The careful, exacting scrutiny of the text characteristic of New Criticism, which was popular in the conservative era of the mid-twentieth century, certainly mitigates readers' emotional responses and their reactions to the tone and mood of Bronte's novel.Since New Criticism is a conservative approach to interpretation, isolating the text and blocking any interpretations based upon race, class, and gender, such interpretation discounts the dark intensity of the moors, the moods of Heathcliff, and the tumultuous interaction of characters. For, there is no emotional reaction with the New Criticism approach.
New Criticism affects the reader's perspective of the narrative of Wuthering Heights in the following ways:
- It divorces Bronte's text from the genre of Gothic and its place in literary history. Thus, the moods and tones set by the "wuthering heights," the winds and the fog on the heather, which does much to create the Gothic atmosphere is mitigated. This pervading tone...
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- underscores the tumultuous relatioship of Heathcliff and Catherine and creates much of the ambiguity.
- It is disinterested in the human meaning, the societal function, and the effects of the narrative upon readers. The metaphysical passion of Heathcliff and Catherine, a passion stronger than death. if addressed, are isolated from other considerations, such as the impact upon the reader. In Chapter 3 Lockwood is placed in a room to sleep when he experiences the appearance of Catherine's spirit, an experience that causes Heathcliff to cry wildly,
"Come in! come in" he sobbed. "Cathy, do come. Oh do--once more! Oh, my heart's darling! hear me this time, Catherine; at last!"
- It places no emphasis upon Emily Bronte as the writer.
- It puts little emphasis upon reader response and seeks only for the total meaning of the work based upon the qualities that the novel itself possesses.
How has new criticism influenced perspectives on Wuthering Heights?
- Literature as a thing unto itself without author/historical intent: New Criticism
- New Criticism’s synonyms = objective criticism, practical criticism, textual criticism, close reading
- According to Enotes:
New Criticism, a critical approach that treats the literary text as autonomous and unconnected to moral, historical, or political realities.
You will want to look for the following:
- an objective correlative, the artistic and literary technique of representing or evoking aparticular emotion by means of symbols that objectify that emotion and are associated with it. According to Eliot (from "Hamlet and His Problems"):
“The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.”
- Pay close attention to the text’s diction its meanings (connotation and denotation) and even its etymological roots, particularly related to love and death
- Study the diction and figurative language closely, focusing on the narrative styles of Lockwood and Nelly and the dialogue of Catherine and Heathcliff.
- Search for structure and patterns; e.g. oppositions in the text (paradox, ambiguity, irony), the differences between Nelly and Lockwood's narrations
- From parts to an organic wholeness, focusing on love and death
- How the themes (patterns, tensions, ambiguities, paradox, contradictions) are manifested in character, particularly Heathcliff. For example, look closely at the pattern of the novel. It is a double narrative. There are two of everything, two settings, two Heathcliffs, two Catherines, etc... Also, look closely at the ending. According to my notes:
"While the Victorian were acutely aware of conflict, they were less willing than the moderns to see it as intrinsic to love or as having a constitutive function. In art they displaced conflict onto fictitious characters, often onto femme fatales in distant, ancient, or imaginary places." (Kern 373)
- The other solution – joining in death. (sometimes quite liteterally; e.g. Heatcliff joining Catherine in death).
What is the impact of New Criticism on Wuthering Heights?
'New criticism' is a fairly recent phenomenom and deals with the appreciation of material without reference to
moral, historical, or political realities.
It is also a form of objective criticism or 'close reading.'
The story is told by two different narrators and in two different styles, Mr. Lockwood and Nelly Dean, who tell the story of
Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights, and the close-knit bond he forms with Catherine Earnshaw.
The use of the first person by Nelly gives the story its strength and references to
domestic routine, help "to steady" the story and to give credibility to the passion.
These things are all reinforced by an acceptance of 'new criticism' in its non-reliance on the setting, author or her intention at the time of writing.
Refer to the eNotes study guides and to previously asked questions to which you can navigate and which will help you understand how relevant 'new criticism' is, especially on a population that is less interested in history than ever before and who, when reading for pleasure or academic merit, do not necessarily have any background from which to form their opinions.