Wuthering Heights

Mollie Weir and Jessica Best
Sec. Ed 276R

Novel Information and Resources:

Heathcliff is Me!: Wuthering Heights and the Questions of Likeness
Stevenson, John Allen. "Heathcliff is Me!: Wuthering Heights and the Questions of Likeness." Nineteenth-Century Literature. 1998 June: 60-81.
This article describes in detail the character of Heathcliff and his different relationships. It also gives important comparisons between the characters, their similarities and their differences.

The Lunatic and the Devil's Disciple: The 'Lovers' in Wuthering Heights
Thormahlen, Marianne. "The Lunatic and the Devil's Disciple: The 'Lovers' in Wuthering Heights." Review of English Studies 1997 May: 183-97.
This is an important article for its detail describing characters and plot development. It also provides essential information about a few themes in the play, such as: love, death, light, darkness. This article is difficult reading and would not be effective to give to students, but would offer great preparation and guidelines for journal writes, class discussions, and general areas of study in this novel.

The Psychology of Loneliness in Wuthering Heights
Levy, Eric. "The Psychology of Loneliness in Wuthering Heights." Studies in the Novel 1996 Summer: 158-67.
This article explores the central themes of loneliness, fear, and death in the novel. I liked this because it spoke of teaching Wuthering Heights in the classroom and gives some suggestions on how to relate these topics to the everyday life of a teenager. This article will be most effective as a teaching tool and not as a handout.

Reading Activities (compiled by Jessica Best)
|Pre Reading | During Reading | After Reading |

Before

1. “Wuthering Heights.” 2004. Blue Valley Communication Arts Curriculum. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://www.bv229.k12.ks.us/commarts/books/AP%20IV/Wuthering%20Heights.htm>.
This is the first source that should be used. It contains objectives to be taught with reading Wuthering Heights. It also includes professional reviews, rationale for choosing the text, benchmarks for student progress, and skills to be learned. This is useful because it gives the whole Wuthering Heights unit direction and purpose. These criteria are from the AP book list and hence are a useful for preparation for college.

2. Harris, Robert. “A Glossary of Literary Terms.” VirtualSalt. 4 Jan. 2002. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://www.virtualsalt.com/litterms.htm>.
This website defines elements of literature pertaining to Wuthering Heights such as point of view, frame story, setting, narrator, theme, etc. This can be a quick-reference guide to define a term. It also used examples to explain topics. Students can define the terms and find examples in the novel. This internet source is educational in more than one aspect. It also shows how to site internet pages for bibliographies and parenthetical documentation.

“Worksheet Generator.” Discovery School. 2004. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://school.discovery.com/teachingtools/worksheetgenerator/wtg/engl.html>.
With “Worksheet Generator” a teacher can create new worksheets or use already-made, generic worksheets. There are two literature scramble worksheets that are easy and fun for students. Unscrambling literature terms could be used as a reminder of elements students should find in the novel.

3. Dictionary.com. 2005. 21 Feb. 2005
<http://dictionary.reference.com/>.
Here’s a quick and easy dictionary to look up new and significance-packed words such as heath, thrush, wither (wuther), grange, moors, and gypsy. Defining these words create a deeper understanding of the setting and characters, especially Heathcliff. It shows the careful, structured planning that Bronte used in writing Wuthering Heights.

4. “The Victorian Age: Topics.” 2003. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/victorian/welcome.htm>.
The Norton Anthology is very informative and educational and the internet site is the same with many different topics and aspects of the time period. Pictures help understand and experience the time period. Issues of Victorian writing, the Woman question, and events surrounding and igniting the Victorian time period are all included.

5. “The Bronte Archives.” 21 Feb. 2005
<http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/4396/f_index.html>.
This has some poems by Emily Bronte. It includes “I am the only being whose doom…,” “Methinks this heart…,” “She dried her tears…,” “Love is like the wild rose briar…,” “Last Words,” and “Faith and Despondency.” Reading Bronte’s poetry is useful to understand her tone, style, and themes and acquainting students with her language.

6. Matsuoka, Mitsuharu. “The Bronte Sister Web.” 23 Nov. 2004. 21 Feb. 2005
<http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/BS-Emily.html>.
This is the “Home of the Brontes” web page. It covers all of the Bronte sisters and has selected works as e-texts, including poems. There is also chronology, theme discussion, and more academic resources about the Bronte sisters.

7. “Index of/~bump/oxford/Brontes/moors.” 2001. University of Texas at Austin. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/oxford/Brontes/moors/>.
This site is a long list of photos showing moors, signs of “Bronte’s Country”, and even heath, the purple flower in the moors. There is a wide range of photographs, of sheep, moors, farms, cattle, and even little waterfalls. Through the images, students can see how the moors, the rolling hills, can be treacherous and unrelenting. Photography is powerful and influential way for students to understand the important and powerful setting of the English moors.

8. “Map of Yorkshire, England.” 21 Feb. 2005
<http://people.musc.edu/~geesey/YorkshireMap.html>.
Here are three maps showing the nineteenth centuray towns and villages of Southwest Yorkshire, 1890, “East Riding” of Yorkshire, 1890, and a more general map of Yorkshire, England. This is near the Victorian Age time period. The moors of Wuthering Heights are in the Yorkshire area.

“Map of England.” Golf in Europe. 21 Feb. 2005
<http://www.pmfgolfguide.com/england/map.htm>.
This is a general map of England. It is simple map of England and easily helps orient students to see where Yorkshire is in relation to London and the rest of England.

9. “Jung Typology Test.” 1998. HumanMetrics. 21 Feb. 2005
<http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jungtype.htm>.
This is a fun and introspective activity of discovering different individual personality types. Different personalities handle situations, stress, and crises differently. A comparison can be made to how students would act in situations compared the the novel’s characters. The characters in Wuthering Heights have a wide-range of personalities and this creates awareness of the different types. During the novel, students can take the test for a certain character, like Heathcliff, and discuss how well he would do in society today.

10. Convissor, Daniel. “Calvin & Hobbes: A Sci-Fi Environmental Story.” 1999. 21 Feb 2005 <www.panix.com/~danielc/world/calvin.htm>.
This can help clarify a frame story. Calvin & Hobbes is an amusing and enlightening cartoon that shows how a frame story works and how it can be more influential in conveying a certain message.

During:

1. Agatucci, Cora. “Wuthering Heights Study Guide”. 2004. Central Oregon Community College. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/eng109/whsg.htm>.
This is a challenging and thorough study guide. It includes discussion questions, annotations, plot summary, and a place for students’ own annotations. This is wonder for students to use while reading the book. It gives students direction as they look for certain elements of the story and must give short summaries.

2. “Family Crest Social Studies Activity.” 1997. Houghton Mifflin Company. 22 Feb. 2005 <http://www.eduplace.com/act/f_crest.html >.
Students can create a family tree to help clarify between the confusing relations. The genealogy and family relations can be confusing and it can be useful. To make it more interesting, artwork can be used to represent family members and where they live.
Although not directly related, this site shows how to make a family crest. A family crest can be created to represent members of the family and their predominant characteristics.

3. “Discovery School’s Puzzlemaker.” 2004. Discovery School. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/ >.
This is a fun educational tool for teachers, where puzzles such as cross-words can quickly and easily be created from scratch! Make your own original cross-words and worksheets! This is easy and fun! These are great for test reviews or study guides and can be specific for individual classes.

4. Fowler, W. S. “Penguin Readers Factsheets.” 2000. Pearson Education. 22 Feb. 2005 <http://www.penguinreaders.com/downloads/0582419441.pdf >.
This resource is a guide for teachers and students. It contains a brief summary, biography of Emily Bronte, background and themes, activities for before reading and after reading, and a glossary. It is divided into sections of chapters. It is clear and professional. It is an “upper immediate level” and very useful as part of a unit for Wuthering Heights.

5. Mermelstein, Ivy. “#1205. What a Character!.” 1999. Pennbrook Middle School. 22 Feb. 2005 <http://teachers.net/lessons/posts/1205.html>.
This lesson plan plans for a couple of days for a couple activities that concentrate on characterization. Students search for descriptions of a character and write a narration, dialogue and/or journal entry of that character. It includes a grading rubric and objectives.

6. Glazer, Courtney S. “Setting, Theme, and Symbols in Wuthering Heights.” 22 Feb. 2005 <http://ldt.stanford.edu/ldt1999/Students/cglazer/edstruc9.htm >.
This is an “Inter-Disciplinary Mini-Unit” to discuss and focus on main concepts of the novel. For each concept (setting, theme, and symbols) there is an objective and lessons. Included in an overall assessment. There are some creative activities included, like drawing a map or creating a timeline.

7. Chung, Jen. “Heathcliff and Cathy go to High School: Wuthering High.” 2005.Gothamist. 22 Feb. 2005 <http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/02/18/heathcliff_and_cathy_go_to_high_school_wuthering_high.php >.
This is a play-off of Wuthering Heights, much like the film Legally Blond is loosely based on Emma. For an activity, students can create a Wuthering Heights story that takes place in their own high school. This website gives useful ideas as well as a general story line for the modern-day tale. Think about how the characters’ personalities translated to a high school scene and what stereotypes are used today.

8. Snider, Clifton. 2004. “The "Imp of Satan": The Vampire Archetype in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre. California State University. 22 Feb. 2005
<http://www.csulb.edu/~csnider/brontes.html>.
This is an essay on Wuthering Heights. It can be helpful for students to see literary criticism in action – the research, the depth, the length of an essay. The literary audience is vast and the range of ideas and themes discusses is even more vast. An essay like this can also be used for teacher preparation to be enlightened with new ideas.

9. “Sites about Wuthering Heights.” 2002. Internet Public Library. 22 Feb. 2005 <http://www.ipl.org/div/litcrit/bin/litcrit.out.pl?ti=wut-110>.
The Internet Public Library has many essays and critiques of the novel. However, some essays are from on-line journals and need to be retrieved from a library source.

After:

1. “Wuthering Heights.” 2004. Discovery School. 21 Feb 2005 <http://school.discovery.com/lessonplans/programs/wutheringheights/>.
This is an “Assignment Discovery Lesson Plan” that divides the class into two groups that will study different themes from Wuthering Heights and present it to the class as a unit. It includes NCTE standards, a grading rubric, and questions for each group to answer.
Plus, DiscoverySchool.com has clip art, worksheets, puzzle makers, and more ideas and help for lesson plans. You can create your own or use general worksheets. This is a great site for teachers!

2. Newhouse, Lynn. “Literature response activities.” Connect. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://www.k12connect.ca/~lynn_newhouse/g3units/literatureresponse/default.htm>.
This site has simple worksheets of a story frame, story map, story summary, character chart, plot relationship, and novel elements. The novel elements worksheets are useful for students to recognize elements within the story. These response activities can be used for any novel. They are very simple.

3. “Emily Bronte: Themes in Wuthering Heights.” 2004. Brooklyn College. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/novel_19c/wuthering/themes.html>.
This resource discusses many of the themes of Wuthering Heights. This site also has information on Gothicism, romanticism, point of view, love, Bronte’s poetry, and critical responses. It is very informative and helpful with new insights!

4. Friesen, Peter. “The Brontes: Texts, Sources, and Criticism.” 6 Oct. 2000. Plattsburgh, State University of New York. 21 Feb. 2005
<http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/peter.friesen/>.
This professional site included pictures of Haworth, where Emily Bronte wrote Wuthering Heights. There are pictures of her cottage, the local school, etc. It includes an exploration of phrenology and criticism. However, most of the criticism is focused on Jane Eyre.

5. “Jung Typology Test.” 1998. HumanMetrics. 21 Feb. 2005
<http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jungtype.htm>.
Conduct a personality test on one of the main characters. The personality test students took (“Before” reading, number 9) can also be used on characters from the novel. The class can discuss the different characters and how their varying power affects the plot. Also, how would the characters act outside of the Wuthering Heights environment? How would they be treated in today’s world? Are there people like them today?

6. “FieldWorking Online.” 2003. 21 Feb. 2005
<http://fieldworking.com/home.html>.
Define “ethnography” and “field working” and how Lockwood and Nellie’s narration could be an ethnographic study. This internet site has a glossary in the Library and in the Dry Goods section it takes an “inventory”- steps to daily ethnographies. In the Historical Society there are examples and stories. From defining parts of an ethnography and seeing examples students can understand how an ethnography works, and how they make powerful stories.

7. McFarland, Jennifer. “The Consumer Anthropologist.” Harvard Business School. 2001. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://hbsworkingknowledge.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=2514&t=marketing>.
Ethnography is in the technological world of today, as shown in the article, “The Consumer Anthropologist.” It tells how ethnographies are being used today in consumer marketing research. This is a text-to-world connection that can help show why we still read literature.

8. “An Emily Bronte Chronology and discussion questions.” 1998. 21 Feb 2005 <http://theliterarylink.com/whdiscuss.html>.
Here are several questions to prompt persuasive essay writing. Another idea for a persuasive essay is: Using examples in book and life, have students write an essay on, “Can people change?”

9. “Writing activities for writing groups.” Toorak College. 21 Feb. 2005 <http://www.toorakcollege.vic.edu.au/writers/activities.htm>.
This is a long list of creative writing ideas that will add variation to monotonous essays. These are lighter and more fun. An example is having an add-on poem where a poem has the first line and is passed around the classroom, each student adding on a line. The student writing can only see the line above.

10. “Kate Bush Discography.” 23 Feb. 2005
<http://gaffa.org/discog/songs/wutherin.html >.
Here are lyrics to the rock song, “Wuthering Heights” by Kate Bush in 1978. The song may not be the greatest, but the lyrics are very passionate. The emotion felt as “Cathy” sings to Heathcliff can be compared to the novel. Some questions to be asked could be, Is there a difference in how the emotion is portrayed? Which is more powerful?

Back to Emily Bronte's Page

Reading Resources and Unit Guide for this Novel