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Intentions Leads To Happiness In Wuthering Heights, By Emily Bronte

Good Essays

Happiness is a very elusive and subjective thing. In general, the intentions behind our actions can lead to happiness, or they may not. Authors usually write about the intentions of character’s actions, so then the effect that the actions have on their happiness can easily be linked to their intentions. Many books over many genres have been written about one of the primary questions of happiness: do good intentions lead to happiness? In some novels, purely good intentions and bad intentions can lead to distress and unhappiness. In others, happiness is brought upon by good intent. In the novels The Awakening by Kate Chopin, 1984 by George Orwell, Atonement by Ian McEwan, and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, the intent of the main character’s …show more content…

The selfish usually are not happy in comparison to the shy. Unhappiness stems from selfish desires, as most selfish people try to do good to make themselves look better; as Roy Masters, chairman of the Foundation of Human Understanding, puts it, “Realize it or not, doing the right things for all the wrong reasons is always self-serving, destructive and the deadly complication of your buried hatreds” (1). This is a very common archetype in media, whether literature or otherwise, as the character that does good only does it in front of their peers, so everyone may see how good they are. An example of a character who tries to do good things for selfish intentions is Edna Pontellier in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening. Edna is married in Victorian Louisiana in a traditional marriage. At first, Edna willingly submits to her husband, but later she begins to seek independence, and one day she, “[...] wondered if her …show more content…

The best of good intentions and things done from habit do not necessarily lead to happiness. People throughout history have always bought things with the intention of making themselves happy, only to regret it later. The British Chamber of Commerce in Singapore explains this by saying that, “... brands that make people happy at the point of usage — rather than at the point of purchase — are more likely to be anticipated by consumers to be bought again” (Schofield 1). The customers who buy the brand to make them happy at the point of purchase have a good intent, they just want to make themselves happy. Even though these consumers have a good intent, they tend to be less satisfied than those with the intent of instant gratification. Though this intention is good it does not lead to long term happiness. The intentions behind things other than shopping also may be good and not yield good results. In Ian McEwan’s Atonement, Briony has good intentions toward Cecilia and Robbie when apologizing to them but she notes, “It sounded so foolish and inadequate, as though she had knocked over a favorite houseplant, or forgotten a birthday” (McEwan 329). Briony’s apology to Robbie and Cecilia was very heartfelt and had good intentions but it did not bring Briony peace or happiness. This apology never actually happened in Briony’s life, she wrote about it in her book, she wanted to show that a regular apology would have never

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