Dialect and indexicality in Wuthering Heights And Mary Barton Essay

Dialect and indexicality in Wuthering Heights And Mary Barton - Essay Example It informs about the methods that are employed in comprehending language and communication as a whole. Wuthering Heights and Mary Barton employ different varieties of dialects as Wuthering Heights has usage of Yorkshire dialect while Mary Barton uses Lancashire dialect. The usage of dialects in both the literary works is crucial as the authors mouthed the dialects to certain characters belonging to lower classes of society. The authors by the usage of dialects gave the literary works a touch of originality as real time characters using common dialects were employed for speaking the dialects. In Wuthering Heights, Joseph’s character is mentionable in using Yorkshire dialect while in Mary Barton, Jane Wilson’s character is mentionable in using Lancashire dialect. This paper will focus on Joseph’s character in Wuthering Heights and Jane Wilson’s character in Mary Barton in terms of their acquisition and usage of Yorkshire and Lancashire dialects respectively. Joseph is portrayed as a pious character who makes use of religion in his day to day life. Being a servant at Wuthering Heights, he is not like other servants and dislikes to work. His personality is not liked by other characters of the literary work because most of the time, he uses cursing and threatening language for delivering his points. His language is not easily comprehensible because of his coarse and raw Yorkshire dialect. His accent is also thick and difficult to interpret, which causes his language to appear more complicated. Joseph does not lead a sympathetic or concerned life and is mostly inconsiderate and believes in his own righteousness. He makes stringent verdicts about people’s going to hell and believes in the supernatural. However, Joseph is sympathetic towards Hareton considering him the future head of the family at Wuthering Heights (Wiltshire 2005, pp. 23-24). Joseph talks about Hareton as 'Thearl' he eiaculated. 'Hareton, thah willn't sup thy porridg e tuh neeght; they'll be nowt bud lumps as big as maw nave. Thear, agean! Aw'd fling in bowl un' all, if Aw wer yah! Thear, pale t'guilp off, un' then yah'll hae done wi't. Bang, bang. It's a marcy t'bothom isn't deaved aht!' (Bronte 2001, p. 172). Considering Hareton of some importance, Joseph employs the words of â€Å"thah† and â€Å"thy† also because he feels some affection for the child. Yorkshire dialect has been used excellently by Emily Bronte in her work Wuthering Heights. Her usage of the dialect represents the dialect used in the region. Joseph’s dialect is quite difficult to understand as it is exactly the same dialect spoken in the Yorkshire region. The usage of the dialect by Emily Bronte brought much criticism because of incomprehensibility of her used dialect. Her written dialect and Joseph’s speeches were somewhat changed by Charlotte Bronte, but because of her sameness of dialect to Yorkshire region, her work was kept as such because of the originality of her work. She portrayed Joseph as a coarse and rough character whose language and manners spoke of his coarseness and roughness (Heywood 1987, p. 186). Using of dialect as it is, is a sensitive matter, however, the understanding of a character depends on his used language and style. Joseph as a character of servitude does not appear ridiculous when he uses Yorkshire dialect. We are able to know him and his class by the usage of his language. His character adds to our interpretation of