1. The Tragic Perspective

2. What is tragedy? Downfall of an individual of high status
Brought about by hero’s tragic flaw
Tragedy started by hero’s action
Series of seemingly inevitable catastrophes occur which affect the fate of a whole area or nation
Ends with death of hero and restoration of order (cathartic ending)

3. What is “tragic vision”?
A writer’s view of what causes tragedy
These factors are often referred to as the context of the novel – historical, political, social or religious

4. https://prezi.com/sdj4arnswxgv/tragedy-and-gothic-literature/

5. The tragic visions of the two novels
Wuthering Heights
A person’s / society’s actions determine fate
Tragedy is therefore caused by man

6. Influences on Bronte’s tragic vision
Father was a curate
Orthodox Christian view of benevolent God who created a perfect world
She believed in human sin and God’s justice after death
Pre-Darwinian period ie no concept of human evolution without God’s help

7. How does this affect her tragic vision?
If you believe that the world is essentially a good place to live, and that God will look after you, the only thing that can disrupt this world is man (as taught by the story of Garden of Eden)
This means that for Bronte, tragedy can only be caused by human action

8. If you are writing in a time when you (and your readers) believe in God’s judgement of sinners, you are expected to write a novel which delivers justice in a Christian context to those who sin. This provides the typical cathartic ending of a tragedy.

9. How does Bronte's tragic vision fit with the classical definition of tragedy
Heathcliff = tragic hero but does not have an innate flaw (ie born with it)
His violence is partly caused by the way he is treated by society (represented by Hindley)
Heathcliff and Cathy’s union in death is at least one of the possible endings

10. If we accept this as cathartic, then we have to accept that the tragic hero, although dead, has not been punished
This interpretation of the ending troubled Victorian readers, including Charlotte Bronte
Only by reading the end as a celebration of Catherine and Hareton’s union can we see the ending as that of a typical tragedy

11. To sum up … Neither novel presents typical tragedy
Both were radical in their own ways and both experimented with the genre
These experiments were influenced by the writers beliefs
The tragic experiences of the characters are therefore dependent on the period and context of each text’s production