138k views
0 votes
Which parts of this passage from chapter 6 of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights illustrate that Hindley’s wife did not belong to the upper class?

Mr. Hindley came home to the funeral; and—a thing that amazed us, and set the neighbours gossiping right and left—he brought a wife with him. (What she was, and where she was born, he never informed us: probably, she had neither money nor name to recommend her, or he would scarcely have kept the union from his father).
She was not one that would have disturbed the house much on her own account. Every object she saw, the moment she crossed the threshold, appeared to delight her; and every circumstance that took place about her: except the preparing for the burial, and the presence of the mourners.( I thought she was half silly, from her behaviour while that went on: she ran into her chamber, and made me come with her, though I should have been dressing the children: and there she sat shivering and clasping her hands, and asking repeatedly—"Are they gone yet?" )Then she began describing with hysterical emotion the effect it produced on her to see black; and started, and trembled, and, at last, fell a-weeping—and when I asked what was the matter, answered, she didn’t know; but she felt so afraid of dying! (I imagined her as little likely to die as myself. She was rather thin, but young, and fresh-complexioned, and her eyes sparkled as bright as diamonds.) I did remark, to be sure, that mounting the stairs made her breathe very quick; that the least sudden noise set her all in a quiver, and that she coughed troublesomely sometimes: but I knew nothing of what these symptoms portended, and had no impulse to sympathise with her.( We don’t in general take to foreigners here, Mr. Lockwood, unless they take to us first.)
The ones in parenthesis are the ones that can be chosen. Only one can be selected.

2 Answers

4 votes

If on Plato, the answer is "What she was, and where she was born, he never informed us: probably, she had neither money nor name to recommend her, or he would scarcely have kept the union from his father."

User Saptarsi
by
6.2k points
3 votes
The correct option is A. What she was, and where she was born, he never informed us: probably, she had neither money nor name to recommend her, or he would scarcely have kept the union from his father. This part of the passage clearly tells the reader that the woman probably wasn't from the upper class, nor did she look the part. If she were an upper-class lady, Hindley would have told his father about his marriage. Plus, this is a narrative told by Nelly, a domestic servant and therefore a working-class woman, who can certainly recognize someone who looks and acts like a low-born.
User Skos
by
6.2k points