Wuthering Frights

Wuthering Heights was once said to be one of the greatest romances in literature. It is said to be passionate, empowering, and completely spell-binding, but, probably only to those who read it about 100 years ago. However, with closer research it was found that Wuthering Heights was actually rejected when it first was published, saying it was depressing and morose, and even immoral. I feel as if those are the same reactions many kids today are displaying when we first read it in school. So why is this novel on many of the top 10 "Greatest Romance" lists? I believe that many people just found comfort and excitement in the depiction of a soul mate, which made people love Heathcliff and his desire to do whatever it took to be with his beloved Catherine, even if it was to be buried with her when they both died. Everybody loved the fact that someone would go at such lengths to be with someone they loved, and probably like to imagine someone doing the same for them. I however, thought this was the farthest thing from a great romance. I can see how Emily Bronte intended for it to be a romantic novel, but I don't believe she achieved it. Heathcliff was can almost be considered psycho at the lengths at which he went to get Catherine. There definitely was nothing romantic about opening up the side of her coffin and being buried next to her. I'm sure that if Catherine was alive and knew he was going to do that, then she would probably would get a restraining order in modern times. As well, the characters were not like-able at all, so there was no one to really root for. It was as if it didn't matter if Catherine was with Heathcliff or Edgar because every single one of them had unlikeable traits. Catherine wouldn't marry Heathcliff just because others thought so badly of him, and in a good love story she would over look that and never agree to marry Edgar. In addition, even after she is married she still confesses her love to Heathcliff and tells him to be with her, but she's still with Edgar the whole time. In a true great romance, Catherine wouldn't want both men, she would choose her true love which is Heathcliff. Heathcliff also wouldn't try to get revenge on Catherine, he should be happy for her that she had found someone to marry. Heathcliff also did some psycho things like killing Isabella's dog by hanging it, and kidnapping Cathy and Nelly which is not romantic at all. Wuthering Heights reminds me of Twilight a lot. It has generally the same story line of 1 girl, 2 guys want to be with her, and she must choose who to be with. However, I believe Twilight is a much better romance then Wuthering Heights. I believe Bella made the right decision by being with Edward instead of Jacob. Although it was a hard decision, Edward was her obvious true love. If Wuthering Heights was to be a great romance then Catherine would have been with Heathcliff. I believe that to be a romance, there must be some sort of happiness and approval of the two people being together, and the closest that gets in Wuthering Heights is Heathcliff wanting to be buried with Catherine so they could be together in the after life. But that's more creepy then romantic.