We’ve entered Advent and that big day draws ever nearer. We’ll be looking at Christmas in the Brontë lives and works on this blog throughout December, as usual, but I’ll also be looking at it on my new YouTube channel.
If you haven’t checked it out, it’s called The House of Brontë and I’ll be looking at all things Brontë-related, as well as telling the story of this remarkable family from beginning to end.
In today’s video I look at Emily Brontë’s depiction of Christmas within Wuthering Heights and consider what that tells us about Christmas in Haworth Parsonage.
If you want to see more of my House Of Brontë videos just click the ‘subscribe’ button on YouTube. On Sunday it will be business as usual here with another new Brontë blog post, I hope you can join me then.
I love Emily’s description of Christmas in Wuthering Heights! There’s some wonderfully descriptive text in this part of the book: Cathy coming back almost as a different person, very much the aloof young lady rather than the tomboy she’d been only five weeks or so before, to Heathcliff’s utter bewilderment at the transformation. Many of us find links to our own family Christmas in the description of the family dinner and how the house was ‘prepped’ for the festive season, just as many of us do today. However, I always wince when Heathcliff throws the hot apple sauce in Edgar’s face – not exactly goodwill to all men! Just illustrates how often things do not go smoothly at Christmas family gatherings. Wuthering Heights is one of my favourite books to re-read, especially at Christmas when I can take a break from my own festivities and feel I’m sharing in the celebration Emily describes – and enjoying the Gimmerton band!
Very interesting.