Joseph: A Character From Wuthering Heights

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Joseph:

A Character From Wuthering Heights

Emily Brontes Wuthering Heights is a novel that depends heavily on descriptive writing in order to illustrate details of her characters inner thoughts and beings. Language functions as a social and sexual mediator in this novel, and performs many additional functions. Language is the tool that through the narrator Nelly the reader hears how the story of Wuthering Heights unfolds. Identity through writing is the goal for most authors and in Wuthering Heights Bronte succeeds admirably. This essay will discuss how all of these issues raise awareness and emphasize one of the novels least dramatic characters, Joseph, and also his attitude and behaviour and also how Emily Bronte presents him in her book.

Joseph is first introduced to the reader when Lockwood encounters him, “Joseph take Mr Lockwoods Horse, and bring up some wine” Heathcliff says to Joseph, giving the reader the impression of Joseph being a servant working for Heathcliff. Joseph is described to the reader through the narrator Lockwood largely as a satirical self righteous cursing grumpy old man who doesn’t like to socialise but its interesting to see how Lockwood doesn’t wish to say how Joseph reacts, is purposely done but something bad, which he may have ate “Joseph was an elderly man, nay, an old man: very old… … looking meantime in my face so sourly that I charitably conjectured he must have need of divine aid to digest his dinner…”

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Joseph has a ‘relentlessly sour’ attitude to those around him. He is strictly a religious fanatic whose brand of religion is unforgiving for others and self serving for himself. In my opinion Emily Bronte uses Joseph’s religiousness to try and put a point across to society, which in those days everything you did was based heavily on a misinterpreted strict Christian faith. Having a father who was a reverend I think influenced

her description and creation of Joseph thus secluding the character from the others.

The heavy Yorkshire accent also helped in the process of isolating Joseph ...

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