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.

The idea of dependence is explored in great depth in both Darwin’s writings as well as Chamber’s writings. We see the idea that one thing cannot exist without another thing. There is a plan for development before it happens. In Darwin’s writing we see him mention that a plant in the desert will be entirely dependent on moisture as well as a mistletoe being dependent on the apple and the trees. This brings us back to the idea that all plants and animals are interconnected which is a topic that is visited in both pieces of writing. We see a concrete example of this in Chamber’s piece of writing where he is describing some similarities that may go unnoticed amongst the different species. He gives us the example of the human species in comparison to species that have a tail. He explains that these two different species had different plans for development. A human could have possibly had a take if their development lasted longer, however it comes to a stop when there is simply a cluster at the lower back. This is why we can see this connection amongst all species because this is not a coincidence that we see this small similarity. Another way we see these two writers compare to each other is when they both leave room for further research. Understanding that everything is subject to change with the more information that you obtain. Both writers also refer to the “Vegetable kingdom”, this was another similarity that stood out in word choice that could be owed to the time in which they were written. This is a similarity in a word that can change the way we think about the writing, at first glance when I saw this word I was thinking something different than what the writing was intended to be about. This is why word choice across the different texts are very important aspects to point out.

First, it should be noted that Charles Darwin was not the eminent proponent of social Darwinism, and it did rise later on in the century, but the connection is too choice to not be made. With that said, there was a specific line that drew me to connect the two texts, and it reads from E.P.’s “The Many and the Few” as this, “Ye noble rulers of our land-oh! Where have ye had birth?/ For we must be, ye God-like men, of other, baser clay.” This poem was written before Darwin’s magnum opus, and before the advent of Social Darwinism, but it is a good avenue for exploring how birth relates, and will continue to relate to social and economic status. Indeed, the notion of ‘baser clay’ played a large role in Social Darwinism, as the theory posits that genetic makeup factors heavily into the class hierarchy, and that people poorer than the wealthy deserved their status. Indeed, the poem itself rejects this notion, and questions the proposition that one is marked from birth for a certain station. Additionally, the idea of Social Darwinism began gaining steam during the actual conceptualization of Darwin’s own theory. This can be reasonably said by Gosse’s credit to Agassiz for gathering data that helped to further ground the study of evolution. To wit, this is important because Agassiz was a notable practicer of phrenology, (which is the study of skulls) and it can thus be noted that some of the data that helped ground Darwinism may have grounded Social Darwinism as well (the data Agassiz collected on skulls was proven fraudulent). As for tying it back together, the notion of the few having right to rule over the many seemed to be under harsh fire in a lot of the literature we read, and it seems that there were many in the upper elite that used Darwin’s concept of evolution in a controlling fashion so as to mask their rule in a scientific validity (that of course was false).

In Charles Darwin’s, On the Origin of Species By Natural Selection, it states; “…a plant on the edge of a desert is said to struggle for life against the drought, though more properly it should be said to be dependent on the moisture.” This quote is explaining the different perspectives when looking at life. Some would say a desert plant struggles for life in a drought while others would say that desert plants are dependent on moisture. This quote reminded me of Catherine and Heathcliff’s relationship in the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. In a way, Catherine can be compared to the plant Darwin talks about in the quote stated prior. Without Heathcliff in her life she is like a desert plant, struggling against the drought. Like a plant is dependent on receiving moisture to stay alive, Catherine is dependent on Heathcliff’s love to keep her alive. There is one point in the novel when Catherine is talking to Nelly about Heathcliff and she says “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” No matter how hard Catherine tries not to be depend on Heathcliff he is such a big part of her life that it’s almost like she needs him in order to survive in this world. This is also true for Heathcliff as we see how much Catherine’s death affected Heathcliff as a person. After Catherine died, a piece of Heathcliff died along with her. It wasn’t until Heathcliff’s own death that he was finally able to be at piece again, knowing that he would be reunited with his love Catherine.