Differing Modes of Heroism in 'Beowulf' and 'Wuthering Heights'

Through a religious paradigm, Beowulf’s epic hero and Wuthering Heights’s Byronic hero each provide unique insight toward where heroes source their power– from external sources such as religion, or internal sources such as revenge and passion. These sources of power also bring new clarity for each of the heroes’ respective epochs, by revealing information and ideas of power, heroism, and values during these time periods. The anonymous Beowulf poet’s Beowulf, and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights represent through their leads, differences between the models of heroism between Old English (c.450-1066) and the Romantic era (c.1785-1832). This thesis is supported by analysis through a religious paradigm, and the differences between these epochs and modes of heroism.

An epic hero is described as having strong qualities of bravery and nobility, and are valued for their strength, nationalism, and feats as a warrior. Beowulf, being one of the most famous epic heroes in all of literature, meets all of these criteria. Throughout the epic poem, Beowulf is represented as heroic and nationalistic, his value for ancestry most prominently depicted when in chapter five, Beowulf identifies his clan before himself, “We are of Hygelac’s clan; I am named Beowulf,” (B. 11). Beowulf is honourable and serving of God, believing He is responsible for his glory. In contrast to this, Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, represents a world of injustices that God has seemingly turned His back on.

Being an Old English text, Beowulf’s denotes much from this epoch to this mode of heroism. There is much scholarly debate over whether Beowulf is a Christian text or not. Whallon argues Beowulf’s Christianity is “naïve and rudimentary” (85), but “another scholar declares in a celebrated lecture that the poet laid his work in a heathen age he thought not so much censurable as noble but hopeless” (Whallon 87). There are mixed religious elements throughout the text of Christianity and old Norse, due to the story beginning as a pagan myth, but through the influence of Roman Missionaries through Sweden and Denmark, Beowulf became woven in with Christian values and ideology. Grendel best represents these mixed faiths, the monster’s backstory is a strong biblical allusion, as it is the son of Cain, but the monster itself is founded in Scandinavian myths. Beowulf’s clan is Christian, yet fallen clansman are honoured with heathenistic funeral pyres, rather than with a Christian burial. This seemingly religious indifference can be viewed in different ways; that Beowulf’s Christianity was present because it was expected of virtuous heroes, or that it is a result of the centuries of oral tradition which the text was spread before finally being written down by Christian monks between the 7th and 10th century. Scott Gwara questions if Beowulf is a “pre-Christian archetype” or a “noble pagan,” (1) but inevitably Gwara summates that the character’s Christian values are demonstrated primarily to reinforce his virtue and morality, and because such faith came to be expected of heroes (2).

If Beowulf began as a Christian story, the focus of the story would be that of faith and forgiveness rather than heroism and courage. During the Middle Ages, these were dominant values, as it was a time filled with danger. The epic poem conveys the Scandinavian dread of invasion through the fear which runs rampant through the text. Beowulf’s feudalistic narrative also expresses the warrior culture and values necessary in such a time, through Beowulf’s courage, leadership, and heroism.

The heroism of Beowulf’s epic hero is not present in Wuthering Heights, instead Heathcliff portrays a much darker unidealized form of heroism, the Byronic hero. A Byronic hero is a brooding, smart, cynical, and self-destructive pariah. Heathcliff is all of these things, and one of the most famous examples of a Byronic hero. Throughout the novel, Heathcliff consistently pushes others away, and as the story goes on, he becomes “more and more disinclined to society” (Brontë 293), and for others, except for Cathy, as his affection for her grows even more obsessively, especially after her death, wanting her to “haunt [him] always—take any form—drive [him] mad” (Brontë 158), and stating that he “cannot live without [his] soul” (Brontë 158). As Heathcliff’s grief-stricken madness convinces him that without Cathy, his soul, he is not truly living any longer. In this metaphorical death, Heathcliff has become a vengeful revenant that is solely motivated to spread harm and misery to all that have crossed him. He takes his own injustices out on his beloved Cathy’s partner, Edgar, by marrying and abusing Edgar’s sister Isabela, and on Hindley, by mistreating his son the same way Heathcliff was mistreated in his childhood.

The historical context of Wuthering Heights’s epoch holds a strong influence over its dark mode of heroism. Brontë wrote her book during the Victorian Age of the Romantic era, a time of great political, social and economic change. While this was a prosperous time for many, like the Earnshaw family, it also brought abject poverty, Heathcliff can come to portray this side, with unknown origins, he is found, “starving and houseless … in the streets of Liverpool” (Brontë 33). His dark and mysterious origins emphasise the notion that Heathcliff is the physical embodiment of this crueller side to the industrialising world.

Wuthering Heights depicts Brontë’s context through its narrative, with the hierarchal structured rural life to which those without wealth and status hold no power, an incomparable power from which is presented in Beowulf. There is no battlefield in Wuthering Heights, and a person’s prowess and virtue as a warrior holds no value. Cathy chooses Edgar over Heathcliff due to his financial wealth, despite loving Heathcliff, she does this due to the conventions of this epoch dictating that a person could not acquire both meaningful relationships and financial security.

Despite both being heroes, Beowulf and Heathcliff present vastly differing modes of heroism. Heathcliff’s sources his power through status and wealth, which he uses in his quest for revenge. Beowulf’s source of power is his physical brawn and his faith, which he uses to vanquish his foes. Beowulf is a story set in wartime, while Wuthering Heights is set in peacetime, and the values of each are set accordingly. Battles in Wuthering Heights are not settled as they were in Beowulf, on a blood-soaked battlefield or with swords, but rather through careful planning, marriages, and property ownership.

Through a religious paradigm, the contrast between Beowulf’s and Heathcliff’s heroism is nowhere else made more apparent. In chapter 10, the titular Beowulf states:

I [am]...in no way weaker than Grendel. For this reason, will I not give his life to the sleep of death with a sword...He has no skill...with [a] sword...mighty though he may be in his horrific feats. We shall...make war without weapons. Let the wise God, the holy Lord, decree success on whichever side seems right to Him! (B. 44).

Beowulf’s unwavering faith in God encapsulates the power he sources in his faith, that through God, his strength does not matter. Beowulf’s faith is so strong, that if Grendel chose to fight without a sword, he would do the same, as Beowulf believes that if they are each on an even playing field, the victor is chosen by God.

Heathcliff does not rely on any person, or divine entity; his power is sourced from his own resolve, which is founded in strong emotions of vengeance and love, rather than religion. Graeme Tytler’s The Role of Religion in Wuthering Heights suggests that at its heart, Wuthering Heights is an “anti-Christian book” (1). Tytler states that Brontë is intent on “inviting us to consider what relevance Christ’s life and teachings may still be thought to have had at the dawn of the nineteenth century, and even to her readers in 1847 and beyond.” (41). These strong feelings can be attributed to Brontë’s church rector father, and evangelical aunt, to which Brontë clearly reacted poorly to. Heathcliff practices heathenistic mysticism to communicate with Cathy’s ghost after her death, which he refuses to see the finality of, and also to guarantee their reunion in a heaven ‘superior’ to the one which is taught through Christianity. The Victorian era was also a period of separatism and conflict for the Protestant Church, Brontë depicts the rising nonconformism of this epoch depicted through Heathcliff’s and Cathy’s challenging of the religious Nelly Dean.

In conclusion, Beowulf and Heathcliff present very contrasting modes of heroism, which provide unique insights to the different ways that heroes source their power, externally through things such as religion, or internally such as strong emotions of revenge or passion. Emily Brontë’s Byronic hero and the anonymous Beowulf’s epic hero shed new light towards values associated with their related epochs. These insights are emphasised greatly through the analysis provided through a religious paradigm, and the distinctive contrasts with these epochs and modes of heroism.