Wuthering Heights - Plot Overview

In the late winter months of 1801, a man named Lockwood rents a manor house called Thrushcross Grange in the isolated moor country of England. Here, he meets his dour landlord, Heathcliff, a wealthy man who lives in the ancient manor of Wuthering Heights, four miles away from the Grange. In this wild, stormy countryside, Lockwood asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of Heathcliff and the strange denizens of Wuthering Heights. Nelly consents, and Lockwood writes down his recollections of her tale in his diary; these written recollections form the main part of Wuthering Heights.



Nelly remembers her childhood. As a young girl, she works as a servant at Wuthering Heights for the owner of the manor, Mr. Earnshaw, and his family. One day, Mr. Earnshaw goes to Liverpool and returns home with an orphan boy whom he will raise with his own children. At first, the Earnshaw children—a boy named Hindley and his younger sister Catherine—detest the dark-skinned Heathcliff. But Catherine quickly comes to love him, and the two soon grow inseparable, spending their days playing on the moors. After his wife’s death, Mr. Earnshaw grows to prefer Heathcliff to his own son, and when Hindley continues his cruelty to Heathcliff, Mr. Earnshaw sends Hindley away to college, keeping Heathcliff nearby.

Three years later, Mr. Earnshaw dies, and Hindley inherits Wuthering Heights. He returns with a wife, Frances, and immediately seeks revenge on Heathcliff. Once an orphan, later a pampered and favored son, Heathcliff now finds himself treated as a common laborer, forced to work in the fields. Heathcliff continues his close relationship with Catherine, however. One night they wander to Thrushcross Grange, hoping to tease Edgar and Isabella Linton, the cowardly, snobbish children who live there. Catherine is bitten by a dog and is forced to stay at the Grange to recuperate for five weeks, during which time Mrs. Linton works to make her a proper young lady. By the time Catherine returns, she has become infatuated with Edgar, and her relationship with Heathcliff grows more complicated.

When Frances dies after giving birth to a baby boy named Hareton, Hindley descends into the depths of alcoholism, and behaves even more cruelly and abusively toward Heathcliff. Eventually, Catherine’s desire for social advancement prompts her to become engaged to Edgar Linton, despite her overpowering love for Heathcliff. Heathcliff runs away from Wuthering Heights, staying away for three years, and returning shortly after Catherine and Edgar’s marriage.

When Heathcliff returns, he immediately sets about seeking revenge on all who have wronged him. Having come into a vast and mysterious wealth, he deviously lends money to the drunken Hindley, knowing that Hindley will increase his debts and fall into deeper despondency. When Hindley dies, Heathcliff inherits the manor. He also places himself in line to inherit Thrushcross Grange by marrying Isabella Linton, whom he treats very cruelly. Catherine becomes ill, gives birth to a daughter, and dies. Heathcliff begs her spirit to remain on Earth—she may take whatever form she will, she may haunt him, drive him mad—just as long as she does not leave him alone. Shortly thereafter, Isabella flees to London and gives birth to Heathcliff’s son, named Linton after her family. She keeps the boy with her there.

Thirteen years pass, during which Nelly Dean serves as Catherine’s daughter’s nursemaid at Thrushcross Grange. Young Catherine is beautiful and headstrong like her mother, but her temperament is modified by her father’s gentler influence. Young Catherine grows up at the Grange with no knowledge of Wuthering Heights; one day, however, wandering through the moors, she discovers the manor, meets Hareton, and plays together with him. Soon afterwards, Isabella dies, and Linton comes to live with Heathcliff. Heathcliff treats his sickly, whining son even more cruelly than he treated the boy’s mother.


Three years later, Catherine meets Heathcliff on the moors, and makes a visit to Wuthering Heights to meet Linton. She and Linton begin a secret romance conducted entirely through letters. When Nelly destroys Catherine’s collection of letters, the girl begins sneaking out at night to spend time with her frail young lover, who asks her to come back and nurse him back to health. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Linton is pursuing Catherine only because Heathcliff is forcing him to; Heathcliff hopes that if Catherine marries Linton, his legal claim upon Thrushcross Grange—and his revenge upon Edgar Linton—will be complete. One day, as Edgar Linton grows ill and nears death, Heathcliff lures Nelly and Catherine back to Wuthering Heights, and holds them prisoner until Catherine marries Linton. Soon after the marriage, Edgar dies, and his death is quickly followed by the death of the sickly Linton. Heathcliff now controls both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. He forces Catherine to live at Wuthering Heights and act as a common servant, while he rents Thrushcross Grange to Lockwood.

Nelly’s story ends as she reaches the present. Lockwood, appalled, ends his tenancy at Thrushcross Grange and returns to London. However, six months later, he pays a visit to Nelly, and learns of further developments in the story. Although Catherine originally mocked Hareton’s ignorance and illiteracy (in an act of retribution, Heathcliff ended Hareton’s education after Hindley died), Catherine grows to love Hareton as they live together at Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff becomes more and more obsessed with the memory of the elder Catherine, to the extent that he begins speaking to her ghost. Everything he sees reminds him of her. Shortly after a night spent walking on the moors, Heathcliff dies. Hareton and young Catherine inherit Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, and they plan to be married on the next New Year’s Day. After hearing the end of the story, Lockwood goes to visit the graves of Catherine and Heathcliff.

JANE EYRE PLOT OVERVIEW

Jane Eyre is a young orphan being raised by Mrs. Reed, her cruel, wealthy aunt. A servant named Bessie provides Jane with some of the few kindnesses she receives, telling her stories and singing songs to her. One day, as punishment for fighting with her bullying cousin John Reed, Jane’s aunt imprisons Jane in the red-room, the room in which Jane’s Uncle Reed died. While locked in, Jane, believing that she sees her uncle’s ghost, screams and faints. She wakes to find herself in the care of Bessie and the kindly apothecary Mr. Lloyd, who suggests to Mrs. Reed that Jane be sent away to school. To Jane’s delight, Mrs. Reed concurs.


Once at the Lowood School, Jane finds that her life is far from idyllic. The school’s headmaster is Mr. Brocklehurst, a cruel, hypocritical, and abusive man. Brocklehurst preaches a doctrine of poverty and privation to his students while using the school’s funds to provide a wealthy and opulent lifestyle for his own family. At Lowood, Jane befriends a young girl named Helen Burns, whose strong, martyrlike attitude toward the school’s miseries is both helpful and displeasing to Jane. A massive typhus epidemic sweeps Lowood, and Helen dies of consumption. The epidemic also results in the departure of Mr. Brocklehurst by attracting attention to the insalubrious conditions at Lowood. After a group of more sympathetic gentlemen takes Brocklehurst’s place, Jane’s life improves dramatically. She spends eight more years at Lowood, six as a student and two as a teacher.



After teaching for two years, Jane yearns for new experiences. She accepts a governess position at a manor called Thornfield, where she teaches a lively French girl named Adèle. The distinguished housekeeper Mrs. Fairfax presides over the estate. Jane’s employer at Thornfield is a dark, impassioned man named Rochester, with whom Jane finds herself falling secretly in love. She saves Rochester from a fire one night, which he claims was started by a drunken servant named Grace Poole. But because Grace Poole continues to work at Thornfield, Jane concludes that she has not been told the entire story. Jane sinks into despondency when Rochester brings home a beautiful but vicious woman named Blanche Ingram. Jane expects Rochester to propose to Blanche. But Rochester instead proposes to Jane, who accepts almost disbelievingly.



The wedding day arrives, and as Jane and Mr. Rochester prepare to exchange their vows, the voice of Mr. Mason cries out that Rochester already has a wife. Mason introduces himself as the brother of that wife—a woman named Bertha. Mr. Mason testifies that Bertha, whom Rochester married when he was a young man in Jamaica, is still alive. Rochester does not deny Mason’s claims, but he explains that Bertha has gone mad. He takes the wedding party back to Thornfield, where they witness the insane Bertha Mason scurrying around on all fours and growling like an animal. Rochester keeps Bertha hidden on the third story of Thornfield and pays Grace Poole to keep his wife under control. Bertha was the real cause of the mysterious fire earlier in the story. Knowing that it is impossible for her to be with Rochester, Jane flees Thornfield.


Penniless and hungry, Jane is forced to sleep outdoors and beg for food. At last, three siblings who live in a manor alternatively called Marsh End and Moor House take her in. Their names are Mary, Diana, and St. John (pronounced “Sinjin”) Rivers, and Jane quickly becomes friends with them. St. John is a clergyman, and he finds Jane a job teaching at a charity school in Morton. He surprises her one day by declaring that her uncle, John Eyre, has died and left her a large fortune: 20,000 pounds. When Jane asks how he received this news, he shocks her further by declaring that her uncle was also his uncle: Jane and the Riverses are cousins. Jane immediately decides to share her inheritance equally with her three newfound relatives.


St. John decides to travel to India as a missionary, and he urges Jane to accompany him—as his wife. Jane agrees to go to India but refuses to marry her cousin because she does not love him. St. John pressures her to reconsider, and she nearly gives in. However, she realizes that she cannot abandon forever the man she truly loves when one night she hears Rochester’s voice calling her name over the moors. Jane immediately hurries back to Thornfield and finds that it has been burned to the ground by Bertha Mason, who lost her life in the fire. Rochester saved the servants but lost his eyesight and one of his hands. Jane travels on to Rochester’s new residence, Ferndean, where he lives with two servants named John and Mary.

At Ferndean, Rochester and Jane rebuild their relationship and soon marry. At the end of her story, Jane writes that she has been married for ten blissful years and that she and Rochester enjoy perfect equality in their life together. She says that after two years of blindness, Rochester regained sight in one eye and was able to behold their first son at his birth.

source: sparknotes

QUESTIONS FOR TEST ON PURITANISM

The Puritan Movement in England - historical background;
Puritanism in America: Calvin's Doctrine,
the Enlightenment or the Age of Reason;
American Enlightenment- Am. Enlighteners;
The Restoration period;
the Commonwealth. Cromwell;
Historical and Social Background of the War of Independence;
Problems the War of Independence solved;
Liberal humanism, the Aspects of the American National Ideology;
The Doctrine of Natural Man;
Puritanism in America – the Symbol of America;
The Stuart idea of the divine rights of kings, periods;
Literature of the Puritan and Restoration period, authors;
Jonathan Swift – about him, books;
James I; Charles I

LITERARY TERMS: satire, parody, bathos, political pamphlet /pamphleteering/

Summaries of chapters from Gulliver's Travels

Summmary of 'Diversions'

There are two types of diversions. They are performed by people who want to get a higher position in court. The first one is dancing on a rope which is one meter above the ground. The candidates have to jump and do summersaults without falling on the ground, which may cause physical injuries. The second one is crawling under a stick (which is held by the Emperor and the Prime minister) or jumping over it in order to get one of the three fine silken threads which are in fact rewards of the competion.

Swift's attitude to war:

Swift describes the reasons for the war between Liliput and Blefuscu – it is because of the way of breaking eggs before eating them. In one of the empires the eggs are broken upon the larger end, in the other empire – they are broken upon the smaller end. By doing this Swift shows how senseless war is. Liliput and Blefusku stand for England and France and the many sensless wars they waged. He also satirises the religious fights and differences which seem pointless to him.

How Swift describes England: /book 2 Ch.6/

In England virtues are perverted into cruelty, idleness, rage, hatred, envy , lust , malice etc. This is the reason why there are so many conspiracies, rebellions, murders, banishments and corruption. The legislators in the country are general symbols of ignorance, idleness, and vice.

Gulliver's Travels

Gulliver in Liliput

QUESTIONS FOR THE LITERATURE TEST

1.Novel - you have it in the blog - what is a novel; favourable conditions; literary influences; ancestry of the novel, hist.background - progress and inventions;
2.Victorian period: only Reforms and Progress in industry, science;
3.American literature, review
4.Aestheticism, Modernism, Decadance, Stream of Consciousness - общи характеристики, накратко
5.Authors: Books and a sentence or two for major themes or characteristics:
- Dickens, Thackerey; Oscar Wilde; Virginia Woolf; James Joyce; D.H.Lawrence; T.S.Eliot; W.B.Yeats;
Americans: W.Irving; Fenimore Cooper; Edgar Alan Poe; Hawthorne; Melville; Mark Twain; Fitzgerald

OSCAR WILDE QUOTES

OSCAR WILDE QUOTES: ( мой скромен опит за превод на трудно-преводимия Оскар Уайлд/

A man can be happy with any woman, as long as he does not love her.
Един мъж може да бъде щастлив с всяка жена. При условие, че не я обича.

I see when men love women. They give them but a little of their lives. But women when they love give everything.
Когато мъжът обича жената, той й дава съвсем малко от живота си. Докато жената, когато обича, дава всичко.

A true friend stabs you in the front.
Истинският приятел никога няма да ти нанесе удар в гръб.

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
Илюзията е най-голямото удоволствие.

Life is never fair, and perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
Животът никога не е справедлив, и може би за повечето от нас е добре, че не е.

Life is too important to be taken seriously.
Животът е прекомерно важен, за да се взема на сериозно.

Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious; both are disappointed.
Мъжете се женят от скука, жените – от любопитство. И едните, и другите остават разочаровани.

Deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.
Да мамиш другите – това светът нарича любов.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
Между мъжа и жената е невъзможно да има приятелство. Има страст, враждебност, обожание, любов, но не и приятелство.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.
Всеки светец има минало, а всеки грешник – бъдеще.

The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Истината рядко е чиста, и никога проста.

There are only two kinds of people who are really fascinating - people who know absolutely everything, and people who know absolutely nothing.
Има само два вида хора, които са наистина възхитителни – тези, които знаят абсолютно всичко, и тези, които не знаят абсолютно нищо.

There are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.
Само две трагедии има в живота: едната е да не получиш това, което искаш. Другата – да го получиш.

Women are made to be loved, not understood.
Жените са създадени да бъдат обичани, а не разбирани.

Women love us for our defects. If we have enough of them, they will forgive us everything, even our gigantic intellects.
Жените ни обичат заради нашите недостатъци. Ако имаме достатъчно, те са готови да ни простят всичко, дори и огромният ни интелект.

Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.
Наистина ли считате, че е проява на слабост да се отдадеш на изкушението? Казвам ви, съществуват ужасни изкушения, за които е нужна много сила и кураж, за да им се отдадеш.

The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it... I can resist everything but temptation. Единственият начин да се отървеш от изкушението е да му се отдадеш. На всичко мога да устоя освен на изкушението.

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
Опитът е просто името, с което наричаме грешките си.

There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.
Едно само нещо в този живот е по-лошо от това да говорят за теб. И то е – да не говорят.

Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Мъжът винаги иска да бъде първата любов на жената. Жената – последната.


It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
Нелепо е да се разделят хората на добри и лоши. Те са или очарователни, или скучни.

I am not young enough to know everything.
Не съм достатъчно млад, за да знам всичко.

All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.
Всички жени заприличват на майките си и това е тяхната трагедия. А мъжете не – и в това е тяхната трагедия.

At 46 one must be a miser; only have time for essentials.
На 46 човек трябва да е скъперник, защото има време само за най-важните неща.

To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.
Да обичаш себе си е началото на една любов за цял живот.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.
Сериозността е единственото убежище на повърхностните.

There is no sin except stupidity.
Няма по-голям грях от глупостта.

The old believe everything, the middle-aged suspect everything, the young know everything.
Старият вярва на всичко, човекът на средна възраст се съмнява във всичко, младият знае всичко.

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
Егоизмът не означава да живееш така, както искаш. Егоизъм е да искаш от другите да живеят както ти искаш.

Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.
Образованието е нещо прекрасно, но добре е от време на време да се сещаме, че нищо, което си струва да се знае, не може да бъде преподадено.

I sometimes think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
Понякога си мисля, че Бог, създавайки човека, малко си е надценил способностите.

Hatred is blind, as well as love.
Омразата, както и любовта, е сляпа.

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
Толкова съм умен, че понякога не разбирам и дума от това, което казвам.

I am the only person in the world I should like to know thoroughly.
Аз съм единственият човек в света, когото искам да опозная напълно.

I choose my friends for their good looks, my acquaintances for their good characters, and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.
Приятелите си подбирам според добрия им външен вид, познатите си – според добрия им характер, а враговете си – според интелекта им. Човек не може да си позволи да бъде небрежен при избора си на врагове.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.
Ако не можеш да прочетеш една книга многократно, то няма смисъл въобще да се чете.

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
Повечето хора са някои други. Техните мисли са мненията на някой друг, животът им – мимикрия. Страстите им – един цитат.

Whenever people agree with me I always feel I must be wrong.
Винаги, когато се съгласяват с мен, чувствам, че греша.

Who, being loved, is poor?
Има ли човек, който да е обичан, и да е беден?

Women are never disarmed by compliments. Men always are. That is the difference between the sexes.
Не можеш никога да обезоръжиш жените с комплименти. А мъжете – винаги. Това е разликата между двата пола.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
Малко искреност е опасно нещо. Голямата искреност е абсолютно фатална.

Why was I born with such contemporaries?
И защо съм се родил сред такива съвременници?

Only the shallow know themselves.
Само повърхностните познават себе си.


Questions are never indiscreet, answers sometimes are.
Въпросите никога не са недискретни, а отговорите понякога са.


To expect the unexpected shows a thoroughly modern intellect.
Да очакваш неочакваното – това показва един напълно модерен интелект.

Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.
Смехът съвсем не е лошо начало за едно приятелство, и определено е най-доброто нещо за края му.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
Ние всички сме в калта, но някои гледат към звездите.

When a man has once loved a woman he will do anything for her except continue to love her.
Когато един мъж е обичал някога една жена той би направил всичко за нея. Освен едно - да продължи да я обича.

One should always be in love. That is the reason one should never marry.
Човек винаги трябва да бъде влюбен. Това е причината, поради която човек въобще не трябва да се жени.

The world is a stage, but the play is badly cast.
Светът е сцена, но пиесата е режисирана лошо.

When the gods wish to punish us they answer our prayers.
Когато боговете искат да ни накажат, те изпълняват молитвите ни.

From BALLAD OF THE READING GAOL - translation by Asen Todorov (I think)
Но, чуйте, всеки е убивал
любимата жена —
един с отровно нежен поглед,
друг с думичка една,
страхливецът с целувка кротка,
а смелият — с кама.


Убиват, докато са млади,
убиват в старостта,
едни със златото погубват,
а други с похотта,
добрите само с нож си служат,
че бърза е смъртта.


Обичал дълго или кратко,
взел много или дал,
убил и лекичко въздъхнал
или сълзи пролял —
убива всеки туй, що люби,
не всеки е за жал.

Лежи в тъмницата край Рединг
един злочест човек,
със зъби ръфа го саванът,
макар и твърде лек,
лежи под огнена завивка,
без име, без ковчег.


И ще лежи, догдето Господ
го призове оттам,
излишни са случайни сълзи,
въздишките от срам —
убил е своята любима,
затуй умрял е сам.


Но, чуйте, всеки е убивал
любимата жена,
един с отровно нежен поглед,
друг — с думичка една,
страхливецът с целувка кротка,
а смелият — с кама.

FROM 'BALLAD OF THE READING GAOL'

Yet each man kills the thing he loves  Но, чуйте, всеки убива това, което обича,
By each let this be heard, 
Some do it with a bitter look,  Едни го правят с остър поглед,
Some with a flattering word,  други – със ласкателства,
The coward does it with a kiss,  Страхливецът убива със целувка,
The brave man with a sword! а смелият - със меч!

Some kill their love when they are young,  Едни убиват любовта си, докато са млади
And some when they are old;  Други – в старостта.
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,  Едни я задушават в похот,
Some with the hands of Gold:  а други – със злато.
The kindest use a knife, because  Най-милосърдните използват нож,
The dead so soon grow cold. защото мъртвите изстиват бързо

Some love too little, some too long,  Едни обичат твърде малко, други – твърде дълго
Some sell, and others buy;  Едни продават любовта си, други я
купуват
Some do the deed with many tears,  Едни убиват с много сълзи,
And some without a sigh:  а други – даже без въздишка.
For each man kills the thing he loves,  И всеки убива това, което обича, ,
Yet each man does not die. но не всеки умира заради това.

Truth, indeed, is a thing which is most painful to listen to and most painful to utter. Истината наистина е нещо, което е много болезнено да чуеш, и още по-болезнено да кажеш.

I have said to you to speak the truth is a painful thing. To be forced to tell lies is much worse.
Казвал съм ти, че от истината боли. Но да си принуден да казваш лъжи е много по-лошо.

Great passions are for the great of soul, and great events can be seen only by those who are on a level with them.
Великите страсти са за великите души. Великите събития могат да бъдат видени само от онези, които са съизмерими с тях.


We think we can have our emotions for nothing. We cannot. Even the finest and the most self-sacrificing emotions have to be paid for. Strangely enough, that is what makes them fine.
Мислим си, че можем да имаме чувствата си ей така за нищо. Не, не можем. Дори и за най-изтънчените и саможертвени чувства трябва да се плаща. Странно, може би тъкмо това ги прави изтънчени.

No one can possible shut the doors against love forever. There is no prison in any world into which love cannot force an entrance.
Никой не може да хлопва вратите пред любовта завинаги. Няма затвор в света, в който любовта да не може да проникне.

Do not be afraid of the past. If people tell you that it is irrevocable, do not believe them. The past, the present and the future are but one moment in the sight of God, in whose sight we should try to live.
Не се страхувай от миналото. Ако ти казват, че то е невъзвратимо, не им вярвай. Миналото, настоящето и бъдещето са само един миг пред очите на Бог, и в този миг трябва да се опитаме да живеем.

Things, also, are in their essence what we choose to make them.
Нещата, в своята същност, са такива, каквито ние решим да ги направим


On The Massacre Of The Christians In Bulgaria

by Oscar Wilde

CHRIST, dost thou live indeed? or are thy bones
Still straightened in their rock-hewn sepulcher?
And was thy Rising only dreamed by Her
Whose love of thee for all her sin atones?
For here the air is horrid with men's groans,
The priests who call upon thy name are slain,
Dost thou not hear the bitter wail of pain
From those whose children lie upon the stones?
Come down, O Son of God! incestuous gloom
Curtains the land, and through the starless night
Over thy Cross the Crescent moon I see!
If thou in very truth didst burst the tomb
Come down, O Son of Man! and show thy might,
Lest Mahomet be crowned instead of Thee!