Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Maurice by E.M. Forster

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte and Maurice by E.M. Forster

An interesting plot isn’t always enough to make a novel a good piece

of literature. It’s the believability of the characters that ensnares

the reader into the world that the author has created. As characters

develop, so do their interactions with one another. In Wuthering

Heights by Emily Bronte and Maurice by E.M. Forster, each novel’s main

characters have relationships which shape the story with their

uniquely definable characteristics. The relationships between

Catherine and Heathcliff, as well as Maurice and Alec both say

different things about the fundamental nature of a relationship, the

validity of union between different classes, and the idea that “love

conquers all.”

Whether we consider the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff

in Wuthering Heights to be successful is not the focus of this

discussion, instead it is the nature of their relationship. Ever

since childhood the two were best of friends and shared a very close

bond. Illustrating this, in Chapter 9 Catherine says, “It would

degrade me to marry Heathcliff, now; so he shall never know how I love

him…because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made

of, his and mine are the same, and Linton’s is as different as a

moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.” (page 80) The

relationship between Edgar and Catherine is not one based on “true

love”, unlike her relationship with Heathcliff. The definition of

“true love” is something which could spawn its own thesis, but in this

example we can take it to mean that Catherine’s relationship with

Heathcliff contains a more real and c...

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...ire; even with no seemingly logical reason for

Alec and Maurice to come together, they do anyway. Forster’s want for

this ending is almost too apparent as it makes the ending to Maurice

seem rushed, unrealistic, and leaves the development of their

relationship left to be desired.

Without exception, characters and their interactions are what make the

story. Not only do these interactions drive plot, but the way these

relationships are constructed govern so much more. In Bronte’s

Wuthering Heights and Forster’s Maurice, the main couples are used by

the author to comment on relationship fundamentals, the effect of

class differences on couples, and the classic idea that “love conquers

all.” One would be hard-pressed to find two couples that differed in

more ways than Catherine and Heathcliff do from Maurice and Alec.