Chosen Character: Heathcliff

Heathcliff was an orphan brought to live at Wuthering Heights by Mr Earnshaw. He falls in love with Mr Earnshaw's daughter (Cathy) and throughout their time growing up together they are inseparable. Cathy sees them as the same person and almost twin like however they are in love with each other and this will never work as he is essentially an adopted child of the Earnshaw family. Cathy ends up marrying Edgar Linton for social prominence. This prompts Heathcliff to seek revenge on Edgar to try and win Cathy back. Heathcliff acquires a fortune through gambling and makes himself look more presentable for Cathy. He then uses his power and wealth to acquire both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. 

'He is a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect, in dress and manners a gentleman, that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire: rather slovenly, perhaps, yet not looking amiss with his negligence, because he has an erect and handsome figure—and rather morose. '

This quote from the novel states the kind of character that Heathcliff is portrayed as. He is a 'gypsy' like character however still comes across as a gentleman. Throughout the novel everyone treats him as if he is a minor compared to everyone else. Especially Cathy as that is the reason they can't get married and also Hindley, Cathy's brother. When Cathy dies Hindley treats Heathcliff as if he is a servant. After the novel was written a lot of people questioned whether Heathcliff was seen as a gypsy or a gentleman throughout the book. He is a very unusual character as there are a lot of different ways the reader could portray him. 

Other romance novels contained heros that appeared to be dangerous and mysterious at first, however as the novel progressed they would turn into this lovely character that had fallen in love and was devoted to their other half. Wuthering heights was different in the sense that throughout the book Heathcliff almost stayed the same if not got worse. From the very beginning he was a shy, but powerful and dangerous character that although people made out he was of a lower social class he still had a big impact on peoples lives. Throughout the book he became more dangerous, especially when Cathy agreed to marry Edgar as he felt he needed to seek revenge on Edgar and try and obtain both Wuthering Heights & Thrushcross grange once Cathy had passed away. Even though he was portrayed by Lockwood/Nelly as an evil character that only caused mischief throughout he still deep down was in love with Cathy and he would always have a soft spot for him. Whenever he was around her he transformed into a gentleman and was always trying to better himself to make her happy. That is why i believe that this novel is a mixture of a revengeful love story, as he is clearly so in love with Cathy but throughout is portrayed as a horrible gypsy like person who seeks revenge on anyone who comes between him and his love. 

The chose the Tom Hardy 2009 adaptation of Wuthering Heights to focus on as i believe this is the best version of the character Heathcliff i have seen. He is a presentable character which shows his 'gentleman' side, however his hair constantly over the face and the hollow features on his face give him the 'gypsy' like character that he is described as. I really like the depth and darkness that has been shown through Tom Hardy's character, and that's what i wanted to focus on. He has a clean and innocent look, but still hollow and dark in places. This describes the whole novel very well, parts are clean and romantic and others are dark when he is attempting to seek revenge. 

References:
1. Brontë, E., Bronte, E. and Bront, E. (1992) Wuthering heights. United Kingdom: Wordsworth Editions.

My chosen novel: Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is one of the most popular novels in english literature. It was written by Emily Brontë and published in 1847.

The book itself didn't sell very well as victorian readers found the book shocking and inappropriate in the way that it portrayed love and cruelty.

The Brontë sisters also disapproved of the novel Emily wrote. They couldn't understand why she would create such a character like Heathcliff.

However, although at the time the book wasn't very popular, Emily Brontë is known as one of the finest writers of the nineteenth century.

Wuthering Heights is partly based on the gothic tradition of the late eighteenth century which is a style of literature that includes supernatural encounters (ghosts) and grotesque imagery as well as passion or love.



The story of Wuthering Heights is told through the eyes of Mr Lockwood in the style of a diary entry, however some parts of the book are written through the voice of how Nelly Dean (servant at Wuthering Heights) told Mr Lockwood the story.

The main characters in the story are Heathcliff an orphan adopted by the Earnshaw family who own Wuthering Heights and Catherine Earnshaw who is the daughter of the owner of the heights. She finds herself falling in love with Heathcliff the more time they spend together growing up.

The storyline is about an orphan (Heathcliff) who has been adopted by a wealthy family. Growing up he becomes close to the daughter (Cathy) and they eventually fall in love with each other. However, Cathy feels like she cannot be with Heathcliff because he is of a lower class than her family and if she were to marry into the opposing higher class family who live at Thrushcross grange then she will be the most important lady of the town. She eventually marries Edgar Linton, however they both know that she doesn't really love Edgar and will always love Heathcliff.

The main argument about this novel is whether it is a novel about love, portraying Heathcliff as a hero and it being a romantic story about Cathy's lust for Heathcliff or is it a novel about revenge, portraying Heathcliff as a horrible character who seeks revenge on both Edgar, Cathy and to an extent the people around them because of Cathy's betrayal to Heathcliff.

There are a few themes in the book that i wanted to focus on. The main two being Love and Revenge which have been explained above. Another being Social class, this plays a big part in the novel as the whole reason behind Cathy not wanting to marry Heathcliff is because he is of a lower social class than her and she won't be considered the 'lady of the town' if she doesn't marry Edgar. Heathcliff is treated as a 'servant like' character throughout the whole novel and this is then shown again when Heathcliff's son is born and the 'under class' role has been passed onto him.  Another theme is repetition which was also present in the example i have just mentioned. This is shown in the novel when Heathcliff demands young Cathy to marry Linton Heathcliff (son of Heathcliff) almost as a way of getting satisfaction from the fact that he was unable to marry Cathy. He tries to repeat the love that he shared with Cathy to Linton and young Cathy.

References:
1. Brontë, E., Bronte, E. and Bront, E. (1992) Wuthering heights. United Kingdom: Wordsworth Editions.

Intro: Victorian ideals

'The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death, on 22 January 1901.Victoria became queen in 1837 at age 18. Her long reign until 1901 was generally characterised mostly by peace and prosperity. There were no great wars.' 

Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe- Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Together they had nine children and all of them married into royal and noble families across the continent making Victoria known as the 'Grandmother of Europe'. Albert sadly died in 1861 and Victoria went into deep depression and from then on didn't make any public appearances or very little at that.
Whilst she was in mourning she also only wore black.

Victoria was inspirational to young girls throughout her empire and beyond. Growing up all teenage and young girls wanted to be exactly like Princess Victoria, creating the same hairstyles as her. 

The victorian middle class came about because of the industrialisation that occurred at the time. Middle class people were seen as being above the workers but below the aristocracy. In victorian times styling and accessories were very important in identifying what class type people were. Hairstyles would say a lot about a person, for example their social background. Males could tell whether they were commoners or set to be queens just from how they did they hair and what adornments they put in it. What kind of jewellery and stones they wore depended on how much they could afford therefore showing their social class.

Gothic Horror became popular in the late 18th century and early 19th century.  Novels were written that combined fiction, horror and sometimes romance. For this unit we were asked to read a novel of our choice from the victorian gothic era and create characters based on that novel. I chose 'Wuthering Heights' which was written by Emily Bronte in 1847. The novel is based in the late 17th century and early 18th century. I will be basing my modern character off of the character in the novel known as 'Heathcliff'. Using the text to get an idea of his personality and the background than him and characters around him come from i will be able to get an idea as to his story and how i can adapt him into a modern version of the character.











References:
1.
 Book:

Marsh, M. (2014) The compacts and cosmetics: Beauty from Victorian times to the present day. United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Military.

2.

Book:

Beaujot, A. (2012) Victorian fashion accessories. London: Berg Publishers.

3.

Book:

Bryer, R. (2000) The history of hair: Fashion and fantasy down the ages. London: Distributed in the USA and Canada by Antique Collectors’ Club.

4.

Victorian era (2016) in Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era (Accessed: 18 April 2016).

5. 

(no date) Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria (Accessed: 18 April 2016).

6. 

ANON., n.d. [viewed 18 April 2016]. Available from: http://BBC(2011) History - British history in depth: The rise of the Victorian middle class. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/middle_classes_01.shtml (Accessed: 18 April 2016)

7. 

FREEDMAN, E. of B., 2014. The origins of the gothic [viewed 18 April 2016]. Available from: http://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-origins-of-the-gothic

8. 

Gothic Fiction Wikipedia (2016).