{"id":812,"date":"2022-09-23T15:21:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-23T15:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/?p=812"},"modified":"2022-10-26T18:18:59","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T18:18:59","slug":"supernatural-vs-real-in-the-ghost-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/2022\/09\/23\/supernatural-vs-real-in-the-ghost-scene\/","title":{"rendered":"Supernatural vs Real In The Ghost Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Emily Bronte\u2019s Wuthering Heights<\/em>, Bronte implements several elements in her writing to maintain the gothic theme of the story, particularly in the ghost scene in chapter three. As John Bowen and Roger Luckhurst suggest in their articles, there are several gothic literary techniques that are commonly implemented in literature including the sublime, or something overwhelming and terrifying (the ghost), the supernatural and real (debate if the ghost is real or imagined), and the theme of inheritance that Luckhurst points too (family significance of ghost\/writing in the room). The theme I will focus on in chapter three is the contrasting descriptions of Lockwood\u2019s dreams which contribute to the supernatural and real elements in Wuthering Heights<\/em>. Bronte sets the dreamlike state for Lockwood by implementing several lines before the appearance of the ghost which seems to contrast against one another, as the reader is left wondering whether Lockwood is dreaming or awake, making the eventual appearance of the ghost and its legitimacy up for debate. Lines like, \u201cI began to nod drowsily over the dim page, my eye wandered from manuscript\u2026I sank in my bed, and fell asleep\u201d (Bronte 22), \u201cI began to dream, almost before I ceased to be sensible of my locality\u201d (Bronte 23), \u201cI listened doubtingly an instant; detected the disturber, then turned and dozed, and dreamt again\u201d (Bronte 24), and \u201cIt annoyed me so much that I resolved to silence it\u2026I thought, I rose and endeavored to unhasp the casement\u201d (Bronte 25). \u00a0This final line comes after Lockwood\u2019s first dream, right after he is initially awoken by a tree branch, and right before he reaches out the window to see and touch the ghost. The contrast and ambiguity in these lines were super interesting to me as it seems like Bronte is deliberately making it difficult to tell if Lockwood is dreaming or awake. Lines with words like \u201cnod, drowsily, asleep, and dream\u201d suggest that he is dreaming throughout the ghost scene, offering a naturalist explanation of the ghost, but Bronte\u2019s final description of Lockwood before he encounters the ghosts, describes the sound of the branch\/ghost \u201cannoying\u201d him so much to the point of \u201crising\u201d to \u201cUnhasp the casement.\u201d The effects of Bronte creating uncertainty about the state of Lockwood is significant as it contributes to the gothic tone of the story, and sets up a dilemma for the reader, whether the ghost featured in chapter three and throughout the rest of the book is supernatural or real.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Emily Bronte\u2019s Wuthering Heights, Bronte implements several elements in her writing to maintain the gothic theme of the story, particularly in the ghost scene in chapter three. As John Bowen and Roger Luckhurst suggest in their articles, there are several gothic literary techniques that are commonly implemented in literature including the sublime, or something … Continue reading Supernatural vs Real In The Ghost Scene<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4791,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[344620],"tags":[344621],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2022","tag-supernatural-and-real"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/19thcennovel\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}