Love in Great Expectations and Wuthering Heights

             Love in Wuthering Heights and Great Expectations, both of which are Victorian novels, is under the influence of social status. For example, in Wuthering Heights, the desire for social advancement prompts the first Catherine to marry Edgar regardless of her overpowering love for Heathcliff. Catherine thinks that her marriage to Heathcliff, a lowborn servant, would degrade herself even though she admits that she love Heathcliff so deeply that she and Heathcliff are the same. In Great Expectations, Pipfs love for Estella stings him to the improvement of his social status. In his opinion, only by being a member of Estellafs social class, a gentleman, would he be qualified to marry Estella. Whatfs worse, Pipfs appreciation of Joe, Biddy, and Magwitchfs love is severely hindered by his zeal for social class. Pip is ashamed of Joe, Biddy, and Magwitch because they are of mean birth and remind him of his low social status.
             Furthermore, the authors of the two novels, Emily and Dickens, both agree that through forgiveness and repentance love could conquer hatred and save people from miseries. In Wuthering Heights, young Catherinefs regretting her mockeries of Hareton and Haretonfs forgiving her allow them to redeem their past sins and lead them to a happy life. In Great Expectations, Joe and Biddyfs forbearance for Pipfs snobbish behavior and Pipfs sincere repentance for his wrongdoing rescue Pip from his wretched life.
             However, as a Victorian novel, Wuthering Heights is quite different from its other contemporary novels. Love in Great Expectations is of Victorian style„Ÿ gentle, soft, and permanent while love in Wuthering Heights is ferocious with engrossing passion, usually accompanied by frustration and destruction. Unlike Pipfs love for Estella which is repressed when Pip hears Estellafs marriage to Drummle, love between Catherine and Heathcliff is so overwhelming that it denies changes. Although Catheri...

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Love in Great Expectations and Wuthering Heights. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 23:13, April 18, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/3430.html