Kathryn Fowler's Final Argument

Both Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights are intricately fascinating in their own way; however, the novel most fitted for a rigorous classroom study is Wuthering Heights because of its psychological depth and range and the brilliance of its writing.  Emily Bronte incorporates the entire spectrum of humanity into her novel, depicting each emotion, personality, and atmosphere with uncanny realism.  Though the plot includes every facet of human nature from vengeance to petulance and kindness to fiendishness, Bronte describes all with each, a feat only possible with an author familiar with every aspect of the psyche.  The simple ability to pen emotions that one person could not possibly have felt is a gift, but Bronte also incorporates style and elegance in her writing through the use of irony and frame stories.  Frame narration adds a level of knowledge to the story that one narrator could not possibly obtain, while still retaining realism by not using an omniscient narrator.  Bronte's frame stories go farther.  She uses narrators within narrators to ensure a complete relation of all the details of the plot.  Her irony, too, is not of the traditional kind.  She does not simply use sarcastic language, but subtly inserts irony into all situations.  Wuthering Heights, itself, focuses on the irony of a strong, vital man refusing the friendship of the world, but accepting the love of one dying woman.  Some would say that Bronte's writing does not transcend the pages of her novel, but truly her writing examines human nature on an extremely intimate level.

Word Count: 254

Goldstone, Herbert. "Wuthering Heights Revisited." The English Journal XLVIII (1949): 4.