In the novel Wuthering Heights Lockwoods overnight stay could be perceived as a satisfactory opening. To help me assess this I had to decide on what I thought a satisfactory opening to be.

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In the novel Wuthering Heights Lockwoods overnight stay could be perceived as a satisfactory opening. To help me assess this I had to decide on what I thought a satisfactory opening to be. I decided on a certain criteria that I believed a satisfactory opening would include. The criteria I decided upon was; Emily Brontё securing the readers attention, establishing the genre of the novel, establishing some of the characters and the theme and introducing the setting.

In these opening chapters Emily Brontё manages to establish the character of Lockwood. In the novel we can see that Lockwood represents culture and there is a comment made by Lockwood at the start of the chapter that backs up this culture attitude. The house keeper makes the main meal of the day for 12pm and Lockwood is not happy with this arrangement as he says” she could not or would not comprehend my request that I might be served at five.” In the city it was normal to dine at five but in the country the people awoke much earlier and worked hard therefore wanted a sufficient meal at 12pm. He also looks rather arrogant, as he does not want to change from his routine when after all he is the guest. Soon after that he encounters a servant girl cleaning out the fires in the house. He was quite annoyed at the fact dust was being created as she carried out her duties. Lockwood described the dust as “infernal.” The use of that one word manipulates the reader into perceiving Lockwood as a rather arrogant man, because the girl is only performing her duties. The fact the girl was cleaning annoyed him enough to make him leave the house and cross the moors to Wuthering Heights. After a rather enforced entrance to the grounds Lockwood knocks on the door expecting to be immediately admitted. There is a delayed response to Lockwoods knocking and Lockwood seems to become rather agitated and enraged by this. He then calls the occupants of Wuthering Heights, “wretched inmates!” Then continues with saying, “they deserve preputal isolation from their species for their churlish inhospitality.” His anger continues, as he becomes physically angry and “grasped the latch and shook it.” Lockwood is quite determined to gain entrance to Wuthering Heights but with this intention he is being increasing rude. As Joseph responds to his knocking and shaking Lockwood diverts his anger towards him calling him “vinegar-faced” insinuating that he was bitter and unpleasant. Emily Brontё is manipulating the reader into perceiving that the people of culture are rude and arrogant when you would in fact expect they would show a degree of respect and manners. As the chapter moves on Lockwood has a very negative critical view. His Judgements are not always right either as when he first meets Cathy he assumes she is Heathcliff’s rather young wife. When this mistake is corrected he then assumes that Hareton is Cathy’s husband as he says,” the clown at my elbow... may be the husband – Heathcliff junior of course.” As this again is a misjudgement the read will start to question Lockwoods ability to judge things correctly. And therefore start to make judgements of their own. When Lockwood is in the house with Cathy he tries to make polite conversation with her. Cathy does not respond to this, as polite conversation was something of a city thing. People of Yorkshire had a reputation to only talk about things that matter. There is an initial barrier which when broken will reveal quite interesting people. Lockwood talks about the dogs with Cathy, then pointing to what he though was a pile of cats, asked if her favourite was among them. With Cathy’s reaction Lockwood looked closer to see in fact “it was a heap of dead rabbits.” This shows how Lockwood doesn’t really fit in around the countryside. In the city he would have been used to seeing dogs and cats but not piles of rabbits. This shows the theme of culture ‘v’ nature. As Lockwood is a man of culture he thinks highly of himself and sees fit that he may judge Cathy and Hareton. When he thinks Cathy is married he comments on this by saying, “she has thrown herself away upon that boor.” Lockwood really does not know Cathy or Hareton so really should not comment in such away about their being. Emily Brontё establishes the character of Lockwood rather well in this first chapter. She manipulates the reader into seeing him as a rude and arrogant person. She also makes there read doubt Lockwoods judgements and see them as random and untrustable.

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Another character Emily Brontё manages to establish is the character of Joseph. In the novel Joseph is the opposing character to Lockwood as Joseph represents nature. The first thing that is noticed about the character of Joseph is his strong Yorkshire Dialect. An example of this is when he says, “whet are ye for?...T’ maister’s dahn i’t’fowld.” As Joseph represented nature Emily Brontё wanted to show this to the best she could. The book describes Joseph and “gruff and tacitum.” Emily Brontё wanted to project this image and a way of doing this was through the dialect. After Emily ...

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