In a typical novel, the desire for power often drives the story's antagonist. This obsession gives the story its focus as well as its obstacles. But in putting the obsession in the hands of the central figure in the story, the dynamic becomes warped completely. Both Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness present the reader with this dilemma; the driving force of both novels takes form in a character who's cravings overpower everything else, albeit for graspable reasons. Bronte's Heathcliff seems to overwhelm the presence of all those around him, as his attempts to quench his thirst for total control of those he meets. Conrad's Kurtz exemplifies Heathcliff's foil; Kurtz has everything, and in his deity-esk complete control he merely finds emptiness. While Heathcliff and Kurtz both obsess over control of those around them, only Heathcliff truly controls the story; as Kurtz plays a more passive role. But in truth, the distance each story occurs from society sets the novels. The lack of, and almost purposeful rejection, of proper conduct guides and shapes the characters into savage animals; as they desperately grasp for control of everything around them.
The narrative maintains an important part of how we view a character, dictating our every encounter with the characters at the author's discretion. Wuthering Heights and Heart of Darkness are told from the perspective of a narrator who's presence in the world of which their stories unfold. While this calls into question the validity of the narrator's story, it also shapes the way we perceive each character. Through Marlow, Kurtz appears a mythical beast, never directly involved in any affairs yet omnipresent. Kurtz doesn't appear to be a character in the story as much as a part of its setting, he seems to never truly exists. Marlow aptly refers to him as a nightmare, but rather a nightmare that he comes back to every night, never really alive unless surrounded by that darkness. Kurtz has a profound and inhuman effect on those around him, such as the Russian, to whom Mr. Kurtz was one of the immortals.(Conrad 78) In this one line, Marlow sums up the Kurtz we encounter, not quite human but more a God. In Wuthering Heights however, Heathcliff does not encapsulate his surroundings as much as they to him. Wuthering Heights is Heathcliff. He devours the misery and gloom of the heights, haunting the residents of the heights and Thrusscross grange as long as he lives. If Kurtz represents a diety, then Heathcliff represents a ghost; shadowing all he meets rather than controlling them. Indeed, even the narrative moves more from treating Heathcliff as a character to seeing him as a facet of the setting around him. Thanks to Marlow's narrative, the reader becomes entranced by Kurtz, admiring him the way Marlow does, and seeing him as this almighty being we fear yet feel akin to. In Wuthering Heights, the reader sits at the mercy of Nelly's opinions of those around her, but despite her fondness towards Heathcliff, the reader still grows to resent him. Heathcliff embodies a monster in a horror movie, even while not in the scene he remains ever-present in the morbid music and setting. As Linton begins his courtship of the younger Cathy, Heathcliff's presence lingers, reminding you that he maintains control of everything in the heights. Just as Marlow's narrative cast an almighty black-light around Kurtz, Heathcliff consistently persists in the background of every event; though as a shadow haunting those in the Heights.
It proves easy to draw comparisons between Heathcliff and Kurtz, but it remains in their differences that really shows the duo's true characters. Both are self-centered, almost willfully corrupt people, who thrive off of the control of those around them. Both are noted for their charisma and intelligence, as well as their ability to worm their way into the lives of all those around them. But despite all these similarities, the two differ on one of their most important qualities; Kurt's passive influence in the hearts of his followers in Heart of Darkness as opposed to Heathcliff's active infiltration into the lives of all around him. Heathcliff takes an proactive role in getting all he wants, seizing his desires without any cares of the repercussions it will have on others. Suffering and hardship forged him into a man of hatred and anguish, which he takes out on the citizens of the Heights. Heathcliff's already cruel demeanor shatters after the loss of Catherine; he begins a descending plunge from byronic-hero to the story's villain. When Heathcliff forces the marriage of Linton and Young Cathy, Cathy angrily declares you have nobody to love you; and, however miserable you make us, we shall still have the revenge of thinking that your cruelty rises from your greater misery!(Bronte 288) Heathcliff lost more than just his childhood friend and lover when Catherine died, but a very part of him that kept him human. Heathcliff's dynamic change shows us a key difference between himself and the static figure that is Kurtz. Although both serve as important figures in their individual stories, Heathcliff takes an active role in shaping the story of Wuthering Heights, forcefully intervening. Kurtz presents a firm contrast to this, he serves as the focus of the story, never causing the events around him but overseeing them all the while. Kurtz represents potential, the ability to grow beyond yourself. But Kurtz is an enigma; never quite what people think of him. His wife, who 'understood him better than anyone on earth-'(Conrad 93) thought him a great humanitarian, despite the horror he committed in the Congo. Throughout the novel, Kurtz enchants all those he meets; his charisma and smarts masking his true hollow self. Upon Kurtz's death, Marlow states
I was within a hairs-breadth of the last opportunity for pronouncement, and I found with humiliation that probably I would have nothing to say. This is the reason why I affirm that Kurtz was a remarkable man. He had something to say. He said it....The horror! He was a remarkable man.(Conrad 87)
Heathcliff, while also an enigma, exhibits a much different sort of central figure. Kurtz proves himself an enigma due to the way others envision him; defying the expectations created by others upon him. Whereas, the enigma that is Heathcliff exists due his misplacement in the heights throughout the novel he never really belongs anyways, too savage for Thrusscross Grange yet too ambitious for Wuthering Heights. So while both fulfill the the roles as enigmas in their respective tales, it is Heathcliff's dynamic change that separates him from Kurtz, forever a shadow cursed to haunt the Heights.
Heathcliff and Kurtz defy the usual paradigms of central characters the two are the focal points in every scene, even if the two aren't involved. But more interestingly, they take a sort of role of a dark mastermind, capable of slow and arduous planning necessary to put their plans into action. Whether it's Kurtz (a deity, a symbol for those he meets) imposing his own will to create his own order or Heathcliff (a shade, blackening those around him) exemplifying the savagery of human kind; both defy the constructs of society, giving the reader a glance not at the darkness of mankind, but the absence of light when our most primal urges are set free
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