GRE Reading Comprehension
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Source: OG2
Many critics of Emily Bront?'s novel Wuthering Heights see its second part as a counterpoint that comments on, if it does not reverse, the first part, where a romantic reading receives more confirmation. Seeing the two parts as a whole is encouraged by the novel's sophisticated structure, revealed in its complex use of narrators and time shifts. Granted that the presence of these elements need not argue for an authorial awareness of novelistic construction comparable to that of Henry James, their presence does encourage attempts to unify the novel's heterogeneous parts. However, any interpretation that seeks to unify all of the novel's diverse elements is bound to be somewhat unconvincing. This is not because such an interpretation necessarily stiffens into a thesis (although rigidity in any interpretation of this or of any novel is always a danger), but because Wuthering Heights has recalcitrant elements of undeniable power that, ultimately, resist inclusion in an all-encompassing interpretation. In this respect, Wuthering Heights shares a feature of Hamlet.
According to the passage, which of the following is a true statement about the first and second parts of Wuthering Heights?
- A The second part has received more attention from critics.
- B The second part has little relation to the first part.
- C The second part annuls the force of the first part.
- D The second part provides less substantiation for a romantic reading.
- E The second part is better because it is more realistic.