Wuthering Heights and A Clockwork Orange Comparative Essay
Sarah Jess
Mr. Santin
ENG 4U1
June 8, 2010
A novel is often judged by its ability to influence the reader’s emotions. An individual’s
emotions can be affected by events that are in no way connected to them, a good novel is one in
which the reader feels empathy towards the characters in the novel. The novels Wuthering
Heights and A Clockwork Orange are each novels that evoke a sense of emotion from the reader
and each successfully manipulates the reader’s emotions. The novel that is more successful at
manipulating the reader’s emotions is Wuthering Heights. This will be proved by examining the
events that take place in the novel and how the reader is eventually encouraged to feel connected
to the characters.
As opposed to A Clockwork Orange, Wuthering Heights immediately immerses the
reader with Heathcliff’s first impression of Wuthering Heights. Wuthering Heights begins with
hero Heathcliff being introduced to the residents of Wuthering Heights. He is without delay
treated poorly by all members of the house, and is intensely hated by Hindley. “...He would stand
Hindley’s blows without winking or shedding a tear, and my pinches moved him to only draw in
a breath...” (Brontë, page 42) This treatment of Heathcliff is enough to make the reader pity him, as he
was new to Wuthering Heights when this abuse began. Mr. Earnshaw brought Heathcliff to Wuthering
Heights as a “poor, fatherless child.” The connection that Mr. Earnshaw had to Heathcliff makes Hindley
jealous, and Hindley’s jealous acts evoke disgust in Hindley and pity for Heathcliff. In A Clockwork
Orange, the reader is introduced to Alex on the eve where he rapes young women and physically abuses
old men. The reader immediately feels hatred or dislike towards Alex, as opposed to feeling sympathetic
towards Heathcliff. “...So we cracked into him lovely, grinning all over our litsos, but he still went on
singing. Then we tripped him so he laid down flat and heavy and a bucketload of beer-vomit came
whooshing out. That was disgusting so we gave him the boot, one go each, and then it was blood, not
song nor vomit that came out of his filthy rot. Then we went on our way.” (Burgess, page 15). Alex and
his “droogs” constantly abuse other people for no reason. They target those who annoy Alex and beat
them to near death. In this case, an old man was drunk and singing a song and Alex, feeling offended,
hates nothing more than a “moodge all filthy and rolling and burping and drunk.” Alex’s reasoning for his
violent acts is not enough of an excuse to allow the reader to understand and sympathize, and therefore
they are led to dislike Alex more than pity him.
In addition to the reader feeling pity for Heathcliff, they are also affected by his devastating loss
and therefore feel compassion and understand towards him. Heathcliff loses Cathy three times in their
lives, first when she hurts her ankle and spends weeks at Thrushcross Grange, second when she marries
Edgar Linton and third when she dies. These three occasions lead Heathcliff to live his controlling and
manipulative life. However, Cathy`s death is the one that leads him to abandon all of his gentlemanly
qualities and spend the rest of his life seeking revenge. Before Cathy dies, Heathcliff already knows that
once she is gone he will have no reason to live, “...Do I want to live? What kind of living will it be when
you – oh God! Would you like to live with your soul in the grave?” (Brontë, page 185) The loss that
Heathcliff experienced is enough to make a reader love him before hating him. Throughout the
novel, Heathcliff is portrayed as a villain, when any reader can see that Heathcliff’s actions were
all done because the only reason he had to live was to take revenge on Edgar Linton, who
originally separated Heathcliff and Cathy. The reader can easily feel compassion towards
Heathcliff, who is essentially a victim of circumstance. In A Clockwork Orange, Alex’s situation
is relatively similar to Heathcliff’s. He loses his ability to listen and love Beethoven’s Ninth, and
loses his ability to stomach violence. His losses, however, do not change his life for the worse;
they in fact do the opposite. The treatment that Alex undergoes changed his life, and as it faded
away, Alex matured. Even when he had the ability to rape and harm others, he chose not to. This
leads the reader to perhaps feel a sense of pride or happiness at Alex’s progress. As Alex
matured, he realized he was not doing what he was supposed to be doing. “...Perhaps I was
getting too old for the sort of jeezny I had been leading, brothers. I was eighteen now, just gone.”
(Burgess, page 147) Alex realizes that as he matures and ages, he needs to reassess his priorities.
This realization would lead the reader to understand Alex, and feel a sense of relief that his bad
habits are behind him. However, his success does not lead the reader to feel an intense emotion
of any sort, as they had no previous respect or love for the character before his success. This is
because Alex was not a victim of any circumstance; he initiated his own future and even asked to
under-go the treatment that would change his behavioural methods. In addition to that, Alex
forced his own violent methods on his “droogs,” who were forced to commit violent acts
alongside Alex.
Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights is quite similar to Alex in A Clockwork
Orange. They each are powerfully wild, and unnecessarily cruel to others in their lives. However,
Cathy has genuine reasoning for her unkind acts, while Alex has no excuse for his. This mere
fact makes Cathy a more likeable character than Alex. Cathy’s one betrayal to Heathcliff was
marrying Edgar, which was the main action that would lead a reader to despise her rather than
just dislike her. However, she did have proper reasoning for that action. “...I see now, you think
me a selfish wretch, but, did it never strike you that, if Heathcliff and I married, we should be
beggars? Whereas, if I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my
brother’s power.” Cathy always had Heathcliff in her mind, as she married Linton. She broke
Heathcliff’s heart, and essentially ruined Heathcliff’s and others lives as well by breaking his
heart. Cathy was unintentionally cruel, but her cruelness was not necessary. This fact evokes an
intense feeling of regret in the reader, as it is obvious how Heathcliff and Cathy’s problems
could have been solved. In A Clockwork Orange, Alex is also unnecessarily cruel, but he is also
intentionally cruel, as opposed to Cathy. Alex has no concern for anyone but himself and his own
pleasures. He feels that if he can continue what he is doing without getting caught, it is perfectly
fine. That proves to be true, until he is caught and repents immediately. Alex targeted people at
random, and abused those who annoyed him the slightest, while Cathy abused Heathcliff because
she loved him. Alex abused his own friend, Dim; because he felt threatened by Dim’s words and
in retaliation he beat Dim up. “....And I took myself a clean tashtook from my carman to wrap
around poor old dying Dim’s rooker, howling and moaning as he was, and the krovvy stopped
like I said it would, O my brothers. So they knew know who was master and leader, sheep,
thought I.”(Burgess, page 45) This proves that Alex felt as if he was above his ‘droogs’, and
could abuse them in any way he liked because he was their master. This is unreasonable and
unnecessary on Alex’s part because he subconsciously must have been aware that he was wrong
on every level. Alex’s point of view awakens a feeling of disturbed in the reader. The reader
cannot fathom how one individual could place himself so high above others, and not think with a
single good intention to his friends.
In conclusion, the novel Wuthering Heights is more successful at awakening the
emotions in the reader as it includes the reader in every occurrence in the protagonist’s lives. A
Clockwork Orange succeeds in only making the reader feel disgust and hatred towards the
antagonist of its story.