Week 7 – 19th Century

Write a short paragraph/ poem in which you either challenge or confirm Hardy’s view of the universe as a place without certainties. You can use these lines from “He Never Expected Much” as a starting point:

Well, World, you have kept faith with me,

Kept faith with me…

Never, I own, expected I

That life would all be fair…

‘Twas then you said, and since have said…

“I do not promise overmuch…

Just neutral- hinted haps and such”

Certain of myself and my world

But this is baseless certainty.

Could I, who is a creation of a millionth chance

Did they know that it would be certain they would have me

Those who born me into this world.

Was it set that I would choose to write

choose to love, and choose to die.

The only certainty that is left to us,

and the one thing we fear throughout life;

is the certainty of death.

So yes the world does have a certainty,

one day it will end,

just as I will die.

Week 4 – 19th Century

3/ Daemonic or Demonic? By now, from what you have read so far and from what has been said both here in this blog and also at the lecture, do you have a point of view on this question? Is Heathcliff the embodiment of one or the other? What do you think? Give your answer with a few illustrations from the novel itself.

Revenge is formally defined as the desire for vengeance. Many people have felt this way, usually towards people who have made them suffer anytime before in their lives. One of the most reoccurring themes in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights was revenge. Heathcliff, the main character, felt this way throughout the novel. His reasons for doing such bad things were, in some instances, a way a victim could get back at his past oppressor, and at other times, his treatment of innocent people was just pure evil. Throughout his life, Heathcliff was very often discriminated against. Hindley, Heathcliffs main tyrant did everything in his power to make his life impossible. Edgar Linton, a friend of the Earnshaw family, took Catherine, Heathcliffs true love, away from him. Heathcliff found that he could get his revenge in full if he did the same immoral things to them and also to their children. So in this way Heathcliff is the production of what the world has done to him and the world has forced him into the demon that many people are although not naturally inclined into this dark path that he leads he has no choice but to be the hand of evil if he is to survive in this harsh and stony world.