This project was inspired by, and further unearthed certain connections between, the chronology of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations. Both novels feature chronology as a storytelling element in a distinct way that remains important to their narratives beyond a simple linear accounting. 

These two novels and their chronology are not connected by a shared feature. Rather, they are linked by the tension that results from their contrasting depictions of time. This connection through tension is worth considering as the comparison between the two disparate representations of the passage of time can give readers of both texts the choice to decide which novel’s rendition they feel is more authentic. In addition, it indicates how the usage of time, which every story must feature, can fundamentally change how the story is perceived by its audience. 

Indeed, the chronologies constructed by Bronte and Dickens could not be more different. In Bronte’s novel, time occurs in a cyclic manner; the novel’s characters are doomed to repeat the mistakes and experience the very same hardships of their predecessors. For example, Heathcliff is determined to make his wreck vengeance upon his tormentor, Hindley, by making Hindley’s son, Hareton, just as rough and coarse as Hindley made Heathcliff. Thus, Hareton grows to be exactly like Heathcliff and even falls in love with Catherine II, a woman who more or less tortures him by teasing him and chastising him. In doing so, he falls into the same cycle of romances that Heathcliff did with Catherine I, the mother of Hareton’s love. Catherine made Heathcliff miserable by choosing to wed another, Edgar Linton, through Heathcliff certainly contributed to the pair’s “romance” through his harsh attitude and intense and violent disposition. Furthermore, the characters are trapped in certain places and scenarios; they move cyclically from Wuthering Heights to Thrushcross Grange, but as the gaze of the novel never leaves these locations, the actions of the characters appear to definitively tied to them. The characters are left figuratively and literally orphaned and left without guidance. 

On the other hand, Dickens’ representation of the passing of time and its effect upon his novel’s characters is of a far more linear fashion. Pip grows from a young boy to a grown man, and along the way, he learns valuable life lessons that spur and signal his internal growth from insecurity to stability. At the outset of Great Expectations, Pip is ashamed by his family, his coarseness, his lack of education, and his place in society: a member of the lower, allegedly unrefined class. This linear trajectory of Pip’s rise in social standing, fortune, and gentlemanly training, is ultimately undermined and reversed when he stumbles into massive debt and discovers the true source of his expectations. However, it is as a result of these supposed setbacks that Pip truly grows. He realizes that wealth and status are not the ingredients that create a happy individual, as these aspects encouraged Pip to neglect his family who always loved and cared for him. By the end of Great Expectations, Pip is self-assured and content with the life he has, for he knows he is loved by his family and friends. He has grown and matured as an individual in a way that the characters of Wuthering Heights could not. 

To illustrate the chronologies of both novels, we constructed two timelines using the online source tool, Timeline JS. In order to create these timelines, we first needed to locate the dates or potential dates when each novel’s primary events occur. We selected events that were particularly critical to the connection we were attempting to make. So, for Wuthering Heights, we sought out instances that affirmed the cycles we perceived within the novel’s narrative. For Great Expectations, we attempted to trace the events that marked Pip’s personal growth, but maintained the illusion of monetary or societal “progress” by refraining from analyzing the events of the novel as indicative of Pip’s internal, spiritual maturation. Moreover, finding the dates for Wuthering Heights was not especially difficult, as Professor Schacht kindly shared with us a very helpful source, A. Stuart Daley’s “A Chronology of Wuthering Heights,” that provided for the confirmed or theorized dates and times that we used in our timeline. Finding the dates for Great Expectations was a more difficult process, but eventually we used the confirmed and theorized dates from Jerome Meckier’s “Dating the Action in Great Expectations: A New Chronology.” We then entered these all of our compiled dates into the respective timelines. Upon locating and entering the dates of all the events we wished to present, we entered in titles and descriptions that both labeled and explained the event to which they belonged. Once this step was completed, we set to work finding copyright-free images that illustrated the events within our timelines. Lastly, a small piece of writing that effectively explains the link between the two timelines was written such that individuals engaging with the project might better understand our motivations.

Throughout the course of working on the project, we faced many challenges. The first challenge we encountered was how exactly we were going to illustrate the cyclical nature of time in Wuthering Heights with Timeline JS, a tool that, at first glance, seems only able to express linearity since it moves laterally from date to date and cannot readily display circularity. To circumvent this issue, one group member discovered that the backgrounds of the particular event slides could be programmed to appear as different colors when the timeline is presented. Upon making this discovery, we set to work color coding all the different cycles we believe to be at work within the novel. We find that this solution really works, as Timeline JS even has a feature that appears at the bottom of the timeline that demonstrates when each of the cycles appears across the play’s chronology. Thus, we were able to use Timeline JS and express the cyclical nature of time in Wuthering Heights. Another challenge we faced was finding a source that presented confirmed or theorized dates for Great Expectations. While Dickens’ novel does at times mention months or days of the week, years are noticeably absent from his work. Thus, we could not rely on the novel alone for dates. Rather, we had to do significant research in order to find a source that did espouse theories regarding the dates in which the events of the novel occur. Most experts seemed to concur that the events of the novel occurred before 1860, when Dickens began releasing the novel, and 1800, roughly the beginning of the industrial revolution, As that is a sixty-year period, we had to somewhat narrow the time frame. We ended up finding only one article that seemed to accomplish the aforementioned task, but it was absent from our school’s library. So, we ended up having to create a free JSTOR account in order to access it. Lastly, we encountered the challenge of how we were going to simultaneously present our two timelines. We initially thought of making a website, though this seemed like an inaccessible option, as the site would likely see little traffic. So, Professor Schacht offered that we should post the two timelines and our corresponding linking text on the course blog, thereby ensuring that our project will be interacted with and enjoyed. 

Furthermore, we hope that individuals who interact with our project will be able to deduce our intended use from it. The intended usage of these timelines is a comparative approach to the novels’ respective chronologies, and demonstrates how these disparate chronologies can lead one to draw contrasting conclusions regarding human nature and the overall experience of life. By interacting with the Wuthering Heights timeline and witnessing the cycles we located, labeled, and color-coded, we hope that our audience will notice the circularity of Wuthering Heights’s narrative, and conclude that the novel’s characters were never really able to break free from the clutches of these cruel, unrelenting cycles. We also hope that in our Great Expectations timelines, one will notice that, despite his rise and fall from high society, Pip truly experiences positive linear growth, even if it is an internal and spiritual journey. He recognizes that riches truly come from within, and from the love others can provide, not from grandstanding and competition with one’s peers. Moreover, it is our intention that those who engage with our project will take it upon themselves to compare the two chronologies and ponder which one they believe is more applicable or accurate to their own life experiences. We hope that individuals using these timelines can then will spark conversation or debate regarding the nature of life. Are we humans really just trapped in a never-ending cycle, doomed to repeat our own and our predecessors’ mistakes? Or do we bear the potential for true, internal growth, wherein we can recognize and learn from our past mistakes in order to recognize that which is truly valuable? To what extent do people disagree with the conclusions we’ve formed? Perhaps someone has found that Bronte and Dickens created their stories with a completely different thematic purpose in mind. We hope that individuals will read not only our interpretation of the two timeline, but will also draw their own conclusions and perhaps contest our group’s views. 

Lastly, we would like to provide our audience with instructions on how to engage with and navigate the two timelines that we have constructed. In order to use our timelines, one simply has to scroll through the timeline’s events by clicking on the forward arrow on the slides’ right side. To go back, then, one can click on the backwards arrow on the slides’ left side. It is quite simple. For the Wuthering Heights timeline, in particular, one can exclusively investigate the different cycles embedded within the novel’s narrative by clicking through the events that are housed within the cycle of “Character Parallels,” for example. One would then only see events that signal the reoccurrence of certain characters or character tropes and would therefore only see events like “Birth of Catherine I” and “Birth of Catherine II.” Timeline JS is relatively easy to use and produces wonderfully clear timelines. We hope that you enjoy!

Wuthering Heights timeline (as seen above)

Great Expectations timeline (as pictured above)

Credits:

Hannah Bentivegna: Auxiliary Aid and Timeline Editor
David Beyea: Timeline and Writeup Editor
Anonymous: Timeline Documentor of Wuthering Heights
Claire Corbeaux: Timeline Documentor of Great Expectations
Ravenna VanOstrand: Timeline Editor, Organizer, and “Tech-Wizard”

Works Cited:

Chapman & Hall. Title page of first edition of “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens. 1861. Heritage Auction Galleries. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greatexpectations_vol1.jpg?fbclid=IwAR3ub6b-U0FVxxOkQVHHsDyuTPJdo2nJMxiA2FttqxSJf_ZYwn9J0XFz4YQ. 

Daley, A. Stuart. “A Revised Chronology of Wuthering Heights.” Brontë Society Transactions, vol. 21, 1995, pp. 169-173. Taylor & Frances Online, https://proxy.geneseo.edu:6540/doi/abs/10.1179/030977695796439141

Lowell 1238.5 (A), Houghton Library, Harvard University

Meckier, Jerome. “Dating The Action In ‘Great Expectations’: A New Chronology.” Dickens Studies Annual, vol. 21, 1992, pp. 157–194. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44364568.

When I started out, I knew next-to-nothing about Victorian Literature. Sure, I had read Great Expectations back in high school, but you can’t depend on one novel to represent an entire genre. I think I anticipated Victorian literature to be a lot more fluttery and romance-based than it turned out to be. Wuthering Heights definitely had darker and spookier moments than I expected to read, but I liked it. I guess I didn’t expect to enjoy what I was reading as much as I did. I suppose the characterization of women in Victorian times was what I found to be the most interesting, or rather what I kept going back to. Specifically, the Catherines, Isabella, and Estella in particular, the characteristics you would assume for them to possess on a surface level versus what you found when you took a deeper look made them all quite fascinating. Isabella Linton’s entire character arc from the naïve girl to a woman who escapes from abuse was one of the more underrated and complex parts of Wuthering Heights. As for Estella, how she was manipulated by Miss Havisham to execute her revenge while balancing her own autonomy or lack thereof, while it wasn’t discusses much in our class, I can remember back to my high school debates on how much agency she had over herself or whether she was fully under Miss Havisham’s direct or indirect control. Overall, how characters are composed and interact with each other usually interests me, but specifically the female characters in these two novels read this semester, intrigued me.

In Chapter 49 of Great Expectations we see Miss Havisham have another tragedy befall her, a poetic consequence, getting heated for raising such a cold-hearted girl. What was curious was Pip’s reaction here: “I was astonished to see that both my hands were burnt; for, I had no knowledge of it through the sense of feeling.” (Dickens, Chapter 49). Pip was so mentally involved with trying to save Miss Havisham that he was completely oblivious to his own pain. An obvious connection to be made is that Pip, a previous blacksmithing apprentice, was merely used to the heat, but I think this connects more to Pip’s character over his previous occupations. Despite Miss Havisham manipulating Estella and marrying her off to Drummle, and manipulating and misguiding Pip, Pip doesn’t let her burn, he immediately goes to help her. This portrays a fundamental component to Pip’s personality, regardless of which Pip he is: Pip will help people. As Handel, he may become snobby and entitled, but he retains some of the characteristics that young Pip who snuck food and the file to the convict in the swamp. Moreover, Pip’s interference and actions have a more potent result on his own life than he realizes. When young Pip helped Magwitch, he was led to repay Pip and elevate him to a gentleman’s status. The consequences of Pip attempting to stop Miss Havisham –when he could have left her– are likely to impact both his and Estella’s lives.

In Darwin’s second paragraph of the On the Origin of Species excerpt, he defines and gives examples of the “struggle for existence,” which animals and plants both compete against weather, each other, and competitors to survive, but to add a dual quality, things also are dependent upon each other. This struggle for existence can be superimposed on Wuthering Heights in relation to the characters and their challenges. The obvious example, is Heathcliff starting out being treated poorly by Mr. Earnshaw to becoming wealthy and owning Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, and then his eventual demise in becoming ill, to put it simply. Heathcliff did not accomplish this all on his own, he depended on young Cathy marrying Linton Heathcliff, Edgar Linton dying, and Linton Heathcliff’s inheritance from his uncle which he willed to his father, Heathcliff upon his death. The key to struggling to exist and still being successful, is knowing when to depend on others, and when to not. A further example is the Catherine, Edgar, Heathcliff, and Isabella conglomerate. Heathcliff depends on Isabella to fall in love with him so he can get revenge on Catherine and Edgar. He charms her at first and they marry, but he could not depend on her to stick around too long because she eventually got fed up with the abuse, and escaped. With Nelly, he has to depend on her to send a letter to Catherine for him. If it was any other servant that Heathcliff depended on, his letter may not have slipped past Edgar and gotten to Catherine. People need connections with each other in order to survive and succeed, and likewise, so do animals and plants, but even with our connections, we may still struggle. Sometimes the outcome, like with young Cathy and Hareton, will be positive; the shade-bearing trees and the shade plants flourish together. Other times in life, like with Heathcliff, the end will be tragic, as some plants just can’t get enough moisture, and begin to wilt before death.

I wanted to explore the death of Linton Heathcliff, in relation to Catherine and Heathcliff, while cross-referencing Harriet Martineau’s Society in America. Heathcliff plays a tricky and manipulative game involving Catherine, who is the central piece in his move to access Thrushcross Grange. When Heathcliff trapped Catherine at Wuthering Heights when her father was dying, she became emotionally vulnerable and susceptible to Heathcliff manipulating her into a marriage with Linton. Martineau’s discussion on “The Political Nonexistence of Women,” (TPNW) does not only reflect American society, but Victorian England as well. As Martineau states: “Governments decree to women in some States half their husbands’ property; in others one-third. In some, a woman, on her marriage, is made to yield all her property to her husband; in others, to retain a portion, or the whole, in her own hands.” (TPNW, Paragraph 4). In relation to Catherine’s situation, if she was unmarried, the property bequeathed to her would remain in her hands until she married and would transfer over to the husband for “safekeeping,” but since Heathcliff forced her to marry Linton, it became his property upon Edgar’s death. Step one: complete. The other phase kicked in when Linton was dying and Heathcliff was able to get Linton to bequeath his access of Thrushcross Grange to Heathcliff who was “[claim] and [keep] it in [Linton’s] wife’s right” (Chapter 30, Paragraph 19), which in reality, means that Heathcliff has the property. Technically speaking, the property still belongs to Catherine, but that last tidbit of Heathcliff maintaining it for Catherine, is the loophole that allows him to have it. Catherine, having neither money nor friends for she is in an isolated area, has no choice but to comply. This points out how the Victorian period politically is still not fulfilling the true “consent of the governed” for if it did, Heathcliff could not have been able to take Thrushcross Grange so easily. Certainly, Heathcliff still could have manipulated his son into dedicating his will to Heathcliff, but Linton Heathcliff would not have had Thrushcross Grange in the first place. There seem to be some claims about how Emily Brontë’s work is ‘different’ or treats female characters differently, but this is a prime example of how it falls into a stereotypical (for the time) instance of how society used to work.