Wuthering Heights as a Gothic Novel

1)The Suspense
Wuthering Heights is a strange and threatening place.
How is suspense built in chapter 1 and 2? Find six points from each chapter that illustrate Brönte’s creation of suspense. * Consider the contrasts between Lockwood and the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights, and the use of pathetic fallacy.
Chapter 1: * Short sentences: ‘A nod was the answer.’ This suggests that not everything is said. She uses the sentence itself to emphasise Heathcliff’s character, particularly when it’s compared to Lockwood’s elaborate ones. The shortness in the sentence suggests that there is something hidden. * Introduction of elements that are not explained until later in the novel, such as the mention of Hareton Earnshaw. * Description of the weather as being dark and gloomy. The weather escapes human control, giving an idea of uncontrollable evil. A storm will build up, such as the suspense. * Descriptions emphasise the isolation of the house. * The architecture of the house; The descriptions describe elements which are typical of Gothic architecture, as well as using foreboding words such as ‘crumbling’, and dark, negative ones, as in ‘grotesque’. * ‘The kitchen had been forced to retreat’. Imagery of oppression, as well as contributing to the idea of warfare. This is a contrast with the idea of the kitchen being the most homely room in the house. There is here suspense and tension building up.

Chapter 2: * First sentence says ‘Misty and cold’. When something is misty, it hides the truth. * ‘The air made me shiver through every limb’; This is significant because the environment is negatively, so powerful, that it has the same negative effect on the body. This could link to Catherine’s ghost. * ‘She kept her eyes on me’ Raises tension, not only by making us ask ourselves who she is,