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Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Oxford University Press, 1998.

Shakespeare, William, and Stephen Orgel. King Lear. Penguin Books, 1999.

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Penguin Books, 2003.

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https://vocaroo.com/i/s14R00mOIMTk

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I have a lot of to be verbs that I will edit out with the second draft!

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Although all three of these characters, Lear, Frankenstein, and Heathcliff, come from different backgrounds, they all ultimately reach the same end. Each man unhappily dies because he succumbed to his desires. After reading these novels, we are prone to believe that we would never make the same mistakes as these characters. Of course, we would not create a monster for fun or scream in the woods on a rainy night, but we are very likely to make a mistake because we desire glory, power, wealth, or knowledge. No matter the desire or situation, these novels serve as a warning to us; Shakespeare, Shelley, and Bronte beg us to understand that human desires are natural, but having the ability to decide whether or not our desires are honorable makes them advantageous.

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At first Cathy and Hindley, Heathcliff’s new siblings, refused to interact with him. With time though, Cathy grew to like Heathcliff which only made Hindley despise him more. Yet despite Hindley’s constant bullying, Heathcliff was a “sullen, patient child; hardened, perhaps, to ill-treatment” (27). When Hindley becomes head of the household years later, he punishes both Cathy and Heathcliff for running away by forbidding them to speak to each other. During this time Cathy lives with the Linton family who teaches her to be a “proper” young lady. When the two friends are finally reunited, Cathy is appalled by Heathcliff’s appearance. For years, Heathcliff tries to improve himself to meet Cathy’s new standards, but when the time for marriage comes Cathy will not marry Heathcliff. She decides to marry Edgar Linton, a man of position and wealth, because her love for him “is like the foliage in the woods” whereas her love for Heathcliff is “a source of little visible delight, but necessary” (60). Upon hearing Cathy’s rejection of him, Heathcliff runs away from home for three years. When he returns, he reveals he never really liked Cathy because “the nuisance of her presence [outweighed] the gratification to be derived from tormenting her” (112). Eventually, Heathcliff becomes head of Cathy’s family’s estate and treats their servants cruelly. Cathy dies in childbirth soon after realizing Heathcliff’s true malevolent nature. Heathcliff is so upset by Cathy’s death that even over a decade later, he is haunted by her ghost and starves himself to death to be with her in the afterlife.

Heathcliff’s desire to make Cathy feel as much pain as he did when he realized she would not marry him ultimately kills him. For the majority of his live, he is obsessed with either pleasing Cathy or torturing her; not having her in his life at all drives him so mad that he imagines her presence to keep him company. His madness and desires destroy him, yet Heathcliff probably would not be a bully as an adult if he had not been bullied so much as a child. Without his own parents around to teach him alternate ways to react to bullying, Heathcliff only knows how to react one way, to be cruel in return.

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Similarly, to how Frankenstein’s creature was born into a fearful society, Heathcliff was adopted as a young boy into an unwelcoming family.

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“The structure of language [and] the code of governments” did not capture Frankenstein’s attention though (19). Rather he wanted to learn about the “secrets of heaven and earth” (19). He desired to achieve the “glory [that] would attend the discovery [of banishing] disease from the human frame and [rendering] man invulnerable to any but a violent death” (22).  He continued to chase this desire in college and met a professor, M. Waldman, whose lessons ultimately gave Frankenstein the idea to create a man from dead human flesh. Upon successfully creating this creature, he realized the weight of his actions and out of pure terror ran away from his creation.

While creating his monster, Frankenstein was so taken by the idea of making a new scientific discovery that he did not stop and think about the impact of his knowledge and skills if he was successful in his experiment. His carelessness ultimately leads to his destruction. His monster awakens with no one to teach him basic skills such as speaking and no one to introduce him to a fearful society. The creature resents his creator for abandoning him and murders Frankenstein’s family and friends for revenge. In the end, Frankenstein dies of exhaustion from chasing his creation all over the world.

Frankenstein’s desires for glory and knowledge blinded him to the reality of his scientific discovery. He did not realize his mistake until it had been made. Living in fear of his creation greatly traumatized Frankenstein and lead him to warn other eager explorers to consider the effects of their actions before succumbing to their desires.

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Much like Lear, Victor Frankenstein’s desires are rooted in his youth. As a child, Frankenstein was eager to learn and thus read novels on almost every topic.

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Although losing some power and wealth with age may seem natural to us, growing old was very traumatizing to Lear.  He splits his entire kingdom between his three daughters and expects to be welcomed and worshipped in their homes in return. Yet, after worshipping and sucking-up to their father for years, two of his daughters are unwilling to do so now that they possess his inheritance. The one daughter that would care for Lear, he banishes because she wounds his ego. Now, Lear has no home, no authority over his daughters, and no one to care for him. Losing control of everything around him leads Lear to rage in the woods one stormy night. He is so enraged by how his daughters treat him that he swears to inflict the “terrors of the earth” upon them (57). Because he has the ego of a life-long king, he does not see his own faults and believes himself “a man more sinn’d against than sinning” (63). Finally, after much thinking and raging, Lear sees the reality of his situation. He recognizes that he himself is now an “unaccommodated man… no more [than] a poor, bare, forked animal” (69). This huge revelation along with the hours spent in the stormy weather take such a toll on Lear mentally and physically that he passes out. When he awakes, he does not allow himself to remember the traumatic events of the night before. He becomes a whole different person overnight and dies soon after this change in personality occurs.

Lear’s desire for wealth and power lead him to destroy all but a few of his relationships and eventually changes his personality entirely. Lear’s childhood greatly influences his desires though. If he had not been raised royally, he probably would be less inclined to be so possessive of his money and position. Yet, because Lear was taught that his wealth and power are of the upmost importance as a child, he allows his desires to destroy his chances of having lasting love and family.

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As heir to the throne, King Lear possessed great wealth and had his every wish granted even as a young child.

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- are the situations much different than our own when we look below the surface?
- assuming this is a rough sentence, but obviously you know to clarify "things" and "on man" is an awkward phrase
- Great ideas about how these character's desires derive from trauma!

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Throughout history, fictional literature has helped its readers understand and empathize with characters from different backgrounds than their own. For example, in William Shakespeare's "King Lear", I learned how immense wealth effects King Lear. In Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein", I learned how possessing great knowledge effects Victor Frankenstein and in Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", I learned how having complete power effects Heathcliff. In each of these three novels, the characters greedy for great wealth, knowledge, and power are ultimately destroyed by their desires. These characters are not born desiring wealth, knowledge, and power though; they develop these desires from traumatic experiences.