wuthering heights

Emily Bronte's characters in Wuthering Heights display characteristics that some major 18th Century Romantic writers would either cringe in disdain from or openly embrace as their own. Upon analysis of Heathcliff and Hareton, characters nurtured in atmospheres of degradation, it is apparent that they embody dissimilar Romantic sensibilities. Heathcliff's life is an evolution of Blakian progression while Hareton is a Wordsworthian projection. The course of Heathcliff's life is characterized by stages Blake recognized as innocence, …

…Bronte352). Hareton has retained the truths that adults "...are tolling all our lives to find" (Wordsworth, 333). While Heathcliff and Hareton are products of similar environments, they manage to diverge in their embodiment of Romantic ideas. Heathcliff reflects the ideas of Blake in his character evolution through the four stages of innocence, experience, rebellion and higher innocence. On the other hand, Hareton manages to glean human compassion from his situation and demonstrates the ideal Wordsworthian mentality.