Structure in Wuthering Heights

The complex telling of a simple tale

In one sense, the structure of Wuthering Heights is straightforward. There is no subplot and everything fits into a successful telling of the one story, which is not particularly complicated. However, complexity is created through the non-chronological recounting of events and by Brontë’s use of multiple narrators. (See Narrative.) The order in which we are told about various events is structured by Brontë around these two narrative decisions, and some critics have described the resulting structure as clumsy. In fact, Brontë has constructed the novel carefully and dates, seasons and even times of day can be accurately tracked.

There are other methods of describing the structure of Wuthering Heights however, and these reveal different interesting ideas about the novel and Emily Brontë’s purposes.

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