Comparison of The Thirteenth Tale and Wuthering...

â€Å"All children mythologize their birth. It is a universal trait. You want to know someone? Heart, mind, and soul? Ask him to tell you about when he was born. What you get won’t be the truth; it will be a story. And nothing is more telling than a story.† – Vida Winter, Tales of Change and Desperation (Setterfield). The two novels The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield, and Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte were written decades apart, yet they have similar elements. Wuthering Heights is a work of gothic fiction with some Victorian elements as well. Being that the two novels are so similar is it plausible that The Thirteenth Tale could be considered gothic fiction. It seems to fall under that category. They both use techniques such as the†¦show more content†¦Throughout the telling of the story Miss Winter often changes points of view from third to first person, from â€Å"they† to â€Å"we† to â€Å"I†. The first time she uses â€Å"I† is in the telling of Isabelle’s death and Charlie’s disappearance (Setterfield, 204). Whilst Nelly is telling the story, she more often is telling it in third person, but the telling of the story changes to first whenever it is a scene of which she is in. The telling of Wuthering Heights is a frame story with multi-layered, first – person narration (Tomlinson). The frame narrative is Lockwood’s tale as a traveler (outsider), he is hearing the family history through Ellen Dean (aka Nelly) without any background knowledge. The interior narrative is the history reiterated by Nelly (an insider with intimate knowledge) with help of other minor first-person narrators who are players in the Interior story and who break in occasionally (Tomlinson). Parts of the story that Nelly is sharing with Lockwood she heard from other characters through tertiary narration, and then later relays them to him [Lockwood] (Tomlinson). Tertiary narration is the rec ounting of eyewitness narrations by people who have played some part in the narration that is now being described (Tomlinson). There are a few scenes in which Catherine is conversing with Nelly. Nelly is reiterating what Catherine shared with her during those discussions. After Isabella runs away with Heathcliff to be married she writes a letter to Nelly explaining what is