Rationale	The main reason for choosing to deal with the theme of Love  and Marriage is that Love is highly motivating for adolescents and we all know that motivation is the key to knowledge. As a matter of fact, love plays an important role in our students’ life. As teenagers they want to grow up, going outside their family and look for new relationships. This is the moment when friends become their new family and the opposite sex is the new world to explore and win. They live their first love affairs, discovering how difficult it is to handle one’s own feelings and how painful it can be to fall in love.This Teaching Unit is based on the mixing of  frontal teaching and Task-based activities which actively engage students in the learning process. To this aim, the whole learning path is here divided into three main steps.      As for the Lesson Plan it is mainly based on the realization that today’s teenagers are embedded in a multimedia world where stimulus comes from  different perception channels. They are used to watching  TV programmes and Web-sites which offer great graphic quality. Furthermore, being aware that kids are generally driven by the principle of pleasure, the activities are meant to arouse the SS’ interest and curiosity for the proposed contents.The literary passage chosen for analysis is “You are Mistaken Mr Darcy!” taken from Jane Austen’s novel Pride and Prejudice marks the climax of the novel and the lowest point in the Elizabeth/Darcy relationship. The two characters appear in their most radical attitudes but also with their potentially best qualities. Darcy has forced himself into declaring his love to Elizabeth but his phrasing is so unfortunate that all he achieves is to make Elizabeth utterly indignant. He cannot conceal the pride of his social superiority, the obstacles he has had to overcome to accept the idea of loving her, the arrogant condescension which makes him sure of her consent. Still, he has been able to appreciate her talents and her frankness and he has taken the first step, however awkward, towards her. Elizabeth, on the other hand, is rightly offended at his behaviour and accuses him of faults that will later on turn out to be unfunded. The prejudices she has accumulated against him have spoiled her capacity for judgement and urged her to take her revenge on him. The particular aspect of the passage is that, curiously enough, while Elizabeth accuses Darcy of prejudices against her and her family, he accuses her of being too proud: an ironic reversal of what has appeared up to this point. Indeed, both Elizabeth and Darcy have been guilty of both pride and prejudice.
Addresses and Level of the CEF	Students of the last year of Liceo LinguisticoB1
Aims	. To make SS reflect upon the fact that appearances are often misleading;. Connections between the theme of Love and Marriage as a cultural issue and promotion of SS’ personal opinions.  .                 Cognitive: To arouse SS’ critical response about the theme of Love and Marriage analysing how great writers have viewed the same issue at different times and in greatly different contexts; . To reach deeper understanding of female characters in literature and women condition through history and different cultures, examining how the various aspects of one theme can be developed in more than one text.
	·                    Meta-cognitive: To make SS reflect upon the fact that appearances are often misleading;. To stimulate SS’ critical reflection and foster their gradual shift from the analysis of the technical aspects of a literary passage to those of the reality around them.
	·                    Socio-affective: Connections between the theme of Love and Marriage as a cultural issue and promotion of SS’ personal opinions through cooperation;. SS acquire a new awareness about their own biased attitudes and  learn how to avoid them.
Objectives	.                    Cognitive:  Recognize and analyze the theme of a narrative text through the characters’ actions, words and reflections focusing on the main characters in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Emily Brontë’s  Wuthering Heightsin order to speculate on the theme of love and marriage.. Text reading aims at indirectly leading to the revision of the Modal Verbs used to make hypothesis, If-clauses, Conditional and Future in the past..The lessons are also intended to extend vocabulary connected with the semantic area of Love and Marriage, providing insights into the cultural aspects of the given topic at the same time.
	·                    Meta-cognitive:   working on the texts in a more and more autonomous way exploiting all of the four skills (listening/ speaking/reading /writing).. Read, compare and contrast different texts about the same theme;
	·                    Socio-affective: exchange points of view andacquire a new awareness about the prejudiced ideas and biased attitudes towards people.
Pre-requisites	.    Cognitive: Recognize literary conventions of Novel as a literary genre and analyze literary texts, a good knowledge of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights plot, features and themes together with background information related to the writer and the Victorian age.. Translate texts from English into Italian paying attention to the specificity of the literary language;
	·                    Meta-cognitive: To be able to detect and understand the denotative and connotative meanings in a literary text;
	·                    Socio-affective: to develop the SS’ oral proficiency and their ability in turn taking, in negotiating ideas and in comparing opinions sustaining their point of view.
Methodology	Being aware that students employ different learning strategies the teacher knows that he/she has to cope with multiple intelligences, that is to say with Verbal-Linguistic, Visual, Auditory and Kinaesthetic students. For this reason the activities in class will be varied in order to exploit a variety of channels through which presenting the lesson contents. In this way, through an integrated combination of words, pictures, images, recordings and movies, the students will be motivated from the very Engagement phase. The SS won’t be given the translation of the most difficult words but only a paraphrase so that they will be stimulated to infer the meaning by themselves. Of course, the SS will be given some background to the stories so that they may appreciate the movie sequences while the global approach phase is meant to construct a sort of frame to provide SS with the main narrative coordinates. After listening and reading the excerpts taken from the two novels, they will have to carry out a series of activities individually, in pairs and in clusters of four in order to come to an autonomous generalization about the pieces of literature they are studying.The SS will be finally asked to fill in a final questionnaire based on the principle of the Learning Logto check if they really enjoyed the activities and if these latter really proved effective for enhancing both their grammatical competence and cooperative ability.During the several phases of the lesson the teacher will act as a facilitator of the learning process, he will just be a guide into the mysterious depths of a literary text.
Time	6 lessons of 1 hour each in the second term of the school year.
Place	Classroom, language laboratory.
Teaching aids	Blackboard, CD player, OHP, textbook, Internet, transparencies; photocopies; grids; coloured sheets, images and pictures, reading charts; films
Assessment and Evaluation	Assessment will be carried on in itinerethrough :  Participation in class discussion;  Group work activities;  Open questions and discussion  Individual work Evaluation will be carried on at the end of the teaching unit through a written production activity to be performed in class. Evaluation will also be carried out measuring the performances of  the SS, looking at how they respond to the sub-aims of each activity, their ability in communication, expression and negotiation. Some reinforcement will be provided by the teacher through a Mind Map which will help them  summarize the most important features of the texts and  give a logic order to the content of the lessons.
Interdisciplinary	·                    Religion: Marriage..              Philosophy : Prejudice in Spinoza’s Philosophy
Modular Link	·                   Emily Brontë : excerpt from Wuthering Heights.
	·                    Latin: Seneca, Fedra
Strategies	Meta-cognitive: Plan, draft, revise, and edit  for a legible final copy.  . Use reading, writing, speaking and listening … to solve problems and answer questions.
	Socio-affective: working with fellow-students on language, using feelings and emotions to gain awareness of self and others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                          PROCEDURAL TIMELINE

The following  lesson plan is divided into three phases ( ENGAGE; STUDY; ACTIVATE); on its turn each phase will be further divided into more than one step.

                                        LESSON 1

ENGAGE : Pre- Reading activities

PHASE 1 : MOTIVATION

1. WARM UP : Brainstorming   (15 min)

 

a)    The teacher shows the SS some coloured sheets and invites them to choose the colour they like best. On the one side of the sheets there is a funny cartoon about Love and a balloon with the sentence  “  LOVE IS……..” to be completed ; on the other side the SS will find an image taken from the movie Pride and Prejudice.

b)    The teacher puts some transparencies on the OHP showing some pictures related to the topic: Love and Marriage. The first transparency shows Klimt’s picture THE KISS, whilst the other depicts a typical wedding situation.

After showing Klimt’s picture the teacher asks the SS to say what the image recalls to their minds and in order to encourage their answers, she invites them to answer the following questions:

1. 1.    what can you see in this picture?
2. 2.    what feelings does this image suggest you?
3. 3.    what do you associate the image of the kiss with?

 

Then the teacher shows the transparencies related to the theme of marriage and, in order to act on SS’ schemata and elicit information, she asks them the following questions:

1. 1.    is the relationship described in the images typical for your country or not?
2. 2.    how popular is marriage in Italy?
3. 3.    do you think that marriage is outdated nowadays?
4. 4.    what do you think is the best age to get married?
5. 5.    in a wedding ceremony in Italy, what are the wedding vows that a man and a woman traditionally exchange? What do they promise to do?

 

ANTICIPATION  (10 min)

The teacher tries to sum up the SS’ first impressions and anticipates something about the text writing the words PRIDE and PREJUDICE on the blackboard. Then he/she asks the SS to look up these words in their Oxford dictionary and write down the feelings they associate them with.

STUDY

PHASE II  : GLOBAL APPROACH

 

Before/While-listening activities :    [ individual work]

 

 

 

Activity 1. Listening with a purpose   ( 30 min)

Before reading the text the teacher draws a spidergram on the blackboard containing some of the key words of the text to give the SS some clues about its content and arouse the sense of challenge inviting them to find out some more key-words to add to the spidergram after they have listened to the passage.

ACTIVITY 2 :  making hypothesis

The teacher gives the SS a photocopy of the excerpt and asks them to read the title and make hypothesis about the content. He/she reads the passage for the first time at normal speed to let the SS catch the gist of it; then he reads it one more time at a slower speed so that the SS can be easily engaged in a sort of while-listening activity. To this aim he provides them with the following  grid :

ACTIVITY 3 : Fill in the grid ( tick the right answer)

 

Number of characters involved in the story		Prevalence of :	General atmosphere
MEN	WOMEN	dialogue	relaxed
1	1	description	tense
2	2	narration	friendly

 

 

 

 

 

HOMEWORK  (5 min)

Task-based Activity [ Study Groups of 4 SS each]

In groups of four explore the web to get information about Jane Austen. The research will have to cover the following areas :

1. Who she was, date and place of birth, what she did, where she lived, her background, her family and any interesting gossip on her.
2. Her novels. How many did she write; write a short summary of her major novels ;
3. Her limitations and great qualities;
4. Irony, satire and humour in her novels;
5. Her parody of the Gothic novel;
6. Make a list of cool websites on Jane Austen. Include title and a brief summary of what the site offers.

                                               LESSON 2

 

 

 

 WARM UP   ( 5 min)

 

General check of homework through a TRUE/FALSE questionnaire.

STUDY

PHASE 3 : ANALYSIS     ( 50 min)

 

Activity 1 : Extensive reading (  Skimming & Scanning )

                     [individual work]        

The SS have a first general look at the passage in order to catch the gist of it; then the teacher invites them to answer the following questions :

1. 1.    who are the people involved? What is their relationship?
2. 2.    where is the story set?
3. 3.    what are the two characters talking about?
4. 4.    when is the story set?
5. 5.    why does Elizabeth reject Darcy’s proposal?
6. 6.    what is his reaction?
7. 7.    what does Elizabeth accuse Darcy of?
8. 8.    what does Darcy accuse Elizabeth of?

 

Activity 2 : Role-playing  [ pair work]

The teacher asks the SS to read the dialogic sequence of the text in a sort of role-playing activity in order to make them pay attention to their pronunciation and intonation.

 

 

 

Activity 3 : Speaking    [ class work]  

The teacher invites the SS to express their opinions about the theme to make them aware that the scene reported in the extract they have read deals with the topic discussed in the first lesson.

HOMEWORK     ( 5 min)

Task-based activity

Imagine you are re-writing the passage you have read for the stage or cinema. Consider the last paragraph focusing on Elizabeth’s “tumult of mind” after Darcy has gone away. Write a monologue for her through which you show the heroine’s inner feelings. Include stage directions for physical action.

                                                 LESSON 3

 

 

WARM UP :

Motivation will be aroused through homework checking. To this aim the teacher invites two volunteers to perform their monologue in front of the class. Then he checks the formal accuracy of their piece of writing, correcting any morpho-syntactical mistakes. These latter provide the teacher with an input to explain some grammar rules to the whole class, thus reinforcing the SS’ linguistic skills.

 

STUDY AND PRACTICE

PHASE 3 : ANALYSIS    ( 1 h)

INTENSIVE READING

This phase is meant to guide the SS’ into the in-depth analysis of  the text; for this reason, the teacher proposes a series of activities that help them focus on :

• the verbal, semantic and symbolic aspects of the passage;
• the setting ;
• the characters;
• the narrator;
• the themes

some of these activities will be exploited in class, some other as homework.

ACTIVITY 1. [ group work]

The teacher splits the class into six groups of four SS each and asks them to read the text carefully because this time they are required to focus on the stylistic features of the text. To this aim the teacher will have the SS carry out the following activity :

 

 

LEXICAL LEVEL

 

Look at the words in the extract and fill in the grid below  ( 15 min)

TOTAL RECURRENCIES	PARTIAL RECURRENCIES

MORPHO-SYNTACTIC LEVEL

Activity 2   (15 min)

Read the text carefully and find out as many examples of  elements which contribute to textual cohesion :

• derivation
• conversion
• anaphoric/cataphoric proforms
• repetition
• phrasal verbs
• compounds

 

 

Activity 2       (10 min)

SEMANTIC LEVEL

Now focus on the semantic relationship among the words belonging to the same semantic area which contribute to textual coherence :

a)    Underline in different colours the sentences regarding Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s feelings.

b)    Match the list of words on the left hand side to the mains on the right hand side by drawing lines that connect them:

Offences                                             PRIDE  Inferiority   Mortification   Arrogance                                          PREJUDICE   Conceit Disdain

 

STRUCTURE

Activity 4 : Focus on the SETTING

       The setting is :        

• Internal
• External
• Real
• Unreal
• Symbolic

Activity 5 : focus on the NARRATOR

1. the story is told :

• in first person
• in third person

1. the narrator is :

• hidden
• manifest
• obtrusive
• unobtrusive
• omniscient

Activity 6 : focus on LANGUAGE and STYLE    ( 15 min)

Concentrate on grammatical items and fill in the following grid:

	ELIZABETH	DARCY
Direct speech
Indirect speech
Modal verbs
Irony
Sarcasm

 

HOMEWORK  ( 5min)

ANALYSYS

The teacher gives the SS a photocopy with the following activities to be performed at home :

Activity 1.  focus on Elizabeth

–          Analyse Jane Austen’s method of characterization. She presents characters both directly and indirectly. Consider the character of ELIZABETH. She is introduced through :

q       her own words

q       her own thoughts

q       both

–          Which of the following adjectives do you think best describes Elizabeth?

q      Self-composed                                                             

q      Passive

q      Independent

q      Vindictive

q      Intelligent

q      Hysterical

–          Consider the final paragraph: using a red-ink pen circle all of Elizabeth’s words and expressions suggesting that she may admire Darcy and be flattered by his attention.

–     Does the final paragraph confirm or contradict what she said previously in the passage?

Activity 2 : focus on Darcy

–    Using a blue-ink pen circle all the words and expressions in the text of what Elizabeth describes as Darcy’s “arrogance”, “conceit”, “ and “disdain” of the feeling of others.

–   What does Darcy pride himself of? Which comment made by Elizabeth seems to offend him most profoundly?

–   As a single, wealthy, socially superior young man Darcy automatically assumes that Elizabeth will accept his proposal of marriage. Underline evidence in the text of his disbelief of her refusal.

Activity 3 : focus on both characters

	ELIZABETH	DARCY
Actions
Reactions & Attitudes
Way of speaking

PHASE 4 : SYNTHESIS

 

Connection & Extension     [ MODULAR LINK]

WARM UP       (10 min)

Before introducing the second excerpt, the teacher proposes a brainstorming about the main ideas that came out while examining the first passage and the results of the text analysis the SS carried out at home by themselves.

Once the Motivation Phase is over the teacher gives a brief lecture on the contents and themes of the text he is going to introduce. Then he underlines the fact that the SS will be asked to make a comparison between the two works; for this reason he encourages them to detect as many similarities and differences as possible.

However, before providing the SS with the second passage, taken from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, the teacher gives them some brief co-ordinates about the Victorian Age, just to enable them to make comparisons keeping in mind the different historical periods. This time he chooses to engage her SS through the vision of films. To this aim he has chosen in advance the movie sequences he is going to show them taken respectively from Pride & Prejudice and from Wuthering Heights. The selected shots correspond to the events taking place in the written texts chosen for text analysis.

Activity 1. Pre-watching questions    (15 min)

 

Before playing the DVD the teacher asks the SS to answer the following questions:

How much important is Love in your life? And money/social status?

 Are you more inclined to pride or prejudice?

Do you think we can often be wrong in our opinion about  people?

Do you think that true love can overcome the obstacles of social prejudice and class discrimination?

While watching the film the teacher stops playing the DVD and invites the SS to focus on the general atmosphere created in the movie sequences by the sound track, the props, the costumes and the environment. In fact, the films are  both set in a typical British landscape: the quite and provincial English countryside in Pride & Prejudice; the stormy moors in Wuthering Heights.

The SS are also invited to pay attention to the smallest detail regarding the characters such as their facial expression and gestures.

 

Activity 2 : While-watching questions    (15 min)  [ individual work]

The teacher wants this activity to be as fruitful as possible so she asks SS to answer the following questions :

         Where and when does the action take place?

         How many characters are there?

         In what way are the two heroines prejudiced towards the man who loves   them?

         What is the two men’s reaction?

         In your opinion which of the characters in the movie sequences embody

         pride and prejudice? What can you infer from their facial expression?       

 

 

Activity 3 : Post-watching questions   (15min)    [Group discussion]

After watching the film sequences the teacher will listen to the SS personal comments and ideas stimulating their critic thinking through a class debate fostered by the following questions :

  Is the theme of the films what you expected from the title?

  What does Darcy’s reaction to Elizabeth’s words suggest

about the social values and conventions of the time?

  What do Catherine’s words suggest about the Victorian

attitude towards love and marriage?

  What particular meaning does the term “proposal” acquire

in Pride & Prejudice?

 

 

 HOMEWORK   ( 5 min)

After the group discussion based on the previous questions the teacher gives the SS a copy of the excerpt taken from Emily Brontë’s work and asks them to apply all the textual analysis techniques they have learnt in class.

 PHASE 5  :  REINFORCEMENT

 

    This phase is intended to provide weaker students with remedial work. For this reason the teacher draws a Mind Map on the blackboard which sums up all the steps done so far in the teaching/learning process. This activity takes no more than 5 minutes. Then the teacher splits the class into four groups A,B,C,D and invites Group A and B to focus their attention on the differences and similarities between the two female characters: Elizabeth and Catherine (Personality, Way of speaking, Personal beliefs and Social attitudes); at the same time  he will have Groups C and D concentrate on the theme of Love and marriage, considering both the biased attitudes of the characters and the author’s point of view.

After 30 minutes the teacher invites the Spokesman of each group to tell in front of the class the results of his /her group analysis; then, the Observer of each group will relate on his/her observation on the opposite group’s interaction skills.

Finally the teacher splits the class into two main groups inviting them to side with the character they like best defending him/her against the critical observation of the opposite group and exhorts them to find a suitable motivation for his/her behaviour. This activity takes 20 minutes.

HOMEWORK         (5 min)

 

This time the teacher invites the SS to study all they have done in class and at home since they will have to face a formal class-work in the form of a written production.

 

 

 

PHASE 6

 

TESTING & CHECKING   ( 1 h)

The SS are finally required to  show their skill in written production writing a composition in no more than ten lines, according to the rules of the Terza Prova.

To this aim the teacher provides them with two composition titles, one for each desk row so that they will be compelled to work on their own.

COMPOSITION A

 

  Elizabeth’s rejection of Darcy and Catherine’s rejection of Heathcliff acquire particular significance if one considers the social condition of women at the beginning of the 19th century.

  Compare and contrast male and female attitudes towards Love and Marriage both in the 19th century and nowadays.

 

COMPOSITION B

 

Compare and contrast Emily Brontë’s and Jane Austen’s view about Love and Marriage focusing on the differences between Elizabeth and Catherine. Then write a short paragraph of comparison. Finally say which of the two heroines you prefer and why. When thinking of two possible titles for the written production the teacher pays attention in giving the SS the opportunity to make critical comparisons between the texts they have studied and to express their personal opinion about the given topic, also referring to the present days.

FEEDBACK

 

                                                LEARNING LOG  

 

 

1. What I learnt today………………………………………………………………………….………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

1. The topics I was most interested in today……………………………………………………………………………………………..……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..         

NEVER

OFTEN

SELDOM

3.     Today I used English in the classroom                                  

Videos

CDs

Realia

TPR

 4.    During the lesson the teacher used                                      

5.   The activities I really found useful to improve my awareness of English. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

6.  I found the classroom atmosphere very relaxing/ stressful because………………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

                                     ATTACHMENTS  

 

 

1. 1.              Snoopy, Love is…

              

 

 

 

2. Klimt, The Kiss            

 

 

3. Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy

3. Pride and Prejudice, The Wedding

 

A Wedding Ceremony Today

 

 

 

 

 

TEXT 1. You are mistaken Mr. Darcy!

“And this,” cried Darcy, as he walked with quick steps across the room, “is your opinion of me! This is the estimation in which you hold me! I thank you for explaining it so fully. My faults, according to this calculation, are heavy indeed! But perhaps,” added he, stopping in his walk, and turning towards her, “these offences might have been overlooked, had not your pride been hurt by my honest confession of the scruples that had long prevented my forming any serious design. These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you into the belief of my being impelled by unqualified, unalloyed inclination — by reason, by reflection, by every thing. But disguise of every sort is my abhorrence. Nor am I ashamed of the feelings I related. They were natural and just. Could you expect me to rejoice in the inferiority of your connections? To congratulate myself on the hope of relations, whose condition in life is so decidedly beneath my own?”

Elizabeth felt herself growing more angry every moment; yet she tried to the utmost to speak with composure when she said,

“You are mistaken, Mr. Darcy, if you suppose that the mode of your declaration affected me in any other way, than as it spared me the concern which I might have felt in refusing you, had you behaved in a more gentleman-like manner.”

She saw him start at this, but he said nothing, and she continued,

“You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it.”

Again his astonishment was obvious; and he looked at her with an expression of mingled incredulity and mortification. She went on.

“From the very beginning, from the first moment I may almost say, of my acquaintance with you, your manners, impressing me with the fullest belief of your arrogance, your conceit, and your selfish disdain of the feelings of others, were such as to form that ground-work of disapprobation, on which succeeding events have built so immoveable a dislike; and I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry.”

“You have said quite enough, madam. I perfectly comprehend your feelings, and have now only to be ashamed of what my own have been. Forgive me for having taken up so much of your time, and accept my best wishes for your health and happiness.”

And with these words he hastily left the room, and Elizabeth heard him the next moment open the front door and quit the house.

The tumult of her mind was now painfully great. She knew not how to support herself, and from actual weakness sat down and cried for half an hour. Her astonishment, as she reflected on what had passed, was increased by every review of it. That she should receive an offer of marriage from Mr. Darcy! that he should have been in love with her for so many months! so much in love as to wish to marry her in spite of all the objections which had made him prevent his friend’s marrying her sister, and which must appear at least with equal force in his own case, was almost incredible! It was gratifying to have inspired unconsciously so strong an affection. But his pride, his abominable pride, his shameless avowal of what he had done with respect to Jane, his unpardonable assurance in acknowledging, though he could not justify it, and the unfeeling manner in which he had mentioned Mr. Wickham, his cruelty towards whom he had not attempted to deny, soon overcame the pity which the consideration of his attachment had for a moment excited.

She continued in very agitating reflections till the sound of Lady Catherine’s carriage made her feel how unequal she was to encounter Charlotte’s observation, and hurried her away to her room.

TEXT 2 Catherine’s confession

She laughed, and held me down; for I made a motion to leave my chair. ‘This is nothing,’ cried she: ‘I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.’

Ere this speech ended I became sensible of Heathcliff’s presence. Having noticed a slight movement, I turned my head, and saw him rise from the bench, and steal out noiselessly. He had listened till he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him, and then he stayed to hear no further. My companion, sitting on the ground, was prevented by the back of the settle from remarking his presence or departure; but I started, and bade her hush!  […] Nelly, I see now you think me a selfish wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother’s power.’

‘With your husband’s money, Miss Catherine?’ I asked. ‘You’ll find him not so pliable as you calculate upon: and, though I’m hardly a judge, I think that’s the worst motive you’ve given yet for being the wife of young Linton.’ ‘It is not,’ retorted she; ‘it is the best! The others were the satisfaction of my whims: and for Edgar’s sake, too, to satisfy him. This is for the sake of one who comprehends in his person my feelings to Edgar and myself. I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. – My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. 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 […]

 

Valentina Corrente

References

 

1. Notes taken during the Module on “Didattica della Letteratura Inglese” at the SICSI course at the University of Naples                 “L’Orientale”.
2. Rosa Marinoni Mingazzini; Luciana Salmoiraghi, The Mirror of the Times, second edition, Morano Editore,1992
3. Stagi Scarpa Mariella, The new literary labyrinth. Genre through text, SEI, 1996
4. Spiazzi Marina, Tavella Marina, Only connect. A history and anthology of english literature with american & Commonwealth insights, seconda edizione, Zanichelli, 2000