Explore the ways in which jealousy is explored in Wuthering Heights and Othello

Jealousy has been a powerful theme in literature since the Greek classics and has had a strong influence on authors throughout different literary periods. Shakespeare demonstrates this theme predominantly in his play Othello, with jealousy becoming the undoing of almost every character in the play. Emily Bronte also portrays the impact of Victorian culture on jealousy in her novel Wuthering Heights through exploring the role of social class prejudices. Although receiving very different rates of success during their author’s lives, these two texts have had a significant influence on literature today, both displaying how jealousy can cloud judgement and change perspectives with potentially tragic results. Revenge seems in both texts to be the natural consequence of jealousy, and the vengeance of Heathcliff and Iago alters the course of the novel. There are many parallels between the characters both within the texts and between them, and this effectively exhibits how jealousy and revenge can alter a person to the core. Therefore, through analysing these two tragedies further, the effects of the themes of jealousy and revenge can be explored.

Jealousy, as described by Shakespeare in Othello as ‘the green-eyed monster’, is an emotion which can be found in almost every character of Wuthering Heights, and is the cause of tragedy in Othello.  Although at first glance Heathcliff and Othello seem to be the leading victims in either text of jealousy, other characters are also driven by jealousy, and it is this innate fear that causes disaster in both texts. The causes of envy are also similar in the texts, with it stemming from both the feeling of inferiority and passionate love. As a converted Moor in Venice, Othello is a black man in a white world in which he is not completely equal. Similarly, Heathcliff was a ‘gipsy brat’ when first introduced to the Earnshaw’s in chapter VI in Wuthering Heights, and was ‘hardened to ill-treatment’. Both of these characters face considerable prejudice due to their racial differences, with Othello having to constantly prove his worth in Venetian society with his military prowess, and Heathcliff’s constant trials with other characters throughout the novel due to his inferiority. These injustices could very easily be the reason behind jealousy in the texts, with the characters wishing to be accepted by the society they have found themselves in.