However, upon some pondering and investigation, it occurred to me that this is one of several features that Wuthering Heights shares with many science fiction and fantasy series.
For instance, Star Trek. The one common denominator between episodes is the setting-- the starship Enterprise. There are few significant characters (with many red-shirts filling in the background) and, for all intents and purposes, those characters and settings not directly associated with the Enterprise are quite transient. Like Wuthering Heights, the ship is an isolated bubble containing (or at least directly associated with) all important events.
,_ENT.jpg "actually they're not really alike at all")
Though Heathcliff and Cathy may not be learned in starship navigation, they do recall some archetypes of sci-fi (and fantasy) characters. Many fictional genres rely upon general categories of understandable, relatable stock characters, and, in some ways, so does Wuthering Heights.
Heathcliff is proud, aloof, and rude; he is often classified as a Byronic hero, but on a simpler level, I interpreted Heathcliff as a somewhat-immature man who acts based on his individualistic ideas and strong affection for Catherine. He doesn't wish to be controlled and follows his instincts, but also doesn't like to show his feelings, seeing them as soft.
Catherine seemed very similar. She is spirited and passionate, feeling a full range of emotion, from love to jealousy. When frustrated in her desires (as when Heathcliff begins to court Isabella and Nelly tells Edgar she is faking a fit), she flies into a rage and even occasionally becomes sick; like Heathcliff, she doesn't want to be controlled, and is certainly impulsive, but also puts consideration for her future over her love for Heathcliff, ultimately resulting in the unhappiness of an entire generation of Wuthering Heights inhabitants; the next generation redeems itself, however, by --spoilers--.
This theme of one generation's mistakes being fixed by the next (or a later generation in general) is a common one in science fiction and fantasy as well. A few examples might include Dune, Star Wars, and The Lord of the Rings. Arguably, this is a common theme throughout all literature, though it seems more proliferate in sci-fi to my mind.
In sum, I noticed a few common traits between Wuthering Heights (and Romantic literature in general) and sci-fi. While they are usually quite different in purpose, the two categories share motifs and character types, and while sci-fi is much more enjoyable to me than WH, I have to admit that perhaps-- just perhaps-- there are some deep underlying traits that make E. Brontë's novel similarly interesting.
If only Joseph was a red shirt... if I have to try and decipher what he's saying one more time I'm going to throw my book across the room.
ReplyDeleteIt's not all that surprising that science fiction characters and settings have so much in common with 19th century literature, back when chemistry was actually a new thing. After all, Ray Bradbury compared science fiction to a mirror, reflecting our present. As long as the stories we read are relevant to the lives we lead, science fiction will always seem to be intertwined with those archetypes and those isolated settings, because both reflect us as people. And by the transitive property of reflective literature which I just made up right now, if literature A reflects person B and literature C reflects person B, then literature A must reflect literature C. Does that make sense? Let's pretend it does :).
While it is true that there is a similarity in the number of important characters between Wuthering Heights and many science fiction stories, I would like to point out that this is true for most stories. I would hardly assume that any story with a setting much larger than Wuthering Heights would use every character in the world. And even Wuthering Heights has nonessential characters such as the anonymous working hands on the estate. However that doesn't mean that mean that the number of nonessential characters isn't unique to the story or genre.
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