Oppositions in the Gothic Genre LO: To explore the use of oppositions in Wuthering Heights

AO4: Gothic Genre Critic Andrew Green “Gothic is a genre that resides on the borders and extremes of experience; it thrives on oppositions and division” “it has at its heart, uncertainty, the unsettling and indefinable” “Bronte presents her readers with mirror images, doubles and oppositions”

Oppositions in Wuthering Heights What oppositions have we encountered so far? Good vs evil Innocence vs guilt Freedom vs inprisonment Moral vs immoral Natural vs supernatural Living vs dead Heights vs Grange A world in which these types of oppositions are fixed is a stable and morally certain world. Bronte presents a world where these oppositions are constantly changing/shifting/merging into each other. This creates the unsettling Gothic tone. It also helps create the feelings of terror and horror.

Character Oppositions in Wuthering Heights Cathy and Heathcliff Lockwood and Heathcliff Cathy and Catherine Heathcliff and Hindley Heathcliff and Hareton Heathcliff and Linton Heathcliff and Edgar Linton and Hareton Character doubles are another, separate form of Gothic opposition. Names are repeated throughout the family tree creating confusion and disorientation. Boundaries are crossed and broken by characters and the often pass on inherited traits.