Wuthering Heights. The narrative tale tells the story of the all-encompassing and passionate, yet thwarted, love between Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and many around them.

Review of essay

Rating: 3 star(s)

Response to the question

Although good points are made this does not work as an essay on the whole due to it's poor structure and lack of detailed analysis. While there is no obvious question here there is also a lack of a thread running through this essay. The student makes good points but they are disconnected and not fully explored. With no clear introduction or conclusion summing up it feels rather disjointed. It is key when writing an essay to have a focus throughout, something that you refer back to and that keeps your essay from seeming as though it has no point. This essay seems to focus mainly on the love plot of Cathy and Heathcliff and their separation and a better way to tackle this would be to look at different reasons for their separation giving a paragraph on each one with detailed analysis rather than working chronologically through the story as it shows an ability to think thematically which is key in A Level work.

Level of analysis

Although many good points are made the analysis is not complete. The few quotes that are used seem to stand out because they are not linked in with the text. It's important when using a quote to always look at it and talk about WHY it is important, WHAT it shows rather than merely using it to repeat something you've already said. Furthermore, merely listing the plot (as happens when discussing the dog biting Cathy at the Grange) is pointless as the examiner will be well aware of the plot and this then wastes time and words. For each paragraph there should be a point, evidence from the text backing up this point, explanation of this evidence and then a link to the theme or question. This allows the essay to flow together as well as keep a focus on analysis rather than plot. As with the quotes, the small amount of knowledge about the context is merely put at the start of the essay rather than used to help exemplify a point (so their point about the meaning of the word 'wuthering' could be used when discussing the turbulent nature of their love and how it is reflected in the nature and weather).

Quality of writing

Quite a few of these sentences don't make sense, there needs to be a lot of proof reading in order to bring this up to scratch. Also the tone is very hit and miss, phrases such as "way back in the 1800s" and the final sentence "alas." are just not appropriate in an essay at all. There is also a lack of technical terms such as pathetic fallacy, metaphor and juxtaposition are missing. Using technical terms is very important as it shows the examiner you know what you're talking about and that you fully understand it rather than just discussing plot. Linking phrases need to be used to help the paragraphs flow together and work as an essay rather than a lot of points that are unrelated.