Great British Literature - Part 6: Wuthering Yorkshire

Put these sentences in the order you hear from the video.

Fill the missing gaps with one, two or three words:

Charlotte, Emily and Anne were three of ____________ children. Their mother died in ________________ .  In 1824 the four oldest girls were sent to school. Conditions were terrible and two of the sisters ____________________  tuberculosis. Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell wrote stories ____________ magazines and ____________.

The girls had to work as quickly as possible because they were ____________.  They published a book of poems ini 1846 under ________________. Later, in 1847, each wrote a novel. They were ___________________ and sold a lot of copies.

The Tenant of Wildfell had sold even better than Anne's _____________________ had. Branwell died in _____________1848. He had never been successful. He tried a lot of occupations including those of writer, teacher and ______________ . Emily died _____________ later. Anne died the ______________.  Despite her fame and success, Charlotte felt _________________ and she died of _____________  from pregnancy.

Although their lives were short, their contributions to literature are still considered some of ________________________ in the English Language.

Comparing Charlotte and Emily’s novels.

Main Themes: match each topic to its correspondent novel

Wuthering Heights tells the story of Heathcliff and Cathy, who are raised in the same household on the wild moors of England. The pair become passionate soul mates whose love soon grows into a dangerous obsession that cannot be contained, even in death. What do you think these following elements symbolize?

 GHOST - WEATHER - HAIR - MOORS

Jane’s journey

Though often labeled a romance, Jane Eyre is also a coming-of-age story, a “bildungsroman”, memorable for its reveal of a woman’s inner life. We follow Jane as she matures from a young orphan to a teacher and then a governess. Do you know the steps of her inner journey?

Hauntings, Madness and Monsters: Understanding the Gothic Tradition

Since the late twentieth century, the Gothic genre has become almost interchangeable with that of horror. While these genres are separate, they share plenty of markers that allow them to overlap. The Gothic is really about atmosphere, fear, a sense of dread. At the heart of the Gothic genre lies the idea of secrets, mysteries and other worldliness. It is the rejection of the rational thinking the Enlightenment movement perpetuated. In short, it is quite difficult to pinpoint what exactly makes something Gothic; there is, simply put, a haunting feeling about it.

In literature, Gothic Revivalist architecture translated into the haunted castle. The first British Gothic novel – The Castle of Otranto, written by Horace Walpole – was published in 1746. The author is said to have suffered a nightmare at his Gothic Revival villa, Strawberry Hill House, a quintessentially Gothic construction that was heavily influenced by medieval architecture and thus inspired the plot of The Castle of Otranto.

Walpole’s novel is set in the titular castle and creates an atmosphere of foreboding and terror by combining supernatural elements with the realistic, emotional responses of the characters. The aesthetic of the novel has served to influence everything Gothic that has come after it.

One of the most famous examples in the Gothic canon would be the castle in Bram Stoker’s masterpiece, Dracula, published in 1897. Situated in deepest, darkest Transylvania, upon the remote Carpathian Mountains, the count’s castle acts as a prison to the witless Jonathan Harker, as well as housing nightmarish monstrosities such as the seductive three virgins. Dracula’s Castle has become synonymous with malevolence and terror.

The Female Gothic

Charlotte Brontë encapsulated a Victorian fascination with madness in the tortured, tragic figure of Bertha Mason, Rochester’s first wife in her novel Jane Eyre. Rochester tells young Jane that Bertha is mad and thus needs to be kept locked up in the attic of Thornfield. Asylums and the treatment of mental health were thorny subjects of the time – the cures for ‘hysteria’, typically diagnosed in young women, were tantamount to legalised torture.

Madness and the lack of rational thought was explored through nineteenth-century Gothic, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. In both novels, as we have already seen, society creates the ‘monster’ through oppression and denial; the reputable Dr Jekyll creates his own psychotic alter-ego to indulge in desires his society would otherwise condemn, while the immoral scientist Dr Frankenstein plays God and loses control when he creates the monster that will destroy his life in revenge for its neglect.

The female protagonists are often victims of misogyny and abuse, and must endure terrible suffering before breaking out of oppressive patriarchal systems. In their novels, the Gothic is married to the Bildungsroman, a type of novel that charts the protagonist’s coming-of-age, so that the horrors become crucial to a character’s emotional development.

When people talk about horror stories they often think about the most famous vampire novel of all time – Dracula. Many people don’t know that this spooky tale about a blood-sucking monster, which is set in Transylvania, was actually penned by a Dublin man – Bram Stoker.

Bram, or Abraham, was born on 8th November, 1847 in Clontarf on Dublin’s Northside. He was always interested in philosophy, history, art and drama and began his career as a theatre critic with the Dublin Evening Mail.

In 1878, Bram married Florence Balcombe. Florence was very beautiful and had been a girlfriend of another famous writer, Oscar Wilde. Bram and Wilde would later become good friends. Bram and Florence had one son, Irving Noel Thornley Stoker.

He visited the USA on many occasions and was even invited to the White House twice, where he met Theodore Roosevelt and William McKinley. Surprisingly, however, Bram never ventured to Eastern Europe even though his most famous work Dracula would be set there. Stoker died in London on 20th April, 1912.

Bram began writing Dracula in 1897. He was inspired by visits to Whitby in England, Slains Castle in Scotland and the tombs in St. Michan’s Church in Dublin. The original script was named The Undead but Bram later changed the title to what we know it by today. Count Dracula has taken many forms down the years. The extract below is taken from Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel:

Jonathan Harker's Diary

The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point. As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal. The Count, evidently noticing it, drew back. And with a grim sort of smile, which showed more than he had yet done his protuberant teeth, sat himself down again on his own side of the fireplace. We were both silent for a while, and as I looked towards the window I saw the first dim streak of the coming dawn. There seemed a strange stillness over everything. But as I listened, I heard as if from down below in the valley the howling of many wolves. The Count's eyes gleamed, and he said. "Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!" Seeing, I suppose, some expression in my face strange to him, he added, "Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter." Then he rose and said: "But you must be tired. Your bedroom is all ready, and tomorrow you shall sleep as late as you will. I have to be away till the afternoon, so sleep well and dream well!" With a courteous bow, he opened for me himself the door to the octagonal room, and I entered my bedroom. I am all in a sea of wonders. I doubt. I fear. I think strange things, which I dare not confess to my own.

Centuries-old Dracula preys on new blood in the streets of Victorian London, seeking to renew his power and extend the reach of his authority. Van Helsing and his allies must confront and defeat Dracula not only to save the women they love but also to protect England from his infectious lusts.

Watch the video, then  with the help of the Characters Map put the following facts into the right order.

 Can we find any of the above mentioned themes also in the following novels? Why yes/no?

Beatrix Potter

Listen to the story and put the sentences in order.

 Now watch this video, then answer the questions below

What animal is not present in the scene ?

a pig - a hedgehog - a fox - a badger

What is this ? →→→→→→→→→→→→

an electric barrier  - an electric gate  -  an electric fence.

What is Thomas spreading on it?     

jam - marmelade - peanut butter

What for ?  So that the animals lick it and ____________ of electrocution

What is Mrs Tiggy-Winkle wearing ?

an apron - a scarf - a dress - a skirt

Mrs Tiggy-Winkle says « Yummy ». What does she mean ? disgusting - delicious - lucky me !

How old is Mrs Tiggy-Winkle ?

She says «I need some excitement before I check out» She means...

before « I am sure »  -  before « I die »

What happens when she gets electrified ?    

She loses all her spines She dies instantly -  She falls on the ground She faints

Why does she say " look away! » to the others ? She wants them to be careful -

She doesn't want them to see her naked bottom - She wants them to leave the place now

Watch again the scene and complete the script :

Why is he _______________  it with peanut butter?

He’s ________________ to bait us into____________ it.

What__________________ if we touch it ?

We're about to_________________ out

No, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle, _________________ !

I'm four and a_______________ years old. I need some excitement before I check out. (…) Look away !

Guys, I have an _____________ ! ______________ what Dad used to say to us?

Never go to the McGregors’ _______________

Yeah, but what ____________ did he say to us?

Don't electrify a lady_______________

Download the PDF lesson on Wordsworth's poem here:

 Scritta sul Ponte di Westminster

Il mondo non ha niente di più bello da mostrare:

Insensibile d’animo sarebbe colui che ignorasse

Uno spettacolo così commovente nella sua maestosità:

Questa città ora, come un indumento, indossa

La bellezza della mattina; silenziosa, nuda,

Navi, torri, cupole, teatri, e templi giacciono

Aperti ai campi, e al cielo;

Tutta brillante e scintillante nell’aria senza fumo.

Mai un sole più bello inondò

Nel suo primo splendore, valle, roccia, o collina;

Mai vidi io, mai sentii, una quiete così profonda!

Il fiume scorre dolcemente secondo la propria dolce volontà:

Mio Dio! persino le case sembrano addormentate;

E tutto quel possente cuore giace immobile.

Riccardo Zambon, 16 March 2024