The Characters of Heathcliff & Dracula

Joseph Campbell indicates in his story of the hero that myths have been used to reconcile opposites, and he cites such opposites as passion/reason, the conscious/unconscious, spontaneity/rationality. Literature presents myths in different garb and often involves the need to reconcile opposites, or at least indicates the power of opposites in shaping human lives and destinies. The use of opposites in this manner can be seen in Bram Stoker's Dracula and in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Campbell indicates that the hero succeeds by being reborn, which can be taken either literally in some myths or as a metaphor for necessary change, for the reconciliation of opposing forces within the hero. The opposing forces of death and life are what are reconciled in the hero:

Everywhere, no matter what the sphere of interest (whether religious, political, or personal), the really creative acts are represented as those deriving from some sort of dying to the world; and what happens in the interval of the hero's nonentity, so that he comes back as one reborn, made great and filled with creative power, mankind is also unanimous in declaring (Campbell 35-36).

The action of the hero has as its effect the revivification of the world through the nurturing act of the hero in reconciling the opposing forces:

The effect of the successful adventure of the hero is the unlocking and release again of the flow of life into the body of the world. The miracle of this flow may be represented in

Related Essays

Central Conflict of Wuthering Heights In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, the reader is introduced to the characters of Heathcliff and Catherine (Cathy) Earnshaw Linton -- two people who, despite .... (1914 8 )

Impact of Social Class in Wuthering Heights In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, the reader is introduced to the characters of Heathcliff and Catherine (Cathy) Earnshaw Linton -- two people who, despite .... (1914 8 )

Dracula & Wuthering Heights .... the capacity for love and human feeling that eludes Heathcliff in particular .... From the beginning of the novel, the rational, human characters find themselves in .... (1680 7 )

Analysis of Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights .... "An unconsciously incestuous love between the two leading characters," he adds .... as reflected by the sexual tension between Catherine and Heathcliff from the .... (8483 34 )

Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights .... Some critics have, Levy notes, held that Catherine and Heathcliff are not mimetic characters, ie, "whose function is to represent a person" (158). .... (4357 17 )

at determines the course of the rest of his life, though in another sense that course is always set by his status as an outsider, a status he has from the moment he is brought into the household. The structure of the novel emphasizes the later Heathcliff. We first meet him when he is deep in the throes of his hatred and living at Wuthering Heights, a man scorned by his neighbors and feared by his servants. We see Heathcliff first through the eyes of Lockwood, a visitor to the region who uncovers the story and reveals it to the reader as Mrs. Dean tells it to him. Catherine is presented as a willful and arrogant girl who is happy only as long as no one contradicts her. Her marriage seems happy until Heathcliff returns, but she is never as admirable as Heathcliff's love for her might indicate she should be. As a child, Heathcliff wants only to shine in her eyes and to be accepted. As an adult, Heathcliff no longer seeks acceptance and instead seems to revel in his status as outsider. He is shunned and feared and does whatever he can to see that this continues. He seems to use his status as outsider to punish himself further, as if this will feed his hatred and make his revenge more possible. Yet, there is some sense of re

Category: Literature - T