Wuthering Heights Essay Assignment
Over the summer, you have been reading Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights and making interpretive
notes (literary commentary) about it. Using your notes and our discussion as a starting point, write a 500- 800
word, typed essay. Use textual evidence, in the form of quotations with page numbers, to support your
point(s). Whenever possible, imbed quotations in your sentence structure; do not allow yourself to become
mired in the dull rut of "sentence, quote, sentence, quote, sentence, quote."
Choose one of the following two quotations. For the quotation you choose, write an essay of 500 to 800
words in which you explain the meaning of excerpt and how it relates to the meaning of the novel as a whole.
In the course of your explication, be sure to analyze any literary devices used and discuss their significance to
the meaning.
Sentence outline with clear thesis statement due
Final essay due
Choice 1:
“I want you to be aware that I know you have treated me infernally—infernally! Do you hear? And if you
flatter yourself that I don’t perceive it, you are a fool; and if you think I can be consoled by sweet words, you
are an idiot; and if you fancy I’ll suffer unrevenged, I’ll convince you of the contrary in a very little while!”
(112; ch. 11).
Choice 2
“Oh, I’m burning! I wish I were out of doors! I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free . . . and
laughing at injuries, not maddening under them! Why am I so changed? Why does my blood rush into a hell
of tumult at a few words? I’m sure I should be myself were I once among the heather on those hills” (124; ch.
12).
Procedure
This paper is chiefly a passage analysis essay. It is likely but not guaranteed that you will be able to use some
of your notes from your dialectic journal. Reread the passage in your book, considering the speaker of the
passage and its context (what is going on immediately before and after it). Develop a thesis statement, which
will be an arguable assertion about character, theme, or both. Then reread the novel, flagging quotations that
show connections to this one. These connections may take any form you wish (i.e., another quotation shows
echoes of this one, shows a character transformation, exemplifies Bronte’s theme, foreshadows this event or is
a foreshadowing of this event, and others). Make a list of these quotations; you may use some of them in the
paper, but do not overuse quotations, and certainly do not use very long quotations as filler for your paper.
Your own commentary needs to outweigh quotations by 2 or 3 to one.
Properly introduce and imbed (blend)quotations into your own sentence structure. Include parenthetical
references in the MLA format. (Use chapter, colon, and page number as I have shown above. Do not bother
to write the name Brönte as we are all using the same novel.)
Refer to your first essay assignment for tips on incorporating quotes and the “forbidden” words or sentence
constructions that will only make your essay weaker. Follow the same guidelines for proofreading and editing
as well as formatting the paper!
INCORPORATING QUOTATIONS
The best proof that a work of literature does what you say it does is textual evidence: words and sentences you
can cite from the poem, the story, or the play you are discussing. If, for example, you say that a character in a
story is evil, can you quote a passage in which he clearly says or does something evil, or a passage in which a
reliable character or narrator talks of his evil? The best support you have as you discuss a literary work is the
text of the work itself. It is a cardinal rule of literary analysis that you do not make any statements that cannot be
supported by direct reference to the text.
As you incorporate textual evidence into your discussion through the use of quotations, keep these rules in
mind.
1. Do not overuse quotations. The style of your writing will be better if you incorporate quoted phrases into
your own sentence structure rather than writing a sentence and then quoting a sentence or poetic line.
INEFFECTIVE: Richard Cory was very polite. "He was a gentleman from sole to crown." Also, he was goodlooking, even regal-looking--"clean favored, and imperially slim."
EFFECTIVE: Richard Cory was polite, "a gentleman from sole to crown." Like a handsome king, he was "clean
favored, and imperially slim."
2. Avoid having two quotations in a row. Your own commentary should bridge the two.
INEFFECTIVE: Richard Cory had everything going for him. "He was a gentleman from sole to crown." "And he
was rich--yes, richer than a king."
EFFECTIVE: Richard Cory had everything going for him. Not only was he a "gentleman from sole to crown,"
but he was also "richer than a king."
3. Work the quotations comfortably into your sentence structure. Do not begin a sentence with a
quotation.
INEFFECTIVE: "Darkened by the gloomiest of trees" shows just how frightening the forest looked.
EFFECTIVE: The forest, "darkened by the gloomiest of trees," was a frightening place.
4. Longer quotations (more than two lines of poetry or four lines of prose) should be set off from your
paragraph to display form: single spaced and centered without quotation marks.
NOTE: FOR MOST PAPERS THAT WE WRITE IN THIS CLASS, SHORTER QUOTATIONS ARE
PREFERRED.
SUGGESTIONS FOR THESIS SENTENCES OF LITERARY PAPERS:
1. The thesis must be a single, complete, declarative sentence. The thesis should not be stated as a fragment,
nor should it be a question.
2. The thesis must not merely make a statement; it must express a specific (not vague) idea about the
literature. The thesis should contain commentary, not plot summary. Thesis must not state a fact, but it should
reflect the thought that has gone into the facts. Remember, a thesis is a provable opinion which is supportable
with textual evidence, not an unprovable personal opinion.
3. Sometimes (though this practice is somewhat restricting, and therefore not required) a thesis will identify how
many points will be discussed in the paper (A SEGMENTED THESIS). This also means that if the thesis is
used as part of an outline, it will show how many divisions (paragraphs) the paper will have.
AVOID PASSIVE VOICE:
AVOID CLICHES
AVOID FIRST AND SECOND PERSON
AVOID CONTRACTIONS
AVOID SILLY "MORALS" CONTAINING THE WORD "SHOULD"
AVOID PLOT SUMMARY.
AVOID FRAGMENTS AND RUN-ONS.
FOLLOW THIS RULE: AT LEAST THREE SENTENCES OF COMMENTARY FOR EVERY QUOTATION.
THE FOLLOWING WORDS ARE CRUTCHES TO SLOPPY THINKING. THEY ENCOURAGE VAGUENESS,
WHILE OUR GOAL IS SPECIFICITY. TRY TO AVOID USING THESE WORDS IN YOUR WRITING UNLESS
THEY ARE IN A NECESSARY AUTHORIAL QUOTATION
one (may be used only as the number one, not as a substitute for "a person")
basically
shows
big, biggest
so (not as a sub. For “very”)
et cetera
great, greatest
main
some
thing
there
a lot
many
very
person, people
really