Throughout the years authors have written many great stories. Wuthering Heights,
written by Emily Bronte, and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens are two
examples of great stories. Both of these stories can be set off and paralleled
to the other. The setting, time era, and lover’s relationships are the
elements of comparison and differentiation. The settings, in which the two
stories take place, influence the people and the situations that occur. In
Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, the small town of Liverpool is the setting. The
Earnshaw family is not as well off as the Linton’s. This is compared to the
small town off the ocean where Pip and Estella live. Pip’s family is rather
poor, and Estella lives in a large house with a wealthy aunt. The lives of the
lover’s in both stories revolved around the other partner’s life. Estella
moves away to Paris, but then meets Pip again in New York. He again pursues her
and she marries another man. Catherine loves her adopted brother, but marries
Edgar instead. The two meet again at her house and Edgar gets angry because he
senses the love between the two. The different setting’s of the lover’s
first acquaintance is the contrasting element. Pip meets Estella on a warm
summer day while playing in the garden. Summer is a time of happiness, which
drew Estella to grow fond of Pip. Summer is also a time of romance, which
flourishes in the end. Heathcliff meets Catherine on a cold winter night after
her family takes him in. Winter is a time of grief and gloominess, and therefore
Catherine does not care for Heathcliff at first. Winter is also a time of death,
because the leaves die and most animals are hibernating. This parallels with the
outcome of Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship; she dies. The time era of
the lover's plays a role on the outcome of the stories. Wuthering Heights, in a
Victorian era, is set in a time where women strictly marry, have children, and
keep the household in order. This makes women uncomfortable with themselves in
making decisions that regard their future. Catherine was afraid to act on her
true nature, so she married Edgar. Although she loved Heathcliff, she made the
decision to betray him. “ I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I
have to be in heaven. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall
never know how I love him; because he is more myself than I am. Whatever our
souls are made of, they are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a
moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.” Although the two books were
written a few years apart, the societies are entirely different. In Great
Expectations, Estella grew up under her aunt’s care. She had ambition and an
education. She made decisions that better her. Estella moves to Paris to go to
college and then to New York to work. She sees Pip as a “poor” man, and
marries another man. Catherine, from Wuthering Heights, is from a rather poor
family. The Linton family educates and refines her. Her refinement complicates
her raltionship with Heathcliff and leads to her marriage to the upper class
Edgar Linton. Catherine unfortunately lives in the time when women married for
money and social-status, but were also forced to be housewives as well. The two
couples, Pip and Estella and Catherine and Heathcliff, come together in the end.
Both struggle and learn from mistakes. Estella loves Pip, but she is afraid that
he will hurt her, as her aunt was hurt. Estella is afraid because all of her
life she is taught to not fall in love. When she does, she becomes afraid and
flees because she does not know how to handle her new emotions. After she
marries Drummel, she realizes her mistake and they divorce. Fate brings Pip and
Estella together at her house on the ocean and they never part again. “I took
her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place…and I saw no shadow of
another parting from her.” Catherine and Heathcliff are in love, but
Catherine’s decision to marry Edgar drives Heathcliff away. He returns to see
her, and to find that she still loves him. He tells her of his plans to kill
himself, but does not follow through with his plan in fear of hurting her. When
Catherine dies, Heathcliff is devastated. He desperately wants to be with her.
After Mr. Lockwood reports his ghost encounter, Heathcliff rushes to call her
(Catherine) ghost into the house so that he could feel her presence. Soon after
Heathcliff's death, people report seeing their (Catherine and Heathcliff) ghosts
roaming around the moors. This shows that love conquers all, even death.
Although these two stories are written by different authors, the elements in the
stories are quite similar. The setting and time era play a part on the lives of
the characters. Also, the couples are reunited in the end, one in life, and one
in death. The statement to summarize the two stories is: Love conquers all.