Summary Notes + Essay plans for Wuthering Heights, A Thousand Splendid Suns
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Course
Unit 2 - Prose
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
This document contains detailed essay plans for both novels. It includes quotes, analysis of writer's methods and context. Learning these plans will allow you to answer almost any essay question.
Social status, death, relationships, education, control, motherhood, fear, journeys, expectations of
women, characters who acquire knowledge, inequality, narrative voice
Social status
Overall: men’s position at the expense of women (Maryam and Jalil) (Heathcliff and Cathy 2), despite
their gender not giving them a high social status, Maryam and Catherine leave their mark and establish a
sort of dominance which subverts their typical social status
1) Men’s position at the expense of women
WH: Heathcliff forces C and Linton to marry to gain control of C’s property
H about Cathy’s marriage to Linton: “She must either accept him or remain a prisoner”
Fairytale-like quality, damsel in distress trope from Gothic genre or Fairytale
Links back to how it is frame narrative, maybe Nelly worded it like this for effect? As she is
telling the story to Lockwood
Lack of choice: men’s greed for status leaves women with a lack of agency
Cathy as a tool: the fact that her property would go to Linton and therefore Heathcliff hints at
the property laws of the time where women were required to hand over their property to their
husbands
Marxist lens: Heathcliff, from an unknown background, is able to gain social mobility however it
comes at the expense of women
Similarly, Jalil retains his own status at the expense of Maryam, “your father has already given Rasheed
his answer/ the nikka will be tomorrow morning”
Similar to Cathy: their fates have been pre decided by men
Lack of Jalil’s own speech (this is said by one of his wives) compared to Heathcliff’s constant
dialogue suggests regret
However, his desire to keep Maryam as a secret and his view of her as a burden overrides any
emotion he feels
Shows the extent of the impact and obsession with social status can cause, it is poisonous
Both Hosseini and Bronte perhaps criticize the social hierarchy of society
The fact that in both novels women are used as tools for social status despite WH being from
the Victorian era shows the impact of wars on Afghanistan, it has not modernized its views on
women
,Secondly in each novel during these transactional scenes, there is an undertone of violence used which
presents the marriages as going against man’s basic conception of morality
Heathcliff gave Cathy a “shower of terrific slaps on both sides of the head”
Jalil is “chewing the corner of his lip”, has a “bruised, helpless look on his face” and gave a “single,
pained groan”
By using violence to show the commodification of women to elevate social status, both authors
underscore the immorality of it
The diction of “shower” (playful) with the double entendre of “terrific” which is suggestive of
not only terror and dread but also something wonderful
Perhaps links to the idea of Nelly’s narration as containing sentimentalist elements, her
depiction of the scene exposes her own fascination with violence
The effect of her narration is one that evokes pity and disgust, paints Heathcliff as the antagonist
Arguably Jalil’s depiction shows more internal conflict, may echo the wide Afghan conflict,
perhaps such elements of violence have been internalized within Afghans
Paints him as a more acceptable villain compared to Heathcliff despite both ultimately having
the same goal of retaining/ elevating social status.
On the other hand, Jalil’s depiction mirrors Maryam own experience with domestic violence she
ends up “bruised” and “beaten”, the parallelism of the two experiences shows that Jalil is to
blame for Maryam’s future suffering, and although he shows inner turmoil during this scene, the
effects seen on Maryam later in the book are enough to pain him as an antagonist
Overall, both Jalil and Heathcliff end up being depicted as villains as each strives to enhance
their social status at the expense of women, despite Jalil showing remorse, the outcome is the
same, therefore shows how inner emotion is undermined by obsession with social status.
2) Despite their gender not giving them a high social status, Maryam and Catherine leave their
mark and establish a sort of dominance which subverts their typical social status: feminist lens
Both authors make use of name
WH: choice to call Catherine’s daughter Catherine as well ATSS: “If it’s a girl, Laila has already named
her”
Link to the idea that names are of utmost importance in both novels
Allow both Maryam and Catherine to be remembered through future characters, lends them a
sort of legacy that their social status would have denied them
Alt int It is significant that Laila has already decided a name for a girl, when typically, boys are
more desired in Afghanistan, as seen through the fact that Rasheed wanted to elevate his social
status through the birth of a boy
They are always present
Also reinforced through “Catherine Earnshaw-Linton-Heathcliff" in WH
, Palimpsest reveals an ever-present nature to Catherine's character, even Lockwood who has
never known Catherine now does so due to this engraving, and this is also helped by Nelly’s
narrative
Shows her conflict during her lifetime: effect of societal constraints and the Victorian weight to
improve one’s social status which eventually influence her marriage with Edgar
Her death and her presence as a “ghost” during a liminal state is what truly allows her to be free
The whole flashback begins soon after Lockwood’s encounter with Cathy’s ghost
She is central to the plot of the play
Similarly, ATSS: “(Maryam) is in these walls... in the trees they’ve planted... in the blankets that keep the
children warm”
Semantic field of comfort: Maryam’s presence is more comforting than Catherine’s in WH which
is more unsettling, an element of the gothic genre
Contrasts her beginning as an “unwanted” “harami”: her social status greatly disadvantaged her
but by the end she is greatly respected, seen through Laila eulogizing
In both novels Maryam and Catherine end up being one of the most important characters
despite their social standing, therefore it can be concluded that the way they elevate their
status is more acceptable than those by Jalil and Heathcliff, particularly Maryam who's legacy
lives on via the hopeful symbol of the orphanage
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