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Narrative Technique in Emily Bronte’s Novel, Wuthering Heights
Introduction:
Emily Jane Bronte (30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) is an English novelist and a poet
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She depicts honest
and accurate portrayal of life during an early era in her best-known novel
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Narrative Technique:
A narrative technique is a way in which a story is unfolded
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Different writers
use different narrative techniques to convey what they want
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1
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All the action of Wuthering Heights takes place in or around two neighboring houses on the
Yorkshire moors — Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange
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2
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Bronte does not use typical plot structure
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For instance, she opens the novel with Mr
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Heathcliff, who is writing his diary about his visit to his property owner: “1801-I have just
returned from a visit to my landlord…” She tells the tale of her novel as flashback out of
chronological order
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This flashback tells the tale between
Heathcliff and Catherine
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Narrative Perspectives:
It refers to a set of features determining the way a story is told and what is told
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Bronte
employs the literary technique of a dual narrative to directly engage her readers by creating
distance and objectivity
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Readers are
given Lockwood’s perspective on people, places, and events and are limited to learning
information along with him
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Lockwood learns the back-story of Heathcliff,

Catherine, and the other residents of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange from the
housekeeper, Nelly
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Nelly: Nelly Dean, who offers a first-person retrospective as she recalls her memories of the past,
narrates lengthy sections of the novel
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Other characters provide important narration through their dialogues to Nelly and the novel takes
the tone of a stage drama
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The story she tells is presented in a
dramatic form in which dialogues play a great part
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However, Nelly is also an unreliable narrator because she has strong biases and
emotional attachments to the characters
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For
example, Catherine provides significant narration through her diary
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” Her brother, Hindley orders Heathcliff to maintain
distance from his sister
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In a letter, she expresses that what she has married
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Heathcliff a man? If so, is he mad? And if not, is he a devil? Each of these devices
allows the characters to provide extensive, first-person narration, which gives important intimate
details about the story
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Isabella's letter reveals the lengths to which Heathcliff will go for revenge, revealing his darker
nature
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4
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Major
themes from Wuthering Heights include childhood, nature, love, obsession, religion, duality,
isolation, gender roles, feminism, and marriage
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5
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For
example, Heathcliff is the ultimate static character
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6
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Bronte’s use of romantic imagery
and emotional dialogue in the novel evokes her previous work as a poet
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Her style alters depending on which
character is speaking
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” Joseph speaks in a Yorkshire dialect, representative of his servant
status
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Use of Symbols:
Bronte uses symbols as clues to help readers grasp the constructs of her extended
metaphors, and similes and interpret the meanings of her symbols
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Bronte uses weather to produce tone, reflect the plot,
and mirror characters' emotions
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Moors symbolize the idea of being between
life and death and between good and evil with Wuthering Heights acting as the physical
manifestation of evil and Thrushcross Grange representing good, and the moors between them
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Conclusion:
Wuthering Heights has a highly narrative technique
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There are two narrators, Lockwood and Nelly Dean
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The presence of two
narrators suggests that it is a multi-layered story
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Her unique and matchless use of narrative techniques
makes her only novel incredible and classic work of English literature

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