Love Conquers All: Wuthering Heights Vs. Great Expectations Essay, Research Paper
Love Conquers All
Throughout the years authors have written many great stories. Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Bronte, and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens are two examples of great stories. Both of these stories can be set off and paralleled to the other. The setting, time era, and lover?s relationships are the elements of comparison and differentiation.
The settings, in which the two stories take place, influence the people and the situations that occur. In Bronte?s Wuthering Heights, the small town of Liverpool is the setting. The Earnshaw family is not as well off as the Linton?s. This is compared to the small town off the ocean where Pip and Estella live. Pip?s family is rather poor, and Estella lives in a large house with a wealthy aunt. The lives of the lover?s in both stories revolved around the other partner?s life. Estella moves away to Paris, but then meets Pip again in New York. He again pursues her and she marries another man. Catherine loves her adopted brother, but marries Edgar instead. The two meet again at her house and Edgar gets angry because he senses the love between the two. The different setting?s of the lover?s first acquaintance is the contrasting element. Pip meets Estella on a warm summer day while playing in the garden. Summer is a time of happiness, which drew Estella to grow fond of Pip. Summer is also a time of romance, which flourishes in the end. Heathcliff meets Catherine on a cold winter night after her family takes him in. Winter is a time of grief and gloominess, and therefore Catherine does not care for Heathcliff at first. Winter is also a time of death, because the leaves die and most animals are hibernating. This parallels with the outcome of Catherine and Heathcliff?s relationship; she dies.
The time era of the lover’s plays a role on the outcome of the stories. Wuthering Heights, in a Victorian era, is set in a time where women strictly marry, have children, and keep the household in order. This makes women uncomfortable with themselves in making decisions that regard their future. Catherine was afraid to act on her true nature, so she married Edgar. Although she loved Heathcliff, she made the decision to betray him. ? I?ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him; because he is more myself than I
Although the two books were written a few years apart, the societies are entirely different. In Great Expectations, Estella grew up under her aunt?s care. She had ambition and an education. She made decisions that better her. Estella moves to Paris to go to college and then to New York to work. She sees Pip as a ?poor? man, and marries another man. Catherine, from Wuthering Heights, is from a rather poor family. The Linton family educates and refines her. Her refinement complicates her raltionship with Heathcliff and leads to her marriage to the upper class Edgar Linton. Catherine unfortunately lives in the time when women married for money and social-status, but were also forced to be housewives as well.
The two couples, Pip and Estella and Catherine and Heathcliff, come together in the end. Both struggle and learn from mistakes. Estella loves Pip, but she is afraid that he will hurt her, as her aunt was hurt. Estella is afraid because all of her life she is taught to not fall in love. When she does, she becomes afraid and flees because she does not know how to handle her new emotions. After she marries Drummel, she realizes her mistake and they divorce. Fate brings Pip and Estella together at her house on the ocean and they never part again. ?I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place?and I saw no shadow of another parting from her.? Catherine and Heathcliff are in love, but Catherine?s decision to marry Edgar drives Heathcliff away. He returns to see her, and to find that she still loves him. He tells her of his plans to kill himself, but does not follow through with his plan in fear of hurting her. When Catherine dies, Heathcliff is devastated. He desperately wants to be with her. After Mr. Lockwood reports his ghost encounter, Heathcliff rushes to call her (Catherine) ghost into the house so that he could feel her presence. Soon after Heathcliff’s death, people report seeing their (Catherine and Heathcliff) ghosts roaming around the moors. This shows that love conquers all, even death.
Although these two stories are written by different authors, the elements in the stories are quite similar. The setting and time era play a part on the lives of the characters. Also, the couples are reunited in the end, one in life, and one in death. The statement to summarize the two stories is: Love conquers all.