March 21st, 2011 (Chapters 1-6)

Discussion Leader: Samuel

• Discussed the family tree (who's who?)
• The scene with the ghost. Whats up with that?
• Catherine Earnshaw vs. Catherine Linton:    
• Linton is alive but appears as a ghost in Lockwood's dream. Earnshaw is dead.
• The entire novel is a story with in a story. 
• Lockwood and Ellen Dean.
• Dean was a servant for the Earnshaw's for eighteen years and is now Lockwood's house keeper. Their role is to convey the story to the reader. 

We used our time today to try to figure out the bloodline. With so many characters, many with the same name, it is easy to get confused. Most of our time was spent trying to become less confused.

March 22, 2011 (Chapter 7-11)

Discussion Leader: Sara

-Theme of the novel: struggles that accompany love, good people exposed to evil will do evil (bitterness leads to evil) ex. Hareton is raised to be uncivilized by Hindley without the care of Nelly

-the strain on the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is caused by their inability to be together

-the impracticality of Heathcliff running away as soon as he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him

-Irony: Heathcliff and Catherine act coldly toward each other when in reality they are in love, Heathcliff grows into a handsome man after always being the uncivilized, adopted child

-The passage where Catherine tells Nelly of her feelings for Heathcliff, she says she does not belong in heaven among the angels and compares being with Edgar Linton to being in heaven, but instead she is happy in Wuthering Heights with Heathcliff

-Catherine cannot provide a solid reason for why she loves Edgar but immediately explains her love for Heathcliff as being because "he is more of myself than I am" and that their souls are the same; true love has a solid justification

We created a wordle of chapter 9- the words that stood out were heaven, love, Heathcliff, and Catherine.  Heaven has significance in chapter 9 because Catherine would give up heaven if she could be with Heathcliff.  Heaven connotes divinity and perfection which coincides with Edgar's traits.  Heathcliff is like the earth, full of sin, dirty and rough, but beautiful in its own way.  Catherine sees the beauty in Heathcliff which is less evident than the beauty of Edgar. 

March 23, 2011 (Chapters 12-16)

Discussion Leader: Ed

• Heathcliff is a jerk
• What will happen in the story now that Catherine is dead? Possibly the story will continue in the present...
• Heathcliff was responsible for Catherine's mental decline - he brought ruin upon himself.
• Cathy Linton could represent Catherine and Edgar's relationship; it is neglected, yet Edgar puts more effort into caring for it than Catherine does
• It is ironic that Catherine complained theatrically for so long about dying, but then actually dies.
• We picked up on a common theme of Heathcliff as something not quite human (says Nelly, "I did not feel as if I were in the company of a creature of my own species"), the narrators of the story and people talking of him often use metaphors and imagery that compare him to animals. This could also tie back to his origins as an urcin - people considered them to be lesser beings.
• Sara - it's like a dirty mouse: it's cute, but you don't want it near you
• It was unfair of Edgar to yell at Nelly for not telling him about Catherine; he was perfectly capable of realizing for himself that something was wrong.

March 24th, 2011 (Chapters 17-22)

Discussion Leader: Samuel

• Linton as a character: Do you hate him or pity him?
• Is he too priveleged?
• Do you feel bad that he is forced to live with someone who hates him?
• Heathcliff's demise as a character
• At the beginning, you root for him to be with Catherine.
• Now, you dislike him for being the bitter, cruel man he has become (i.e. his mistreatment of Linton and Hareton). 
• This represents a major shift in the narrators tone. 
• Reversal of fortune.
• Isabella compares Heathcliff to a monster/not a human being. 
• Coincides with Heathcliff's loss of character. 
• Motif: the inhumanity of Heathcliff

March 28

Discussion Leader: Sara

Ch 23-30

-Catherine victimized: her love for Linton was abused by Heathcliff

-Heathcliff neglecting but also spoiling Linton led to Linton's negative character traits

-Linton lives in fear of Heathcliff

-Heathcliff jumps into Catherine's grave- reminder of his agony over Catherine and reminder of the sympathy reader once felt for Heathcliff

-Heathcliff opens Catherine's coffin so that when he is buried with his open coffin they can be together in death- Heathcliff is still manipulative in Edgar and Catherine's marriage after their deaths

-Catherine once said that her and Heathcliff's spirits were one in death

-Heathclliff took revenge on Catherine, Isabella, and Hindley by his treatment of young Catherine, Linton, and Hareton

-first Catherine argued and made fun of Heathcliff and acted friendly towards Edgar- loved Heathcliff and married Edgar, similar to young Catherine's treatment of Hareton and Linton

-Hareton was clearly raised by Heathcliff

-Heathcliff provided for Linton until he reached his goal of marrying Linton and Catherine to gain Thrushcross Grange

-Irony- Heathcliff seems evil but is the most tortured character in the book