Northanger Abbey does not seem to have as many dangerous relationships as Wuthering Heights. These could be because Austin does not seem to write her characters in same dark tone that Bronte does. Austin’s characters seem to better realize their own fallibilities. In Northanger Abbey the romantic relationships are between Catherine and Henry, Catherine and John, Isabella and James and Isabella and Frederick. While some of these relationships may be slightly troublesome none are near as toxic as the relationships in Wuthering Heights, especially the one between Catherine and Heathcliff.
In Northanger Abbey, Catherine Morland meets and takes a liking to Henry Tirney during a trip with neighbors “Whether she thought of him so much, while she drank her warm wine and water, and prepared herself for bed, as to dream of him when there that no young lady can be justified in falling in love before the gentleman's love is declared” (Austin Chap. 3). The meeting between them is positive except that when Catherine does not hear from him for a week she allows her imagination to cause her to believe that worse. Soon she is introduced to Isabella Thorp, who she quickly befriends “The progress of the friendship between Catherine and Isabella was quick as its beginning had been warm, and they passed so rapidly through every gradation of increasing tenderness, that there was shortly no fresh proof of it to be given to their friends or themselves” (Austin Chap. 5). Catherine and Isabella’s brothers James and John, who are good friends come to visit. Catherine is introduced to John, who she does not like because he is prone to telling fanciful stories that cause him to appear vain. At the same time Isabella is spending time with James. Soon Henry returns with his sister Eleanor and a love triangle of sorts begins between John, Catherine and Henry despite the fact that Catherine does not like John. This is because Isabella and James keep insisting that she will like him and John keeps trying to sabotage her friendship with Henry. Meanwhile, James and Isabella get engaged.
Now here is where one can see questionable behavior happening from a number of the characters motivated by their own selfish desires. Isabella and John both believe that James and Catherine are wealthy and they hope to advance their station by marrying into the Morland family. Isabella herself will soon become engaged to James. James reasoning is more reasonably selfish, he just wants his best friend and his sister to be married. Isabella soon learns that James is only worth 400 pounds a year and he will not receive any money for two and a half years (Austin Chap. 16). Upon learning of that James is not going to receive the amount of money that she would wish Isabella begins to show her true intentions by stating “Nobody can think better of Mr. Morland than I do, I am sure. But everybody has their failing, you know, and everybody has a right to do what they like with their own money." (Austin Chap. 16). Isabella soon starts pursuing Henry and Eleanor’s brother Frederick and John is no longer interested in Catherine, much to Catherine’s pleasure. Soon the engagement between Isabella and James will be called off.
We can see here that money and status was the key motivator for relationships in the novel. This even ends up being the motivating factor for Catherine being invited to stay at Northanger Abbey with the Tirney’s, later it is the cause of General Tirney throwing her out of the house because John has told him that she is destitute (Austin Chap. 30). Henry decides he wants to marry her anyways despite her “poverty”, the Morlands, while not extremely wealthy are far from destitute (Austin Chap. 31). Throughout the novel there is a lot of concern regarding money. This is because during the Victorian Era when the story was written wealth and status were highly important, especially amongst the wealthy. The elite of society tended to marry those who could raise their social stations. This is why Isabella dumped James. Isabella soon finds herself without anyone as Frederick saw through her gold digging behavior and had no interest in anything other than flirtation.
Despite many of the characters being motivated in their relationships by monetary gain, none of them are really dangerous. The only time that there is any sense of real danger is when Catherine, who is staying at the Tirney estate Northanger Abbey convinces herself that General Tirney has either killed his wife nine years before or has her locked up in the suite of nine rooms that are off limits. Catherine gets Eleanor to give her the key to the suite and upon entering them she realizes that her overactive imagination has got the best of her “The Abbey in itself was no more to her now than any other house. The painful remembrance of the folly it had helped to nourish and perfect, was the only emotion which could spring from a consideration of the building.” (Austin Chap. 26). Upon leaving she runs into Henry, who realizes what she was doing and chastises her for believing that his father was a murderer/ imprisoner based on his brusque manner saying, “What have you been judging from? Remember the country and the age in which we live. Remember that we are English, that we are Christians. Consult your own understanding, your own sense of the probable, your own observation of what is passing around you. Does our education prepare us for such atrocities? Do our laws connive at them? Dearest Miss Morland, what ideas have you been admitting?" (Austin Chap. 24). John and General Tirney, with their lies and rigid demeanor, respectively, come the closest and their behavior is relatively harmless, unlike the behavior that is seen in Wuthering Heights.
In Wuthering Heights all of the relationships, even the non- romantic ones are cruel and toxic. The relationship between Isabella and Heathcliff for example. Heathcliff is obsessed/in love with Cathy who has married Edgar Linton, Isabella’s brother. Isabella, who is very naive and innocent becomes infatuated with Heathcliff. Heathcliff knowing that he can hurt both Cathy and Edgar marries Isabella even though he hates her. Unlike many other stories the marriage between Isabella and Heathcliff does not have a happy ending. Heathcliff is a cruel and abusive husband to Isabella (beating and raping her) “You'd hear of odd things if I lived alone with that mawkish, waxen face the most ordinary would be painting on its white the colors of the rainbow, and turning the blue eyes black, every day or two as they detestably resemble Linton's” (Bronte Chap. 10). Isabella has been disowned by Edgar, who even when he is aware of Isabella’s plight offers her no assistance. When Isabella finds herself pregnant she leaves (This is an extremely brave act for the time. Women were seen as being the “property” of their husbands. They could not file for divorce, if a woman left her abusive husband she generally was returned to him and if the husband divorced the wife he automatically got the kids). While Cathy and Edgar’s relationship was not abusive or outright cruel, the abuse and cruelty was still there in subtler ways. First Cathy was not truly in love with him. She had married him because of his wealth and status, which she had hoped to use to help Heathcliff. Edgar loves the image of Cathy he has created in his head and seeks to stifle any signs of her true nature. Cathy herself is even crueler when it comes to both Heathcliff and Edgar. She consistently spurns Heathcliff after meeting the Linton’s, eventually pushing Heathcliff into leaving town for a number of years after he overhears her telling Nelly “It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff” (Bronte Chap.9). Cathy is overly dramatic when it comes to Edgar and is constantly trying to get is attention, which she usually does by comparing him to Heathcliff.
Cathy and Heathcliff’s relationship despite the “great” love between them is probably one of the worst in literature. Heathcliff is overtly attached/ obsessed/dependent on Cathy and cannot allow anyone to come between them (there does not seem to be much indication that he was romantically in love with her, in fact the love he had for Catherine seems to be more of a Phileo love). His leaving stemmed not from her saying that it would degrade her to marry him (Bronte Chap. 9-10) but from him realizing that she was going to marry Edgar and that she would be separated from him. This is one of the reasons he marries Isabella, besides the need to hurt Catherine and Edgar. His failure to use Isabella to gain access to Cathy is what contributes to his ill treatment of Isabella.
Later after Cathy’s death while giving birth to her and Edgar’s daughter Catherine. Heathcliff vows revenge on the Linton’s and when after Isabella’s death he gains custody of Linton, who he does not like because he is a reminder of his mother and a “whey-faced, whining wretch” (Bronte Chap.20) He proceeds to force Linton and Catherine to marry so that he can gain Edgar’s estate after his death (Bronte Chap 27). The only relationship in the novel that is not based on cruelty, obsession, materialism or the need to change someone is the one between Catherine and Hareton. Hareton is Hindley’s son. Heathcliff deciding to get revenge on Hindley through his son for the way Hindley treated him, treats Hareton in the same manner and encourages him to have no class or education “We'll see if one tree won't grow as crooked as another” (Bronte Chap. 17). Catherine and Hareton fall in love while she is teaching him to read and decide to get married at the end of the book.
Works Cited
Austen, Jane. Northanger Abbey. New York: Knopf, 1992. Print.
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: Penguin, 2006. Print
