Not Much to Say

For reference, I just finished chapter 14 of Wuthering Heights, so I’m about a third of the way through the novel and a couple chapters behind where I should be in the reading according to the schedule (yikes).
I also told myself before starting this novel that I would attempt to write a blog post every ten chapters, so I’m a little behind in that too. I believe the novel’s lack of action is why I’m behind in reading and blog posts both, because I just don’t have very much to say yet. So far, I’ve found it difficult to pick up Wuthering Heights and get through a chapter without my mind wandering off or completely losing focus. The chapters so far have just been exposition, which gives the plot a very slow feel. I would say this exposition is necessary, however, as it gives me time to decipher each character’s unique identity and sets up Nelly’s narration. It also reveals character’s relationships with each other and themselves like Heathcliff, Catherine, and Edgar, which I think is going to be essential to the overall meaning of the work.
Even though this novel was not the one I voted to read and so far hasn’t been the most exciting read, just its exposition is definitely better than some of the other novels we’ve read this year (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? or Song of Solomon). I have high hopes that Emily Brontë will bring more action and intrigue as I read the next ten chapters, hopefully inspiring my next blog post to be more insightful and less full of nothingness than this one.

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  1. Faith's avatar

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  1. I find it interesting that you described the exposition of Wuthering Heights as better than Song of Solomon. You critiqued that the exposition of Wuthering Heights goes on many chapters, which it definitely does. I would make the argument, however, that the exposition is actually very similar to that of Song of Solomon. In Song of Solomon, the first chapter is disorienting and confusing, as the reader is dropped into the middle of the action with no context. Throughout the proceeding chapters, the exposition is built slowly over many chapters. I think Wuthering Heights follows a very similar pattern. In the first chapter when Lockwood visits Wuthering Heights, the reader is disoriented because so little is known about the characters. The scene with Lockwood’s “dream” about Catherine also is very disorienting. The reader is thrown into action without the necessary backstory. Throughout the next several chapters, as Nelly tells the story of Heathcliff and Catherine, the exposition unfolds very slowly. So, while Wuthering Heights and Song of Solomon are very different in many ways, I think the expositions of these two novels actually follow a very similar pattern.

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