http://www.monologuearchive.com/b/bronte_004.html

Monologue Analysis.

This extract is a monologue analysis from the novel Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë

''MRS. LINTON: How long is it since I shut myself in here? It seems a weary number of hours ... it must be more. I remember being in the parlour after they had quarrelled, and Edgar being cruelly provoking, and me running into this room desperate. As soon as ever I had barred the door, utter blackness overwhelmed me, and I fell on the floor. I couldn't explain to Edgar how certain I felt of having a fit, or going raging mad, if he persisted in teasing me! I had no command of tongue, or brain, and he did not guess my agony, perhaps: it barely left me sense to try to escape from him and his voice. Before I recovered sufficiently to see and hear, it began to be dawn, and, Nelly, I'll tell you what I thought, and what has kept recurring and recurring till I feared for my reason. I thought as I lay there, with my head against that table leg, and my eyes dimly discerning the grey square of the window, that I was enclosed in the oak-panelled bed at home; and my heart ached with some great grief which, just waking, I could not recollect. I pondered, and worried myself to discover what it could be, and, most strangely, the whole last seven years of my life grew a blank! I did not recall that they had been at all. I was a child; my father was just buried, and my misery arose from the separation that Hindley had ordered between me and Heathcliff. I was laid alone, for the first time; and, rousing from a dismal doze after a night of weeping, I lifted my hand to push the panels aside: it struck the table-top! I swept it along the carpet, and then memory burst in: my late anguish was swallowed in a paroxysm of despair. I cannot say why I felt so wildly wretched: it must have been temporary derangement; for there is scarcely cause. But, supposing at twelve years old I had been wrenched from the Heights, and every early association, and my all in all, as Heathcliff was at that time, and been converted at a stroke into Mrs. Linton, the lady of Thrushcross Grange, and the wife of a stranger: an exile, and outcast, thenceforth, from what had been my world. You may fancy a glimpse of the abyss where I grovelled! Shake your head as you will, Nelly, you have helped to unsettle me! You should have spoken to Edgar, indeed you should, and compelled him to leave me quiet! Oh, I'm burning! I wish I were out of doors! I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them! Why am I so changed? why does my blood rush into a hell of tumult at a few words? I'm sure I should be myself were I once among the heather on those hills. Open the window again wide: fasten it open! Quick, why don't you move?''


This pragmatical, enticing monologue had been something that caught my eye, during my time browsing through the internet. What makes it incredibly diverse is the fact that it is written in a way that she is talking to herself and nobody else. Also, this type of monologue included with a wide range of different frameworks. Although I do not have much knowledge about the novel, as well as the monologue, the language used throughout this monologue can entice a wide range of readers, because it is pragmatical. The whole meaning of pragmatics is how we know what language means when it is used in a specific context, sometimes described as 'reading between the lines'.

Within this monologue, you will have to take a deeper thought and read between the lines on what is said. For example, 'How long is it since I shut myself in here?' makes us intellectually think who locked her in there, or did she lock herself? We continuously read between the lines and constantly try to comprehend what she is trying to say throughout her monologue. Also, the grammar used within the monologue is linked to the olden times, as well as the punctuation. ''I felt so wildly wretched:'' in that quote, you can see that the speech is included with a wide range of different punctuation marks, such as the colon, ':' The colon is generally used when listing different objects. However, this speech had included a colon while the monologue is carrying on, which illustrates that this speech had been written from the olden times.
Another framework that I had witnessed is the use of Lexis - meaning of the word choice that they have included. In this speech they had put in 'arose' which is a frozen type of register, with a combination of lexis, the vocabulary of the language is a frozen type of register. Due to the fact that 'arose' is hardly ever mentioned within peoples' conversations, society today have a more informal/colloquial register.