In Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte focuses on love as one of the main themes of the novel, and by doing so sets up the destinies of the characters affected by these affairs. The greatest example of this would be the failed love between Catherine and Heathcliff where he states, “Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you — haunt me, then! The murdered do haunt their murderers.” …show more content…
The main group of Arkady, Nikolai, Pavel and Bazarov go about their city with the younger generation, Arkady and Bazarov, arguing their Nihilistic views with the men of the ‘older generation’ of Nikolai and Pavel. Throughout the novel, we see how love affects the main characters as the younger men fall for women of the town. Anna Sergeyevna, being one of the main figures that changes Bazarov’s views, is a woman who has the uncanny ability to win over the hearts of just about any man she meets. Despite this ability, she is mostly unaware of her skills and because of this usually breaks the hearts of those who fall for her. Bazarov is one of these people and unfortunately after getting signals that she is interested in him, Bazarov proclaims his love for her stating “you have forced that out of me” (Turgenev 156). Immedeately following this, she explains that these advances were not her intention and Bazarov is defeated. Being a Nihlist Bazarov believs that there is no such thing as love and through his interactions with Anna his views start to change up until she denies his love, wherein he concludes that love is worthless and time wasting and he spirals into a deep depression. Arkady, spending most of his time with his father and uncle, Nikolai and Pavel respectively, changes his view of Nihlism and is able to move on after being …show more content…
Although the storyline differs, through the use of failed love affairs both Turgenev and Bronte shape the destinies of their characters to come to a similar end. These similarities can be seen throughout both novels in examples such as how in Wuthering Heights Heathcliff uses the failed love affair between himself and Catherine as a way to exact his revenge on the children’s lives and shape their destinies as depressed kids with a harsh childhood and ultimately Heathcliff dies depressed and alone. Turgenev, on the other hand, differs a bit in the process but not in the outcome. Through the use of the failed love affair between Bazarov and Madame Odintsova, Bazarov becomes reclusive and treats his friend poorly as a result. This sadness that he keeps in eventually leads him to his own death in that one day, while preforming am autopsy he accidentally cuts himself, contracts Typhus, and later dies. This action can be compared to that of Heathcliff in that in their lowest point of grief they both die. Heathcliff reaches this point as he is about to hit young Cathy “when, of a sudden, his fingers relaxed, he shifted his grasp from her head, to her arm, and gazed intently in her face. Then he drew his hand over his eyes, stood a moment to collect himself, apparently,…with assumed calmness”(Bronte 272). Seing Catherine in Cathy’s eyes Heathcliff realizes the choices he has made and ultimately