “glaringe eyen hadde he as an hare” gave us greater insight into the Pardoners’ traits – his “glaringe eyen” showing covetousness through lust and envy. Further on, our suspicions are answered with his claiming that he had “relikes” when in truth he had “pigges bones” in order to exploit “moore money” out of obedient religious people who believed he was a Holy man who could forgive their sins. He “feyned flaterye and japes” (put on a performance of flattery and jokes) and successfully made fools out of people “made the person [...] his ape”. Thus, we are now aware that the Pardoner is a crook fleecing people out of money.

We were assigned the creative writing task to construct our own tale of the Pardoner, with his sinful, greedy nature in mind. To aid us in this, we thought about the Seven Deadly Sins which throughout The Middle Ages had great significance because of a truly religious society.

The Seven Deadly Sins are:

1. Pride- distorted reflection of proper integrity and self-respect
2. Covetousness - avarice of God’s gifts
3. Lust - wanting too much of God’s gift of sexuality and love 4. Envy - perversion of admiration for others
5. Gluttony - unhealthy enjoyment of God’s gift of food and drink
6. Anger - distorted reflection of justice
7. Sloth - inability to work or pray. Refusal to accept God’s spiritual gifts

As we read on with the story, we saw how the Pardoner, not being honorary in his religious preaching’s or respecting God, had the desire to have things his own way for his own personal gain/greed (CUPIDITAS). He charmed folk by deceptively telling them that he can “heeleth jalousie” and that men can trust their young promiscuous wives, “And nevere shal he moore his wif mistriste”, if they “taak water of that welle and wash his tongue”, which he claims has a “sholder-boon which that was of an hooly Jewes sheep.”

Ironically however, the Pardoners main theme for his sermons are “Radix malorum est CUPIDITAS” which means ‘Money is the root of all evil’. And he is aware that in his ability to “hauteyn speche” (speak loudly), for his voice to “ringe it out [...] as gooth a belle”, it signifies his gift in getting his message across so he can dupe people to believing him and getting their money. This is supported by “my bulles shewe I, alle and some”, by showing religious documents and “In Latin I speke a words fewe” so his Latin words gives him credibility.

Therefore, the Pardoner proves himself as sinful and corrupt - indeed morally questionable but his skills in his speech allow him to cheat people out of money in order to fill his own pockets. This gives us very interesting tales as well as an interesting Pardoner.

Shenice

Lesson 5 - Liminality

In this lesson we focused on what liminal means and identified the liminal factors in the symbols themes and motifs in Wuthering Heights. If something is liminal it is "of, pertaining to, or situated at the limen(threshold)" or "the unfixed position between any two oppositional terms." Our starter helped us to discover an example of what this means. We were asked whether we would describe ourselves as a girl or woman/boy or man. After discussing this we decided that we are somewhere in-between.

We then began to think about the how liminality is used in Wuthering Heights. This seems to be in the form of the physical barriers the characters encounter and need to break down. Heathcliff is a prime example of a liminal character. He is firstly in an unfixed position within society - he is not at first accepted, is reffered to as a "gypsy brat" and has no family. Secondly, as he is named after the dead he can be seen as being in a marginal position between the living and he dead. Finally, Heathcliff is also described in a devilish light, an "imp of satan", which places him in an unclear position between the supernatural and humankind, especially as his origin is unknown.

Another threshold explored in Wuthering Heights is that between our world and the next; the living and the dead. Cathy seems to be haunted by self in the mirror, characters seem willing to trangress beyond life to reach deceased loved ones (e.g. Heathcliffs attempt to be with Catherine in the grave) and we are haunted by Catherines ghost. Ghosts are liminal as the are neither dead nor alive. Windows are used symbolically as a barrier to the unknown or unwanted from other realms (e.g. Lockwoods attempt to enter the Heights and later breaking the window to a "ghost". Eyes are also used as a pathway to the "other world", like when Heathcliff dies and his eyes wont shut.

Liminality is also used in the division between nature and culture/the Grange and the Heights (Cathy is a character that freqently passes through both.) Characters are constantly trying to cross the threshold laid out by society and class.

After reading this article and gathering ideas and understanding of liminality we worked in pairs to look more closely at aspects of the text that use this theme. From this we identified the symbols, motifs and themes that occur in Wuthering Heights and which ones are liminal.

Homework:

1. Read the 'examples of writing about the uncanny" and comment on it (2 stars and a wish)
2. Read the critical comments of Wuthering Heights (on sheet) and use them to write two paragraghs on Bronte's use of symbols and motifs
3. Write two paragraphs summing up the idea of the liminal and how it is communicated through symbols and motifs
4. Read and complete chapter summaries up to chapter 6

22nd September 2010 - Chaucer Contexts

Middle Ages had a completely different regime. The church was the greatest power of all. Many may ask why?

The Renaissance era lacked scientific knowledge, rational way of thinking. As, people could not explain things by using science, other methods were used to satisfy the desire to know which include religion. Therefore, religion became the most dominant institution of all as it did 'have knowledge' of everything and what is the most important could promise the holy enlightenment. If you only followed the rules...

Naturally, as all the regimes that our humankind has seen this was corrupt as well. Theoretically it was the most suitable idea for the individuals in these times, on the other hand practically it became well known as a 'greed machine'.

Let's look at all the different roles in the church!

GOD

POPE

ARCHBISHOPS

DEANS

BISHOPS

PRIESTS/ VICARS

PARDONERS

GENERAL PUBLIC/BELIEVERS

From this it can be seen that the church had a major system set up. However, as there were many roles within the church some of the individuals were really far distances away from their more powerful legitimate authority. Sadly, this caused general public being abused. Let's focus on pardoners. What is a pardoner? Pardoner was a part of a catholic church with a role to forgive people's sins. Despite all of this, it turned more into a business! Pardoners abused their powers, usurped the power of priests, gained a reputation for being greedy as they collected money from people for cleansing their souls from all the sins! Many got titles of being liars. For instance, if we explore pages 13-14 in Chaucer's 'The Pardoner's Prologue and Tale' many of the negative characteristics can be seen. Pardoner was described to have 'Swiche glaringe eyen' which presents greediness. Also, Chaucer suggests that they do not carry any relics, instead its 'pigges bones'!. Please read pages 13 - 14 and think about the language used about pardoners and get all the quotes about pardoner on one sheet of paper.

Consider certain ideas:

• What was Chaucer's motivation?
• Why did he write this text in this manner?
• Did he want to inform people?

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

Lesson 3- Lockwood.

In this lesson we discussed the narrator Lockwood. We discussed how Lockwood portrays himself, and what the reader and the other characters think of him. We did this by attempting to draw Lockwood, then annotating around the drawing with quotes to back up our thoughts with evidence.

We followed this up by reading an article comparing limited and unreliable narrators in Lockwood and Nick Carraway of The Great Gatsby. Within this article we learned the following;

Limited/unreliable Narrators

Wuthering Heights has a fairly unorthodox narrative structure. Although there are only two obvious narrators, Lockwood and Nelly Dean, a variety of other narratives appear throughout the novel. The whole action is presented in the form of eyewitness narrations by people who have played some part in the narration they describe. Lockwood’s narrative is the outer framework of the story. He is the recipient of Nelly’s story and she in turn is the recipient of other narratives. Nelly and Lockwood are fundamentally different personalities and, therefore, each contribute to the reader’s understanding of events and characters differently. This framed narration makes the reader doubt whether Lockwood's narrative is accurate and trustworthy, as there are so many contributors to the narrative and the story has been filtered through layers in which the narrative has perhaps become distorted. We can also doubt the accuracy of Lockwood's account due to him being the outsider and displaced from his normal surroundings and therefore is likely to be affected by this. Lockwood also has a wild judge of character as at first he believes himself and Heathcliff to be similar and both 'misanthropists', although later he retracts this statement and says he is 'sociable' compared to Heathcliff. This perhaps exacerbates our questioning of Lockwood as he lacks the ability to not only judge characters but also himself. It could therefore be argued that Lockwood's unsteady narrative could arouse the Gothic element of terror, as the reader has a psychological fear of what is to happen within the text as they remain in the unknown.

Observing The Hero

It is ironic that Lockwood has escaped from what they perceive as the threat and dangers of love, and then finds himself in the company of a fierce and passionate man in Heatchliff, who will go to extreme lengths to fight for his love. From the first meeting between Lockwood and Heatchliff we can decipher that Lockwood is in awe of Heathcliff and struck by the mystery of a 'dark skinned gipsy in aspect, in dress and manners gentleman'.

Poor Men, Rich Women

As the subject of Lockwood's narration, we learn a lot about Heatchliff. We find out the details of Heathcliff's poor upbringing on the streets of Liverpool, so when he falls in love with the beautiful and rich Catherine we begin to wonder why Heatchliff has fallen for a woman socially out of his reach, and does not have the social advantage of other young men, such as Edgar Linton.

Use the following links to read more information about Bronte's choice of narrative and critical interpretation:

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/narrator.html

http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/critics.html

Lesson 2 - Wuthering Heights; Discussing Chapter 1

In this lesson we focused on chapter 1 of Wuthering Heights and looked at the narrative method in detail.

At the beginning of the lesson we were shown 4 sentences from various books/films and asked to spot the odd one out, most people came up with the fourth sentence as the odd one out and the reason for this being that it lacked detail compared to the others.

While sentences 1 - 3 listed times and dates and further details line 4 was very vague, we continued to look closer into the quotes and identify their form and context (report, diary etc.)

This brought us to the narrative method used by Emily Bronte in Wuthering heights, we identified it as a retrospective narrative viewpoint in the form of a diary - the time marker '1801' in the first line of chapter 1 reveals this key narrative feature.

Next we went on to discuss Mr Lockwood as a character and share our views on him from what he had said and done in chapter 1.

Some ideas about him were that he was a shy man, socially withdrawn and a bit pathetic.

During chapter 1 when he begins to recall the past these ideas are seen to take form, he says he spent the summer with a 'real goddess' but he 'never told my love vocally' and instead 'shrunk icily' into himself 'like a snail' - this image of a snail hiding away suits Mr Lockwood's socially withdrawn and shy personality perfectly.

The activity we did next consisted of two people going on to a different table and having a conversation where one person was telling the other everything they did the night before while another person sat near them and listened in to the conversation.

The person who listened in to the conversation then had to recall and write down everything that was said to have happened on to a piece of paper, this paper was then given to someone else who read it then this person told the person next to them what the paper said.

This person then told the person next to them and this person was asked to speak out loud and tell the class what they were told - the information told to the class was quite different compared to what was said in the initial conversation.

This task was used to demonstrate how unreliable information can be given from recall and each of the people who were told the information in class were representative of the characters in Wuthering Heights.

As well as the story being from a retrospective narrative viewpoint, it is also coming from various sources and has been "filtered" through a few people which creates a fairly unreliable narrative.

This adds to the presence of the Gothic element of uncertainty within the story, you can't be sure if what's being said is the truth, or if it's being over exaggerated or played down.

After this we looked at this we followed the theme of Gothic elements within chapter 1 of Wuthering Heights.

The first and most apparent one is the setting, Wuthering Heights itself is described as having windows being 'defended with large jutting stones' and 'grotesque carving lavished over the front' which strikes quite a fearsome image - it sounds like it's more of a castle than just a house following the theme of the Gothic's use of oppressive and over the top environments.

The theme of horror came up next with Mr Lockwood being attacked by the dogs in the family sitting room, this gives the reader a sign that all is not well and ordinary at Wuthering Heights - again this creates a sense of uncertainty of what further troubles are to come.

Another aspect of the lesson was looking at the narrative of Wuthering Heights in depth, we first identified that the whole story is being told retrospectively by Mr Lockwood who from chapter 4 is getting his information from Nelly.

Reliability can first be questioned here because it has been a long time since the events she's recalling took place, also is what Mr Lockwood is telling the reader exactly what Nelly is saying?

The style of the narrative brings up the question of the roles of men and women in the 1800's, even though the story is completely Nelly's it passes through Mr Lockwood before it reaches the reader - this highlights the idea of women being oppressed by men.

This could be also be related to Emily Bronte being forced to write under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell" because female writers weren't allowed to have their work published then.

A woman's words are ignored and considered of no significance until spoken by a man - this is shown in the narrative because where the story is essentially Nelly's, Mr Lockwood tells the reader the story and the only voice we hear is his.

In relation to this topic looked at a sheet comparing a section of Nelly's and Mr Lockwood's narrative.

Nelly as a narrator is more engaging, she is part of the story - you don't just get the story, you get her thoughts, feelings and opinions about everything that's going on as well as her actions and speech.

Even though both narrators are unreliable (due to the filtering of information and the amount of time that has elapsed since the events occurred) Mr Lockwood as a narrator seems less reliable than Nelly, he is also more reserved and comes across as quite assumptive which results in him making quite a few mistakes in judgement to his misfortune - also he is quite inwardly arrogant, he tends to think it more than express it openly.

To close the lesson we then went on to read chapter 2, in this chapter Mr Lockwood returns to Wuthering Heights uninvited for a second visit.

In this chapter a bit more of his personality is shown and he comes across as quite arrogant and a bit of an angry man.

An example of his arrogance is when he talks about Cathy and Hareton and says that 'she has thrown herself away upon that boor, from sheer ignorance that better individuals existed! A sad pity - I must beware how i cause her to regret her choice.'

This statement just emanates pure arrogance and shows that Mr Lockwood considers himself to be a 'better individual' but as well as looking quite conceited and arrogant he made himself look like a fool as well because he was being assumptive about Hareton and Cathy's relationship without even bothering to ask for information himself.

The homework for this lesson was...

Read the article called 'Lockwood: a suitable guide' on eMagazine then answer the following questions.

x What are the authors key points about Lockwood ?

x What are Lockwood's failing as a character/narrator?

x How does Lockwood present himself? Is this realistic?

Lesson 1 - Impressions of Wuthering Heights

In this lesson the first task we initially did was a listening task, whereby we listened to a song named............ Wuthering Heights by Kate bush. The light hearted melody is composed of lyrics where Catherine squeals of her romantic infatuation towards her lover Heathcliff. We begin to see how the novel is seen as a contemporary romantic and lose trace of its gothic conventions- especially to the current world. This is further evidenced in the contemporary plays where the wild barbaric Heathcliff is played by the fun loving Christian Cliff Richards and film reviews describe it as ‘A passion. An obsession. A love that destroyed everyone it touched’.

The next activity however reminded us of the gothic elements of the novel as we took some time to swiftly analyse Bronte’s poems. Bronte in these poems includes no romantic elements henceforth enabling us to gain a better perception on the gothic elements explored in Wuthering Heights. She employ’s many terrifying concepts within these poems such as “shadows of the dead” which eyes can’t see “surrounding her bed”. She also uses many references to the weather, and creating settings where she is confined by the natural world.

We then completed an activity whereby we had to arrange some quotes taken from various points of the story and we begin to realise that Wuthering heights is very much a novel which is cyclical and events seem to reoccur. The main points which we were able to distinguish were:

A refusal to entrapment- In the story all the men (with the exception of Linton Heathcliff) physically and metaphorically refuse to be confined. For example Heathcliff when trapped in thrushcross grange by Edgar he breaks out, similarly when Mr. Lockwood is trapped outside Wuthering Heights he breaks in. However when little Cathy Linton gets trapped inside the Heights she is unable to make her escape without succumbing to the demands of Heathcliff and Isabella is also yielded to a similar situation. It could be argued that this thus represents patriarchal oppression from the male characters of the book.

Nature- Catherine’s descriptions connect closely with Nature. For example when she describes her love for Heathcliff and describes her love for Edgar. (“I am Heathcliff” quote)

Supernatural- Elements of the super natural because of the ghosts etc.
Oppositions

Rich vs. Poor /The Heights (nature) vs. The Grange (culture)/ Religion vs. Atheism /Life vs. Death /Heathcliff- A man or Monster.

Finally to end the lesson we began to read the first chapter of the novel. It was discussed how Gothic narrative structures are very complicated and how this could be seen to add to a sense of TERROR for the reader. It was mentioned how humans have a “dare to know" desire henceforth a structure such as Wuthering Heights causes terror as the narrative gives us a sense of the unknown. The story has bypassed a variation of different narrators before it gets to the reader fundamentally leaving us unaware with reliability of the passing events. It is “a novel that warns against easy judgements and intentionally so”

Elizabeth Gregory says as someone closely involved in the story, Nelly’s account is inevitably coloured by her own opinions about the characters. Having grown up with Heathcliff, Catherine and Hindley, her residual feelings of fondness and of family duty cause her to be more lenient towards them than their behaviour sometimes deserves.

Similarly, it is natural that she should remain fond of the children she has been instrumental in bringing up: she looked after Hareton for the first years of his life, and frequently refers to Cathy, whom she has acted as a mother towards for all of the child’s life, as her “angel” – although her behaviour often suggests she is anything but! Nelly is just as quick to show her disapproval of those characters she dislikes: Linton Heathcliff merits particular scorn – “the worst-tempered bit of a sickly slip that ever struggled into his teens” (chapter 23). Nelly is unable to tell us of his marriage to Cathy, as she finds herself locked up safely out the way while it is taking place.

So while readers may enjoy Nelly’s lively and gossipy narrative style, they would perhaps be best advised to take it with a pinch of salt.

See the following for more information:
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/romantic.html- About Romance in the novel
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/love.html- About Love/ostensible love.

Chris A

An example of a good scribe post for a year 12 lesson

In this lesson we completed a student survey and discussed our reasons for chosing English as as an A level course as well as our favourite books. These ranged from books studied at school (such as Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and Wilde's A Picture of Dorian Gray) to books chosen and read independently. We were also introduced to our teacher's expectations in English and the make up of the course for AS. The first unit is called Dramatic Genres: Tragedy and entails the study of a Shakespearean tragedy - Othello (click on link for a synopsis of the play and other information) and a modern tragedy.

Following this we discussed/brainstormed the concept of tragedy in general terms, coming up with assosiations of sadness, melancholy, death, revenge, depression etc. This informed a discussion of what we might consider 'tragic' and whether things such as the BP oil spill could be deemed 'tragic'. With a general understanding of some ideas of what tragedy might mean we looked at several poems which could be considered to espouse a 'tragic' view of the world or an event. We discussed Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold and the sound of an ebbing sadness Arnold percieves in a world ''where neither joy, nor love, nor light... nor peace' are possible. Key to this discussion was the meeting of WHAT the poem said to us and HOW the poet had shaped his meaning. Here is an animation of Arnold reading his poem.



This led to an analysis of three futher poems which groups will need to get to know well for homework in preparation for teaching them to the class next lesson (Thursday). Futher Homework was to research a definition of tragedy and bring it to the next lesson.

Mr S