Read the two eMagazine articles and consider the following question: In what ways does Bronte experiment with and challenge conventional modes of narration? Explore using specific examples and your understanding gained from your further reading.
10 Comments
Sagal
3/4/2014 09:25:43 pm
Bronte uses a dual narration which varies between the characers. Lockwood is a opinionated and biased narrator,he is also a extradiegtic narrator as he says he is " so completely removed from the stir of society" he also misreads characters and situations. For example he reffers to Heathcliff as a "misanthropist" and then later changes his mind about him. The magazine reffers to Lockwood as "pompous" this is exemplified through his vocabulary and his exaggerated long winded sentences. He can be seen as a fallible narrator as he "emphasises the style and manner of narration rather than the content. Moreover, Nelly's narrative is can also be seen as biased, this is because she is involved in the story, whilst Lockwood is an outsider, thus Nelly has the knowledge to form opinions of the central characters. Nelly's narrative is within Lockwood's narrative frame, Bronte utilises framing narrative to highlight the power struggles female face in this this type of society. In the magazine Lockwood's and Nelly's narrative is compared, Lockwood's narrative is "expressed in land,emotionless language - a stark contrast to the emotional dialogue quoted by Nelly".
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Miss Mee
3/4/2014 09:57:43 pm
Thank you Sagal a clear summary of both narrators and their main features. You used the evidence gathered in lesson well. A few questions to consider;
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Kerenjeet
3/4/2014 11:37:32 pm
I think that Nelly's narration is more retrospective, and can be seen as within Lockwoods narrative frame, but Nelly creates her own, as Lockwood only simply states for her continue storytelling and she does of her own accord. They both have two very different dialogue, with Nelly being simpler to understand, especially for the more modern reader, and Lockwood because being more complex.
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Kerenjeet
3/4/2014 11:31:20 pm
Bronte adopts an unconventional dual narrator, where Nelly narrates retrospectively and Lockwood narrating in the present. Lockwood is relatively new to Wuthering Heights, so his opinion is likely to only be based superficially and how things appear at first glance, such as when he first met Heathcliff, he described him as "morose." This links in with the Gothic, as one of the conventions is the unreliable narrator. Both Nelly and Lockwood can be deemed as unreliable, Nelly being a close confidante of Cathy and Lockwood becoming friends with Heathcliff. So because of this, Noel Cassidy says, the reader has to work out their own version of the story from what Lockwood tells, what Nelly tells, and what Lockwood tells us that Nelly tells.” Moreover, “Lockwood is integral to Brontë’s exploration of violence” because in volume 1, it suggests to the reader that his eagerness for Nelly to continue to tell her story is just as a source for information and gossip, which ultimately undermines the Gothic element of violence to something comedic.
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Miss Mee
3/4/2014 11:35:01 pm
Thank you Kerenjeet - good use of your reading from Cassidy's article for AO3. Further explanation of narrative structure and specific examples exploring and analysing the narrator's unreliability would be great here.
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Amrit
3/5/2014 06:31:10 am
Bronte employs a dual narrator in Wuthering Heights with the use of two very different characters, Nelly and Mr Lockwood. Despite the two characters appearing very different they can both be said to recall biased narrations as Noel Cassidy suggests that rather than being narrations "the stories told are their versions, not a definitive tale" which is evident in the novel. Nelly is often very opinionated about Catherine who is described as a "thorn" being embraced by "honeysuckles" clearly this is a negative opinion of Catherine who is often portrayed as a very aggressive and harsh character therefore it can be deduced that Nelly's recollection of events may be fabricated. Bronte may do this to disorientate the readers understanding of the novel. The element of Gothic in the novel is apparent through the ambiguity surrounding characters due to the different accounts by Nelly and Mr Lockwood.
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Amrit
3/5/2014 05:07:56 pm
Bronte' narrator in Wuthering Heights, Mr Lockwood can also be seen as a fallible narrator simply because of his poor judgement of characters, Lucy Webster suggests "misinterpretation is a key feature of these first scenes at Wuthering heights". Mr Lockwood underlines this statement when he is a "suitable pair" with Heathcliff because they are "misanthropists". His narration is fallible because it is clear to the reader that the two characters are nothing alike and Mr Lockwood may be biased towards Heathcliff as his account is very different to Nelly's, furthermore Webster also writes that "pair and misanthropist are contradiction terms" further enforcing Mr Lockwood being an unreliable narrator because his understanding of situations often incorrect.
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Sadik
3/5/2014 05:54:47 pm
Bronte employing a double narration with Lockwood and Nelly was a much scrutinized technique among the Victorian readers but nonetheless very unique technique which challenged the orthodox literary thinking. Lockwood writes in a very complex and superfluous manner which makes the reader question his reliability. An example of this, "Before passing the threshold, I paused to admire the quantity of grotesque carving lavished over the front, and especially about the principle door, above which, among wilderness of crumbling, ........ ". This is just a condensed example of Lockwoods writing which is unnecessarily elongated with the plethora of commas and long sentence structure throughout. Whereas, Nelly's is more intimate, direct and engaging to the reader thus more objective in her approach.
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Izzah
3/5/2014 06:28:20 pm
Bronte experiments and challenges the conventional modes of narration by challenging orthodox literary thinking. Bronte does this through narration by the construction of her narrative with the deployment of multiple narrators, doubling of names and son on. Bronte uses dual narration and each characters narration varies from the other. Lockwood is an unreliable and biased narrator he can be unperceptive and he is unable to read solid relationships correctly. Lockwood is an extra diegetic narrator, in terms of Bronte’s structure Lockwood is the form of outer narration he is a surface narrator. However Bronte chooses to use Nelly a female narrative to be a more reliable source.
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Sagal
3/5/2014 11:10:20 pm
Bronte's use of dual narrative can be seen as deviant according to the Victorian readers. They would expect novels to include an overall moral as novels usually had a didactic purpose. However there is no clear message to this novel. Bronte's use of framing narrative can fit into the Gothic genre of opposittes, arguably Nelly and Lockwood's narrattive acts as binary opposites. Nelly's narrative is much more emotional whilst Lockwood's narrative is emotionless and descriptive.
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Miss MeeTeacher of English at FHS. Archives
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