"Wuthering Heights" - The End

Paper Summary:

This paper contends that the ending of the novel "Wuthering Heights" poses many a problem for the reader and that an unequivocal interpretation of it, and of the whole text for that matter, is not possible. The paper discusses how the ending has to be put in relation to what lies behind the events it narrates and not to what is apparent. It also argues that a decision has to be taken as to how we are to regard the fact that both narrators, Lockwood and Nelly, whom the author has given us plenty of reasons to mistrust, are perfectly in accord with the way that the novel concludes.

From the Paper:

"The nature and direction of our interpretation depends much on what we take Emily Bronte's attitude to be towards the second generation. Wuthering Heights could very well end with the words "Together they would brave Satan and all his legions." However, the author chooses to add almost a page of impressions which apparently have nothing to do with the young couple. After all, the final close-up left to the reader is not the image of the two young lovers under the moonlight but the unsettling gloomy vision of an isolated graveyard. The choice of such setting is entirely of the writer's making. Emily Bronte, intentionally or not, creates an ambiguity on all levels of the narrative. In this connection, when trying to determine to what extent the machinery of the Gothic and the delicately calculated presence of the Fantastic are at work in the ending of Wuthering Heights, we realise that it cannot be affirmed with surety that one single type of imagery pervades the final pages. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights, Penguin Books, 2003
• Freud, Sigmund. The Uncanny, Penguin Books, 2003
• Mengham, Rod. Wuthering Heights - A Critical Study, Case Studies in Literature, 1988
• Miller, Hillis. Wuthering Heights and the Uncanny, Case Studies in Literature, 1982

More papers on "Wuthering Heights" - The End:

• Analytical Essay # 25534 : "The Dominance of Catherine Earnshaw"
• Analytical Essay # 142164 : "Wuthering Heights and Narrative"
• Comparison Essay # 122322 : "Ozymandias" and "Wuthering Heights"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: