Lockwood, unreliable narrator in Wuthering Heights

-

Lockwood - unreliable narrator in Wuthering Height















Lockwood functions in the novel as the intermediary through whom the eyewitness account of the events and the circumstances given by Nelly are communicated to the readers. The author’s intention in introducing Lockwood was to give us the point of view of a detached and impartial and objective observer.

Lockwood can be considered an unreliable narrator due to his characterisation as a complete outsider to the state of affairs at the Height and the Grange. He mistakes Miss Catherine to be the widow of Heathcliff’s son and Hareton to be Heathcliff’s servant. When Nelly later clarifies this, the text actually confuses the readers, taking quite a bit of time to adjust and digest these character reversals and to get back on track with the novel smoothly. By doing so he brings confusion to the reader's minds. He also introduces the main characters in the novel by the brief impression he gets on his first two visits to Wuthering Heights.

Lockwood is a complete outsider and he is a figure of scornful fun for the reader. His narrations are light and amusing in style. Contrary to our expectations, Lockwood provides no gloss and no objective perspective on the world he observes. He uses artificial language to describe the Heights and its inmates. Lockwood describes himself to be misanthropic and is most certainly one. His emotional sterility makes this view of the story narrated by Nelly kind of like a romantic tale. He takes no imaginative part in the emotions Nelly shares, he cannot involve in the love of Heathcliff and Catherine until he has reduced it to some library romance. He never has to be drawn into emotional development; he is external and detached, though he is not necessary to the story.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Scholar Gipsy critical analysis

-
Image
 The Scholar Gipsy analysis  "The Scholar Gipsy" by Matthew Arnold, revolves around the seventeenth-century Oxford story taken from philosopher Joseph Glanvil's The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661). The poem is a take on the conflicts that prevailed in seventeenth-century Victorian Society. This period was a time of confusion and doubt. People grew more fascinated by the modern encroachments sprouting in their society. Developments in science questioned the very base of people's religious beliefs and many were put into a trance of scepticism. The publication of Charles Darwin’s monumental work ‘Origin of species’ released the Victorian conflict of ‘religion vs science Arnold has based this poem on a story from Glanvil’s work where he tells the tale of a poor Oxford scholar who left his University life and his studies behind to join a band of wandering gipsies. The Oxford Scholar is mesmerised by the wonders of mysticism practised by the gipsies and decides to learn every ...
Read more

Origin of English Drama

-
Image
The Beginning Drama originated in classical Greece. Athens, the cultural centre of Greece produced three genres of drama: Tragedy, Comedy, and Satyr. The famous dramatists of this time were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, and the comic writers Aristophanes and, from the late 4th century, Menander. From Greece, the drama entered the Roman empire. Three Dramatic Unities  The Greek and Roman critics recommended three dramatic unities which must be observed by a good dramatist. They are Unity of Time, Unity of Place, and Unity of Action. Unity of Time implies that the action in a play should not exceed the limit of twenty-four hours; Unity of Place means that the scene should not change too often from place to place, and the Unity of Action means that the Tragedy and Comedy should not be intermixed. Origin of English Drama The origin of the drama is deep-rooted in the religious predispositions of mankind. The same is the case not only with English drama but with dramas of other nat...
Read more

The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold Summary and Notes

-
Image
                                    The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold Summary "Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact" - Arnold In his seminal work, the “Study of Poetry” Matthew Arnold opines that one should evaluate poetry by comparing and contrasting it with a piece from a high classic. According to Arnold, poetry is worthy of high destinies. We can notice in our society that many of the religions, principles, rules, creeds, and dogmas are all becoming questionable and broken over time. In the case of poetry too, many find it difficult to evaluate the true essence of good poetry. Arnold wanted to treat poetry as something worth higher value-capable of higher uses and called to higher destinies. He quotes lines from Wordsworth to define poetry, it is“the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science”; poetry is “the breath and finer spirit of all k...
Read more