1).

The English novel is an important part of English literature. This article mainly
concerns novels, written in English, by novelistswho were born or have spent a
significant part of their lives in England, or Scotland, or Wales, or Northern
Ireland (or Ireland before 1922). However, given the nature of the subject, this
guideline has been applied with common sense, and reference is made to novels
in other languages or novelists who are not primarily British where appropriate.

Early novels in English[edit]

Main article: First novel in English
The English novel has generally been seen as beginning with Daniel
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders(1722),[1] though John
Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) and Aphra Behn's Oroonoko (1688) are
also contenders, while earlier works such as Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur,
and even the "Prologue" to Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Taleshave been
suggested.[2] Another important early novel is Gulliver's Travels (1726, amended
1735), by Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift, which is both a satire of
human nature, as well as a parody of travellers' tales like Robinson Crusoe.[3] The
rise of the novel as an important literary genre is generally associated with the
growth of the middle class in England.
Other major 18th-century English novelists are Samuel Richardson (1689–1761),
author of the epistolary novels Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740)
and Clarissa (1747–48); Henry Fielding (1707–1754), who wrote Joseph
Andrews (1742) and The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749); Laurence
Sterne (1713–1768), who published Tristram Shandy in parts between 1759 and
1767;[4] Oliver Goldsmith (1728–1774), author of The Vicar of
Wakefield (1766); Tobias Smollett (1721–1771), a Scottish novelist best known
for his comic picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Peregrine
Pickle (1751) and The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (1771), who
influenced Charles Dickens;[5] and Fanny Burney (1752–1840), whose novels
"were enjoyed and admired by Jane Austen,"
wrote Evelina (1778), Cecilia (1782) and Camilla (1796).[6]
A noteworthy aspect of both the 18th- and 19th- century novel is the way the
novelist directly addressed the reader. For example, the author might interrupt his
or her narrative to pass judgment on a character, or pity or praise another, and
inform or remind the reader of some other relevant issue.[citation needed]

Romantic period[edit]
Main article: Romantic literature in English
Sir Walter Scott

The phrase Romantic novel has several possible meanings. Here it refers to
novels written during the Romantic era in literary history, which runs from the late
18th century until the beginning of the Victorian era in 1837. But to complicate
matters there are novels written in the romance tradition by novelists like Walter
Scott, Nathaniel Hawthorne, George Meredith.[7] In addition the phrase today is
mostly used to refer to the popular pulp-fictiongenre that focusses on romantic
love. The Romantic period is especially associated with the poets William
Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, George Byron, Percy
Shelley and John Keats, though two major novelists, Jane Austen and Walter
Scott, also published in the early 19th century.

Horace Walpole's 1764 novel, The Castle of Otranto, invented the Gothic
fiction genre. The word gothic was originally used in the sense of medieval.[8] This
genre combines "the macabre, fantastic, and supernatural" and usually involves
haunted castles, graveyards and various picturesque elements.[9] Later
novelist Ann Radcliffe introduced the brooding figure of the Gothic villain which
developed into the Byronic hero. Her most popular and influential work, The
Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), is frequently described as the archetypal Gothic
novel. Vathek (1786), by William Beckford, and The Monk (1796), by Matthew
Lewis, were further notable early works in both the Gothic and horror genres.
Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein (1818), as another important Gothic novel as
well as being an early example of science fiction.[10] The vampire genre fiction
began with John William Polidori's The Vampyre (1819). This short story was
inspired by the life of Lord Byron and his poem The Giaour. An important later
work is Varney the Vampire (1845), where many standard vampire conventions
originated: Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the neck of his
victims, and has hypnotic powers and superhuman strength. Varney was also the
first example of the "sympathetic vampire", who loathes his condition but is a
slave to it.[11]

Among more minor novelists in this period Maria Edgeworth (1768–1849)

and Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) are worthy of comment. Edgeworth's
novel Castle Rackrent (1800) is "the first fully developed regional novel in
English" as well as "the first true historical novel in English" and an important
influence on Walter Scott.[12] Peacock was primarily a satirist in novels such
as Nightmare Abbey (1818) and The Misfortunes of Elphin (1829).
Jane Austen's (1775–1817) works critique the novels of sensibility of the second
half of the 18th century and are part of the transition to 19th-century
realism.[13] Her plots, though fundamentally comic, highlight the dependence of
women on marriage to secure social standing and economic security.[14] Austen
brings to light the hardships women faced, who usually did not inherit money,
could not work and where their only chance in life depended on the man they
married. She reveals not only the difficulties women faced in her day, but also
what was expected of men and of the careers they had to follow. This she does
with wit and humour and with endings where all characters, good or bad, receive
exactly what they deserve. Her work brought her little personal fame and only a
few positive reviews during her lifetime, but the publication in 1869 of her
nephew's A Memoir of Jane Austen introduced her to a wider public, and by the
1940s she had become accepted as a major writer. The second half of the 20th
century saw a proliferation of Austen scholarship and the emergence of
a Janeite fan culture. Austen's works include Pride and Prejudice (1813) Sense
and Sensibility (1811), Mansfield Park, Persuasion and Emma.
The other major novelist at the beginning of the early 19th century was Sir Walter
Scott (1771–1832), who was not only a highly successful British novelist but "the
greatest single influence on fiction in the 19th century ... [and] a European
figure".[15] Scott established the genre of the historical novel with his series
of Waverley Novels, including Waverley(1814), The Antiquary(1816), and The
Heart of Midlothian (1818).[16] However, Austen is today widely read and the
source for films and television series, while Scott is less often read.

Victorian novel[edit]
It was in the Victorian era (1837–1901) that the novel became the leading literary
genre in English. Another important fact is the number of women novelists who
were successful in the 19th century, even though they often had to use a
masculine pseudonym. At the beginning of the 19th century most novels were
published in three volumes. However, monthly serialization was revived with the
publication of Charles Dickens' Pickwick Papers in twenty parts between April
1836 and November 1837. Demand was high for each episode to introduce some
new element, whether it was a plot twist or a new character, so as to maintain the
readers' interest. Both Dickens and Thackeray frequently published this way.[17]
The 1830s and 1840s saw the rise of social novel, also known as social problem
novel, that "arose out of the social and political upheavals which followed
the Reform Act of 1832".[18] This was in many ways a reaction to
rapid industrialization, and the social, political and economic issues associated
with it, and was a means of commenting on abuses of government and industry
and the suffering of the poor, who were not profiting from England's economic
prosperity.[19] Stories of the working class poor were directed toward middle class
to help create sympathy and promote change. An early example is Charles
Dickens' Oliver Twist (1837–38).

Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens emerged on the literary scene in the 1830s with the two novels
already mentioned. Dickens wrote vividly about London life and struggles of the
poor, but in a good-humoured fashion, accessible to readers of all classes. One
of his most popular works to this day is A Christmas Carol (1843). In more recent
years Dickens has been most admired for his later novels, such as Dombey and
Son (1846–48), Great Expectations (1860–61), Bleak House (1852–53) and Little
Dorrit (1855–57) and Our Mutual Friend (1864–65). An early rival to Dickens
was William Makepeace Thackeray, who during the Victorian period ranked
second only to him, but he is now much less read and is known almost
exclusively for Vanity Fair (1847). In that novel he satirizes whole swaths of
humanity while retaining a light touch. It features his most memorable character,
the engagingly roguish Becky Sharp.
The Brontë sisters were other significant novelists in the 1840s and 1850s. Their
novels caused a sensation when they were first published but were subsequently
accepted as classics. They had written compulsively from early childhood and
were first published, at their own expense in 1846 as poets under the
pseudonyms Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. The sisters returned to prose,
producing a novel each the following year: Charlotte's Jane Eyre,
Emily's Wuthering Heights and Anne's Agnes Grey. Later, Anne's The Tenant of
Wildfell Hall (1848) and Charlotte's Villette (1853) were published. Elizabeth
Gaskell was also a successful writer and first novel, Mary Barton, was published
anonymously in 1848. Gaskell's North and South contrasts the lifestyle in the
industrial north of England with the wealthier south. Even though her writing
conforms to Victorian conventions, Gaskell usually frames her stories as critiques
of contemporary attitudes: her early works focused on factory work in the
Midlands. She always emphasised the role of women, with complex narratives
and dynamic female characters.[20]
Anthony Trollope (1815–82) was one of the most successful, prolific and
respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works
are set in the imaginary county of Barsetshire, including The Warden (1855)
and Barchester Towers (1857). He also wrote perceptive novels on political,
social, and gender issues, and on other topical matters, including The Way with
Live Now (1875). Trollope's novels portrayed the lives of the landowning and
professional classes of early Victorian England.
George Eliot's (Mary Ann Evans (1819–80) first novel Adam Bede was published
in 1859. Her works, especially Middlemarch 1871–72), are important examples
of literary realism, and are admired for their combination of high Victorian
literary detail combined with an intellectual breadth that removes them from the
narrow geographic confines they often depict.

An interest in rural matters and the changing social and economic situation of the
countryside is seen in the novels of Thomas Hardy (1840–1928). A Victorian
realist, in the tradition of George Eliot, he was also influenced both in his novels
and poetry by Romanticism, especially by William Wordsworth.[21] Charles
Darwin is another important influence on Thomas Hardy.[22] Like Charles Dickens
he was also highly critical of much in Victorian society, though Hardy focussed
more on a declining rural society. While Hardy wrote poetry throughout his life,
and regarded himself primarily as a poet, his first collection was not published
until 1898, so that initially he gained fame as the author of such novels as, Far
from the Madding Crowd (1874), The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886), Tess of the
d'Urbervilles (1891), and Jude the Obscure(1895). He ceased writing novels
following adverse criticism of this last novel. In novels such as The Mayor of
Casterbridge and Tess of the d'Urbervilles Hardy attempts to create modern
works in the genre of tragedy, that are modelled on the Greek drama,
especially Aeschylusand Sophocles, though in prose, not poetry, a novel not
drama, and with characters of low social standing, not nobility.[23] Another
significant late 19th-century novelist is George Gissing (1857–1903) who
published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. His best known novel is New Grub
Street (1891).[citation needed]
Important developments occurred in genre fiction in this era. Although pre-dated
by John Ruskin's The King of the Golden River in 1841, the history of the
modern fantasy genre is generally said to begin with George MacDonald, the
influential author of The Princess and the Goblin and Phantastes (1858). William
Morris was a popular English poet who also wrote several fantasy novels during
the latter part of the nineteenth century. Wilkie Collins' epistolary novel The
Moonstone (1868), is generally considered the first detective novel in the English
language, while The Woman in White is regarded as one of the finest sensation
novels. H. G. Wells's (1866–1946) writing career began in the 1890s with science
fictionnovels like The Time Machine (1895), and The War of the Worlds (1898)
which describes an invasion of late Victorian England by Martians, and Wells is
seen, along with Frenchman Jules Verne (1828–1905), as a major figure in the
development of the science fiction genre. He also wrote realistic fiction about the
lower middle class in novels like Kipps (1905) and The History of Mr Polly (1910).

(and)

The Rise of the English Novel

The dominant genre in world literature, the novel is actually a relatively

young form of imaginative writing. Only about 250 years old in
England—and embattled from the start—its rise to preeminence has
been striking. After sparse beginnings in seventeenth-century England,
novels grew exponentially in production by the eighteenth century and in
the nineteenth century became the primary form of popular
entertainment.
Elizabethan literature provides a starting point for identifying prototypes
of the novel in England. Although not widespread, works of prose fiction
were not uncommon during this period. Possibly the best known was Sir
Philip Sidney's Arcadia, a romance published posthumously in 1590.
The novel also owes a debt to Elizabethan drama, which was the
leading form of popular entertainment in the age of Shakespeare. The
first professional novelist—that is, the first person to earn a living from
publishing novels—was probably the dramatist Aphra Behn. Her
1688 Oronooko, or The Royal Slave typified the early English novel: it
features a sensationalistic plot that borrowed freely from continental
literature, especially from the imported French romance. Concurrent with
Behn's career was that of another important early English novelist: John
Bunyan. This religious author's Pilgrim's Progress, first published in
1678, became one of the books found in nearly every English
household.

In the second half of the seventeenthcentury, the novel genre developed

many of the traits that characterize it in modern form. Rejecting the
sensationalism of Behn and other early popular novelists, novelists built
on the realism of Bunyan's work. Three of the foremost novelists of this
era are Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, and Samuel Richardson. Defoe's
name, more than that of any other English writer, is credited with the
emergence of the "true" English novel by virtue of the 1719 publication
of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. In the work of these three
writers, the realism and drama of individual consciousness that we most
associate with the novel took precedence over external drama and other
motifs of continental romance. Contemporary critics approved of these
elements as supposedly native to England in other genres, especially in
history, biography, and religious prose works.
A number of profound social and economic changes affecting British
culture from the Renaissance through the eighteenth century brought the
novel quickly into popular prominence. The broadest of these were
probably the advances in the technology of printing in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries which made written texts—once the province of
the elite—available to a growing population of readers. Concurrent
changes in modes of distribution and in literacy rates brought ever
increasing numbers of books and pamphlets to populations traditionally
excluded from all but the most rudimentary education, especially
working-class men and women of all classes. As the circulation of
printed material transformed, so did its economics, shifting away from
the patronage system characteristic of the Renaissance, during which a
nation's nobility supported authors whose works reinforced the values of
the ruling classes. As the patronage system broke down through the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, authors became free agents in
the literary marketplace, dependent on popular sales for their success
and sustenance, and thus reflecting more and more the values of a
predominantly middle-class readership. The demand for reading material
allowed a greatly expanded pool of writers to make a living from largely
ephemeral poetry and fiction.

These monumental changes in how literature was produced and

consumed sent Shockwaves of alarm through more conservative sectors
of English culture at the beginning of the eighteenth century. A largely
upper-class male contingent, reluctant to see any change in the literary
status quo, mounted an aggressive "antinovel campaign." Attacks on the
new genre tended to identify it with its roots in French romance, derided
as a sensationalistic import antithetical to English values. The early
targets of these attacks were those writers, including Behn, Eliza
Haywood, and Delarivier Manley, who had produced original English
prose "romances" based on the conventions of the French style. At the
same time, however, more women in particular were writing novels that
made a display of decorum and piety, often reacting to detractors who
charged that sensationalistic tales of adventure and sexual
endangerment had the potential to corrupt adult female readers and the
youth of both sexes. The outcome of this campaign was not the demise
of the novel, but the selective legitimation of novels that displayed
certain, distinctly non-romantic traits. These traits became the guidelines
according to which the novel as a genre developed and was valued.
Most venerated by this tradition are the three leading eighteenth-century
male novelists: Defoe, Richardson, and Fielding. Modern students of the
novel are often unaware of the tumultuous controversy that attended its
first steps at the end of the seventeenth century. For the most part,
feminist scholars have been responsible for generating the recovery of
the novel's earliest roots and for opening up discussion of its cultural
value in its many different forms.

Nineteenth Century Novelist

The nineteenth-century novelists are also known as Victorian novelists and it was
considered as the greatest age of English novel. During this period, many famous
novelists wrote a number of great novels. Generally the subject matter of the
Victorian novel was social life and relationship such as love, marriage, quarrelling
and reconciliation, social gatherings, gain and loss of money and so on. Some
great novelist of this period also created the complexities of symbolic meaning
Jane Austen

Jane Austen is the first great English woman novelist. She raised the whole
genre to a new level of art. Though, she wrote her novels in the troubled years of
the French Revolution, which present calm pictures of social life. In her novel she
shows a remarkable insight into the relation between social convention and
individual temperament. Some of her great novels include Sense and Sensibility,
Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion and so on. She brought
the novel of manners and family life to its highest point of perfection. Her novels
have nothing to do with the ugliness of the outside world. Her knowledge of social
life was very deep and true. She has painted her characters in a remarkable way,
but the young men in her novels are less attractive.

Sir Walter Scott

He is known as the founder of the historical novel. In his work we find a deep
sense of Scottish history and nationalism. At first, he tried to write poetry but soon
discovered that he couldn’t write good poetry. Then he turned away from it,
studied the works of other novelists and himself began to write novels. Perhaps
Waverley is his first novel. Some of his other well known novels are Guy
Mannering, The Antiquary, Old Mortality, Wood Stock and so on. His novels tell
the stories of history, but they lack depth and interest. Sometimes his style is
heavy and difficult because of the use of flowery language and Scottish dialect.

Charles Dickens

He is one of the greatest English novelists. He gave the English novel and new
life, place and importance. His novels reveal the social evils of his time caused by
the industrial development in England. He had a keen eye for lively characters
and colorful urban life. Some of his major novels are Oliver Twist, David
Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby and so on. Most of his novels are crowded with
characters like hungry children, thieves, murderers, men in debt, poor and dirty
men and women. Unpleasant situations, sad and miserable scenes are very
common with them. However, he has presented the exact picture of social evils,
and in a deep sense, he had a corrective desire behind his writing.

William Makepeace Thackeray

Thackeray imitated the tradition of Fielding and Goldsmith. His novels are
concerned with the higher state of life and people instead of poor. He presents
the picture of eighteenth-century English society. His characters are not produced
in order to express violent feelings, but we find strange qualities in his characters.
His best known novel Vanity Fair is about the adventure of two girls. Apart from
his historical novels he wrote Pendennis and The Newcomes.

Charlotte Bronte

She lived a lonely life in a village in Yorkshire. She was sensitive, passionate and
sensuous by temperament. But she was involved in the external world more than
her sister Emily. The Professor her first novel describes the events in the life of a
schoolmaster in Brussels city. Her best novel is Jane Eyre. It is about a poor and
ugly girl who is brought up by a cruel aunt. She is treated badly by her aunt and
sent to a miserable school. As a private teacher, she goes to teach the daughter
of Mr. Rochester and falls in love with him. When she knows that his wife is still
alive, she leaves the house. Later on, she knows about his wife’s death and his
miserable condition. Then she returns there, marries him and shares his sorrows.
At times, we find the expression of strong feelings. In spite of its unattractive
heroine, it is very successful novel. Her other novels are not so much remarkable.

Emily Bronte

She also passed a lonely life like her sister Charlotte. She wrote one of the
greatest English novels, Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff, a passionate boy falls in
love with Catherine. She ignores him and marries Edgar. Then Heathcliff begins
a life of cruelly and revenge. He marries Edgar’s sister and treats her very cruelly.
The novel is full of uncontrolled passions and emotions. The story of the novel is
concerned with two families. Because of its strong emotional quality the novel
has been compared to Shakespeare’s King Lear. In the opinion of some critics,
no woman could have written it; but others say one man could not have written all
the plays of Shakespeare! In fact, her only novel Wuthering Heights hold an
important position in history of the English novel.

Joseph Conrad

He was born and brought up in Poland. Nearly at the age of twenty-three, he

went to Britain, picked up the English language and joined the British Navy. He
had widely traveled in many places. His novels are written in his fine style better
than many Englishmen. He had a good sense of loyalty and endurance which he
considered to be the essential qualities of human being. In his novels, he has
shown how the lack of faithfulness and morality and material greed corrupts
human being and human relations. Usually his language is difficult and his
outlook is very broad. His best novels are Lord Jim, The Secret Agent, Under
Western Eyes, Heart of Darkness and Typhoon.

Thomas Hardy

He is a great novelist of unusual power and integrity who added a new dimension
to the familiar realism of the Victorian novel. His novels are set mostly among the
trees, low hills, farms and fields of Wessex (the county of Dorset). His novels
catch the picture of local color. The indifferent attitude of nature towards human
happiness and destiny and mostly pictures of human beings struggling against
their fate are the main facts underlying in all the novels of Hardy.

Hardy’s fourth novel Far From the Madding Crowd takes a closer look at the
nature and consequences of human emotions. Its theme is the contrast between
patient and generous devotion and selfish passion. Bathsheba Everdene is
betrayed by the false love of Sergeant Troy. On the other hand, Gabriel Oak a
shepherd loves her truly and remains loyal to her. At least his faithfulness is
rewarded and he is married to Bathsheba Everdene. The novel has a beautiful
pastoral setting. The human struggle against their blind faith has been finely
portrayed in the novel.
The Mayor of Casterbridge shows a greater mastery of Hardy’s material than can
be found in his other mature novels. It is genuine tragedy and most perfectly
written work of Hardy. It presents the tragic story of Michael, who is destroyed by
his excessive drinking habit. In the fit of drinking, he sells his wife and children for
some money. Later he regrets for his mistake and gives up drinking. He becomes
a rich man through hard work and is made The Mayor of Casterbridge. But when
his wife returns after many years, he begins drinking again and dies miserably.

Among his other tragic novels, Tess of the D’ Urbervilles and Jude the
Obscure are famous. Hardy also wrote a few novels of romance, which include A
Pair of Blue Eyes and The Trumpet Major.

The Women Novelists of the Nineteenth Century

The Victorian Age is a great age of women novelists. Though Jane Austen
started writing at the end of the eighteenth century, her important novels were
written in the first two decades of the nineteenth century. Austen’s novels are
calm pictures of society life. She perfected the novel of family life. She had a true
and deep knowledge of the social life of the English middle classes. She created
living characters. Her plot construction, her characterization, her irony and satire
made her a great novelist. Her first novel was Sense and Sensibility, published in
1811. Later came Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger
Abbey and Persuasion.

Mary Shelly, the wife of the famous poet P.B. Shelley, wrote a famous novel of
terror Frankenstein in 1818. It was started as a ghost story. The Genevan student
Frankenstein makes a human body and given it life. Because of its ugliness, the
monster becomes lonely and destructive. Her The Last Man (1826) was about
the slow destruction of the human race by disease.

Charlotte Bronte was brought up in Yorkshire in poor surroundings. She wrote

her first novel The Professor (1846) in Brussels. Her next novel Villette was an
autobiographical novel about a beauty less and moneyless teacher. Her finest
novel Jane Eire also described the life of a poor and beautiful girl. Along with
historical tradition, her novels have a mixture of realism and romance.

Charlotte’s sisters Emily Bronte and Anne Bronte also wrote novels. Emily
wrote one of the greatest of English novels Wuthering Heights. It is a tragic novel
of love, revenge and cruelty. Anne Bronte, the youngest, wrote Agnes
Grey and The Tenant of the Wildfall Hall.

George Eliot was the pen name of Mary Ann Evans, who wrote intellectual
novels. Her first novel Adam Bede(1859) was influenced by her childhood
memories. He had the ability to draw characters and describe scenes skillfully.
She also had pity and humor. Her other novels are The Mill on the Floss, Silas
Mariner, the historical novel Romola, and Middlemarch.

Mrs. Elisabeth Gaskell used the novel as a medium of social reform. Her
famous novel Cranford (1853) was a fine picture of life in a village. Her other
novel Mary Barton showed deep feelings for the poor people working in the
factories. Ruth was a story of an orphan girl. North and South showed the
comparative English lives, the poor north and the happy south.

2). Why is Heathcliff a villain?

Pehle read karna sab fir hi likhna........

He isn’t. No one in Wuthering Heights is either a villain or a hero. He is a

douche by rational standards, that is for sure, but he wasn’t written to be
purely evil.
It isn’t clear whereas the author wanted her characters to be mostly
despicable, but it’s precisely what makes this novel unique. Heathcliff’s
actions sure bend more on the side of villainy, but he is still written as
being extremely human. He is flawed, he is loving, he has clear anger
issues, he is kind to some, he is violent to others, he has desires and
fears. He isn’t a villain because he was shown from the beginning to have
loved someone else more than his own person. It’s obviously a mystery
whether he loved Catherine or saw himself in her, but at the end of the
day, his love and his psychological evolution make him so human that
it’s difficult to see him as frightening or even charismatic. A villain would
be a character of whom we know nothing and who embodies the term
‘evil’.
But Heathcliff is as ‘grey’ as the other characters : we know things about
him, we know his weaknesses, his strengths, we’ve witnessed his
transformation. We’re too privy to be afraid of him. This isn’t how
readers usually feel towards a villain. To most, Heathcliff as well as the
other main characters of Wuthering Heights, are primarily a bunch of
brats with a few redeeming qualities and a sometimesinteresting
storyline.
In my opinion, no heroism nor villainy ever happens in Emily Brontë’s
novel.

And

Heathcliff and His Reputation

Forget most of the romantic nonsense you have heard about Heathcliff.
Sure he's in love with Catherine, and you can't question his loyalty, but
he has a serious mean streak. To put it bluntly: dude acts like a
sociopath.
Brontë is at her best when she is describing him, and his looks garner a
lot of attention from her and the other characters. Numerous polls have
voted him literature's most romantic hero, which says a lot about the kind
of men we like—tortured, brooding, and obsessive. Heathcliff is the
embodiment of what is known by literary types as the Byronic hero: a
dark, outsider antihero (kind of like Mr. Rochester from Jane
Eyre or Edward Cullen from Twilight). He is lonerish and little demonic...
but he's definitely hawt.

Heathcliff's Childhood
Heathcliff enters the Earnshaw home as a poor orphan and is
immediately stigmatized because he's all alone in the world. Yep—
Heathcliff is far from the only evil character in this novel.
Baby Heathcliff is characterized as devilish and cruelly referred to as "it"
in the Earnshaw household. His language is "gibberish" and his dark
otherness provokes the labels "gipsy," "wicked boy," "villain," and "imp of
Satan." (Ouch!) This poor treatment is not much of an improvement on
his "starving and houseless" childhood, and he quickly becomes a
product of all of the abuse and neglect.
Oh yeah—and because his skin is dark he will never be accepted by his
adoptive family or the villagers of Gimmerton. That Heathcliff should be
given the name of an Earnshaw son who died in childhood confirms the
impression of him being a fairy changeling—an otherworldly being that
takes the place of a human child. Plus, he is never given the last name
Earnshaw.

Heathcliff's arrival is seen as a direct threat to just about everyone, but

mostly to Hindley. As Nelly Dean tells it, "from the very beginning,
[Heathcliff] bred bad feeling in the house" (5.55). Her choice of words is
super-suggestive, since there is so much preoccupation with his racial
background (breeding).
Coming from Liverpool (a port town with many immigrants), Heathcliff is
very likely mixed race. Some critics have suggested that he is partially
black or Arab. Could he be Mr. Earnshaw's illegitimate child? This would
explain his father's strange insistence on including him in the household.

Victorian England was fascinated by gypsies, and they appear in novels

like Jane Austen's Emma and Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, among
others. Gypsies, who were thought to have come from Egypt (which is
where the "gyp" part of the word comes from), were objects of
discrimination, partly because their traveling lifestyle made them people
without a nation or land (like Heathcliff), and partly because they just
looked so different from the typical Anglo Saxon. In nineteenth-century
novels, gypsies often steal children.
They are never the hero (or anti-hero) of the novel. So Brontë really
mixes up our expectations here... especially because Heathcliff's
appearance is so important.

Heathcliff's Appearance
Though the mystery of Heathcliff's background is never solved, there is
endless speculation and fascination about his appearance. Mr.
Earnshaw introduces him to his new family by saying that he is "as dark
almost as if it came from the devil" (4.45), and he is called a "gipsy" by
several different characters.

Looking as different as he does makes it impossible for Heathcliff ever

truly to fit in. His determination to gain control of both Wuthering Heights
and the Grange is driven by his desire to become master in spite
of being so much an outsider—economically, familially, and physically.
His envy of Edgar's light-skinned handsomeness is part of what fuels his
anger about Catherine's choice.

During a three-year absence, Heathcliff is physically transformed. No

longer a beaten-down street kid, he has become, as Nelly puts it:

... a tall, athletic, well-formed man; beside whom my master [Edgar]

seemed quite slender and youth-like. His upright carriage suggested the
idea of his having been in the army. His countenance was much older in
expression and decision of feature than Mr. Linton's; it looked intelligent,
and retained no marks of former degradation. A half-civilised ferocity
lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was
subdued […] (10.53)

By the time Lockwood meets him, Heathcliff is still dark and swarthy, of
course, but now embodies the social status that he has gained over the
last twenty-five years. Lockwood notes:

Mr. Heathcliff forms a singular contrast to his abode and style of living.
He is a dark-skinned gipsy in aspect, in dress and manners a
gentleman: that is, as much a gentleman as many a country squire
[...] (1.15)

At this point in Heathcliff's story he contains oppositions: his ethnic

background presents a strange contrast with his master-of-the-house
look. Though he acquires the property, he can never change his
appearance and what it implies socially. (For more on Heathcliff's race,
check out our "Themes" section.)

Heathcliff and Violence

Heathcliff can be a real beast, which comes across through his
numerous threats, violent acts, and symbolic association with that unruly
pack of dogs (with names like Throttler and Skulker). In some ways he is
the supreme depraved Gothic villain, but his emotional complexity and
the depth of his motivations and reactions make him much more than
that.

Heathcliff often falls back on violence as a means of expression, both of

love and hate. Having been abused by Hindley for most of his childhood,
Heathcliff is the classic victim-turned-perpetrator. His rage is tied to the
revenge he so passionately seeks, but he also undertakes small
"extracurricular" acts of violence, like hanging Isabella Linton's dog.
Whether he is capable of sympathy for anyone but Catherine is highly
questionable. As Nelly recounts:

[Heathcliff] seized, and thrust [Isabella] from the room; and returned
muttering—"I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe,
the more I yearn to crush out their entrails! It is a moral teething; and I
grind with greater energy in proportion to the increase of pain." (14.39-
41)

That pretty much sums up his attitude—dude has zero pity—and he's
talking about his wife! He treats his son, Linton, no better. Linton's sickly
demeanor is a contrast to his father's strong and healthy physique, and
Heathcliff has no tolerance for the poor little guy.

Though Heathcliff expresses and often enacts violence against just

about everyone in the two houses, he would never hurt Catherine.
However, his love for her is violent in the sense that it's passionate and
stirs a brutal defensiveness. Importantly, by the end of the novel
Heathcliff admits to Nelly that he no longer has any interest in violence.
It's not so much that he is sated as that he is just... over it. As he tells
her:

"It is a poor conclusion, is it not... An absurd termination to my violent

exertions? I get levers and mattocks to demolish the two houses, and
train myself to be capable of working like Hercules, and when everything
is ready, and in my power, I find the will to lift a slate off either roof has
vanished! My old enemies have beaten me; now would be the precise
time to revenge myself on their representatives: I could do it; and none
could hinder me. But where is the use? I don't care for striking. I can't
take the trouble to raise my hand!" (33.59)

Heathcliff and Catherine

As readers painfully recall, Heathcliff leaves his beloved Cathy after
overhearing her say it would degrade her to marry him. That moment
really hurts, because if anything is obvious, it's that Catherine is
Heathcliff's soulmate and his only ally against Hindley.
In a sense, their love remains immature, since they were only ever
"together" as young children. The moments of joy that haunt Heathcliff
for the rest of his life occur over just a few pages. Many of them take
place as an escape from violence, as in this memory recounted in
Catherine's makeshift journal:

"Hindley is a detestable substitute—his conduct to Heathcliff is

atrocious—H. and I are going to rebel—we took our initiatory step this
evening." (3.13)

And soon after:

"We made ourselves as snug as our means allowed in the arch of the
dresser. I had just fastened our pinafores together, and hung them up for
a curtain, when in comes Joseph, on an errand from the stables. He
tears down my handiwork, boxes my ears, and croaks…" (3.19)

Without her, Heathcliff quickly turns from mythic hero into well-schooled
brute.

Heathcliff and Cathy are haunted by each other; each sees the other as
inseparable from his or her being. As Catherine tells Nelly Dean:

"Nelly, I am Heathcliff—He's always, always in my mind—not as a

pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself—but as my
own being—so, don't talk of our separation again: it is
impracticable." (9.101)

This confession is one of the novel's most famous lines, because it so

poignantly expresses the nature of Heathcliff and Catherine's love: this
love is not the stuff of Valentine's Day cards. It's beyond the physical,
transcending all else. Heathcliff tells Nelly:

"I cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped on the
flags! In every cloud, in every tree filling the air at night, and caught by
glimpses in every object by day... my own features mock me with a
resemblance. The entire world is a dreadful collection of memoranda
that she did exist, and that I have lost her." (33.62)
Heathcliff and Cathy see themselves as one and the same, which is
interesting considering how big of a deal everyone else makes about
Heathcliff's "otherness": his swarthy complexion and low social standing.
Cathy doesn't care about any of these differences; her love renders
them meaningless.

But this closeness also leads to one of the biggest problems in the
novel. Because Catherine considers Heathcliff to be a part of her, she
does not see her marriage to Edgar as a separation from Heathcliff. For
Heathcliff, though, soulmates should be together. Her death only
increases his obsession, and he goes so far to have the sexton dig up
her grave so he can catch one last glimpse of her.

While he can be a horrible brute, it's easy to pity Heathcliff. After all, he
finds his perfect love and she goes off to marry a stiff like Edgar Linton.
Does Brontë intend for us to like Heathcliff? It's hard to tell. Emily's sister
Charlotte wrote that "Heathcliff, indeed, stands unredeemed; never once
swerving in his arrow-straight course to perdition" (Charlotte Brontë,
"Editor's Preface to the New Edition of Wuthering Heights").
And we have to say that there's something really magnetic about a guy
who takes an "arrow-straight course," whether it's to perdition or
elsewhere.
( Book me se bhi panda thoda)

Que 3) search more also acc. To question

LITERATURE SUMMARY: GREAT EXPECTATIONS

SHORT SUMMARY (Synopsis)

As a young child, the orphan Pip lives with his sister and brother-in-law, the village
blacksmith. On Christmas Eve, Pip is walking through the marshes when he meets
an escaped convict who threatens him into bringing back food and a file to break the
leg-irons. On Christmas Day, the convict is captured and returned to the prison ships
known as The Hulks. He never reveals Pip’s assistance when he is caught and asked
how he escaped his irons.

Much later, young Pip is sent to entertain Miss Havisham, a wealthy old lady who
lives in a mansion known as Satis House. Miss Havisham is a bitter woman who was
jilted on her wedding day long ago. She still wears her wedding gown, and the now-
rotten wedding cake sits atop her dining room table. Her adopted daughter, Estella,
is beautiful, and Pip instantly falls in love with her. But Estella is cold and distant.
Over time, she softens somewhat toward Pip, but her affection is erratic. She tells
him she can never love anyone.

Pip is dismissed from Miss Havisham’s service and becomes an apprentice to Joe.
But Estella has instilled in him a shame in his commonness. He longs to be a
gentleman, not a blacksmith. His discontent grows. One day he learns that an
anonymous benefactor has left him an enormous sum of money. He is to move to
London, where he will be trained to act as a gentleman. A lawyer, Jaggers, will
oversee his inheritance. Pip is certain his benefactor is Miss Havisham, and believes
he is being trained as Estella’s future husband. Pip's happiness is unfathomable as
he moves to London, away from the only family and friends he has ever known. He
is educated by Mr. Mathew Pocket and strikes a great friendship with his son,
Herbert.

His wealth and position changes him, and soon Pip leads a dissipated life full of
idleness. He is ashamed of Joe and Biddy, and wants little to do with them. He
thinks association with them will lower him in Estella’s eyes. Estella continues to be
a powerful factor in his life. She has been trained by Miss Havisham to break men’s
hearts, and is constantly put in Pip’s life to toy with him. Even though she warns him
she cannot love him, Pip persists in loving her.

On his twenty-fourth birthday, Pip learns that his benefactor is not Miss Havisham,
but the convict from long ago. He realizes he is not meant for Estella, and also that
Miss Havisham deliberately let him assume incorrectly. As well, he realizes with
shame that he has mistreated his good friend Joe, who was always faithful to him.
Though Pip is ashamed of the convict, Magwitch, he is grateful and loyal, so he
commits himself to protecting Magwitch from the police, who are looking for him. His
friend, Herbert Pocket, helps him.

Pip's moral education begins. He decides he can no longer accept the convict’s
money. He becomes compassionate towards Magwitch, realizing the depth of the
convict’s love for him. He tries to help Magwitch escape, but in the chaos, Magwitch
is injured and caught. Magwitch dies, but not before Pip discovers that adopted
Estella is Magwitch’s daughter and tells Magwitch how lovely she is. Estella marries
Pip’s enemy, Drummle. Miss Havisham dies, but not before repenting of the
bitterness that has ruined her life. She leaves a good deal of money to Herbert
Pocket, at Pip’s request, in the hope that it will earn her forgiveness. Pip goes to Joe
and Biddy, who have married one another since the death of Pip’s sister. He atones
for his sins against them then sets off on his own, determined to make things right
in his life. The novel ends when he meets Estella after many years. She has left
Drummle, who has since died. She is remarried. She and Pip part as friends and Pip
realizes she will always be a part of his life, as surely as all the other memories of
his once-great expectations.

THEMES
The major themes in the novel are all related to ambition, i.e. “great expectations.”
Some issues explored under this umbrella theme are greed, envy, pride, arrogance,
ingratitude and unkindness. The primary lesson Pip learns is that uncommon-ness
on the inside is more important than uncommon-ness on the outside. He learns
contentment and humility and returns to the kindness and generosity that
characterized him when he was young. The themes are related to and presented in
the Bildungsroman genre, which is explained in the “Background” section of this
guide.

MOOD
Great Expectations is regarded as Dickens “grotesque tragicomic” conception,
probably because of the mix of comedy and tragedy that adorns most of his novels.
The opening of the novel is a perfect example of the dual mood. There are moments
of touching tragedy and sadness, such as young Pip in a cemetery surrounded by his
dead family, and Pip being mistreated by his only surviving relative, Mrs. Joe. At the
same time, there is lighthearted comedy, such as when Mr. Pumblechook and Mr.
Wopsle weave their tales of how the thief must have stolen the pork pie, when all
the time, it was no thief but Pip. Though some of the comic mood is sustained
throughout the book, it is definitely not the predominant mood. In fact, the darker
moods dominate the text, with mystery and danger always lurking beyond the next
page. Miss Havisham presents a grotesque mystery, as does Jaggers’ housekeeper
Molly. The unknown and the dreaded are always present, especially toward the end
of the novel, when grave events and serious complications completely envelop the
plot.

Que : 4)

One of the central themes that runs through Middlemarch is that of marriage.
Indeed, it has been argued that Middlemarch can be construed as a treatise in
favour of divorce. I do not think that this is the case, although there are a number
of obviously unsuitable marriages. If it had been Elliot's intention to write about
such a controversial subject, I believe she would not have resorted to veiling it in a
novel. She illustrates the different stages of relationships that her characters
undergo, from courtship through to marriage:

A fellow mortal with whose nature you are acquainted with solely through the brief
entrances and exits of a few imaginative weeks called courtship, may, when seen in
the continuity of married companionship, be disclosed as something better or
worse than what you have preconceived, but will certainly not appear altogether
the same
Page 193

She not only includes the new couples (Fred and Mary, Celia and Chettam), but
also the older ones (the Garths and the Cadwalladers and the Bulstrodes), as well
as widowhood (Dorothea).
The marriage that would at seem most in need of a divorce, that between Dorothea
and Casaubon, would be, ironically, the one that would last the longest if divorce
had been available. Dorothea would not, indeed could not divorce Casaubon
because of her honesty and the strength of her idealism. Despite the fact that
Casaubon is clearly unsuitable, she still goes ahead with the marriage. It can be
said that Dorothea represents the antithesis of Casaubon, where he his cold and
severe, she is warm and friendly. Indeed, they are portrayed in clearly different
ways: Dorothea represents light and life, while Casaubon is darkness and death. To
Mr Brooke, Casaubon is "buried in books" (447), to Sir James he seems a
"mummy" who has "not a drop of red blood in him". The very thought that
Dorothea has come to be engaged to him causes Celia to start to "grieve" (48).
Everything about Casaubon issues from this basic metaphor. His appearance - a
pallid complexion, deep eye sockets, iron-grey hair (16) - makes his head look like
a skull. Indeed, his proposal to Dorothea - in which his affection is introduced in
parenthesis - shows that he is emotionally dead. Eliot could not have been precise
on such matters, but he may be sexually impotent, for Dorothea is found "sobbing
bitterly" on her honeymoon in Rome, and it may not simply be his deficiencies as a
scholar that account for her disappointment (190).

It is not love that attracts Dorothea to the corpse-like Casaubon, rather her sense of
duty; her desire to be like one of Milton's daughters. Dorothea, orphaned at a
young age, would seem to long for a husband who can fill the role of the father she
lost. Casaubon's age is no deterrence, indeed she would rather marry a teacher /
father figure than a romantic person at the beginning of the novel. She learns,
though, that this is a bad idea, and so finds herself attracted to Ladislaw. She is so
possessed with the idea of contributing to the good of humanity through the
assistance she can offer Casaubon, she does not even notice how patronising and
self centred he is. Celia, however, when confronted with the same facts, has no
illusions, and can see that Casaubon is entirely unsuitable, even if she expresses
her objections to him in terms of his soup-eating technique. If Dorothea fails to see
Casaubon for what he is, it is not due to circumstances (Her short-sightedness is a
metaphor for her inability to perceive what everyone else can see clearly, in favour
of the transcendent. Could the glasses she requires to correct her normal sight
represent Celia, who is the lens through which she can see what others perceive as
normal reality?), but due to her mind seeking to go beyond their earthly
constraints. Dorothea, then is full of Christian hope, while Casaubon is
characterised by pagan indolence and apathy - it takes Dorothea's prompting for
him to even consider starting to finish his 'great' work. When Casaubon proposes
marriage, she sees herself not as a bride to be married to a groom, more the Saint
Theresa of the prelude preparing to take her holy vows as a nun - as a "neophyte"
on the verge of a "higher initiation" (43). She presumably sees Casaubon as the
"lamp" to light her darkness (84), but fails to notice that he lives at Lowick (Low
wick).
Although the marriage is obviously unhappy, neither party, I believe, could end it.
Dorothea because she is so determined to make something worth while come out
of it, something that will benefit society. Casaubon couldn't end it, as it would be
admitting that he had made a mistake in his choice of Dorothea as a wife.

Another marriage that is arguably unhappy is that of Lydgate and Rosamond.

There is one similarity between Dorothea and Rosamond - they both see marriage
as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. Dorothea's motive is to get a
wider horizon and to be part of a great and productive enterprise. Rosamond
marries Lydgate to climb socially and to leave Middlemarch. It is this selfish view
of marriage that makes their marriage unstable. This is illustrated when, once
Lydgate had been implicated by rumour of dubious practices involving Bulstrode,
he begs for understanding and sympathy from Rosamond. She has none to give
him, as she is more concerned with her public image than with him. She married
him as a means of escaping Middlemarch and to introduce her to the society of his
uncle the Baronet, she therefore looks on him as only a means to her own ends. It
had never occurred to her to imagine his "inward life" or his "business in the
world" (164). She therefore has no idea what he is suffering at this moment, and
therefore has no pity for his pain. All she can do, then, is stare at him in sullen
silence (746). Rosamond's refusal to acknowledge the desires, indeed the
independent lives of others makes her a destructive force - she cannot see that
Lydgate would be completely unhappy if he were forced to become a rich spar
doctor; she only sees him in terms of a means for providing the funds necessary to
fuel her pretensions of rank. She would seem to think that, because of her
education, she is above 'normal people' - she would like to think that, because she
is married to a relative of a baronet, she has moved up in the world.

The marriage between Lydgate and Rosamond can be seen in materialistic terms.
Lydgate is a biologist and a doctor; he is therefore concerned with things outward
appearance, with their structure and their function. It is therefore not surprising that
he chooses to marry Rosamond, as she represents all that a materialist would want
- beauty. Rosamond does not aspire to the same lofty ideals that Dorothea does;
she thinks continually of her appearance and her social standing - "She was by
nature an actress of parts, that entered into her physique: she even acted her on
character, and so well, that she did not know it to be precisely her own". It can be
argued that Elliot is so harsh in her portrayal of Rosamond because she wishes to
punish her for being beautiful, as Elliot was apparently somewhat plain. This is
however doubtful, as Dorothea is also beautiful, though of a different sort.
Rosamond, however exhibits the vice of every virtue that Dorothea possesses.

Rosamond is often pictured standing in front of a mirror, patting her blond hair,
while Dorothea is shown standing in front of windows: She catches sight of men
and woman working and suffering, which causes her to see the "largenes of the
world", and is ashamed at having indulged in "selfish complaining" (776). It is not
this kind of selfish that Elliot objects to, she is far more concerned with the total
and complete egoism displayed by Rosamond at the start of chapter 27; if a candle
is placed on a scratched surface, the abrasions that are in reality in all directions
appear to radiate out from the candle. Rosamond is not only selfish in the usual
sense of the word, but completely egocentric, locked in the prison of her own
mind, incapable of escaping its boundaries, incapable of understanding or caring
for anything but her own needs. Elliot stresses their antithetical roles when she
presents Lydgate with the choice of the two. It is a combination of the fact that
Dorothea is already married, and that Lydgate is more concerned with outward
appearances that he chooses Rosamond. He has turned away from the "Gift of the
Gods" (Dorothea), and chosen the "Rose of the World" (Rosamond). This
represents the choice between, as John Stuart Mill would have put it, higher and
lower pleasures. This is reflected in Lydgate's name - he is given the name of
Tertius Lydgate, which points toward John Lydgate's Fall of Princes, whose third
book suggests that physicians delight in the possessions of material things.

Another interesting marriage is that of the Bulstrodes. We do not see their marriage
in the same detail as others are described in, until Mrs Bulstrode discovers her
husbands disgrace. This is very similar to the scene involving the disgrace of
Lydgate, mentioned previously. Knowing nothing of his past, or the lies that
underpin it, she is as much a victim as anyone else. She is however overcome with
pity for him, when she sees him "withered and shrunken". She therefore puts on
her old black clothes and removes all her ornaments, as silent sign of her desire to
stay with him, even though this involves complete public humiliation. This is the
reaction that we would have expected from anyone that felt even the slightest love
for their husband. This is the reaction that Dorothea would obviously have had, and
the reaction that Rosamond is incapable of having. I think that it is this response
from Mrs Bulstrode that stops Mr Bulstrode from breaking down completely,
indeed from killing himself.

There is one family that would seem to be the moral standard and centre of the
novel - the Garth family. Mrs Garth is introduced to us teaching Latin to the
children while cooking dinner. This is portrayed as being a very worthwhile
activity, and is contrasted with the somewhat silly parenting attitude of both Celia
and the Vincy's. Mary Garth's insistence that Fred find a worthy profession before
she will marry him is also held in high esteem - she is putting the good of others
above her own desires. The only trouble that the Garth family goes through is a
result of their virtue rather than their vice; Caleb, out of kindness and of love,
backs Fred, and so when the creditors want their money, the future of one of the
Garth children is put in jeopardy.

We can see that Mary's attitude to Fred, though apparently harsh, is eminently
sensible; it gives Fred a chance to prove his love to Mary (If he was unwilling to
change his lifestyle to appeal to Mary, it would have shown that he's feelings
towards Mary were not completely serious), and it gives Mary a chance to reform
Fred (She feels the same way that Dorothea does, and wants to do some good, so
she chooses to help Fred). Fred has been sent to college by his father to become a
clergyman, but finds he has no interest in the calling. Fred sees himself as being "at
sea" (399), and his only hope, he imagines, is to inherit Featherstone's estate. He is,
however, not without intelligence - Mary recognises him as having "sense and
knowledge" enough (509) to make himself "useful" to the world (253). What he
lacks therefore is direction and purpose. Their relationship is the most amusing, as
Mary continually makes fun of Fred. She agrees to be his reason to find work, but
refuses to be his calling - "You have a conscience of your own, I suppose" she
remarks contemptuously to him (138). Of all the marriages in the novel, I think
that Mary's and Fred's is / will be the most successful; they both know that they
love each other, and have known this from a very early age.

I believe the reason why marriage is put under such scrutiny throughout the novel
is that it functions as a link between individuals and society. The two are seldom
distinct in Elliot's work and the issue of their relationship is always critical to the
development of different themes. Marriage also represents a method of comparison
between her characters; throughout the novel are examples of very different
characters undergoing remarkably similar circumstances (An example of this is the
comparison between the reactions of Rosamond and of Mrs Bulstrode when they
learn of their husbands' disgrace). This desire to analyse and compare probably
came from her studies of both natural sciences and psychology. I don't believe that
Elliot's position is either for or against marriage - she is, in my view, equally for or
against certain characters. The marriages that are portrayed in Middlemarch are of
such different and varied composition that no general rule can be drawn from
them.

Que : 5)

Next
Chapter 1
It is the early 1930s. At the Marcia Blaine School, located in
Edinburgh, Scotland, a class of ten-year-old girls begins two
years of instruction with Miss Jean Brodie, a charismatic
teacher at the Junior school who claims again and again to be
in her “prime.” She provides her pupils with an energetic if
unorthodox education in unauthorized topics as various as
poetry, makeup, Italian fascism under Mussolini, and her own
love life, believing that Goodness, Truth, and Beauty are of
supreme value, and that the arts hold a higher place than the
sciences. In time, Miss Brodie singles out six girls as special to
her, and who she intends to mold into “‘the crème de la
crème’”: Sandy Stranger, Rose Stanley, Mary Macgregor, Jenny
Gray, Monica Douglas, and Eunice Gardiner. These girls come
to be known as the Brodie set, whom Miss Brodie culturally
develops and confides in. However, in one of the novel’s
characteristic prolepses (fast-forwards), we learn that one of
these girls will eventually betray Miss Brodie, though Miss
Brodie never learns which.
The girls’ other teachers at the Junior school include the art
master, the handsome, sophisticated Mr. Teddy Lloyd, a
Roman Catholic who lost his arm during World War I, as well as
the singing master, the short-legged and long-bodied Mr.
Gordon Lowther. Both of these men come to love Miss Brodie,
but Miss Brodie is passionate only about Teddy Lloyd, whom
she commends for his artistic nature. The two kiss once, as
witnessed by Monica Douglas, but Miss Brodie soon renounces
her love for Teddy Lloyd, as he is married with six children.
Instead, she commences an affair with the unmarried Mr.
Lowther during a two-week leave of absence (although she
claims that her absence is due to illness).

Meanwhile, the highly imaginative, psychologically penetrating

Sandy becomes increasingly obsessed with Miss Brodie’s love
life, going so far as to imagine her teacher having sexual
intercourse. At one point in their two years in the Junior school,
Sandy’s best friend Jenny is accosted by a man exposing his
genitals to her near the Water of Leith (a river that runs
through Edinburgh), an incident investigated by a female
policewoman. Sandy falls in love with the idea of this
policewoman, and imagines that she is on the police force
alongside her, with the purpose of preventing sex altogether.
She also imagines that she and her invented policewoman
should investigate the love affair between Miss Brodie and Mr.
Lowther.
At the age of twelve, the girls leave Miss Brodie’s class and
graduate to the Senior school, taught by teachers like the
excellent science instructor Miss Lockhart, all of whom are
committed to the authorized curriculum as Miss Brodie was not.
Nonetheless, the girls retain their group identity as the Brodie
set, even though they have nothing in common save being
picked out by Miss Brodie, whom they visit extracurricularly as
they did as students at the Junior school, going with her to the
ballet and the like.
The headmistress of Blaine, Miss Mackay, has all the while
been fostering a professional disapproval of Miss Brodie’s
educational methods and scorn for the group identity of her six
special girls; she wishes Miss Brodie would leave Blaine to
teach at a progressive school, but Miss Brodie dismisses the
idea. Consequently, Miss Mackay attempts to pump the Brodie
girls for incriminating facts about their former teacher that
might allow her to dismiss Miss Brodie. Miss Mackay also
attempts to break the Brodie set up. Both attempts fail; the
Brodie girls are unflaggingly loyal to their beloved teacher and
to the principles of individualism, love, and loyalty she instilled
in them.
Miss Brodie’s love affair with Mr. Lowther continues; when the
sewing teachers at Blaine, the sisters Miss Ellen and Alison
Kerr, begin to work as housekeepers for Mr. Lowther, and
encroach on Miss Brodie’s exclusive claim to him, she asserts
her influence by coming to Mr. Lowther’s house whenever the
Kerr sisters are there so that she can oversee them. She
criticizes them for skimping on their employer’s meals, and
sets about fattening Mr. Lowther up. She also begins to invite
her special girls, now thirteen years old, to socialize with her in
pairs at her paramour’s house. She asks them often about Mr.
Lloyd, for several of the girls, especially Rose Stanley, have
begun to sit for portraits with their art teacher. Miss Brodie
especially enjoys hearing about how each face Mr. Lloyd paints
strangely resembles her own. One day in Mr. Lloyd’s studio,
Sandy points this fact out to Mr. Lloyd himself, glaring at him
insolently; Mr. Lloyd kisses the young girl, and she doesn’t
know what to think about it.
As the girls grow from thirteen to fourteen, fourteen to fifteen,
Miss Brodie determines that she can trust Sandy absolutely as
her informant and confidant. Miss Brodie is also becoming
increasingly fixated on the idea that Rose—as the most
instinctual of the Brodie set and famous for sex (although Rose
has no interest in sex)—should have a love affair with Mr. Lloyd
as her, Miss Brodie’s, proxy. Miss Brodie additionally plans on
Sandy being her informant regarding the affair. Indeed, so
fixated does Miss Brodie become on this strange plan that she
neglects Mr. Lowther, who, to everyone’s surprise, soon
becomes engaged to the Senior school science instructor Miss
Lockhart.
During this time, another girl, the “rather mad” and
delinquent Joyce Emily Hammond, is sent by her rich parents
to Blaine as a last resort. She desperately wants to attach
herself to the Brodie set, but they won’t have anything to do
with her. Miss Brodie, however, will. She spends time with
Joyce Emily one-on-one, and privately encourages her in her
desire to run away and fight in the Spanish Civil War under
Francisco Franco’s Nationalist banner (Miss Brodie admires
Franco, who like Mussolini is a fascist). Swiftly and shockingly,
Joyce Emily does so, only to be killed when the train she is
traveling in is attacked. The school holds a remembrance
service for her.
The Brodie girls, having turned seventeen and upon entering
their final year at Blaine, begin to drift apart. Mary Macgregor
and Jenny Gray leave before taking their final exams, Mary to
become a typist, Jenny to enroll at a school of dramatic art.
Monica Douglas becomes a scientist, and Eunice Gardiner
becomes a nurse and marries a doctor. Rose makes a good
marriage, and easily shakes off Miss Brodie’s influence. Sandy
decides to pursue psychology.
During this period, both Sandy and Rose, now eighteen years
of age, continue to go to Mr. Lloyd’s house to model for him.
One day, alone with Mr. Lloyd while his wife and children are
on holiday, Sandy commences a love affair with him, usurping
Rose’s role in Miss Brodie’s plan (Rose never had any erotic
feelings for Mr. Lloyd in any case, nor he for her). The two
carry on for five weeks during the summer and even once Mr.
Lloyd’s wife and children return home. But by the end of the
year Sandy loses interest in Mr. Lloyd as a man, becoming
more and more exclusively interested in his painter’s mind, as
well as in his obsession with Miss Brodie as it is documented on
his canvases. She eventually leaves Teddy altogether, but
takes with her his Roman Catholic beliefs.
That following autumn, Sandy approaches Miss Mackay and
announces for reasons never made explicit that she is
interested “‘in putting a stop to Miss Brodie.’” She tells Miss
Mackay about Miss Brodie’s side interest in fascist politics and
suggests that by following up on this lead Miss Mackay will at
last have the incriminating evidence she needs to dismiss Miss
Brodie. And indeed, presumably connecting Miss Brodie to
Joyce Emily’s running away, Miss Mackay at last succeeds in
forcing Miss Brodie to retire. Sandy’s betrayal is complete, and
it won’t be until the end of World War II, when she is near
death, that Miss Brodie can bring herself to think that it was
her most intimate confidant Sandy who betrayed her.
By middle age, Sandy is the author of a famous psychological
treatise entitled “The Transfiguration of the Commonplace”;
she is also a Roman Catholic nun called Saint Helena of the
Transfiguration. Over the years, she receives several visitors at
her convent, mostly Brodie girls, and invariably conversation
turns to Miss Brodie: Sandy suggests that Miss Brodie was silly
but also an enlarging presence, yet she also suggests that she
nor any other Brodie girl owed Miss Brodie any loyalty. One
day, a young man comes to the convent to interview Sandy
about her famous work in psychology, asking her at one point,
“‘What were the main influences of your schooldays, Sister
Helena? Were they literary or political or personal? Was it
Calvinism?’” Sandy responds: “‘There was a Miss Jean Brodie in
her prime’”; it would seem that she of all the Brodie set was
most deeply influenced by their strange, charismatic teacher.