What if…?

Life after life after life

The recently announced winner of the Costa novel of 2013 is Kata Atkinson’s Life after life. Rather like the films Groundhog Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_(film)) and Sliding Doors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sliding_Doors), Atkinson weaves a narrative about her central character, Ursula Todd, in which all manner of alternatives present themselves.

A variety of narratives

Traditionally, a novel tells an ‘enclosed’ tale about a particular group of characters who make choices and face the consequences. Protagonists generally behave consistently and the novelist structures the account so that it ends by fulfilling the reader’s expectations, whilst maintaining an aura of ‘reality,’ and provides a sense of closure. (Click for more detail on aspects of narrative).

In the last fifty years or so, authors have disrupted the idea of realism and that their stories portray the one ‘true’ account of ‘real’ events. In 1969 John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman consciously provided alternative versions of how protagonists behaved and commented directly to the reader that the ‘reality’ inhabited by characters was purely the fictional artifice of the novelist.

Since then many more authors have experimented in this way or developed multiple, interweaving perspectives and disjointed chronologies. Atkinson simply stops and restarts her story, expecting the reader to skate from one ‘life of Ursula’ to a different ‘life’. She plays with the idea that we all have the power of choice – things don’t have to happen the way they do.

Atkinson meets Brontë

It can be interesting to try applying some of these modern multiplicities of interpretation to ‘traditional’ novels. For example, although she employs time shifts and a variety of narrative voices, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a typically ‘enclosed’ tale where characters seem destined to act in the ways in which the novel depicts. But what if things turned out differently?

Let your imagination fly as you consider:

• If Heathcliff had stayed to hear the whole of Catherine’s confession to Nelly, would he have left, and if he hadn’t, how would Edgar have fared as a suitor?
• How might Hareton have turned out if Nelly had brought the youngster with her to grow up at the Grange as she desired? Would a son educated in his rights have avenged the degradation of his father?
• How would Catherine’s story have unfolded if she had decided to leave Edgar for Heathcliff, after Edgar gave her his ultimatum? Would Heathcliff have looked after Edgar’s baby? Might Edgar have gone after his wife?
• If Linton had not died when he did, how would Cathy have coped if she became disillusioned with her husband – and what actions might an amorous Hareton have taken?

You, the author

If you can email in some alternative scenarios (to info@crossref-it.info), we’d love to hear what you come up with and could share them on this blog.

Meanwhile, for more on the original version of Brontë’s classic, watch this space….