Compare and contrast the reactions to death in Thomas Hardy’s poem ‘The Voice’ and an extract from Emily Bronte’s novel ‘Wuthering Heights’

Both Hardy and Bronte portray the different aspects to death through the use of their male protagonist and speaker. The first way the poet and writer does this is through their male protagonist’s reaction to the death of their loved one. In Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Voice’ the speaker feels a sense of loss and longing for his dead lover demanding a response “how you call to me, call to me” suggesting that the death of his lover has somewhat changed him, in the sense that he no longer interacts with the physical world he is within, but instead wishes to be re-joined with her beyond the point of reality. Furthermore, the speaker begins to doubt himself comparing the wind with the voice of his lover. “Wind oozing thin” when “the women calling” infers that this doubt has turned into madness by the forth stanza. The wind can further be compared to a raw, harshness that penetrates right to the core of someone, which can be seen as what his lover did to him when they broke and when she died. The structure of this poem possibly reflects the way in which over time, the loss of the speaker’s lover is slowly driving him insane, and although he was almost speaking about her in admiration at the start of the poem with “Women much missed” but now he is faltered, and changed due to her death. Opposing Hardy’s speaker as a crazed man by the end of his poem, in Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights Heathcliff’s reaction to Cathy’s death drives him to the point of revenge and self-suffering. He wishes her to “wake in torment” even though she is physically unable to do so. Heathcliff begins the passage with slight self-control over the fact that she has past, and outbreaks into anger, “Damn you all” She wants none of your tears!” inferring further at the extreme level of their relationship, for he is able to depict the reaction she would have if she were to witness everyone else’s to her own death. However, this could be seen as Heathcliff trying to conceal his own sense of sadness through making the other characters present feel guilty about crying. Furthermore Heathcliff’s sense of self control could be presented as dying alongside Cathy, therefore onwards in the novel his mind further deteriorates into madness similar to Thomas Hardy’s speaker in ‘The Voice’.

Hardy and Bronte use their male protagonists to portray their reactions to death through the way the women change in their minds after their deaths. Hardy’s speaker in ‘The Voice’ tries to remember his lover before they went separate ways and then before her death. “When our day was fair” reflects when their relationship was strong, and the speaker states (even though he is reluctant) that “you had changed from the one who was all to me” which suggests there was an uneasy breaking between the two former lovers, however the speaker still loves her even whence she dies. Heathcliff’s reaction to Cathy changes once she dies as he believes she died in order to torment and spite him. Calling her a “liar to the end!” inferring that his sorrow has gone past the point of misery and self-upset to finding little revenge in blaming her for her own death, even though it wasn’t self-inflicted. His self-control has finally shattered.

In conclusion, they both explore similar aspects in death, some often similar in the manner that both male protagonists end up possessed and crazed by the loss of their loved ones, although Heathcliff’s is more concentrated on a sense of revenge, and empowering himself through her death.