The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Vol. II, Issue IV I ISSN : 2395 4817

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre : A Study in Comparison

Kinjal Joshi

Research Scholar HNG University

Patan, Gujarat, INDIA.

Abstract

The present paper sheds some light on the novels of the Bronte sisters like Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte.

The paper tries to show the comparative study of Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and Wuthering Heights by Emily

Bronte. The comparison tries to develop the plots of novels in a different way and in-depth highlighting

similarities and dissimilarities between these two fabulous novels. These novels are in real sense auto-

biographical; the incidents are inspired from the life of Bronte sisters. Though Charlotte and Emily are from the

same place and background, there is a vast difference between them, just like Jane, heroine in Jane Eyre and

Catherine, protagonist in Wuthering Heights. Jane is more optimistic than Catherine, and symbol of modern

women. The sense of independence lingers as an important quality in Jane’s character. The paper shows how

both novels’ style and themes are totally different, except love, and compared to Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights is

a more complex novel. The paper tries to highlight Jane Eyre as a feminist novel compared with male-chauvinist

characters in Wuthering Heights. The researcher has tried to put the two novels side by side observing religious

concerns; Wuthering Heights is a passionate tale where religion does not linger much while Jane Eyre sustains a

beautiful balance between religion and one’s own instincts and passions.

Keywords : Wuthering Height, Optimistic, Feminist, Male-chauvinist

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

Wuthering Heights (1847) as a novelist Emily Bronte is known by her one single masterly production

Wuthering Heights. It is considered as a masterpiece which has been the subject of many ardent eulogies

and appreciations almost poetic in their enthusiasm. Wuthering Heights is one of the most odd and

implacable works in the whole of English fiction. The novel has an extra ordinary power, fiery emotion,

intense passion, and stormy feelings. It is a novel of terror and revenge and it thrills us at several places

by its lyrical intensity of passion and its emotional exuberance. It remains a lonely peak in the landscape

of the English novels.

On the other hand, Jane Eyre (1848) which is written by Charlotte Bronte explores the conflict between

individual and society. Charlotte Bronte reveals Victorian assumptions about gender and class and do

critique on it. The novel has innovative style combining naturalism with gothic melodrama, there are

number of structural oppositions as well and also being written from an intensely first person female

perspective. Jane Eyre would have been nearly a very well writing specimen and it has in the form of

bildungsroman. Charlotte Bronte has transformed the experience into a novel with universal appeal. It

was achieved an instant success, and favorable reviews. Charlotte Bronte was essentially the novelist of

passion’s form and intensity.

Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre are considered to be the iconic novels of the Victorian era which were

written by the Bronte sisters. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre was the most popular novels amongst the

public and critics of that time period. There are lots of similarities and dissimilarities between these two

fabulous novels. Both books are considered to be of the gothic genre and having being written in the

same household.

Both novels are greatly influenced by Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte’s real life background. Like

Charlotte and Emily, protagonists of Wuthering Heights’ Catherine and Jane in Jane Eyre lose their

mother of illness as young children and the remaining parent or relative must raise the child. They also

make use one of the popular issues of the orphaned child of nineteenth century in their novels. Another

influence of the novels is that in absence of a mother figure, both sisters spent most of their lives in

isolation on the Yorkshire moors. These two great novels share the same setting of the bleak, lonely

moors of Yorkshire of nineteenth century. Their home were at moor, therefore, a vividness and graphic

power in their sketches present them before reader. There were many individuals in their lives

influenced them and they base many of the main characters in the stories. For creating characters in their

novels, they selected actual living person they knew, their characteristics and modified these persons to

make another. The background of their novels is in Gothic setting. In Wuthering Heights story is

narrated through the eyes of bystander that makes it gothic in real sense. In Wuthering Heights the face

that wild and eccentric household and Heathcliff, a gypsy child added to the gothic feel of the novel.

The theme of love is also common in these two novels, particularly Gothic romance. The elements like

supernatural occurrences are presented with a stormy love affair within a violent brooding atmosphere.

The stormy love affair in Wuthering Heights exists between Catherine and Heathcliff and in Jane Eyre,

between Jane and Rochester. Thus, love is indeed the central theme of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre and

Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights. There is description of frustrated love but it does not make love of

their heroines less intense. There is depiction of violent human passion particularly in the novel of

Emily Bronte. Similarly, Charlotte Bronte’s plots are full of inexplicable happenings and sinister secrets.

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

The atmosphere is just like bound in with blackness of tempest and desolation in both of the novels. The

supernatural happenings and an environment of mystery are considered as the final ingredients for

Gothic romance.

Both novels reveal common themes like- Gothic environment, theme of love, passion and marriage,

nature, certain qualities of protagonist but they are totally different in their treatment. There two novels

are completely opposite to each other by the two siblings of the same sex. Certain dissimilarities are

found in both novels. For example- in this case, Jane Eyre is a balanced tale of protagonist’s sufferings

and sad times but at the end one thinks that everything was perfect and everyone is happy after finishing

novels, while Wuthering Heights is more tragic novel than a happy one Jane Eyre.

If we compare these two novels, Jane Eyre is regarded a feminist novel and Jane as the hero of the novel

while Wuthering Heights has barbaric and male-chauvinist characters. Thus story-line is totally different

from each other.

Wuthering Heights has more mysterious mood and plot than Jane Eyre. Wuthering Height is written

according to restrictions of place and manner and the restriction of time is not included while Jane Eyre

does not follow these three restrictions. However, in Jane Eyre Jane sees a dream where Mr. Rochester

is calling her from the abyss, same is in Wuthering Heights, after reading strange letters in Heathcliff’s

house Lockwood sees a ghost.1

Passion and religion are also the common topics in both novels but their treatment is quite different.

Jane Eyre seems more acceptable than Wuthering Heights because Wuthering Heights is a passionate

tale than Jane Eyre and religion does not sustain much while Jane Eyre is a beautiful mixture of religion

and passions of protagonists in the novels. Thus, psycho-analytically Wuthering Heights presents Id that

focuses on passions and human instincts. While Jane Eyre represents Ego and Super Ego which

provides ideological state, reasons and logics that one should keep in check one’s own instincts. Jane

Eyre who is the protagonist of the novel chooses to lead religious life which was present during those

times and restrain her passions and natural instincts. In Wuthering Heights Catherine and Heathcliff are

not religious, Heathcliff utters unreligious cry after the death of Catherine- “May you are not rest in

peace till I lie besides you.”2

In Jane Eyre the protagonist Jane Eyre seems not be very religious that’s why she left to lead her life as

a missionary but she is aware of heaven and hell’s fire and she has her own principals to follow.

If one talks about female characters in both novels, Jane Eyre is a strong character than Catherine

because of Catherine’s lack of decision power. Catherine represents human beings Id, and conflict

between Id and Super Ego means one’s desire and conscience. Catherine’s hasty decision to marry

Edger Linton ruins her life while Jane has ability to take proper decision. Jane’s refusal to marry with

Mr. Rochester who is already married and he has wife too. She has her own principals to live her life. So

when Rochester’s wife is dead and he is crippled and half-blind she remains faithful to her love and

marries with him at the end.

Thoughts on marriage are echoed same in the both novels. Mutual affection and companionship are

needed for marriage. Due to lack of love and companionship marriage could not sustain. In Wuthering

Heights Catherine and Edger Linton’s marriage as well as Heathcliff and Isabella’s marriage is not

The Global Journal of Literary Studies I December 2016 I Volume II, Issue IV ISSN : 2395 4817

based on love and companionship though their marriage is failed. On the other hand in the story,

Younger Catherine and Hareton’s marriage is based on love and companionship that is reason behind

their successful marriage and the same reason is applicable to Jane and Rochester’s marriage which is

based on the grounds of love. Thus, love binds them at the end of the story, and no matter what different

is there in their age and appearance but they both are happy in each other’s company.

Supernatural elements are frequently used in both the novels but in Wuthering Heights they are more

complex than in Jane Eyre. Because that is up to the readers how they understand the supernatural

happenings like ghost and dreams. But it is clearly visible in Jane Eyre one will feel a force with which

she proves these supernatural happenings to be true. For example- there is a superstition that if one sees

an infant baby in dreams it means a death or bad news about one’s relatives is also proved and Jane

Eyre in which Thornfield is ruined, it also becomes true. Supernatural accidents are become charms of

these novels. Supernatural accident happens to Jane when she hears Rochester’s calls- “Jane! Jane!

Jane! Jane!”3 and looking out of her window Jane Hears her name in Mr. Rochester’s voice so she

replies “ I am coming, where are you ?”4 which is heard by Mr. Rochester. At last both consider it is just

an illusion but later on both know that that it was a true incident.

Narrative technique in Wuthering Heights is more complex and intellectual because two narrators (Nelly

Dean and Lockwood) are use to describe the situation and characters in the novel from different views.

Jane Eyre has very simple narratology and written by Charlotte Bronte in first person which directly

addresses to the readers and because of that a connection between narrator and reader is build.

But at last, ‘Happy end’ is a common factor in both of the stories. In Jane Eyre Rochester marries Jane

but he is disfigured, penitent and his vision is damaged. On the other hand, in Wuthering Heights

Haerton and Catherine decided to marry and they live together, but so many deaths happened during the

story, so one cannot say that it is a happy end of the story. Semantic field would be the same in the two

stories like, death, marriage and family life. Another similarity is that Jane becomes orphan and

Hethcliff was brought in Wuthering Heights as an orphan.

Jane Eyre is much more optimistic tale than Wuthering Heights. The characters given in Jane Eyre are

not beautiful but average looking and sometimes considered to be the ugly. By creating these types of

characters Charlotte Bronte has shown that one need not to be beautiful to be loved because everyone is

beautiful in their own way. There are lots of potential and promising ideas in the novels. Thus, Jane

Eyre and Wuthering Heights are two unforgettable novels.

References

http://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/jane-eyre-vs-wuthering-heights-english-literature-

essay.php#ixzz3DVDcQM8D

Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights, New York: Oxford University Press, 1976, p.167.

Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre, New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.