Wuthering Heights Database

Target Curriculum: English/Writing

Target Grade: 12 - 12

SOLs: E/W.12.3   E/W.12.8  
Time: 4 class periods (not counting reading time for the novel)

Objective:
The students will be able recognize the careful development of character and plot in Wuthering Heights and will be able to identify specific connections between characters, and between characters and other elements such as setting. Students will use technology to help them organize elements in a complex novel. Students will learn a method of analyzing novels by starting with characters and moving outward to other elements.

Purpose:
To engage the students in analysis and synthesis of a complex and challenging work. To teach a method of literary analysis that can be used (with or without the technology element) to understand other similar works.

Materials:
The novel, Wuthering Heights;
A simple database such as ClarisWorks, Microsoft Works, or FileMaker;
Access to computers running the needed software.

Procedure:
Students create a database of characters from Wuthering Heights. Each character is a record. For each character there are a minimum of seven fields: Name, Occupation, Relationships, Related Objects, Related Activities, Related Locations, Loves. Other fields may be added if the student sees a need. Students are given forms which match the database records and fields. They fill in the forms as they read. (This is best started after they have read a substantial part of the book and have a sense of the complexity of the characters and their relationships as well as a sense of the author’s attention to detail.)
Once the database is complete and the students have checked for consistency of entries (They must use the same terms and spellings in each record and field--a lesson in parallel structure!) they use the find or query commands to locate all characters with, say, the same associated objects. For example, they may type in “guns” and get Heathcliff, Hindley, and Hareton. They may type in “books” and get nearly everyone, but if they type in “books” and “reading” they will get a significantly different list.
I usually require two searches as practice: the one on “books” described above, and one in which they type in “father” in the relationships field and any other term that will result in Edgar being the only “hit.” In other words, they are finding elements that separate Edgar from Heathcliff, Hindley, Mr. Earnshaw, and Mr. Linton.
The final product is a search of the student’s own choice, and a brief explanation of what the results of that search suggest about the characters and/or the plot of the novel.

Observations:
Students need to be constantly reminded of their purpose: to discover the many choices made by the author, and what those choices mean. Examples may be done in the classroom using a presentation device to show a sample set of entries. Students should be asked discussion questions that point to the significance of, say, the association of reading with the positive characters and the association of violence with the more pernicious characters.

Conclusions:
This plan has been effective with regular English 12 classes. It has been a great help in directing the students to a method that can help them understand a book that may seem overly daunting to the average high school senior.