How is love portrayed in “Romeo and Juliet” and “Wuthering Heights” and how do settings affect and reflect the characters?
William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” are widely considered to be two of the most influential and popular romances in English literature. The way setting is used to reflect the mood of the scene, using variations of light and dark as well as weather and nature, is very stimulating to the imaginations of the audience. This essay will discuss how Shakespeare and Brontë portray love through intelligent language and how the setting can deeply influence our perception of the characters.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines love as a warm affection or fondness. It can be shown…show more content… They lived in a very different and equal environment, reading great literature including the works of Lord Byron. These were a collection of poems describing dangerous but passionate men, who more often than not loved destructively. These poems were definitely the basis of Heathcliff’s character, and possibly even the harshness of Cathy’s wild side.
The fact that Brontë originally published “Wuthering Heights” under the pseudonym Ellis Bell tells us that she was afraid to use her real name because of the public’s opinion, believing that her novel may be shocking and unaccepted in society. Since Brontë grew up in Haworth, which is situated on the Yorkshire moors, the character Cathy may have been a reflection of her inner self, making the novel in some ways semi-autobiographical. The dominance that Cathy has over the men in her life must have been very challenging to the structure of society in Brontë’s time, and almost certainly would have had an impact on women’s status up until that point. The female characters in the novel are often described as being possessions; this is shown through her belief that Edgar is more suited to her worth and therefore the more practical choice of husband.
Heathcliff very much represents everything dark and dangerous about love, the way it can turn into an obsession and consume you entirely, and in my opinion he is the ultimate victim of the story.
