Twilight
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How do you compare Twilight to Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte?
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Saima wrote: "Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Wuthering Heights is rich in language, is deeper and a much better story than Twilight. The characters are powerful, isn't slow paced like the other classics and the..."I believe we have come to an agreement on Wuthering Heights. :)
And as for Twilight, who says there needs to be an explanation as to why we fall in love with whoever? In fact, perhaps that is the point; that we have NO control over who we fall in love with. That idea is more prominent in Jacob's love for Reneesme because he imprinted on her in her infancy ( a taboo idea, yet only there in the first place because of the imprinting concept.) I don't think Edward or Bella will ever know WHY they fell in love with each other so completely and so quickly. I don't know why I'm in love with my future wife--it just sort of happened.
Yay! :)
Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Wuthering Heights is rich in language, is deeper and a much better story than Twilight. The characters are powerful, isn't slow paced like the other classics and the love between Heat..."You bring up good points and I absolutely agree with your assessment of this book being misinterpreted.
For some reason people have romanticized this novel immensely, same as they did with Romeo and Juliet in my opinion.
I can see why people do this, but to me, Wurthering Heights is a Gothic novel, not a romance novel.
The characters are presented to the reader as caricatures of themselves, with all their bad points exaggerated and all their redeeming qualities ignored. The narrator practically admits to doing this as she is telling the story. So it is a little tricky to find their redeeming qualities.
Their love isn't really presented as ideal, either. It's more a passionate hunger which consumes them in flames of lust. It destroys everyone around them, it's that volatile. At least that's how I saw it. I saw them as passionate, personally. But I think they reveled in revenge and bitterness more than they did in their own relationship. Like they kind of found hate and revenge more exciting than love.
This book was also quite scandalous when it debuted. Society apparently branded it as "deviant" and "without morals." Emily's own sister is said to have led book burnings of this novel. (Talk about sibling rivalry!)
Cathy is indeed manipulative and selfish, but in those days if a woman wanted to have a nice lifestyle they had to marry an upstanding gentleman, which Heathcliff was not. Cathy devised her plan to bring Heathciff into high standing Victorian society so they could be together in public, by marrying Linton.
Heathcliff threw a hissy fit and stormed out on her, conveniently before her speech about how he was basically her entire world. So, wanting to live the life as she had been accustomed to, she married Linton in Heathcliff's absence. You could also argue she did so as revenge for him leaving her.
(Did anyone else think that that sounds kind of like a soap opera? Just me then? Okay, as you were.)
To me, this is a story about the consequences of blind love. It's about the destructive nature of humans when they let severe emotions control them.
Also, I am saddened to note that Twilight sort of advertised this book to you under false pretenses.
I'm not really a Twilight fan, for my own reasons. I don't know why, but when they were quoting Shakespeare and Bronte it seemed kind of odd to me.
Sorry for the long reply. =)
Somerandom wrote: "Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Wuthering Heights is rich in language, is deeper and a much better story than Twilight. The characters are powerful, isn't slow paced like the other classics and the..."I completely agree with your assessment of Wuthering Heights. I despised the book, but I think my hatred of it probably stems from my experience from reading it in HS. My teacher at the time, clearly loved the book and presented it as a romance and we watched the movie (which was a highly romanticized depiction of the novel). She wasn't a bad teacher. I think that at that time, I didn't fully grasp the concept of "gothic romance". She talked up the love between Heathcliff and Cathy and unfortunately, made me feel like something was wrong with me for not being able to see it. Re-reading it as an adult (which to be honest is me saying "REALLY reading it", as I probably didn't truly read it as carefully as I could have as a teen), I realize that it wasn't so much that I was unable to see their love...I just didn't like the characters or that representation or depiction of love. I still don't like Wuthering Heights. I still hate it, but I realize that it's not a bad book...if that makes any sense.
Somerandom wrote: "Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Wuthering Heights is rich in language, is deeper and a much better story than Twilight. The characters are powerful, isn't slow paced like the other classics and the..."I honestly don't see Catherine as manipulative. I see her as a woman trapped in her time. She did love Heathcliff passionately but was unable to have him because she had to think logically not from her own desires.
I hate that Twilight advertised Bronte because it took a lot longer for me to grasp the genius and timelessness of this novel because I was trying so hard to find the romance. So it's not even so awful that she advertised it, just that she advertised it with a misinterpretation to boot!
I love Twilight, but I'm not a huge fan of Wuthering Heights. xD
Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Wuthering Heights is rich in language, is deeper and a much better story than Twilight. The characters are powerful, isn't slow paced like the other cl..."We have, yes. :)
It's just that Edward and Bella were normal people who fell in love. Though Edward was a vampire, it didn't really get in the way of their being together because both of them admitted to their being in love with each other. As for Catherine and Heathcliff, they were already twisted people, and it became even complex with Catherine going to ThrushCross Grange and returning as a changed girl, with an acquaintance in Edgar. I think it was this time only when they slowly started falling apart, and got back together only when Heathcliff returned after a gap of seven years. But even Edward and Bella fall apart in the second book, and re united later. And there's also a third party in Twilight (Jacob.) So, you can say they have a basic similarity where plots are concerned, nonetheless, they are two very different stories.
Saima wrote: "Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Wuthering Heights is rich in language, is deeper and a much better story than Twilight. The characters are powerful, isn't slow paced..."Basic similarities true, however I believe that thematically they are completely different.
To me Wuthering Heights is about succumbing to the monster inside that honestly does rage in all of us. And Twilight is about overcoming those monsters and finding humanity when humanity considers you inhuman.
I will squash however anyone's theory that either Twilight or Wuthering Heights is a "star-crossed lovers" story. No. Just no. I wrote a whole 12 page paper about how Romeo and Juliet, Wuthering Heights, and Twilight as self-proclaimed "tragic, star-crossed lovers stories" are bulls***. Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy. Wuthering Heights is gothic and honestly a statement on human nature and what happens when we nourish the monsters that should not be encouraged. Twilight is about overcoming inner monsters and finding humanity within ones self when humanity is lost. Romeo and Juliet... they could have worked if they wanted to. There would have been hell to pay for it, but they would have made it work. Wuthering Heights, Catherine made her decision, and the destructiveness of their love became more evident in the fact that Heathcliff basically destroyed them and everyone around him with his anger and desire for vengeance. Twilight... gimme a break, the lasted didn't they? I don't even consider them remotely close to the "star-crossed lovers" archetype.
Sorry about the vent I get really riled up when literature is concerned! :3 And just so you know, I was totally agreeing with you that there are similarities, I just wanted to point out the differences and why I believe that though structurally, Twilight and WH are similar, I don't think they should be remotely related because they are thematically totally different stories.
Mochaspresso wrote: "Somerandom wrote: "Jacquelyn wrote: "Saima wrote: "Wuthering Heights is rich in language, is deeper and a much better story than Twilight. The characters are powerful, isn't slow paced like the oth..."Yeah, I think that how someone is introduced to this novel plays a big part in their perception of it. Most people are told it's a passionate love story and then get Wurthering Heights instead. It's the same with Romeo and Juliet. I think schools shouldn't tell the students anything about the story and let them draw their own conclusions.
@ Jacquelyn I totally agree with your assessment of both stories and understand your anger. I have to ask though did Twilight pique your interest in WH? If so, at least it got you to try a novel, it introduced it to you all wrong but still.
I think Cathy was a bit manipulative. Yes she was trapped by her times but if I recall correctly didn't she sort of manipulate Linton during their marriage by dangling the prospect of her love in front of him. (Or maybe it was just in one of the Movie adaptations. Hmm)
Natalie wrote: "A brilliant modernist T.S. Eliot had a theory which is quite profound. He basically thought that if someone read certain texts, etc, they would have a different experience reading. For example, if ..."Genius. I totally agree with Eliot's theory.
HOnestly, I don't think she used any book as a model. I think the average love story can simply only be told a certain way, so this, and probably anything else we read, will relate to another story that you may consider the baseline. So in all, everything we read will sound like it was ripped off of something else, when in reality, most probably were not. Maybe "inspired," but that's from the notion that what we read compels us to think a certain way when we're producing new pieces of work.
well I have read both twilight and Wuthering heights both are great book but honestly nothing compares to twilight I am simply in love with edward
This is a joke, right?
Sorry, I'm a hater. I'll shut up now. :p
Sorry, I'm a hater. I'll shut up now. :p
Ha! I thought the same thing ;-)
Okay. We can be friends now. :D
How do they compare? I'll tell you *ahem* THEY BOTH SUCK. But, and I never thought I'd say this, I liked twilight better. Yeah WH is suppose to be a classic bit it was bad. Bad. Bad!
Samantha wrote: "Ha! I thought the same thing ;-)"About shutting up I hope... ;)
Saima wrote: "Wuthering Heights is rich in language, is deeper and a much better story than Twilight. The characters are powerful, isn't slow paced like the other classics and the love between Heathcliff and Cat..."Thank you for putting is gracefully.
Vipula wrote: "Wao...! Lindiss this is really a good comment. I too think the same. There is no comparison between these two books so we shouldn't compare them."Diane wrote: "I think the similarity between Cathy and Bella is how make their own decisions. They know what they want and they do what they must to get it."
Agreed!
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I agree both Catherine and Heathcliff were selfish and practically evil ,especially Heathcliff... but they really were in love ! Catherine becomes delirious on hearing of Heathcliff's unsaid departure and Heathcliff softens during Catherine's illness. He does terrible things and even ruins so many lives, but initially because of love and later due to bitterness. I'm not defending him.. it's just that I find their love story intriguing.
As for Twilight, there's no mention of why Edward's attracted to Bella and irrevocably in love with her, when she's so boring and depressing ?
I like debates too. :)