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 has no desire for the advantages of upper class society.
             Heathcliff's innocence dissipates as his childhood friend is introduced to the society of the Lintons. Jaded by the rich and delicate atmosphere at Thruscross Grange, Catherine abandons her innocence. As a result, she begins to find Heathcliff's company less desirable. She says to Heathcliff, "What do you talk about? You might be dumb or a baby for anything you say to amuse me, or anything you do either" (Bronte 110). Discarding the remnants of her childhood innocence, she further notes to Nelly Dean, "It would degrade me to marry "Heathcliff" (Bronte 121). Though the love she feels for Heathcliff is real, Catherine cannot resist being attracted to the...