Worldview Guide for Wuthering Heights

Canon Classics Worldview Guides

by Marcus Schwager

"Envision a region of damp, rocky, rolling hills attacked by winds, obscured by fogs, and covered by large patches of grass and 'a perfect misanthrope’s Heaven.' ... The soil supports very little life due to its high acid content, killing off most vegetation and rendering it largely barren; what trees may grow are often twisted and set at awkward angles by the violent winds. The setting perfectly supports the many dark, mysterious, deadly, and haunting aspects of this gothic novel." ~ from Marcus Schwager's guide The Canon Classics Worldview Guides provide an aesthetic and thematic Christian perspective on the most definitive and daunting works of Western Literature. The Worldview Guides focus on the big picture (both the good and the bad) without neglecting the details. Each Worldview Guide is a friendly literary coach -- and a treasure map, and a compass, and a key -- to help teachers, parents, and students appreciate, critique, and master the classics. The bite-size WGs are divided into these ten sections (with some variation due to genre): Introduction, The World Around, About the Author, What Other Notables Said, Setting, Characters, & Argument, Worldview Analysis, Quotables, 21 Significant Questions & Answers, and Further Discussion & Review. A free classics test and answer key are also available online.

60 pages, Paperback

Published May 8, 2019

About the author

Marcus Schwager is a freelance writer and editor in Santa Cruz county. He holds his Master's in Humanities from California State University, Dominguez Hills, writing his thesis on G.K. Chesterton. He taught English for fifteen years at Monte Vista Christian School and served as an editing consultant for Bibliotheca. He loves to adventure with his wife, Meris, and their four children.

Reviews

[Megan Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent summary and analysis for one who has happened to read it - however, it didn't sufficiently convince me that it's worth reading. I'll have to ponder. The idea of the negative of a role model is interesting, and showing vices in their true colors rather than allowing them to dress up as they often do in modern romance.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm thankful to turn to Canon for analysis and critique when it comes to the greats in Western literature. Marcus Schwager does a fine job with the 'Worldview Analysis' chapter, the primary reason anyone would purchase this book. Beyond his predictable warning to younger readers too quick to sympathize with Healthcliff and Catherine and their passions ("the idea that Love somehow commands us and that we have little say in the matter is old and will remain with us as long as sin endures."), I especially enjoyed how Schwager went even further to trace Catherine's misguided passion to political ethos common today ("...she doesn't view her relationship to Healthcliff simply as love, but as identity, something she sees as transcending earthly love...There is a parallel with the gay agenda [in which] conversation is steered away from moral truth.") exposing Catherine's haunting Gnosticism, Healthcliff's failure to become truly masculine by succumbing to Catherine's gnostic ideas of love (thus becoming her disciple), and their joint rejection of Christian tenants for alternative supernatural persuasions (hence, the Gothic characterization of 'Heights').

I wish Schwager would have spent more time to discuss symbolism and literary device, or lack thereof, and I nearly fell out of my chair when I reached the end of the Worldview Analysis chapter to find that he wasn't going to discuss the ending, simply at all; and along those lines, Schwager seemed much more interested in (dis)couraging readers in the negative (by warning of Healthcliff and Catherine's faults and downfalls) rather than (en)couraging his readers with some, albeit fewer, positive characters (the anchors and strivings of those like Nelly and Edgar Linton, and certain cocoons that are emptied toward the finale). Finally, while discussing Romantic and Gothic literature, I felt Schwager's brief dismissal of Horror as a smidge unfair at least.

Eager to read more from this Canon series.

[Deborah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent short guide from a Christian perspective for helping me know a significant amount regarding Wuthering Heights and quite a bit about Emily Brontë, her family, the region where she lived, and significant events going on in the world during her lifetime. All of this greatly helps enrich the reading of this classic.

[Addie Leigh Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a helpful companion to Wuthering Heights. It offered some clarity and context that elucidated the effect and intent of the story.
I highly recommend to anyone who has read Wuthering Heights! It does have spoilers, so don’t use it as a preface if you don’t like knowing what happens.

[Lea Berryreadinbooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice analysis that helped me think deeply about the book. I would have liked some more discussion and analysis of Christian themes.