SIMILARITIES NOTED BETWEEN WUTHERING HEIGHTS BY EMILY BRONTE AND BRIGHTON ROCK BY GRAHAM GREENE

Looking forward to starting my Year 10 and 11 Literature classes next week and really looking forward to teaching WUTHERING HEIGHTS as the text for Year 10.

I’ve blogged about WUTHERING HEIGHTS before http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/688423669/the-literary-perfection-of-wuthering-heights/ and also BRIGHTON ROCK by Graham Greene http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/673658247/the-year-10-reading-list-plus-graham-greene-gets-down-to-earth/ and this weekend while preparing for the lit class, I noticed some similarities between the two (as strange as that may sound).

Probably the biggest one is they both take place in self-contained universes….The netherworld that exists both in and between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange is totally from the author’s imagination and while it is very easy to picture mentally the geography and scene of events, it’s very hard to picture it as a real place that would ever exist in the material sense.

The Brighton in BRIGHTON ROCK while a real city whose landmarks and attractions are mentioned in the novel also seems like an alien land, a place of desperate lowlifes, bookies, pimps, and of course gangsters who live in cheap rented rooms not far from the carnival like atmosphere of Brighton Pier making for a stunning contrast.

The heroes of both novels, Heathcliff and Pinkie are men who use women as pawns in furthering their agenda whether the complicated plan for spiteful revenge from WUTHERING HEIGHTS or stopping a witness from testifying in this case by marrying her from BRIGHTON ROCK.

They are both anti-heroes….Heathcliff attempts to use his money and scheming to win Catherine and when she passes away, in effect to own her memory while Pinkie uses a woman in an attempt to dodge criminal prosecution all the while pursuing his desire to be a top gangster.

Neither are successful IMO although Heathcliff comes closer as Catherine clearly loves him and is a more sympathetic character as we know more about what was done to him and what made him the way he is.