Wuthering Heights And Great Expectations Essay, Research Paper

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 am. Whatever our

souls are made of, they are the same; and Linton?s is as different as a

moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.? 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.