{"id":24473,"date":"2026-05-14T18:31:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:31:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/?p=24473"},"modified":"2026-05-14T18:31:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T16:31:49","slug":"wuthering-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wuthering-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Wuthering Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, the new film adaptation of Wuthering Heights<\/a> caused quite a stir. Emerald Fennell\u2019s interpretation differs significantly from the book, and the director herself described it as a sort of fan fiction. At Donostia Book Club<\/strong>, we decided to take a closer look at the original and chose Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s celebrated classic as our reading for the meeting on 11 May<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In December 1847, Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s only published novel burst onto the English literary scene, shocking both the public and the critics with its raw depictions of violence and psychological abuse. A critic in Douglas Jerrold\u2019s Weekly Newspaper wrote indignantly: \u201cThe reader is \u2026 disgusted, almost sickened by details of cruelty, inhumanity, and the most diabolical hate and vengeance.\u201d Another critic noted, \u201cThere is not in the entire dramatis persona a single character which is not utterly hateful or thoroughly contemptible.\u201d One word in particular dominated these critiques: \u201ccoarse.\u201d Even so, beneath this scrutiny, one could sense a grudging admiration for the novel\u2019s sheer power. As the man from Douglas Jerrold\u2019s himself pointed out: \u201cIt is impossible to begin and not finish it; and quite as impossible to lay it aside afterwards and say nothing about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wuthering Heights stands out from other novels of the period for its dramatic and poetic style, the complete absence of commentary from the author, and its unusual structure. It recounts, through the retrospective account of a witness\u2014which in turn includes shorter narratives\u2014the impact that the orphan Heathcliff had on the two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons, in a remote part of Yorkshire in the late 18th century. Bitter over the mistreatment he suffered and over the marriage of Cathy Earnshaw\u2014who shares his tempestuous temperament and whom he loves\u2014to the gentle and prosperous Edgar Linton, Heathcliff plots revenge against both families, extending his vendetta into the second generation. Cathy\u2019s death in childbirth fails to free him from his love-hate relationship with her, and his obsessive fixation persists until his own death; the marriage of the surviving heirs of the Earnshaws and the Lintons restores peace. The story is raw, full of injustice and cruelty, yet at the same time it does not shy away from the issues that many at the time preferred to keep silent: the absolute dependence of women, domestic abuse, class inequality, poverty, classism. And all of this is set against the harrowing backdrop of the desolate and isolated moors of Yorkshire.<\/p>\n

Our discussion certainly didn\u2019t manage to cover everything Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s novel has to offer, but in our best attempt to examine all the details, we talked about the following points:<\/p>\n

– To what extent do you think the setting of the novel contributes to, or informs, what takes place? Do you think the moors are a character in their own right? How do you interpret Bronte\u2019s view of nature and the landscape?<\/p>\n

– Do you think the novel is a tale of redemption, despair, or both? Discuss the novel\u2019s meaning to you. Do you think the novel\u2019s moral content dictates one choice over the other?<\/p>\n

– Discuss Bronte\u2019s use of twos: Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange; two families, each with two children; two couples (Catherine and Edgar, and Heathcliff and Isabella); two narrators; the doubling-up of names. What is Bronte\u2019s intention here? Discuss.<\/p>\n

– How do Mr. Lockwood and Nelly Dean influence the story as narrators? Do you think they are completely reliable observers? What does Bronte want us to believe?<\/p>\n

– Discuss the role of women in Wuthering Heights. Is their depiction typical of Bronte\u2019s time, or not? Do you think Bronte\u2019s characterizations of women mark her as a pioneer ahead of her time or not?<\/p>\n

– Who or what does Heathcliff represent in the novel? Is he a force of evil or a victim of it? How important is the role of class in the novel, particularly as it relates to Heathcliff and his life?<\/p>\n

– Do you think Bronte succeeds in creating three-dimensional figures in Heathcliff and Cathy, particularly given their larger-than-life metaphysical passion? Why or why not?<\/p>\n

(The source of the quesions: https:\/\/bookclubs.com\/discussion-guides\/wuthering-heights-penguin-classics<\/a> )<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, the new film adaptation of Wuthering Heights caused quite a stir. Emerald Fennell\u2019s interpretation differs significantly from the book, and the director herself described it as a sort of fan fiction. At Donostia Book Club, we decided to take a closer look at the original and chose Emily Bront\u00eb\u2019s celebrated classic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":24476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eleberria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24473"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24483,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24473\/revisions\/24483"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogak.donostiakultura.eus\/liburu-dantza\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}