Contents

How to Use This Study Guide with the Text & Literature Notebook.......5
Notes & Instructions to Student...........................................................................................6
How to Mark a Book.........................................................................................8
Basic Features & Background........................................................................10
Introduction.....................................................................................................15

VOLUME I
Chapter I.....................................................................................................17
Chapter II....................................................................................................20
Chapter III..................................................................................................22
Chapter IV..................................................................................................25
Chapter V...................................................................................................27
Chapter VI..................................................................................................29
Chapter VII.................................................................................................31
Chapter VIII...............................................................................................33
Chapter IX..................................................................................................35
Chapter X....................................................................................................38
Chapter XI..................................................................................................40
Chapter XII.................................................................................................42
Chapter XIII................................................................................................44
Chapter XIV...............................................................................................46
Rhetoric | Expression...............................................................................48

VOLUME II
Chapter I.....................................................................................................51
Chapter II....................................................................................................55
Chapter III..................................................................................................57
Chapter IV..................................................................................................60
Chapter V...................................................................................................63
Chapter VI..................................................................................................65
Chapter VII.................................................................................................67
Chapter VIII...............................................................................................70
Chapter IX..................................................................................................72
Chapter X....................................................................................................74
Chapter XI..................................................................................................76
Chapter XII.................................................................................................78
Chapter XIII................................................................................................80
Chapter XIV...............................................................................................82
Chapter XV.................................................................................................84

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 Chapter XVI...............................................................................................86
Chapter XVII..............................................................................................88
Chapter XVIII.............................................................................................90
Chapter XIX................................................................................................92
Chapter XX.................................................................................................94
Rhetoric | Expression...............................................................................97

Memorization & Recitation.........................................................................100

Master Words-to-Be-Defined List...............................................................101
Rhetoric Essay Template..............................................................................103

APPENDIX
Taking With Us What Matters...............................................................107
Four Stages to the Central One Idea.....................................................111
Literary & Rhetorical Devices................................................................116

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 How to Use This Study Guide with
the Text & Literature Notebook
A Step-By-Step Plan

INTRODUCTION AND PREPARATION

A. First read through the Notes & Instructions to Student.
B. Read the two essays, "Taking With Us What Matters" and
"Four Stages to the Central One Idea," in the Appendix.
C. Read "How to Mark a Book" (pp. 8-9).
D. Read and study the Basic Features & Background (pp. 10-14).
E. Complete the Comprehension Questions over the
introductory material (pp. 15-16).

BEGIN TEXT PROPER

1. Begin with the Pre-Grammar section (p. 17). This prepares the
mind, at least in some small way, for the reading and study
of Wuthering Heights and, ideally, for the Central One Idea.
2. Read through the Reading Notes closely, stopping
occasionally to discuss or clarify.
3. Next, try to define as many words from the Words to Be
Defined section as possible in your Literature Notebook.
For meanings of words that you cannot figure out from the
context given, consult a dictionary (or refer to the word in
the text for more context) to help you choose the correct
definition from the Definitions Bank. This vocabulary work
will help you better understand and comprehend the text as
you read.
4. Now, read thoroughly and well the particular section of
Wuthering Heights delineated by the Study Guide (e.g.,
Chapter III), marking the text in key places according to the
method taught in "How to Mark a Book."
5. Return to your Literature Notebook and finish defining any
remaining Words to Be Defined. If need be, refer to the word
in the text for contextual help, or in a dictionary, of course.

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 How to Use This Study Guide with the Text & Literature Notebook

6. Answer the Comprehension Questions in your Literature

Notebook, stopping to discuss and referring to the text
when necessary.
7. Discuss and reflect upon the Socratic Discussion Questions,
referring to the text often or when necessary. These are
intended for verbal discussion, and they also provide a
good opportunity for you to take notes in your Literature
Notebook. The teacher may also assign the questions to be
answered in written form in your Literature Notebook.
8. Complete the Rhetoric|Expression—Central One Idea
section. Take the time to consider and reflect upon
the Central One Idea; discuss freely, making room for
disagreement as well as convergence.
9. Complete the Essay Option in your Literature Notebook at
your teacher's discretion.
10. Repeat steps 1-9 for each act or section.

Notes & Instructions to Student

• This Study Guide is intended to be used with Ignatius
Critical Editions: Wuthering Heights, edited by Joseph Pearce
(ISBN: 978-1-58617-136-0).
• This Study Guide is best used in conjunction with a good-
quality notebook, which will henceforth be called the
Literature Notebook. You will be expected to complete most
of the activities in your Literature Notebook. And of course,
the Literature Notebook will be the place for all of your notes
during reading and discussion, and for all of your essays.
• This Study Guide is written in such a way that it can be
used for grades 8-12. If you are in grades 8 or 9, additional
guidance, assistance, and adaptation will probably be helpful.
• References to the text will be cited by page number,
appearing like this: (p. 27).
• The Introduction in the Study Guide, pp. 15-16, covers
the introductory material in the text. Of course it is good
to complete all of the questions, but at your teacher's
discretion, it may also be fine to complete fewer questions.

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 Notes & Instructions to Student

Another good option would be to complete this section

orally in class discussion, in groups, or in another manner
that suits your teacher's judgment.
• You will notice that many questions ask you to quote a
line(s) from the text in your answer. This will help develop
your ability to find evidence in the text to support your
answer. It will also develop the skill of synthesizing quoted
material into your written argument, which is an important
skill for analytical essay writing.
• The Reading Notes section contains some helpful notes and
facts along with some of the difficult words and phrases in
each chapter.
• The Words to Be Defined section contains specific words
chosen because they are both challenging and useful for you
to learn and memorize.
• Some of the essay prompts tend toward a shorter essay, and
some toward a longer. Both short essays (1 page or less) and
long essays (2-4 pages) are useful and helpful, depending on
the intent and purpose. Your teacher will convey his or her
expectations regarding the length of the essay.
• In the Comprehension and Socratic Discussion Questions,
I sometimes use the words "paraphrase," "summarize," or
"provide a brief summary." All of these essentially mean
the same thing.
• A Rhetoric Essay Template is provided in the back of
the Study Guide as another pre-writing option to help
you outline your essay before you undertake to write it.
The template is very similar to the Rhetoric|Expression
section. Your teacher may choose to have you complete the
Rhetoric|Expression section or use the guide.
• Please complete the Memorization & Recitation section at
the end of the Study Guide as a kind of "final achievement"
that celebrates your reading of the text and completion of
the Study Guide. Perhaps more importantly, this section
allows you to move on from the novel with a special part
of Wuthering Heights in your heart.

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 Basic Features & Background

CHARACTERS

Residents of Residents of
Wuthering Heights Thrushcross Grange
First Generation
Mr. Earnshaw – The owner of Mr. Linton – The owner of
Wuthering Heights who adopts Thrushcross Grange. He and his
Heathcliff. He is a kindhearted man. wife are kindhearted because they
He is influenced by Catherine and allow Catherine to recover at the
Heathcliff, and favors Heathcliff Grange with her childhood illness.
over his own son Hindley, whom he They catch her disease and die a
sends away to school, convinced he short time thereafter.
will not amount to anything.

Mrs. Earnshaw – The wife of Mrs. Linton – The wife of

Mr. Earnshaw Mr. Linton

Second Generation
Hindley – The son of Mr. and Mrs. Edgar – The son of Mr. and Mrs.
Earnshaw. Because of his father's Linton. He is a pleasant, cheerful
affections for Heathcliff, he grows child. He marries Catherine
to hate Heathcliff. He returns from Earnshaw. Though he is not as
school married on the occasion of physically robust and athletic as
his father's death and proceeds Heathcliff, he is a devoted, patient,
to enact revenge on Heathcliff by and kindhearted husband to
terrorizing him and making him a Catherine. After Catherine's death,
lowly servant. Hindley self-destructs he becomes a loving, caring parent
with gambling and drunkenness. to their daughter Cathy.

Catherine – The daughter of Mr. Isabella – The daughter of Mr.

and Mrs. Earnshaw. Catherine is and Mrs. Linton. She has a facile,
passionate and reckless as a child impetuous character and does not
and as a woman. She is self-centered, listen to Edgar and Catherine's
arrogant, and at times, quite heartless. warnings about Heathcliff. She
Even though she loves Heathcliff, she elopes with him and suffers
marries Edgar for status, class, and the consequences of an abusive
wealth. She has no desire for heaven, marriage. Though courageous in
probably because she senses that she breaking away from Heathcliff,
doesn't belong there. She is more at she undergoes a lonely pregnancy,
home in the moors and the stormy illness, and death.
aspects of nature.

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 Basic Features & Background

Heathcliff – The gypsy-like orphan

adopted by Mr. Earnshaw, who
found him in the streets of Liverpool.
He is a hardened child due to
ill-treatment in his childhood, and
his new brother Hindley shows
even more cruelty toward him.
Yet this causes him to become Mr.
Earnshaw's favorite. After Mr.
Earnshaw's death, Hindley increases
his savage abuse of Heathcliff. When
Catherine chooses to marry Edgar,
Heathcliff runs away for three years.
In his absence, he develops a plan to
take revenge on Edgar and Hindley.
When he returns, he enacts part of
his revenge by spitefully marrying
Edgar's sister Isabella. Eventually,
Catherine's haunting spirit prevents
him from enacting his full revenge.
Spiritually tormented, he loses his
will to live and his desire for revenge.

Frances – Hindley's wife

Third Generation
Hareton – Hindley and Frances' son Cathy – Edgar and
Catherine's daughter

Linton – Heathcliff and Isabella's son

Ellen "Nelly" Dean – The admirable, devoted housekeeper at

Thrushcross Grange. A wise Christian woman in whom her
"betters" confide, she offers spiritual and sensible advice. She
tells the detailed history to Lockwood, who writes it down;
thus, Nelly is a narrator once removed.
Joseph – The hypocritical "Pharisaical" servant who is full of
religious judgment and spite. Nonetheless, he is loyal to the
family. He adds color to the novel with his dialect and comic
relief with his character.
Zillah – "The stout housewife" who obtains Nelly's position
after Nelly follows her mistress to Thrushcross Grange. She
conveys to Nelly the events at the Heights in Volume II,
Chapter XVI.

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 Basic Features & Background

TYPE OF NOVEL
Gothic novel; realist fiction; Gothic-romantic novel

GENRE
Gothic novel – In vogue during the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries, Gothic novels depicted remote, desolate
landscapes, crumbling ruins, and supernatural events, designed
to create a sense of psychological suspense and horror.
romantic novel – Novels that place their main focus on the
romantic love between two people and usually have an
emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending. Many subgenres
of the romance novel exist, such as historical romance and
fantasy. Sir Walter Scott, the most famous romantic novelist,
defined the literary fiction form of romance as "a fictitious
narrative in prose or verse; the interest of which turns upon
marvelous and uncommon incidents."

PUBLICATION
Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë (the three sisters) first
published a work called Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell
in 1848—under pseudonyms to match their initials. (Charlotte
Brontë's authorship of Jane Eyre was not revealed to the public
until 1848.1)
Emily Brontë penned Wuthering Heights, her only novel, in
the parsonage of the remote village of Haworth, Yorkshire, in
the north of England in 1845-1846. The novel was published
in 1847 under the pseudonym "Ellis Bell." Emily Brontë died
the following year at age thirty. Wuthering Heights and Anne
Brontë's Agnes Grey were accepted by publisher Thomas
Newby before the success of their sister Charlotte's novel Jane
Eyre. After Emily's death, Charlotte edited the manuscript of
Wuthering Heights and arranged for the edited version to be
published as a posthumous second edition in 1850.2

[1] Kriegel, Jill, Ed. Jane Eyre. Ignatius Critical Editions (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2014), 1.
[2] "Wuthering Heights." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuthering_Heights.

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 Basic Features & Background

SETTING
The wild, rugged moorland country of Yorkshire in northern
England from 1769-1802

NARRATIVE METHOD & POINT OF VIEW

frame device – Brontë frames the main narrative with a
story that features two narrators, Mr. Lockwood, a tenant
at Thrushcross Grange, and Nelly Dean, the housekeeper.
Lockwood arrives at the Grange as a tenant and soon becomes
puzzled by the relationships and strange behavior of its
inhabitants. Then he undergoes a supernatural encounter with
a ghost. Following this, he is confined to the house with a cold
for two months. Nelly Dean, who knows all the people in the
two families and has been personally involved in their histories,
entertains him with her detailed story during his convalescence.
Lockwood records her story (the novel) as an entry in his diary,
so he is the main narrator, but he writes his detailed narrative in
Nelly's voice, just how she tells it to him.
complex point of view/first person (peripheral narrator) –
Because of the frame device, Wuthering Heights features a
complex point of view. The story is primarily told from Nelly's
point of view; thus, it is a first-person point of view by a
peripheral character. Yet the primary narrator is Lockwood,
who begins and ends the story and is writing the story that he
hears from Nelly.

MOTIFS
• revenge
• repetition
• obsession
• doubles
• the conflict between nature and culture
• rebellion
• pairs of contrasts

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 Basic Features & Background

THEMES
• the conflict between the principles of storm and calm
• harmony is shattered and reestablished
• love vs. hate
• selfishness
• the destructiveness of unchanging love
• romantic love
• issues of social classes
• brotherly love
• betrayal
• good vs. evil
• nurture vs. nature

SYMBOLS
• the houses
• ghosts
• archetypal characters
• the moors
• keys
• birds
• flowers
• trees

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 Volume I • Chapter I

Chapter I

GRAMMAR | Presentation
Discover essential facts, elements, and features of the novel through the
Reading Notes, Words to Be Defined, and Comprehension Questions.

READING NOTES
1. capital (p. 5) – excellent
2. hale and sinewy (p. 6) – Although Joseph is an elderly man,
he is hearty, strong, and muscular.
3. cullenders (p. 7) – colanders; metal dishes used for straining
4. mutton (p. 7) – the meat of a mature sheep used for food
5. slovenly (p. 8) – unkempt; disheveled
6. decamp (p. 9) – depart suddenly

WORDS TO BE DEFINED

Definitions Bank
a recluse; one who spoke one's inner thoughts
dislikes people out loud
assorted; various terse; pithy

1. A perfect misanthropist('s) Heaven, n. (p. 5)

2. "The Lord help us!" he soliloquized in an undertone of
peevish displeasure, v. (p. 6)
3. Above the chimney were sundry villainous old guns, adj. (p. 7)
4. relaxed a little in the laconic style of chipping off his
pronouns and auxiliary verbs, adj. (p. 11)

Read Chapter I, marking the text in key places according

to the method taught in "How to Mark a Book."

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 Volume I • Chapter I

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
1. Who has come to visit Wuthering Heights and why? In
what year has he come? Briefly describe the visitor.
2. As they enter the house, what does Lockwood notice
above the door? Do you think this is symbolic or some
kind of allusion?
3. What does the word "Wuthering" mean? Answer with
a quotation.
4. Briefly describe Mr. Heathcliff. Include a quotation.
5. When Heathcliff leaves to hurry Joseph into fetching wine,
with whom is Lockwood left alone? What happens?
6. What happens after the skirmish explained above?

LOGIC | Dialectic
Reason with the facts, elements, and features of the novel;
sort, arrange, compare, and connect ideas—and begin
to uncover and determine the Central One Idea.

SOCRATIC DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

May be verbally discussed or answered in written form in your
Literature Notebook.
1. Do you think there is a connection between Heathcliff's
appearance and his character? Is this Brontë's intent?
2. Look up "wuthering" in a dictionary. What are some
synonyms for the word that you learn from the dictionary
(in addition to the description of the word from the novel
in Comprehension Question #3)? Do you think the name
Wuthering Heights (also the title of the novel) will turn out
to be symbolic in any way? How so?

19