AO1/LOA – RED
AO2/LSF/QUOTE – BLUE
AO3/CONTEXT – GREEN
AO4/COMPARISON – PURPLE
SETTING (2023):
CHARACTERS WHO HELP OTHERS (2023):
MOTHERHOOD (2022):
DEATH (2022):
Catherine is central expression of love and it is the ultimate tragedy that she gives up her authentic
self for society, it is seen as a betrayal and "murder" by Heathcliff
Thoughts of death lurk constantly beneath the surface of everyday life in Mrs. Dalloway, especially
for Clarissa, Septimus, and Peter, and this awareness makes even mundane events and interactions
meaningful, sometimes even threatening. At the very start of her day, when she goes out to buy
flowers for her party, Clarissa remembers a moment in her youth when she suspected a terrible
event would occur. Big Ben tolls out the hour, and Clarissa repeats a line from
Shakespeare’s Cymbeline over and over as the day goes on: “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun / Nor
the furious winter’s rages.” The line is from a funeral song that celebrates death as a comfort after a
difficult life. Middle-aged Clarissa has experienced the deaths of her father, mother, and sister and
has lived through the calamity of war, and she has grown to believe that living even one day is
dangerous. Death is very naturally in her thoughts, and the line from Cymbeline, along with
Septimus’s suicidal embrace of death, ultimately helps her to be at peace with her own mortality.
Peter Walsh, so insecure in his identity, grows frantic at the idea of death and follows an anonymous
young woman through London to forget about it. Septimus faces death most directly. Though he
fears it, he finally chooses it over what seems to him a direr alternative—living another day
Waves and water regularly wash over events and thoughts in Mrs. Dalloway and nearly always
suggest the possibility of extinction or death. While Clarissa mends her party dress, she thinks about
the peaceful cycle of waves collecting and falling on a summer day, when the world itself seems to
say, “that is all.” Time sometimes takes on waterlike qualities for Clarissa, such as when the chime
from Big Ben “flood[s]” her room, marking another passing hour. Rezia, in a rare moment of
happiness with Septimus after he has helped her construct a hat, lets her words trail off “like a
contented tap left running.” Even then, she knows that stream of contentedness will dry up
eventually. The narrative structure of the novel itself also suggests fluidity. One character’s thoughts
appear, intensify, then fade into another’s, much like waves that collect then fall.
In "Wuthering Heights," death and suffering are closely intertwined with the turbulent and
passionate relationships between the characters. The novel portrays intense emotions, vengeful
acts, and destructive love. Death is presented as a release from suffering, a form of escape from the
oppressive and tumultuous world of the characters. It is associated with the haunting presence of
Catherine Earnshaw's ghost, which symbolizes the enduring pain and longing caused by unfulfilled
desires. The novel also examines the consequences of revenge and how it perpetuates suffering
across generations.
In contrast, "Mrs Dalloway" takes a more introspective approach to death and suffering. The novel
explores the inner lives and thoughts of its characters, particularly Clarissa Dalloway and Septimus
Warren Smith. The narrative delves into the psychological effects of war and post-traumatic stress
, disorder, highlighting the mental anguish experienced by Septimus. His suffering is exacerbated by
society's inability to understand or empathize with his condition. The theme of death is also
prominent, as Clarissa contemplates mortality and the passing of time throughout the story. The
character of Septimus serves as a contrast to Clarissa, illustrating the consequences of repressing
one's true emotions and the potential for a tragic outcome.
SOCIETY’S EXPECTATIONS OF WOMEN (2021):
Clarissa and women act as if they are not "clever" and this keeps them oppressed, their desires to fit
within society prevent them from being free [the latter is similar to Cathy's decision to give up her
authenticity to be the "greatest woman in the neighbourhood"]
FEAR (2021):
SOCIAL STATUS (2020):
EXPERIENCE OF CHARACTERS WHO ACQUIRE KNOWLEDGE (2020):
INEQUALITY (2019):
DIFFERENT NARATIVE VOICES (2019):
Introduction: Emily Bronte and Virginia Woolf use different voices in their novels ‘Mrs Dalloway’ and
‘Wuthering Heights’ in order to depict the connectivity between their characters as well as an attempt to
critique society and its burgeoning expectations.
Paragraph 1: [NON-LINEAR NARRATIVE] ‘Wuthering Heights’ has a non-linear narrative – going back in time
when Lockwood reads scribbles “An immediate interest kindled within me for the unknown Catherine”
and then back to the beginning through Nelly “It’s a cuckoo’s, sir – I knew all about it,” connotations of
Cuckoo = finds premade nest and kicks out its eggs to lay its own – endorses mystery of novel and the
unknowable qualities of the story and reminds the reader we are ‘outsiders’ onlooking a story like
Lockwood, the difficulty therefore to understand these characters reflects the Gothic genre of the novel
where an emphasis is placed on psychological realism – extreme emotions/characters/events are part of an
attempt at the realistic depiction of the minds of the characters like Heathcliff and Catherine “You said I
killed you - haunt me then! The murdered do haunt their murderers […] I cannot live without my soul!”
Similar to ‘Mrs Dalloway' non-linear narrative showing snatches of past coexisting with present +
dilation/fluidity of time captures the flow of life rather than simply progressing the plot, lack of standard
structure requires need for piecing together repeated motifs and clues e.g. big ben “It was precisely
twelve o’clock […] mixed in an ethereal way with the clouds” time - according to Bergsonian influence
that depicted there’s a difference between clock time and subjective human experience of time +
succession of quantitative changes which melt into and permeate one another – this is reconceived in this
novel as the ‘semi-transparent halo’ that Woolf writes of in her modern fiction manifesto, and
acknowledges the importance of memories to rework who we are in the present “some grief for the
past holds it back; some concern for the present”
In ‘Wuthering Heights’ we learn to understand the characters holistically only after considering all the
information together as Nelly and Lockwood unlock the entire narrative – we gradually travel to their inner
deepest secrets. In ‘Mrs Dalloway’ we experience first-hand and at a faster pace the traumas and
uncertainties the characters carry with them – done through the different way non-linear structure is used
Paragraph 2: [MULTI-VOICE] ‘Wuthering Heights’ has a multi-voice, choral narration in the oral tradition
where many characters (e.g. Isabella, Nelly, Lockwood) contribute to the story by speaking or writing events
they have seen/lived through – sense of parochialism in this palimpsestic structure “thus ended Mrs
Dean’s story” – Bronte remains faithful to the voices of the narrative e.g. Joseph’s strong adherence to
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