Dracula and Wuthering Heights: Did They Conform?
Both the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Dracula by Bram Stoker conform to the societal norms of their time but not in a direct way. The characters in Wuthering Heights like Catherine for example, do make decisions like marrying Edgar Linton instead of Heathcliff which is a reasonable decision as she wants to keep her status and be rich. The characters in Dracula, especially the females, conform to society as they do not meddle in other people’s business and the men go out to work. There were no women doing jobs other than secretaries, like Mina and all the doctors and lawyers were men. In both of these novels, the literary expectations were not conformed to as both Wuthering Heights …show more content…
“Wuthering Heights is quite unlike other Victorian novels” said Lord David Cecil (1935) “and compares Emily Bronte to Blake in order to assert that some of the strangeness in her book disappears if we consider that she-like Blake-was a "mystic."” Wuthering Heights was a so called ‘romance’ novel that was much aligned with societal norms of its time. Nelly narrates as Lockwood “chooses to continue the story "in Nelly 's own words, only a little condensed,"” which was not seen as much in novels of that time. Not having a true narrator can cause accuracy problems, but that was just another aspect of the novel. The Examiner wrote that “"This [was] a strange book," while other contemporary reviewers spoke of "wildness," "violence" (the Britannia for 15 January 1848), and "power thrown away" (the North American Review for October 1848).” Wuthering Heights was not expected to be as odd as it was which was mentioned in multiple articles at that time. With this strange feeling that the book comes with it is also stated in the paper by Arnold Krupat that “Miss Bronte has done to create a novel with which even after a hundred and twenty years we do not yet feel comfortable” further proving it was not expected to be the way it was. Wuthering Heights as a novel did conform to societal norms, however, because of a multitude of reasons; Catherine choosing Edgar over Heathcliff is just one of the examples of how. The physical abuse from parents was considered normal in those times and fights between siblings have always been normality, even in modern day society. Even though during the time period when this was written slaves were now illegal to own, servants were still present and were not treated like the other higher class members of the household, which is to be expected in a novel like this; very focused on status and power. Heathcliff planned
Both the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Dracula by Bram Stoker conform to the societal norms of their time but not in a direct way. The characters in Wuthering Heights like Catherine for example, do make decisions like marrying Edgar Linton instead of Heathcliff which is a reasonable decision as she wants to keep her status and be rich. The characters in Dracula, especially the females, conform to society as they do not meddle in other people’s business and the men go out to work. There were no women doing jobs other than secretaries, like Mina and all the doctors and lawyers were men. In both of these novels, the literary expectations were not conformed to as both Wuthering Heights …show more content…
“Wuthering Heights is quite unlike other Victorian novels” said Lord David Cecil (1935) “and compares Emily Bronte to Blake in order to assert that some of the strangeness in her book disappears if we consider that she-like Blake-was a "mystic."” Wuthering Heights was a so called ‘romance’ novel that was much aligned with societal norms of its time. Nelly narrates as Lockwood “chooses to continue the story "in Nelly 's own words, only a little condensed,"” which was not seen as much in novels of that time. Not having a true narrator can cause accuracy problems, but that was just another aspect of the novel. The Examiner wrote that “"This [was] a strange book," while other contemporary reviewers spoke of "wildness," "violence" (the Britannia for 15 January 1848), and "power thrown away" (the North American Review for October 1848).” Wuthering Heights was not expected to be as odd as it was which was mentioned in multiple articles at that time. With this strange feeling that the book comes with it is also stated in the paper by Arnold Krupat that “Miss Bronte has done to create a novel with which even after a hundred and twenty years we do not yet feel comfortable” further proving it was not expected to be the way it was. Wuthering Heights as a novel did conform to societal norms, however, because of a multitude of reasons; Catherine choosing Edgar over Heathcliff is just one of the examples of how. The physical abuse from parents was considered normal in those times and fights between siblings have always been normality, even in modern day society. Even though during the time period when this was written slaves were now illegal to own, servants were still present and were not treated like the other higher class members of the household, which is to be expected in a novel like this; very focused on status and power. Heathcliff planned