Page 1 of 6
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online:https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 532
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE NARRATIVE PATTERN
OF EMILY BRONTE’S WUTHERING HEIGHTS
DR. AJIT SINGH
MA,M.PHIL,PH.D,JRF
ABSTRACT
Wuthering Heights which has long been one of the most popular and highly acclaimed
novels in English Literature, seemed to hold little promise when it was published in 1847,
selling very poorly and receiving only a few mixed reviews. Victorian readers found the book
shocking and inappropriate in its depiction of passionate, ungoverned love and cruelty
(despite the fact that the novel portrays no sex or bloodshed), and the work was virtually
ignored. Today, Wuthering Heights has a secure position in the cannon of world literature,
and Emily Bronte is revered as one of the finest writers- male or female of the 19th century.
Wuthering Heights is based on partly on the Gothic tradition of the late 18th century, a style
of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights and
grotesque imagery, seeking to create the effects of misery and fear. But Wuthering Heights
transcends its genre in its sophisticated observation and artistic subtlety. The novel has been
studied, analyzed, dissected, and discussed from every imaginable critical perspective, yet it
remains unexhausted. And while the novel’s symbolism, themes, structure, and language may
all spark fertile exploration, the bulk of its popularity may rest on its unforgettable characters.
As a shattering presentation of the doomed love affair between the fiercely passionate
Catherine and Heath cliff, it remains one of the most haunting love stories in all of literature.
This paper discusses the employment of concentric narrative technique in Wuthering Heights.
Concentric narrative technique is a narrative technique in which so many narratives are
embedded with each other. This kind of narrative technique is employed by Jeffrey Chaucer
in Canterbury Tales, Mary Shelley in Frankenstein, Henry James in Turn of the Screw,
Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness.
Page 2 of 6
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online:https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 533
INTRODUCTION
Emily Jane Bronte was born on 30 July 1818 in the North of England, was an English
novelist and poet, best remembered for her solitary novel, Wuthering Heights, now
considered a classic of English Literature. Wuthering Heights is notable for its concentric
narrative technique she employed and the level of craftsmanship involved in it. Although
there are only two obvious narrators, Lockwood and Nelly Dean, a variety of other narratives
are interspersed throughout the novel. The reason for this are that the whole action of
Wuthering Heights is presented in the form of eyewitness narrations by people who have
played some part in the narration they describe. Unlike the other novels where parallel
narratives exist, i.e, same event, within the same time frame being narrated from different
perspectives, Wuthering Heights has a multilayered narration, each individual narrative
opening out from its parent to reveal a new level of the story. This intricate technique helps to
maintain a continuous narrative despite of the difficulties posed by the huge time shifts
involved in the novel. Lockwood’s narrative is the outer framework of the story. He is then
present as the recipient of Nelly’s story and she in turn is the recipient of tertiary narratives.
A) Heathcliff : Chapter 6, 29
B) Isabella : Chapter 13, 17
C) Cathy : Chapter 24
D) Zilla : Chapter 30
Nelly’s narrative is so dramatized that we could argue that much of it is in the form of
a tertiary narration, example, the conversation Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar on
Heathcliff’s return is recorded in the words of the participants. The effect of this is to present
the story directly to the reader so that our perception is constantly changing as if we were
witnessing a drama. The difficulty facing the author at the beginning is the novel was to find
a method by which the reader could be introduced into the household of the Heights, so that
its characters and its ambience could be understood. The purpose of Bronte’s narrative is to
draw the reader into a position where he can only judge its events from within. Lockwood
presents the normal outsider or the reader, by drawing him into the penetralium. The reader is
clearly introduced to the realities of this hostile and bewildering environment. The narrative
form poses severe limitation for the author in that she cannot use her own voice, the story
Page 3 of 6
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 01
January 2019
Available online:https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 534
must speak entirely for itself, its value must be self-generated, created for us by the language
which must be emotive and strong, particularly in moments of self revelation and strong
feeling. In Wuthering Heights each narrative takes place within the action occupying an
important place in the dramatic structure so that the reader never stands completely outside a
story. We, like Lockwood, find ourselves as the direct recipients of Nelly’s narrative, we are
immediately inside the world of Wuthering Heights and therefore the events look large and
have a more dramatic impact, because they are not prefaced for us by editorial comment or
introduction provided in the first person by the author.
While the larger frameworks of Lockwood and Nelly’s narratives, provide the
necessary objectivity, the smaller more condensed narratives like Catherine’s diary give us
direct glimpses into the imaginary lives of the main protagonists, these together from the core
of the story and are joined in subtle ways with each other. They suddenly appear without
warning and the memory of them remains vibrant in the background. To modify over veins of
all the outward events that Nelly or Lockwood describe, allowing for an individual response
or appreciation to the core development of the story. Bronte seeks to engage the reader
directly through the reactions of her narrators, the technique is abrupt and grammatically
allowing little time for insight but confronting us with a sharply focused scene where the
characters are realized first as physical presences, they are set in motion at once and the chain
if events begin to occur, the reader is immediately caught up in the overall experience of the
story without having time to consider its meaning. The background, the setting, the climate,
the houses and the animals all take on a life of their own, images of past and present are
flashed together “a glare of white letters startled from the dark as vivid as spectres- the air
swarming with Catherine’s”.
Lockwood as Narrator
Lockwood is the outsider, coming into a world in which he finds bewildering and
hostile, he was a city gentleman who has stumbled on a primitive uncivilized world which he
doesn’t understand, but which fascinates him. In the novel Lockwood presents the situation
as he sees it, the reader is thus brought closer to the action, seeing it through the eyes of the
