Tabitha Adams - English
Conclusion
From my research question “In what ways and to what effect do Emily Brontë and Homer
portray their protagonists, Heathcliff and Odysseus, in Wuthering Heights and The Odyssesy?” I
can conclude that both authors have created a hero who is very much an individual, a character
who is many ways an outsider. I believe the modernist view of identity that the identity of the
individual is predominantly constituted from labels and definitions, imposed on the individual
by society, is applicable to these texts. When an individual defies those labels and conventions -
then it becomes interesting, as both Homer and Brontë demonstrate. This defiance of
convention allows the author to challenge previously held values and beliefs. The humanity and
humility acquired by Odysseus makes an example of those in Homeric society with materialistic
values and those who immodestly glorify death. Heathcliff’s self-orchestrated empowerment
from his initial position of degradation, and his unpunished immoral behaviour, draws attention
to stanch Victorian class prejudice and strict moral orientation and inquires whether it is
imperative for a protagonist to be moral in order to be a hero. It was the suppositions of society
which embittered Heathcliff’s character and his nature rebelled under the constraints of that
society. Homer and Brontë also contest literary convention with the creation of their heroes:
Homer challenges the conception of a certain type of literary hero, while Brontë challenges the
very concept of ‘the hero’. In this way both authors manage to prompt a progression in literary
convention, Brontë’s is perhaps the greater leap, but she was writing two thousand years later
with far more literary influence available and freedom of style than Homer.
Homer and Brontë use this type of hero, an unconventional individual, to challenge literary and
social convention. This suggests that no matter the genre or time period, the unconventional
hero is an enduring literary device, which can be used by authors to challenge accepted values
both social and moral.
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