wuthering heights
Emily Bronte's characters in Wuthering Heights display characteristics that some major 18th Century Romantic writers would either cringe in disdain from or openly embrace as their own. Upon analysis of Heathcliff and Hareton, characters nurtured in atmospheres of degradation, it is apparent that they embody dissimilar Romantic sensibilities. Heathcliff's life is an evolution of Blakian progression while Hareton is a Wordsworthian projection. The course of Heathcliff's life is characterized by stages Blake recognized as innocence, experience, rebellion and higher innocence. As a child, the torture and humiliation he endures is obviated when roaming the moors with Catherine. "... it was one of their chief amusements to run away to the moors in the morning and remain there all day, and the after punishment grew a mere thing to laugh at ... they forgot everything the minute they were together again" (Bronte 87). Heathcliff emanates innocence when he spies Isabella and Edgar Linton amongst their riches but recognizes them as utterly devoid of imagination. Heathcliff proclaims "I'd not exchange for a thousand lives, my condition here, for Edgar Linton's at Thruscross Grange" (Bronte 89). Armed with a child's imagination, Heathcliff ha
Nelly states that Edgar will continue his affections for Catherine "by the remembrance of what she once was, by common humanity, and a sense of duty" (Bronte 185). Discarding the remnants of her childhood innocence, she further notes to Nelly Dean, "It would degrade me to marry "Heathcliff" (Bronte 121). As a result, she begins to find Heathcliff's company less desirable. Heathcliff reflects the ideas of Blake in his character evolution through the four stages of innocence, experience, rebellion and higher innocence. Despite his age, Hareton embodies the innocence that Wordsworth cherishes. While Heathcliff grew hardened by similar treatment, Hareton is presented as the most compassionate character in the novel. Jaded by the rich and delicate atmosphere at Thruscross Grange, Catherine abandons her innocence. The weapons he uses against the Earnshaws and Lintons are their own weapons of money and arranged marriages. that insipid, paltry creature attending her from duty and humanity! From pity and charity! He might as well plant an oak in a flower pot, and expect it to thrive, as imagine he can restore her to vigor in the soil of his shallow cares" (Bronte 190). s no desire for the advantages of upper class society. He says, "I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing" (Bronte 353).
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