Character Comparison Comparison: Revenge and Its Motivators

Character Comparison

Comparison: Revenge and its Motivators in Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights are two of the most significant literary works in history, both maintaining the ability to remain successful and relevant far beyond the years immediately following their respective publications. While each novel is exceedingly different from one another, with one focusing on the perils brought about by a man-made monster who seeks to torment his creator and the other focusing largely on a pair of lovers caught in a tumultuous relationship that never allows them to truly be together, the theme of revenge and its ability to transform an individual completely is one that runs through each respective novel in a significant way. Doctor Frankenstein's Monster and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights are two characters who are both tormented and driven by the thought of revenge, and by the end of each respective novel, these characters will do anything to enact their revenge upon those who have wronged them.

Frankenstein

In Shelley's novel, the monster is a creation of Dr. Frankenstein, who by using strange and elaborate methods of science, succeeds in bringing this visually-horrifying creature to life. Terrified of what he has created, Dr. Frankenstein abandons his creation almost immediately after he is brought to life, leaving the monster alone and incapable of understanding who he is and what has led him to enter the world around him. Having been abandoned by his creator, the only human connection he has to the world, the monster, frightened himself, is forced to wander through the woods in search of someone to understand him.

The novel continues on with the monster learning the English language and the ways of humanity through his eavesdropping on a family in the woods and his interactions with the kind blind father who treats the monster with kindness, as he is unable to see his horrid features. However, this kindness does not last long, as the family returns to the cabin and drives the terrifying monster away. Being chased out by the family and eventually shot by another group of humans, the monster renounces humanity and swears revenge on Dr. Frankenstein who has brought him into the world speaking, "Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed?" (Shelley, 2000, p. 179). Throughout the rest of the novel, the monster essentially hunts down Dr. Frankenstein, only to find him dead from illness at the ending of the novel.

Wuthering Heights

In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, the theme of revenge again plays a massive role in the novel's plot and character development. The novel's main character, Heathcliff, is consistently tormented throughout the book by the circumstances which keep him from his true love, Cathy. Though, as children, Cathy and Heathcliff were incredibly close, as they age circumstances and their own respective paths keep them from one another and Heathcliff leaves his childhood home for several years. Upon his return, Heathcliff finds that Cathy has married the wealthy Edgar Linton, and Heathcliff again realizes his undying love for her. This sets off the growth of a slow and steady revenge in Heathcliff's mind, and he sets out to become a wedge between Edgar and Cathy in order to enact revenge upon both of them for essentially ruining Heathcliff's life.

This revenge continues on to grow and change throughout the novel, with Heathcliff's revenge moving from character to character, and essentially, Heathcliff gets every single portion of the revenge he has sought out. However, this revenge in no way fulfills him, and at the end of the novel, despite having succeeded in every vengeful thing he attempted, he is haunted by his past and will likely remain so until his eventual death. Additionally, Heathcliff's revenge drives him to madness in the end as he finds himself digging Catherine's grave up eighteen years after she is buried to hold her once again. In the end, even Heathcliff understands that revenge is a vicious cycle that he can no longer partake in, saying, "My old enemies have beaten me; now would be the precise time to revenge myself on their representatives . . . But what is the use?" (Bronte, 2003, p. 302).

Comparison and Conclusion

Frankenstein serves to explain the inability of revenge to ever truly satisfy those who go in search of it. The monster, scorned by his interactions with humankind, decides to give up his own humanity in order to turn into a monster that he never truly was, despite what the rest of the world saw him as. It is clear, however, that placed in such situations, many of us would -- as the monster did -- go in search of someone to blame for our misfortunes, especially when those misfortunes were unwillingly placed upon us by another. However, Shelley's work is exceedingly successful in proving that one should never give up on their own humanity when the world around that individual becomes difficult. In holding true to one's own self, revenge is proven to not be worth the effort.