Liz Damoc's Final Argument

Both Pride and Prejudice and Wuthering Heights are incredible novels that have a lot to offer their readers. After careful consideration, I really think we should study Wuthering Heights this school year. Although both novels are love stories, Wuthering Heights has an enticing complex love between Catherine and Heathcliff. Their love is intense and passionate, but unlike Pride and Prejudice's  Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy, Catherine and Heathcliff's love has a dimension of true darkness that is not found in traditional love stories. In contrast, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy's love at the end of the novel ends in a fairy tale-like fashion with true happiness. By studying Wuthering Heights, our class can study the different angle of love that Bronte uses throughout the novel. Although their love ends in death, one might analyze why the reader is still so attracted to Catherine and Heathcliff's complex relationship. Bronte dives into the souls of the characters and shows their deepest pain that accompanies love, while Jane Austen's character exemplify the more shallow, satyric views of marriage and love. Along with more complexity, Wuthering Heights contains the uncommon frame story, that adds even more dimension to the novel and keeps the reader interested and alert. Pride and Prejudice is indeed a timeless classic, but it is has many stereotypical qualities of a love story and was even made into a major motion picture. All in all, I think studying Wuthering Heights would be a more effective use of time in the classroom because of the complexity and depth of characters and their intertwining relationships.

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