The Unexpected Kinship of Great Expectations and Wuthering Heights

abstract:Surprisingly unnoticed are the significant reverberations of Wuthering Heights that appear scattered across Great Expectations. Central to Dickens's art is his exuberant, capacious ability to absorb and refract his surroundings in his novels: the haunting locales, the evocative characters, taut situations, and poignant elements from his contemporary culture. Melded into the rich broth of Great Expectations is a string of parallels with Wuthering Heights. They include the looming presence of the houses, the alienated, orphaned protagonists, and numerous verbal echoes. There is no evidence that Dickens incorporated these parallels consciously, but they are there and they are effective. Buildings, terrains, figures, situations, and expressions in the later novel that recall elements in Brontë's world can function quite differently relocated. The echoes embedded in Great Expectations are entirely unobtrusive; their effect is enriching, that of a highly original, imaginative novelist, adding texture and even irony to his art—perhaps less anxious about the influence than benefitting from it.