232 Brontë, Emily
believes that it is God’s bidding that he become
a missionary in India. Because of his belief in his
destiny, and because he places God’s love above all
things, he lives in self-abnegation. He ignores Rosa-
mond Oliver, a pretty but fragile girl whom he loves,
and proposes to Jane, whom he does not love.
While Jane is tempted to accept St. John’s pro-
posal, she chooses a secular love in the end. Across
many miles, she hears Edward Rochester’s cry,
which stops her from accepting St. John’s proposal.
When Jane returns to Rochester, the equilibrium of
their relationship has shifted. Previously, Rochester
had wielded the power as he was older, rich, expe-
rienced, and her employer. He withheld truths from
her, and after she had accepted his proposal, he said
to her, “I mean shortly to claim you—your thoughts,
conversation and company—for life.” In a symbolic
move to own Jane, he had bought her dresses and
jewels. His “smile was such as a sultan might...
bestow on a slave his gold and gems had enriched.”
However, in a fire, Rochester lost his limb and his
eyesight, and it is while he is in such a broken and
devastated state that Jane returns to him. Rochester
has lost his cocksureness and superiority; he is now
crippled and blind, and he needs to be guided. On
the other hand, Jane has more experience in the
world, and she has become financially independent
due to an inheritance from an unknown uncle.
Despite her plain looks, she is clearly capable of
attracting handsome and upright men such as St.
John. In the first proposal, Rochester was so confi-
dent that Jane would accept him that he taunted her
mercilessly about a lady who showed interest in him
till Jane cried. In the second proposal, after his acci-
dent, he is the one on the edge. Jane Eyre does not,
however, advocate a love of tug-of-war. Jane returns
to Rochester as an equal, not a superior. She guides
him on his walks, but she also listens to his com-
mands: she is equally his master and his slave. It is
this equality in status that allows Jane and Rochester
to be happily married.
Unlike the religious love that requires one to suf-
fer, and unlike the secular love Jane was enslaved by
with Helen and Miss Temple, Jane and Rochester’s
romantic love is now liberating, as Jane claims in
the penultimate chapter: “There was no harassing
restraint, no pressing of glee and vivacity with him;
for with him I was at perfect ease.”
Aaron HoBRONTË, EMILY Wuthering Heights
(1847)
Wuthering Heights—one of the best known love
stories in English literature—has spawned an entire
industry of films, television series, musicals, and
songs over many decades, not to mention innumer-
able literary editions and criticism, seemingly able to
attract generation after generation of new admirers.
The story concerns the relationship of Heathcliff
and Catherine: Their passion for each other is all-
consuming, yet it remains unfulfilled, ultimately
destroying them both and those nearest to them.
The novel is not, however, “just” a romance but
a serious essay, addressing a number of themes and
issues via the presentation of two of the most famous
characters in the canon of Victorian literature. The
nature of love is discussed, together with male/
female relationships in general and gender roles in
society; the notion of death and dying, the afterlife;
social class divisions and their importance in soci-
ety, incorporating poverty and wealth; the abuse of
women and children; and revenge and reconciliation.
“Wuthering Heights” refers to the name of the
manor house set on the wild Yorkshire moors in
England, the location for much of the plot. The
story was written by Emily Brontë in 1847, age 29,
only a year before she died. It was published under
the pseudonym Ellis Bell, since Victorian sensibili-
ties could not countenance such a profoundly shock-
ing novel (for the time) being written by a woman.
Even today, readers may find the novel disturbing,
and many of its themes remain relevant to a modern
world.
Gerri KimberdeatH in Wuthering Heights
Of the 13 characters introduced in the novel Wuther-
ing Heights, excluding servants and the two narra-
tors, 11 are dead by the end, nearly all prematurely.
Emily Brontë’s own life was ravaged by the untimely
death of loved ones, and this experience inevitably
surfaced in her fiction. Her mother died when Emily