Notesale: Turn your study into money

Document Preview

Extracts from the notes are below, to see the PDF you'll receive please use the links above

---

Bethany Lee Thompson

Language Investigation and Media Text

How, and to what extent, do male and female
authors write differently?
-An exploration of classic novels Tess of the
D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy and Emily
Bronte's Wuthering Heights
...
Arguably, this classic is a
tragic romance due to Tess, the female protagonist, falling in love, resulting in her death
...
Although this story is told through a female narrator, Bronte is telling the
reader of the love story between Heathcliff, the main antagonist, and Cathy
...
I have chosen to study these two classic, tragic romances, despite the different times of
production, because I am interested in understanding the difference in writing between genders
...
Perhaps they are both trying
to give their own opinions of the opposite sex
...

Both authors are writing in similar genres but write about different themes and concepts as well as
telling different stories in different styles
...
I will compare the description, creativity, dialogue and the lexical
choices of the authors
...

I have chosen this as my area of study as literature is a love of mine and therefore understanding the
author of a text, and why they have written the way they have, will give me an interesting
perspective of the novels when reading them
...
Does my gender dictate this or do I?

Bethany Lee Thompson

Hypothesis
I am investigating how gender affects writing so the questions that I am asking are – How, and to
what extent, is language affected by gender?
I expect to find:

A significant difference in the authors' novels

The stylistic choices of the authors attract different audiences

The author’s gender will have an influence over who will read their books

Bethany Lee Thompson

Methodology
I will use the 'Penguin Classics' copies of the two texts so that both novels are equally updated
...
This means that if updates were made to the
text, being done in the same year, the changes would be similar to each other, and therefore the
difference in the novels are not as drastic as they would be if one text was entirely modernised and
the other was not retouched
...
I will focus on the study of how different
genders write, through stylistic features, description, and dialogue
...
Is there is a noticeable difference between the gender of the writers and their
audience?
I expect to find that, as she has a male protagonist, Bronte's story will be more stereotypically
masculine, perhaps with gore or action
...

A problem which may cause an issue may be the date that the novels were written
...
This means that the contextual elements of each novel may be
different
...
I should consider context when analysing to
avoid making general assumptions on gender
...
However, Emily Bronte's novel was published under a pseudonym Ellis
Bell
...
This could affect the writing as she
was perhaps trying to 'write like a man' to sound convincible, using stereotypical male traits
...


Bethany Lee Thompson

Analysis
Novel as a whole
Narration, Speaker and Voice
Tess of the D'Urbervilles is written in the third person whereas Wuthering Heights is in first person
...
not exactly from living among the hills and seeing one set of faces, and one series of
actions
...
Lockwood
...
Personal pronouns show a personal account using the
expressive function of language
...
An example of this is “This was why she had borne herself with dignity,
and had looked people calmly in the face at times, even when holding the baby in her arms” [Appendix
2]
...

Bronte takes on personas
...
According to Robin Lakoff, a linguist specialising in gendered
language, women stereotypically write to make connections to their audiences and be emotionally
invested in them
...
This also supports Deborah Tannen's theory
that genders write differently because they are writing for different purposes
...
As Hardy is only telling the story, presenting information to the reader and
Bronte is impersonating a character to gain sympathy in the reader by writing as if experiencing the
story first hand and in person, Tannen's theory is supported in this circumstance
...

Themes and Lexical Choices
Both texts contain brutality in different ways
...
He never explicitly states the brutality
...
We gather this because Tess delivers a speech, using
an adverbial phrase, about her mother's lack of warning of the “danger in men-folk” [Appendix 3] after
D'Urberville forces her to kiss him, allowing him to touch her
...
This is perhaps Hardy’s way of bringing
attention to societal norms – that women are to be owned for a man’s enjoyment – in a way that
presents them as unacceptable
...
Physical violence and mental/verbal
abuse is addressed in this novel explicitly
...

He is also verbally abusive and discusses social taboos, for example “I got the sexton, who was
digging Linton’s grave, to remove the earth off her coffin lid and I opened it” [Appendix 5]
...
Though, both were written at a time were this was a taboo and improper subject, which may be

Bethany Lee Thompson
why Hardy doesn't write about it as openly
...

Bronte's novel does not support Deborah Cameron's 'verbal hygiene' theory that women are less
likely to break social taboos and are more politically correct
...
She is also blunt in her 'controversial' manner of writing
...
Women writers’ work was not
as socially ‘esteemed’ as male writers at this time
...


Focus on Exposition, Climax and Denouement
Exposition
Purpose
An exposition of a novel is generally the first chapter, designed to set the scene and context of the
narrative
...
In Hardy's we
are told that a family of Derbeyfield’s descendants of D'Urbervilles and that this kinship is what the
novel is about
...
However, Tess of the D'Ubervilles is almost entirely
dialogue, used to set up the story by telling about it through speech
...
Both use grammatical modifiers, mainly adjectives,
to adjust the description of nouns in their novels; for example, “perfect misanthropist’s heaven”
[Appendix 7] and “black eyes” [Appendix 8] in Bronte’s novel, “straight line” [Appendix 9] and “smart nod” [Appendix
10] in Hardy’s
...
This means more
entertainment for the reader, engaging with the imaginative use of language
...
Bronte also uses a simile as description
...

Bronte's is almost all description of the interior design of the Heights
...
These are subjective adjectives
based on opinion
...
Hardy's work, however, lacks description and
doesn’t make use of these adjectives as his focus and technique of storytelling is the dialogue,
supporting Lakoff's theory
...
In Hardy’s exposition, he shows a
Wessex accent by writing “t’ee” [Appendix 13]
...
“'What are ye for?' he shouted
...
Go round by th' end o' t' laith, if
ye went to spake to him'” [Appendix 14] is an example of this speech that is almost in comprehendible
...

These texts do not support this as Bronte phonetically writes a dialect, which was very modern for

Bethany Lee Thompson
the time of writing, using context of the text to clarify the pragmatics of the speech
...
She lacks use of simple sentences as these create more pauses
and fitful prose
...
An
example would be “And of Wuthering Heights Catherine was thinking as she listened: that is, if she
thought or listened at all; but she had the vague, distant look I mentioned before, which expressed
no recognition of material things either by ear or eye” [Appendix 16]
...
It allows Bronte control over the pace and
makes the audience want to read on
...
”[Appendix 17])
...

Denouement
Narrative Techniques
Both writers finish their novels using generic narrative traits in their denouements
...
He is descriptive as he
uses adjectives like “warmth” [18] and “convex” [18]
...
It is also very speech heavy
...
I found that Wuthering Heights does occasionally support theories
made by language specialists and is even counter typical of modern day ideas, such as the idea that
men are blunter and less reserved
...

Despite an unconventional take of writing, themes and ideas, Emily Bronte does follow traditional
traits of women such as descriptions and empty adjectives to fill these descriptions
...

He is giving information whereas Bronte is creating an emotional, imaginative world for the reader
to interact with the novel and become 'involved' with the story
...
Perhaps this is because it is the narrator that is participating in most
of the speech, as a woman, and talking is a stereotypically feminine trait, which could explain why
the woman writer uses it more than the male
...
However, I am surprised in the ways that the novels are written
differently as I expected the male's novel to be more 'controversial' and address more 'adventurous'
themes
...


Bethany Lee Thompson

Evaluation
I feel like I have picked an interesting topic to investigate and have been successful in my analysis
...
Though, I do think I have done well
...


Bethany Lee Thompson

Bibliography









http://www
...
com/literature/t/tess-of-the-durbervilles/book-summary - Webpage
http://www
...
com/tess-of-the-durbervilles/ - Webpage
http://www
...
com/wuthering-heights/ - Webpage
http://www
...
com/lit/tess/ - Webpage
http://www
...
com/lit/wuthering/ - Webpage
Penguin Classics–Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy (2003 Edited copy) - Novel
Penguin Classics–Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte/Ellis Bell (2003 Edited copy) - Novel
www
...
co
...
I am sure you have thought a great deal more than the
generality of servants think
...
"
Mrs Dean laughed
...
You could not open a book in this library that I have not looked
into, and got something out of also; unless it be that range of Greek and Latin, and that of French -- and those I know one from
another, it is as much as you can expect of a poor man's daughter
...
"

Appendix 2 – Chapter 14 (Phase the Second – Maiden No More), Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Whatever Tess's reasoning, some spirit had induced her to dress herself up neatly as she had formerly done, and come out into the
fields, harvest-hands being greatly in demand just then
...

The harvest-men rose from the shock of corn, and stretched their limbs, and extinguished their pipes
...
Tess, having quickly eaten her own meal, beckoned to her eldest
sister to come and take away the baby, fastened her dress, put on the buff gloves again, and stooped anew to draw a bond from the
last completed sheaf for the tying of the next
...
"How could I
be expected to know? I was a child when I left this house four months ago
...


Appendix 4 – Chapter 17, Wuthering Heights
'The charge exploded, and the knife, in springing back, closed into its owner's wrist
...
He then took a stone, struck down the division between two
windows, and sprang in
...
The ruffian kicked and trampled on him, and dashed his head repeatedly against the flags, holding me with one hand,
meantime, to prevent me summoning Joseph
...
There he tore off the sleeve of
Earnshaw's coat, and bound up the wound with brutal roughness; spitting and cursing during the operation as energetically as he had
kicked before
...


Appendix 5 – Chapter 29, Wuthering Heights
She scornfully withdrew
...
He bid me be silent; and then, for the first time, allowed himself a glance round the room and a look at the
pictures
...
Linton's, he said - 'I shall have that home
...
I thought, once, I would have stayed there: when I saw
her face again - it is hers yet! - he had hard work to stir me; but he said it would change if the air blew on it, and so I struck one side
of the coffin loose, and covered it up: not Linton's side, damn him! I wish he'd been soldered in lead
...
Such an individual seated in his arm-chair, his
mug of ale frothing on the round table before him, is to be seen in any circuit of five or six miles among these hills, if you go at the
right time after dinner
...
Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of living
...
Possibly, some people might
suspect him of a degree of under-bred pride; I have a sympathetic chord within that tells me it is nothing of the sort: I know, by
instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling - to manifestations of mutual kindliness
...


Appendix 7, 8 – Chapter 1, Wuthering Heights
1801
...
This is certainly a
beautiful country! In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of
society
...
Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us
...


Appendix 9, 10 – Chapter 1 (Phase the First – The Maiden), Tess of the D’Urbervilles
On an evening in the latter part of May a middle-aged man was walking homeward from Shaston to the village of Marlott, in the
adjoining Vale of Blakemore or Blackmoor
...
He occasionally gave a smart nod, as if in confirmation of some opinion, though
he was not thinking of anything in particular
...
Presently he was met by an elderly parson astride on a gray
mare, who, as he rode, hummed a wandering tune
...


Appendix 12 – Chapter 1, Wuthering Heights
I 'never told my love' vocally; still, if looks have language, the merest idiot might have guessed I was over head and ears: she
understood me at last, and looked a return - the sweetest of all imaginable looks
...


Appendix 13 – Chapter 1 (Phase the First – The Maiden), Tess of the D’Urbervilles
"Good night t'ee," said the man with the basket
...


Appendix 14 – Chapter 2, Wuthering Heights
'Wretched inmates!' I ejaculated, mentally, 'you deserve perpetual isolation from your species for your churlish inhospitality
...
I don't care - I will get in!' So resolved, I grasped the latch and shook it
vehemently
...

'What are ye for?' he shouted
...
Go round by th' end o' t' laith, if ye went to spake to him
...


Bethany Lee Thompson
Appendix 15 – Trudgill’s Language in Use
Men over-reported their non-standard usage – implying that men wished to sound more non-standard, assuming that they used more
of the covert prestige forms
Women over-reported their standard usage – implying that women wished to sound more standard, assuming that they used more of
the overt prestige forms
Concluded that women are more susceptible to overt prestige than men (and men more susceptible to covert prestige
In the “lower middle class” and the “upper working class” the differences between men’s and women’s usage of the standard forms
were greatest in formal speech, thereby identifying these classes as most susceptible to the prestige of the RP form, with women
leading the way on this front
...
It was a
sweet substitute for the yet absent murmur of the summer foliage, which drowned that music about the Grange when the trees were in
leaf
...
And of Wuthering
Heights Catherine was thinking as she listened: that is, if she thought or listened at all; but she had the vague, distant look I
mentioned before, which expressed no recognition of material things either by ear or eye
...
The spot was lonely, the river deep and wide enough to make such a purpose easy of
accomplishment
...


Appendix 18 – Chapter 59 (Phase the Seventh - Fulfilment), Tess of the D’Urbervilles
The city of Wintoncester, that fine old city, aforetime capital of Wessex, lay amidst its convex and concave downlands in all the
brightness and warmth of a July morning
...


WORD COUNT: 2,486 (excluding Titles, Subtitles, Quotes, Bibliography and Appendices)
WORD COUNT: 4,990 (including all listed above/ in total)



---