This guest entry from CarrieS is in honor of Charlotte Bronte's birthday, which was last weekend, 21 April.
OK, Bitches, this is it. In honor of Charlotte Brontë's birthday (April 21, 1816), it's time to fulfill my long-time goal of establishing what I believe may be a universal truth:
You cannot passionately, deeply, own-multiple-copies-of, take-to-a-desert-island-as-your-one-book, love both Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. Love one, hate the other. That's the deal. You may appreciate the quality of the writing in both books and their historical significance, but on a visceral level you will love only one.
How have I come to this conclusion? Well, to start with, I currently own at least three copies of Jane Eyre, one of which is wrapped in plastic and stored with my earthquake survival kit (along with a copy of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, in case you're wondering.). Jane is my role model, my friend, my faithful companion and guiding light. On the other hand, I've read Wuthering Heights three times out of a perverse sense of duty to Literature, and I can't stand that whiny, nasty Catherine with her tantrums or Heathcliff, also known as the king of collateral damages. I have also noticed that when I sell books at our Library's Annual Jane Austen Tea (check it out if you live in Sacramento, CA) people mention liking either Wuthering or Jane, but not both. This is scanty evidence towards my theory, so I turn to the Bitches to expand my sample size. Prove me wrong, so we Brontë fans may live in harmony!
Jane and Wuthering are both gothic novels, set in England, written by sisters Charlotte and Emily, respectively. But despite the shared atmosphere and setting of the books, they could not be more different. Jane is a romance novel (best one ever, says me). Not only does it provide an HEA, it provides an HEA that is complex and earned. Jane (the character) goes through many challenging circumstances but she never loses her sense of who she is – a human being worthy of respect. She holds to this sense of self as an abused child, as a shy young woman with a painful crush, as a vagrant and dependent, and ultimately as a woman of means, a wife, and a mother. Her relationship with Rochester is ultimately defined by mutual respect, affection, and love. Until he respects her autonomy, no amount of him swooning over her can win the day. Even when she is most powerless, or when she is at her most romantically passionate, she holds to saying, “”I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.”
In contrast, Wuthering Heights is all about people who are so obsessed with each other that they have no sense of self as individuals. Catherine famously says, “Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” Heathcliff says of Cathy, “I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!” Wuthering Heights is not a book I enjoy, but the fact that I loathe it on a visceral level is not actually a criticism of its fine (if somewhat hyperactive) use of language. If anything, the fact that it inspires such passionate dislike is almost as much of a complement as the fact that I so passionately adore Jane Eyre. A book that inspires deep feeling must hit a nerve and must strike something in the imagination. Lord knows I can't stand the book, but it certainly is packed full with vivid atmosphere, gothic psychological horror, desperate passion and, in Heathcliff, the ultimate Byronic Asshat Hero. It doesn't get broodier than Heathcliff, and emotions don't get any more raw than his do. If your thing is tragic people wandering the moors wailing in heartbroken anguish and concocting terrible vengeances in gloomy halls, while swept away with consuming passion and being mean to each other and every one around them, then it doesn't get better than this.
As a long-time defender of Jane Eyre, I'm always having to remind people that the point of the book isn't that the poor governess gets the rich guy to marry her. I hate Wuthering Heights because the characters are universally loathsome with the exception of a few who are simply spineless, and yet I'm constantly hearing about their great love. I'm thinking maybe I (and, ironically, many of Wuthering's admirers) am missing the point – maybe the whole point of Wuthering Heights is not to glorify the Catherine/Heathcliff relationship, but rather to point out the destructive quality of romantic obsession (in addition to, and arguably as a result of, generations of abuse).
So tell me, everyone, if you are a huge devotee of either or both of these novels. Is there room in the human heart for both, or, they say in the movies, can there be only one? I am desperately curious as to whether my theory is true. Happy [belated] birthday, Charlotte, and thanks for providing me with a character who has reminded me to stay true to myself from the day we, two ten-year old girls who liked to hide away from the world and read, became best friends.
I’ll shut up after this, but I had to post a link to the Kate Beaton cartoon, ‘Dude Watchin’ With the Brontes’. It doesn’t solve the argument, but it’s genius:
http://harkavagrant.com/index….
See I read Wuthering Heights for the first time when I was 15 and I freaking loved it. But I never thought that Heathcliff was a romantic hero, I always knew that his behaviour was awful and he got the ending he deserved due to the fact he was a mahoosive D-Bag. However for me it was a book about missed chances, wasted potential, what can happen to you if you don’t make the right choices in relationships and how love can become a poisonous twisted thing in some people. Another thread was also how you can’t smother the good in some people, no matter how hard you try – Hareton and Catherine.
I just love the book. Still think anyone people who reckon Heathcliff to be this darkly romantic character need their heads read though, he’s a proper bellend.
Jane Eyre. I own two copies and I’m seriously thinking about buying a third because Barnes and Noble has one with a pretty leather bound cover. (I also have it on my Kindle and as an audiobook.)
I can’t deal with Wuthering Heights. It drives me nutty.
I love Jane because she is a fighter; a questioner; and stands up for her principles. My favorite quotes:
“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain and little, I am soulless and heartless? You think wrong! – I have as much soul as you, – and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you!”
“I am not your dear; I cannot lie down: send me to school soon, Mrs. Reed, for I hate to live here.”
So where does that leave The Tenant of Wildfell Hall?
There can be only one to rule them
allboth and that must be Jane Eyre. Many copies over the years, watching every version on television and in film, recognizing that Mary Stewart’s The Ivy Tree owed much to Ms. Bronte’s work.In fact, Jane is the reason I knew I had to buy Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair based solely on this part of the tag line: … and no one was happy with the ending of Jane Eyre.” What a concept! The most universally perfect ending ever? Must read.
Wuthering Heights, otoh, had only Laurence Olivier to recommend it in the film version. Every single character belongs in therapy, which is exactly what happens in Fforde’s third book, The Well of Lost Plots when they’re all sent for “rage counselling.” Brilliant.
I love “Jane Eyre.” I read it in 6th grade and it’s the whole reason I took French in 7th grade, dispite the fact I was living in Germany and did not speak German.
I love that when Jane and Edward reunite, they reunite as equals. She has her own inheritance, her own family, her own status in her community, has turned down a marriage offer, and her own identity. She remains true to herself. She doesn’t choose Edward or marriage because she has no other options. She chooses them because she wants them.
When I read “Wuthering Heights,” I didn’t know who I wanted to slap first. And these people never bought a clue. Never. And let their lunacy drift into the next generation. URRGGG! The whining and bitterness was too much. (Actually, I believe it was continuous…but I could be remembering it wrong.)
I have multiple copies of “Jane Eyre” too. I often give them to people looking for a good book.
Woohoo! I’m finally in the majority for once.
Wuthering Heights is NOT a romance. WH is, was, and always will be 400 pages of boring, whining sociopaths. Thank god for the rest of England they were stuck on the stupid moors and not inflicting their overblown angst on the general populace.
Are we allowed to discussion the movie/TV adaptations? The latest Jane Eyre was kind of a mess structure-wise, but Michael Fassbender was a pretty good Rochester. Toby Stephens as Rochester? Yes, PLEASE.
I must admit that Tom Hardy was *brilliant* in the recent BBC version of WH, but I still hate Heathcliff.
Can I just say how eternally confused I am by the Jane Austen vs. the Brontes thing? It’s like asking, who is more awesome the Sex Pistols or Vivaldi? It doesn’t make any sense as a question. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Or teapots and terrorism. Or milquetoast and wheat toast.
Moving on, I haven’t read Wuthering Heights but I lurve Jane Eyre.
I have read Villette. I think Villette is awesome. It is so awesome, you won’t be able handle it. It only looks like a linear narrative! But even so, I wouldn’t compare it to Jane Eyre. They are such different books, even if they are written by the same author. I think it is even more unfair to have WH vs. JE. I mean they are not only such different books but they are by different authors.
It must suck to be dead for 150 years and STILL be compared to your sisters. Seriously, as a sister this would irk me. 🙂
YES! I had noticed the same trend among my friends, both online and in meatspace. Fans of Jane Eyre and fans of Wuthering Heights rarely overlap. I’m happy someone reached the same conclusion!
I, for one, love Jane Eyre. I have to say that the first time I read it I found the first part to be a bit dragging and boring, your typical Victorian governess woe-is-me variety. Once we got to the love story, I was hooked and then… it’s hard to explain the impact the ending of Jane Eyre had on me. At first I was shocked and just wanted my traditional HEA (Marriage, some kisses – that’s all I could picture at that age. In later years, I would have asked Charlotte’s ghost for a Steam & Babies Epilogue as well, the sort I just love to hate). Then I started to think of why exactly I wanted that and what the actual ending meant for the book and for the characters. It might have been my first conscious feminist thought.
Wuthering Heights I used to dislike immensely. Recently I’ve started to appreciate the narrative techniques, but that’s about it.
Honestly, I never really thought about it . . . but now that you mention it, I rarely do see an overlap. I’ve read both, but only Jane Eyre ever really grabbed me; honestly, I thought Catherine was obsessive and Heathcliff was borderline sociopathic. (I actually used him as an example in an Ab. Psych. presentation about the psychopath and sociopath in the media. Him and Edward Cullen both.)
Don’t know if anyone here has read Jasper Fforde’s Tuesday Next series. The inhabitants of Bookworld can’t stand Heathcliff. He’s universally acknowledged to be a pain in the ass.
I love this topic! I am a huge Jane Eyre fan…I named my bulldog Charlotte, and I have taught this novel for years. I read it at least once a year. I love Jane, and I have dreamy thoughts about Mr. Rochester (who is, in fact, a total asshat). That being said….I *LOVE* Wuthering Heights. I definitely agree that Catherine is a whiner and Heathcliff is a tool, but the destructive force of love, especially when one loses oneself…you can’t find a better warning than this novel! The cruelty, the acts of revenge and destruction…DELICIOUS!!! I want to be Jane (except, I don’t think I would have left Rochie…would I? Nahh) but I love the torture, the angst, the emotional hemorrhaging of WH. I counter here that these two MUST go together and shall forever remain next to each other on my shelf!
Danielle
pagecrusherz @ gmail.com
I do love Jane Eyre – the crazy wife in the attic aside, it is far more of a traditional love story. Jane is brilliant and modern in the sense she stands up for herself and keeps her integrity – therefore keeping her own identity.
Wuthering Heights, oh dear – they’re tragic. They’re vile or spineless but their complexities are brilliant. I love this book, as much as I love Jane Eyre. Heathcliff, through the layering on unreliable narrators and his surly mystique he has an appeal. As much as Isabella was revolted by him she was intrigued and drawn to him. The moment within the book that you can see true human vulnerability was the pointing out of how little time Cathy spent with him in comparison to Edgar. Although, a hundred or so pages later he takes off with Isabella purely to piss off Cathy, hanging Isabella’s dog in the process just to prove a point. The characters are twisted with the violence, sense of necrophilia and the semi-incestuous love between Cathy and Heathcliff.
That said, both books provide a sense of realism; WH shamelessly exhibits love in its most destructive form. The vindictive actions that the characters take and the illogical retaliations (Cathy driving herself mad) are still seen today – obviously not in such an OTT fashion but still. At the end of the book the Catherine/Hareton relationship shows that there is hope and provides a sort of happy ending. JE, on the other hand, is far more grounded and comforting to read.
JE is a book that comforts and guides where as WH provokes and, in parts, repulses but both books touch my emotions and make my heart smile. Also, I remember being berated by our English teacher because we all said we’d rather have Hathcliff than Edgar – all I can say is at least Heathcliff had a spine.
P.S. Linton Heathcliff – a bigger drip than Isabella and Edgar combined, he’s practically a permanently running tap. Never have I celebrated more for the death of a fictional character as when he finally snuffed. I won’t lie it made my year and still makes me happy today.
I love both for different reasons. I know people hate WH for its loathsome characters but that’s what I kind of love about it? I think it’s amazing when you think that Cathy and Heathcliff are awful people but still root for them anyway. Jane Eyre is probably my favorite of the two though and I find it compulsively readable. I really love Jane’s dry voice throughout the novel and I think it’s a much funnier book than people give it credit for being.
But the real winner is ….Villete! I’m definitely a Villete-r and think it’s a shame that more people haven’t read it. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys JE, IT WILL BLOW YOUR MINDGRAPES!!!
Jane Eyre, no question. Although I don’t hate WH, I totally agree about the whining of Cathy. Always thought Heathcliff was a jerk. JE is the far superior (and more enjoyable) book.
I love every single word of every single one of these posts! Can yiu guys belive I haven’t read Villette? I meant to but every time I picked it up I started re-reading Jane instead. Guess I better get busy.
Jane Eyre. Gothic defined. Love story, strong female character with high moral standards. Shocking subject matter for its time. I read this one about once a year. Great story telling. Wuthering Heights is also considered Gothic but the characters are not easy to like, and I’m not left with the same feelings of inspiration I get from Jane Eyre. Jane is a true heroine!
I have never read Jane Eyre. Wuthering Heights was assigned reading in high school. I didn’t mind it, but Heathcliff was a bit whiny.
This is my favorite Brontë, by a long shot.
I vote Wuthering Heights solely because Jane Eyre never prompted a Kate Bush song.
I don’t like either much, though I didn’t mind Jane Eyre as a read. Wuthering Heights is just nasty – two self-absorbed psychopaths ruining the lives of everyone they encounter and in the end, unable to even make each other happy. It’s certainly not romantic.
JE is a worthy heroine, but I find her rather hard to warm up to. Bronte tries to make her seem passionate but the cold of the moors saps away any sense that she’s a fiery little rebel – although she is, quite stunningly so.
Rochester is just a creep. His only attraction as a lover over St John is that, well, he loves Jane (as much as he can love anyone, which isn’t much) and he is capable of strong emotion. But he’s selfish, domineering, deceitful, cruel and manipulative. Jane imprints on him like a duckling, but it’s difficult to see why she considers him an object of desire.
Frankly, the least of Jane Austen’s books are worth ten of either Jane Eyre or WH. She writes people with decency and warmth and humour. Humour is severely lacking in either Bronte’s work.
Wuthering Heights and Gone with the Wind seem to be birds of a feather. Raptors, actually. Shudder.
I had to vote in favor of Jane Eyre, because it was my favorite book in high school, whereas Wuthering Heights left me scratching my head and asked, “Wait, why is this good?” Again, I was in high school. I have never re-read Wuthering Heights, so I can’t really comment on it now. I do know that the last time I picked up Jane Eyre, I started gagging and couldn’t finish it. So can I change my vote to Pride and Prejudice, please? We all know those Victorians were crazy, anyway.
Spoilers abound.
Oh Goodness, Jane Eyre. I first read one of those children’s classics versions in the car when I was ten. By the time I actually got around to reading the original I was fifteen and the only thing I remembered was the wife in the attic bit—-not a strong foundation for loving Jane and Mr. Rochester. But love him I do. SO MUCH. But Jane first.
I love Jane because she’s not a limp dishrag—-she leaves when Rochester can’t offer her what she deserves. I love her because she’s still a wonderful person, even after she went through hell as a kid. I love that she’s NOT vindictive. I love that she’s honest about her feelings. I love that she doesn’t settle for St. John. I love that at 18 she’s emotionally mature enough to match Rochester rather than be molded by him. I love that she’s average looking. Finally I adore that she goes back to him when he needs her—because she loves him. The ending gets me every time—-its the perfect antidote for a crappy day.
Oh Mr. Rochester. Just, your entire persona. You’re commanding, you’re not handsome (somehow that makes him more attractive in my head?) you’re honest with Jane about a lot of things (like Paris-Possible-Daughter’-origins) and you slowly fall in love with her, seeking out her company bit by bit until you’re lost. You don’t ignore your feelings but acknowledge your love and want to marry her over more socially astute choices. You don’t string her along. I love that you don’t want to let her go even though you can’t marry her and she won’t be your mistress—-that to be separated from her she has to be the stronger person and sneak away. I love that you save your staff by going into the fire, even if you end up disfigured, and I LOVE that you’re always grumpy.
I’m going to forgive the attic wife thing because she really attempts murder all the time, has probably tried to set the house on fire more times than we know, obviously her family doesn’t care for her and won’t take better care (they don’t visit until he’s planning bigamy) and because insane asylums suck, especially those before the 21st century.
Oh, and Michael Fassbender. 1/2 of McFassey. ‘nough said.
THAT ENDING. SNIFF SNIFF.
I HATE WUTHERING HEIGHTS. I started it this year, and I’m halfway through…and I have been since November. I haven’t picked it up since then. My friend keeps telling me that the end (with the kids) gets better but I can’t bring myself to get back to it. I’m SO frustrated with the Characters.
I hate that Catherine’s a brat, that she chooses that spineless whelp over a man who adores her, a man that she adores in return (even if adores in this case means is obsessed with), that she can’t get her head out of her arse. That she admits she loves Heathcliff even after she’s chosen another.
I hate that Heathcliff comes back to make her miserable, that even though he could leave and begin anew he allows her to control him. He could have had the last laugh and instead made himself even more miserable.
(I don’t have enough reasons because its currently a DNF) But I’m also weirded out by the digging up the body thing—-kind of reminds me of Annabelle Le.
You express my opinion exactly. I have read Jane Eyre too many times to count. I am currently rereading Wuthering Heights out of that duty to Literature. It is SO painful because I just hate all the main characters so much.
I kinda feel the same way about Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice. I’ve read P&P so much that it’s good I got a Kindle before my taped up copy absolutely disintegrates. I’ve read Sense & Sensibility three times, including twice in the last 4 years, and cannot tell you the actual plot or most of the character names.
Jane Eyre is the ultimate romance novel. I have been rereading it every few years since I was 15. I am now in my 50s. I have read Wuthering Heights once. Jane is my ideal heroine…strong, rebellious, smart, passionate.
@Sara on comment 18: I liked Vilette. People described Lucy as ‘Cold’, but I liked her. I can’t say much because it’s been a long time since I’ve read it, and I guess I need to read it again. I need to read Shirley too.
Okay, if we’re comparing JE and WH, JE wins hands down. I just cannot deal with the abusive, co-dependant, obsession based “romance” in WH. I love that Jane and Rochester both grow in JE, love it! (imho both hero and heroine need to grow to make something a great romance)
BUT… if we’re comparing Bronte sisters, I’m going with Anne.
I enjoyed Jane Eyre, couldn’t stand WH. I’m just not into people being mean to each other. I can see how people appreciate it for what it is, though; what I can’t stand is people who claim it’s this awesome, amazing love story. It’s not. It’s sick, and twisted, and dark.
My English teacher gave me a WH/JE omnibus for my fifteenth birthday. It was love. Can you read either of those books at a better age than fifteen? At the time I loved them equally, and I still love both, but I have to (reluctantly) say, that re-reading them as an adult I probably get more from Jane Eyre. (Thanks @Olivia Waite for making my heart bleed. Oh Rochester!)
I love Jane Eyre. It sits with Pride & Prejudice and The Blue Castle on my bookshelf and they are the three most ragged (because most read) books there. As for Jane herself, I love her strength. I love when Rochester says “now for the hitch in Jane’s character” and tries to explain himself to her. But it’s not a hitch – she looks into herself and says “I care for myself. I will respect myself” and Rochester realizes he cannot take her soul by force or persuasion.
I didn’t like Wuthering Heights when I read it as a girl, but I also have the literary guilt inside me that says I ought to give it another chance – that maybe if I don’t expect a “romance” to equal a HEA, I’ll appreciate it more.
Also – I love Wide Sargasso Sea. In some ways it’s the anti-Jane book because it tells Bertha’s story, but it’s beautifully written and intensely compelling.
BrooklynShoeBabe has already quoted my favorite quote from “Jane Eyre,” so I won’t.
I read it for the first time when I was 13, and just went back to it, again, a couple of months ago—I am now 37. I once had to borrow a friend’s copy because I HAD to reread it when my own copy was on its way back across the Atlantic after I took it abroad with me. I now own multiple copies, including the paperback I bought from a school book order in junior high, and a beautiful hardcover with woodcut illustrations, published in 1943. And I’ve seen most of the film/TV dramatizations; the Orson Welles one, which I saw first, remains my favorite, but I liked the most recent one as well.
As for “Wuthering Heights,” I’ve read it twice, once for a college class. I don’t loathe it, but I found romantic obsession much more appealing when I was 14 than I do now.
Years ago, as a young person, I made many attempts to read Wuthering Heights. Never succeeded. I did love Jane Eyre and read it a few times. I never quite understood why I found WH so unreadable because I would read just about anything back then. I think it was a combination of things: didn’t like the prose (too overheated as I recall and never one word where seven would fit), not one likable character, and so unremittingly gloomy. Your column brought all that back to me. One of the things I liked about Jane Eyre was that the characters would surprise me—you think they are going to do one thing and then they do something else but it’s believable. At least it’s believable in a big honking Gothic romance. They sometimes remake Jane Eyre as a movie, for the big screen or TV but I don’t think they ever remade the WH movie that Laurence Olivier was in. Says something about the relative popularity of the two books.
Erm … where’s the button for “utterly cannot stand either one of them, not even if I were stranded alone on a desert island”? <ducks and=”” cover.=”” for=”” runs=”“> Of course, I’m not a fan of Gothics in general, so that probably skews my feelings.
</ducks>
And wow … that’s a weirdly formatted comment. See what happens when you say you despise them both??
Oh, preach it, sister! I start foaming at the mouth when people say, “You mean, a romance like ‘Wuthering Heights’?” That’s when I start ranting, “No, that’s not a romance, Heathcliffe is a shit and Catherine is crazy dependent and he’s mean to puppies and for cryin’ out loud, read Jane Eyre!”
Jane is my heroine: She’s strong, she overcomes adversity, she’s a good friend, she knows her own worth, she’s not willing to settle, she triumphs and gets her man, after he’s been suitably chastised and grovels.
If there can be only one, it’s the Eyre story!
Thankyou! Finally someone who thinks the same way about WH as I do. I just want to knock their heads together and say, “get a life!” not that I am passionate about JE but at least the charactersndin’t drive me spare. Bottom line? Give me Austen over the Brontes any day.
This is my gooey fan letter to Jane.
In the novel ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’, the Jeanette Winterson character remembers that her mother would read her “Jane Eyre” but would stop when Jane accepts part of St. John’s proposal. The joke in the novel was that the evangelical mother would have thought Jane’s decision to become a missionary, and maybe think over St John, was a happier ending than following Jane reunion with Rochester.
The wierd thing is that, if it were any other novel, the mother’s ending would more than likely have made no narrative or character sense. But Jane- who was always so strong in her convictions despite being fully cognizant of her social and class limitations- as a character could have taken a reader anywhere she wanted to go. And, if the story had taken such a sharp and non HEA-love-and-marriage turn, I imagine that most readers would have still followed and accepted her choice. Jane’s character makes a reader (ok, me) so confident in her actions that any choice made out of free will would have been a happy ending.
Absolutely love this post! You’ve said what I have felt for years…you can only love one of these books. For me, I would definitely have to choose Jane Eyre. It actually took me several attempts to get into JE, but once I did I loved it. Jane really is such a strong character who knows her own worth. As for WH, I read it in junior high and hated it. I decided to reread it several years ago as an adult to see if maybe now I could appreciate it….nope, still hated it. Hate the characters and hate that Heathcliff and Catherine are always help up as one of the quintessential romantic couples in literature. That book is not a ROMANCE!
@Kinsey Holley: I love how the WH characters have to attend anger management sessions in the Thursday Next novels. And that Heathcliff has to have body guards to protect him from assassins. Also, if anyone is interested for an explanation of how Jane heard Rochester say her name, they should read The Eyre Affair 🙂
Gaskell! I adore her, and I simply can’t understand why she isn’t more well known.