Your guess is as good as mine?

When thinking about cultural criticism and Wuthering Heights I am drawn to the words of Nancy Armstrong on page 431 when she writes, “one has to decide exactly how to link these materials together as a field of information, a discourse, or a cultural text.” Just how do I do that with this story not being an expert on the Bronte family or early 19^th century England? Even in her essay she claims that Charlotte Bronte said Emily wrote, “Strictly from within.” The answer is I don’t but for the purpose of this blog I have to imagine what she was like and what the world she lived in looked like.

During the time of Bronte’s life the women’s rights movement was still in its infancy perhaps she is commenting on that movement by showing the cruel way women were treated by the establishment. Perhaps she is speaking to the issue of literacy and the importance of education. Perhaps she was just writing a story from a “local color” perspective like the stories coming from the United States during that time. She obviously loved the Moors and wanted to share that with the world. According to the text she was a virgin and a recluse so perhaps the story is about lost love.

Without knowing more detail it is difficult for me to try and comment on what the book was meant to say about the culture in which it is written. I am not sure Armstrong knows because she makes the argument that three phases of the culture Bronte grew up in affected the book, regionalism, photography and folklore. The book was written during an explosively creative time period when all types  of art were taking hold from not just the wealthiest but throughout all classes of people. It would have been a great time for a local author to tell the world about her small stake in the universe and shed light on the places and things she loved. Perhaps it is a story about her love of life and her dreams. If that is all the book is about does it nave any less impact or make it less enjoyable? I don’t think so, it just makes it more real.

What would I do?

Reading the documents and seeing the illustrations from the time Wuthering Heights was written was both enlightening and frightening at the same time. Trying to imagine myself in England during the early to mid-nineteenth century is difficult, trying to do so without taking my twenty-first century mentality is impossible. I cannot imagine a time when women were treated as property and the suffering of starving people were far from the forefront of society’s conciseness.

When reading some of the documentation concerning women’s rights I was shocked to learn that a married man could draw a will leaving all of his worldly possessions to his mistress while his living widow would be left with nothing even if the man gained his wealth from his wife. Women who were made wealthy through the arts were forced to give those earnings to the husband and were subject to lose them if he should choose to divorce them. Women were seen as property and as such they had the same right as the husband’s furniture which means they had no rights.

I found it appalling that if a husband beat his wife and she forgave one time she could never sue for divorce no matter how bad it would later become. A woman could not divorce to remarry due to infidelity no matter how often the man cheated but the man could divorce the woman after the first transgression.

I was also touched by the illustrations depicting the Irish potato famine. The picture of the woman begging for money so that she could bury her dead child was heart wrenching. The writer said the town’s people told him it was a scene repeated over and over each day from different women in town. The illustration of the starving boy and girl searching the ground looking for potatoes was also moving. We take the ability to get whatever food we desire for granted.

I cannot imagine a time where there is not enough food for everyone and people are starving to death all around me. What would it be like if our street were crowded with starving beggars just looking for a bite to eat or face death? What responsibility would I feel towards those people? Would I be charitable or would I horde whatever food and money I had? I try to think that I would be the better man and share what I had but would I really? I hope I never have to find out.

Confusin at it's Highest Level

Perhaps I am a terrible reader but I am having the hardest time following this book. It moves from scene to scene and point to point in ways that I just do not understand. I cannot follow the characters and do not understand their connection. The Moorish slang is too difficult to understand.

I contrast the use of slang in this story to Twain’s use in Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. In Twain's version I could sound the words out a come close to what he was trying to say. In this book the slang is too difficult for me to understand and it causes me to pull my mind from the book. It is like seeing a film with terrible graphics, if I am pulled out of the story then the story is no good.

From what I can gather the book is a ghost story or Gothic horror novel but my reading could be totally off base. I am not sure who Catherine really is and exactly how Heathcliff is related to her. I do not understand the narrator’s relationship to Heathcliff and why there is animosity there. 

Even with the introduction of Mrs. Dean to clarify the story I remained lost. If I cannot connect with a story it becomes a burden to read and my focus is lost quickly. It makes the reading tedious and seems like a chore rather than a pleasure. This book has become no more of a pleasure than cutting the grass, doing the dishes, or washing my car. The entire time I am involved I want to stop.

It make take two or three readings for me to grasp the story and understand what is going on but I will get there even if I hate every minute of it.

The Soothing Sound

Manquel discusses reading books aloud to ones self or to others. He debates the affects of the reading, the potential benefits and pitfalls but for me I have always loved to read aloud. I love to read to my family and I love to be read to. I enjoy other peoples  interpretation of the work and their mimicking abilities. I enjoy getting lost in the comfort of another person's voice, the relaxation that overtakes my body and the serenity of knowing that the reader, myself and everyone else involved are experiencing something special together.

One of the most important experiences of my life was when an elementary school teacher read a novel to our class. It drew me in and fanned a flame of curiosity that still burns today. I do not know if I would have the same love for books or writing  if not for that experience. Reading aloud also impacts me as a reader.

When I read aloud the work can change, the environments can seem more open and expansive. It is as if when the words come out of my mouth the barrier that is my head is knocked down. I can understand when on page 255 Manquel writes about how public readings by the author not only brought the text to the public it allowed the author to reconnect with the work as well. For myself the soothing sound of reading is like a lullaby to a baby. It puts my troubled soul at ease and allows me to lose myself in another person's world. I could not ask for anything more.