Society's Antagonists
Whereas "Pride and Prejudice" is like an intricate carpet in the making (all design and geometry), Emily Brontë’s "Wuthering Heights" is like a long, flowing river: sometimes calm, and sometimes agitated; sometimes gushing and other times contained. It spurts downstream in paroxysms of emotion.
In many ways, it is Jane Austen who wins the day. Life goes on in "Pride and Prejudice", in a witty, alert, rather self-conscious but always responsible way. And there is emotion there, in her feisty characters who learn to mature.
Wuthering Heights exhausts itself at the end. We are left with a dried up stream. There is no society left. Only nature.
Perhaps this is all about Natural man vs. Social man. I don't think there is any society which lives by emotion alone. Nature is just too strong!
Kate Bush's great musical version of “Wuthering Heights” captures the mood perfectly.
It is interesting to note that Laurence Olivier has acted in both "Pride and Prejudice" (1940 version) and "Wuthering Heights" (1939 version).