As readers we feel confused by the events of the first chapter. How does Bront achieve this and what is the effect?

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RACHEL HOLMES

As readers we feel confused by the events of the first chapter. How does Brontë achieve this and what is the effect?

From the outset, Brontë creates an air of mystery in both the characters and setting that contributes to the confusion felt by the reader. Many  of the ideas and symbols used in the                                                                                                          first chapter of the book epitomise the technique utilised by Brontë throughout the novel. “Wuthering Heights” has been described as a ‘Chaotic novel’and many believe that it is intended to confuse and bewilder the reader.

After reading the first chapter, the reader is confused about the situation and questions are left unanswered. We are unsure about many of the facts. We know the date is 1801 and that Lockwood is a tenant of Heathcliff’s at Thrushcross Grange, but we are unaware of any of the characters’ significance in the novel. We are introduced to the servant, Joseph, and briefly encounter Zillah, although we are not told her name. The reader is not informed of the relationships between any of the characters. Brontë purposefully keeps the facts ambiguous, which emphasises the feelings of confusion.

Brontë’s tone and style is mysterious and foreboding from the beginning. In particular, the use of descriptions such as ‘gaunt’, ‘defended’, ‘jutting’, 'crumbling' and ‘grotesque’ add to the grim feel of the novel from the start and the seemingly impenetrable facade of the characters. As readers, we are intended to feel an affinity with Lockwood, who is portrayed as completely alien to the situation. Brontë uses many symbols which continue throughout the novel to suggest this. When Lockwood first arrives at the Heights, the atmosphere is unwelcoming, ‘a perfect misanthropists Heaven.’ His entrance to Wuthering Heights is made difficult and uncomfortable, ‘he did pull out his hand to unchain it, and then sullenly proceeded me up the causeway’ and the greeting is morose from Joseph, ‘looking meantime in my face so sourly that I charitably conjectured he must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner’. Heathcliff’s abrupt attitude towards Lockwood, ‘appeared to demand (his) speedy entrance or complete departure’. The doorway into “the house” is then guarded by ‘grotesque carvings’ that reiterates that Lockwood is unwelcome.

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The famous essay, ‘The Window Image in Wuthering Heights’ by Dorothy Van Ghent ...

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