Sunday, December 9, 2012

Are there any examples of metonymy in Wuthering Heights?

Metonymy is a language device in which one part of the whole, or one thing connected to the whole, is used to represent the whole. A classic example is "the pen is mightier than the sword," which really means "the written word is more powerful and persuasive than violence." A pen is not literally stronger than a sword, but what it represents is deemed to be more effective than what a sword represents.
Many writers make use of this device in their writing in order to create evocative imagery, or underline the part of something which is most important or representative in context. In Wuthering Heights, we could possibly argue that the name of the house itself is an example of metonymy (though, this classification would be a bit of a stretch). The house's name, literally meaning something like "a high hill top around which the wind howls noisily," does not stand only for the house itself, but for the entire landscape in which it is situated, while also describing the features of the landscape, namely the wind and the exposure of the moors.
Sometimes metonymy is confused with symbolism—for example, I have seen students suggest that many Gothic symbols in this novel are examples of metonymy (for example, the wind symbolizes external chaos and peril trying to disturb the existence of those within the house; the moors symbolize wildness, uncertainty and confusion) but this is a very liberal use of the term, which should more properly be confined to specific figures of speech.
You could give some examples of synecdoche as a sub-type of metonymy—this is where one part of something/someone, or an attribute of someone, is used to represent the whole person. For example, in chapter 3, "A more elastic footstep entered next [...]." Here, the footstep itself is clearly not the only thing entering the room; Lockwood, as the narrator, is using the footstep to represent the whole person and ascribing characteristics to that person through the descriptor of the footstep as "elastic."

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