Wuthering Heights Essay Topics

Two of the following four topics will appear on the in-class assessment on Wednesday. You will then choose one topic to write on. You will be allowed to use your book during the assessment with post-it tabs (1” by 3”). Larger post-it notes or additional pages of notes are not allowed.

    A.     Many plays and novels use contrasting places (for example, two countries, two cities or towns, two houses, or the land and the sea) to represent opposed forces or ideas that are central to the meaning of the work. Choose a novel or play that contrasts two such places. Write an essay explaining how the places differ, what each place represents, and how their contrast contributes to the meaning of the work.

    B.     Choose a complex and important character in a novel or a play of recognized literary merit who might on the basis of the character’s actions alone be considered evil or immoral. In a well-organized essay, explain both how and why the full presentation of the character in the work makes us react more sympathetically than we otherwise might. Make sure to connect your analysis of this character to the meaning of the work as a whole.

    C.     In literary works, cruelty often functions as a crucial motivation or a major social or political factor. Select a novel, play, or epic poem in which acts of cruelty are important to the theme. Then write a well-developed essay analyzing how cruelty functions in the work as a whole and what the cruelty reveals about the perpetrator and/or victim.

    D.    “And, after all, our surroundings influence our lives and characters as much as fate, destiny or any supernatural agency.”

--Pauline Hopkins, Contending Forces

Choose a novel or play in which cultural, physical, or geographical surroundings shape psychological or moral traits in a character. Then write a well-organized essay in which you analyze how surroundings affect this character and illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole.