Beginning
The beginning of Wuthering Heights establishes not only a
framed narrative but a conventionally civilised narrator who closely links with
the reader as an outsider venturing into this unknown, gothic world. The
beginning also establishes a very clear time frame “1801” which is particularly
significant as the novel progresses, not only to destabilise the reader as the
novel encompasses flashbacks and a non-linear chronology but also determines by
the end of the novel the point at which Catherine becomes a “waif” highlighting
her decision is a pivotal point in the novel that haunts her beyond the grave
since they day she made it. The “waif” says it has been such for “twenty
years”, however since Catherine’s death it has only been 17, Nelly’s narrative
gap of three years is also significant as readers come to realise Catherine has
been a “waif” since the day she chose to marry Edgar and not her soul mate “I
am Heathcliff”.
The beginning of
Wuthering Heights also encompasses one of the most violent, gothic and
disturbing projections in the entire novel perhaps establishing the novel as
one in which boundaries are destabilised. Lockwood’s initial characterisation
as the a civilised, gentile man is destabilised in his gruesome act of violence
against the ghostly Catherine “rubbed to and fro across the broken pane till
the blood ran down and soaked the bed clothes”, not only does this provide
surface shock value, true to gothic form, but it sets up an unsettling debate
of whether the wild is within the domestic and if oppositions within the gothic
are as established and fixed as thought, perhaps the gothic and Wuthering
Heights alike seek to challenge our “convenient yet repressive thought
patterns.” Hogle.
The beginning is particularly confusing both for Lockwood
and the reader perhaps in a ploy to both entice and destabilise the reader in
the gothic world. For example, Lockwood confuses dead rabbits for cats, Cathy
for Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff as a “capital fellow”. Readers are unsure
of the relationships and dynamics of Wuthering Heights, perhaps foreshadowing
the constant state of confusion throughout the novel caused by excessive
extremes.
Ending
The ending is perhaps one of the many oddities within the
novel in the sense it seems out of place and a rather neat and tidy ending for
a novel filled with such complexities. However, we must remember the ending is
filtered through the novels perhaps most imperceptive character who has seldom
managed to understand the dynamics of the characters. Lockwood’s description of
a peaceful summers day with “butterflies” and breeze blowing through the grass
may offer a sense of resolution, a far cry from the destructive tumultuous
weather that has plagued the heights perhaps signifying destruction has come to
an end, with the death of the first generation characters and the union of the
second generation characters perhaps the heights will be peaceful at last.
However, whilst we may see Hareton as breaking the cycle of violence it could
be argued his striking resemblance to Catherine could make him susceptible to
being an explosive force also “for the space of half a year the gunpowder lay
as harmless as sand”, there is no guarantee the quiet hush that presides at
present is fixed, as the novel has frequently expressed boundaries are often
breached, oppositions often destabilised and calm often ravaged by storm. It
could also be argued this beautiful description is mislead as he suggests the
difficulty in imagining “unquiet slumbers”, yet he himself has experienced the
ghostly presence of Catherine, similarly the phrase “sleepers” perhaps suggests
a lack of finality and a sense of temporary rest, perhaps they are merely
sleeping and will wander the moors as they awaken.
The ending could suggest a sense of resolution as notions of
a ghostly Catherine are in contrast to those of ones in the beginning, for
example in the beginning she is a child perhaps trapped in an infantile state
due to her destructive decision to marry Edgar which have caused her to become
a “waif” or perhaps due to a want to accommodate both loves and a reluctance to
choose to avoid limitation. However, in the ending of the novel a young boy
states he has seen a woman and a man roaming the moors, the use of “woman” is
significant as it suggests Catherine’s ghost has now progressed from child to
adult perhaps in the reconciliation of her and Heathcliff.
Beginning
The beginning of the play establishes the supernatural and
the theme of violence. The opening scene depicts the witches who exist on the
fringe of society, as a genre the gothic is argue to lie upon the fringe of the
acceptable as it is on this borderland that fear resides, similarly the Witches
occupy the fringes of society opening the play with three particularly
terrifying characters perhaps establishing the gothic element of the play and
eliciting curiosity from audiences, who in Jacobean times would have been enthralled
by notions of witchcraft. The play simultaneously opens with tumultuous, stormy
weather upon the dark heath perhaps also foreshadowing two core themes of
Macbeth, destruction and concealment emphasised by the witches who are shrouded
in obscurity, a key gothic concept.
The second opening scene of the play depicts a gruesome
battle in which “noble Macbeth” “unseam’d him from the nave to the chaps”, the
play incorporates both literal and metaphorical violence throughout and
violence is a central theme to Macbeth that opens up debates of acceptable and
patriotic violence within a battle context and heinous, sinful violence in the
context of a domestic setting whilst similarly causing destruction by and to
the main protagonists and peripheral characters. By opening the play with such
violence, Shakespeare perhaps foreshadows the multitude of violent acts that
follow suggesting that violence breeds violence or “unnatural deeds do breed
unnatural troubles”.
Ending
The ending of Macbeth is arguably both a triumph and a loss,
both Lady Macbeth described as a “fiend-like Queen” and Macbeth a “butcher”
have died. Gothic heroes such as Macbeth, despite their crimes often continue
to receive audience sympathy perhaps seeing the death of the protagonist as a
loss. However, the ending moves “away from tyranny, back to grace” as Scotland
is alleviated from tyrannical rule in which “to do harm is laudable” in a
triumphant yet ironic twist of inescapable fate. Despite Macbeth’s conviction
in his ability to escape fate based upon the witches equivocations, the ending
projects an important message of not only the detrimental impact of violence
and ambition but that fate or rather destiny is determined. This could be
highlighted by the opening reference to the Thane of Cawdor prior to Macbeth
was murdered for treachery, similarly Macbeth has been murdered for tyranny and
reached the same fate as others who have held that title, reinforcing the
perhaps supernatural force of fate. However, whilst peace may be restored in
Scotland after the death of the destructive and tyrannical protagonists, it
could be argued the most insidious characters, the witches, are still at large.
The witches could be argued to have instigated the events that have unfolded
through their use of equivocations and thus likely to be a destructive force
once again to anyone who is susceptible to their prophecies. The witches
represent the marginalised, they are powerless women on the fringe of society,
marginalised people are often the destructive forces in gothic novels
suggesting the real evil forces within the play have not been eradicated by the
end, providing no resolution.
Beginning
The title story of the collection establishes a myriad of
tales in which, true to the connotations of their title, depict notions of
motherhood, menstruation, fertility and sexual maturation alongside the symptom
of death. The Bloody Chamber as a collection begins with a tale of fierce
patriarchy, materialism and male sadism and female masochism. It could be
argued as a gothic bildungsroman, as the young “innocent and confined” girls
transitions between the liminal state of inexperience to a somewhat undesirable
“unguessable country of marriage”. The beginning tale emphasises the gothic
concepts of the liminal with the setting an “amphibious” place and boundary
transgression, made explicit by the use of “country” to suggest borders between
innocence and experience. However one of the main concepts running throughout
the fabric of the tale is that of the male gaze and the notion of identity. The
symbolic use of mirrors in this tale highlights the universality of male
objectification, the young girl does not create her own sense of identity but
merely sees herself in the mirror as her Marquis sees her, a piece of
“horseflesh” and merely a sexual object. She sees a “multitude of girls” and a
“dozen husbands impaled a dozen brides” perhaps suggesting this is a common
experience for women, their identities are constructed through the male gaze.
The beginning tale is perhaps the most luxuriant, decadent and frightening in
its exemplification of patriarchy, albeit the Snow Child is perhaps a more
graphic, explicit example of this, and can be seen as a mirror image of the
last tale at the end of the collection in which mirrors and the liminal
similarly play a part.
Ending
Wolf-alice ends the collection and could be seen as a
contrasting tale to the Bloody Chamber, it similarly is set in a castle and
encompasses concepts of motherhood and menstruation however, true to fairytale
form, it offers a different moral message. In contrast to the beginning story
in which the young girls identity is solely constructed by the male gaze,
Wolf-Alice’s identity is formed on her own accord by herself. The young girl is
not oppressed or even very much aware of the male in her castle, he “ceased to cast
a reflection” on the mirror and thus ceases to be part of society. Like many
women, due to his bestial, supernatural qualities he is marginalised. Carter
perhaps depicts both the male and female in this tale as being equally
marginalised in society, however in Alice forming her own identity she can
bring the Duke into humanity and into society through compassion and acceptance
“without disgust…without hesitation”. Whilst Carter perhaps takes a more
radical approach in her first title story depicting extreme examples of polar
opposite genders, one a tiger and one a lamb she perhaps suggests in order to
overcome being prey the predator must be eradicated. However in Wolf-Alice a
more equitable relationship is established built on compassion not inequalities
in power in which neither male nor female, lamb nor tiger need to be eradicated
for the other to survive, as she suggests in The Tigers Bride “his appetite
need not be my extinction”. As the stories progress through the collection with
an obvious feminist intent, they highlight the need for males and females to
have both masculine or tigerish qualities and femininity or lambhood in a final
condemnation of societies gender constructs and its ability to marginalise
people. Carter throughout her tales poses the question “can a bird sing only
the one it knows?” “can the bitten apple flesh out its scar again?” suggesting
can we as a society change our perception and ideas of gender and women that
have been deep seated and detrimental for so long.
Single Beginnings
Tigers Bride – setting, the idea of revenance , the cold
Russian weather infecting the sweet sensual lethargy, Father’s gambling and
objectification has travelled with them. Gothic setting “a place uniquely
suited to public executions”
Endings
Tigers bride – “disintegrated” social constructs and gender
constructs coming down, coming off with successive skin, layers of
socialisation eradicated. Change from woman to beast, better than the
alternative objectification, revert back to the natural world in which
patriarchy and objectification does not exist, chooses to act rather than react
like her mechanical doll
Erl King – similar to Porphyria’s Lover, uses his hair to
strangle him, sets the caged birds caged women free and frees herself from her
captor and grievous harm, in order to survive and escape entrapment she must
kill him, there can only be one predator and one prey at a time
The werewolf – sinister ending, wolf in sheeps clothing,
monosyllabic last line, orchestrates her own grandmothers lynching, distortion
of family relationships
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