The class status of Reuben and his family is quite similar to that of Catherine Earnshaw in “Wuthering Heights”. Both families come from upper classes, the females especially in both families are obsessed with presenting the image of being wealthy to others. For example, Adelaide Sachs and her mother. I think this novel is a good representation of class in the Victorian Era in general and how class really meant everything. Females, in order to be taken seriously, had to use their appearance to present themselves, and men had to use education and their job to define their class. The difference in this story is that the family is Jewish, which is not like any other Victorian novel we have read so far. There are differences between this family and that of the Catholic families we’ve read about, most notably that they are a minority.

After reading Oscar Wilde’s “The Ballad of the Reading Gaol” I couldn’t help but make connections between the narrator and to Cathy Linton. Both the narrator and Cathy are realists when it comes to love–the narrator saying that when you love something to let it go, and Cathy is also a realist when it comes to love, as she is with Hareton. There are many terms in this poem that remind me of “Wuthering Heights” just in general. For instance, there are several lines that talk about a wife in a coffin and this reminds me of Catherine Earnshaw. Yet, Wilde repeats the stanza, “I never saw a man who looked/With such a wistful eye/Upon that little tend of blue/Which prisoners call the sky,/“ and I think this stanza is referring to those such as Catherine and Heathcliff who do not ask any questions and simply believe what they are told.

As I was writing “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens I noticed that the aggression and reversed gender roles of Pip’s older sister reminded me a lot of Catherine Earnshaw. Like Catherine, she has the ability to assert control over men, and has a certain hardness to her that contests quite extremely with Joe Gargery, similar time Edgar and Catherine’s relationship. Edgar could be described as much more submissive compared to Catherine, and was used for his wealth, similar to Joe. Parenting wise, Pip’s sister is considered selfless for taking Pip in and adopting him as her own, but the way in which she takes care of him is as if he will alwyas owe her, which is probably how Catherine would’ve acted with Cathy if she had not died as soon as Cathy was born. Cathy does though get this sort of treatment by Heathcliff.

Upon reading the first two chapters of “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte, I think it can be argued that there is a connection between the societal views of Lockwood and how much they may contradict with that of William Blake’s views, especially in the poem “The Chimney Sweeper”. It is clear by the way Lockwood addresses Heathcliff as “a capital flow” and a “dark skinned gypsie” that he feels as though he is above Heathcliff as far as social status goes. Blake in “The Chimney Sweeper” addresses the damages of judging people by class by showing how poor families force even their children to contribute in awful jobs. Lockwood has a very arrogant personality, and he has no concept of others. When Lockwood first enters Wuthering Heights, he notes how the place is probably so dirty because they only have one servant. Lockwood has no concept of the kind of conditions servants are put through in order to make a living, and Blake addresses the dangers of these kind of people in the poem. As long as a guy like Lockwood feels as though servants are eating and breathing, then they should be fine, in Blake’s eyes, even though Blake uses this comparison as irony to show that the working class is struggling.

After reading “Society in America” by Harriet Martineau, I noticed many similarities between her views on government and that of Carlyle’s. Although they stem from different layers, they both have very radical opinions about how government should be modified. For example, Carlyle believes government should always be changing with society, just as clothes do. This a radical idea for the time, since most do not have as strong opinions on government as he did. Carlyle also questioned many abstract concepts such as what the difference is between vanity and success, and Martineau questions abstract concepts too, but related to the role of women.
in “Society in America”, Martineau compares women to slaves in the sense that they have limited rights and are treated as property by men. This was a very radical view at the time of 1837. Martineau challenges the American government by acknowledging the fact that the government has the right to enslave women, even though democracy claims this is not allowed and morally wrong. Martineau argues that democracy fights for equal rights, yet America does not follow this idea themselves, even though it is the idea to which their government is built upon.
The connection I drew between Martineau and Carlyle is that in their literature they are both extremely radical and ahead of their time in their writing. Carlyle argues for a socialist government and Martineau argues for equal rights for women and calls out the American government.