Thursday, September 15, 2011

Sisters

Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, shares striking similarities with her sister Charlotte's novel, Jane Eyre.
The main drama in Wuthering Heights so far is the romance between Heathcliff and Catherine, which is realized by both who partake in it, but Catherine's pride is getting in the way of it. Hindley forces Heathcliff into being a vassal and a servant to him, which consequently pushes Heathcliff into a lower social class. Heathcliff is madly in love with Catherine, so when he finds out that a man named Edgar has asked to marry Catherine, Heathcliff is outraged with jealousy and storms out conveniently right before Catherine professes her love for Heathcliff. Catherine agrees to marry Edgar only because he is rich and would make her powerful. A similar storyline appears in Jane Eyre, when the orphaned Jane, who is of a low social class and is working as a governess at his residence, meets Rochester and they fall in love. Rochester is quite wealthy and owns a mansion called Thornfield Hall. Jane continually reminds herself that Rochester will not condescend to admit to loving her, but in the end, they are both equally in love with each other. They both decide, however, to get married despite the class differences.
Going along with the idea of love and marriage, both books introduce the idea of marrying for the wrong reasons. In Emily's book, Catherine is faced with the opportunity to marry a man who will make her powerful, and she accepts. In Charlotte's book, Jane considers marrying St. John, a man of similar social class whom she knows she should be with, but refuses because she is not in love. Jane and Catherine (or Charlotte and Emily), obviously hold opposing viewpoints concerning the issue of marrying for love or for money.

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