Heathcliff-a shelf corroded by the will of conquest 呼啸山庄男主人公赫斯克里夫的人物分析.doc

heathcliff-a shelf corroded by the will of conquestabstract: heathcliff, the hero of wuthering heights, is the most depicted character in the book. this book is focused on his tragic story. he was in true love with catherine when he was young, but after hindleys oppression and humiliation against him and the betrayal of catherine, his love towards catherine was gone and all that he lived for was revenge. this paper mainly discusses his revenges on hindley, catherine and her husband edgar, his ambition of conquest and his life of a walking corpse.key words: heathcliff, revenge, hindley, catherine, edgar, ambition, conquest, walking corpsei. heathcliffs revengeheathcliff was taken to wuthering heights and became one member of earnshaws family. mr. earnshaw regarded him as his beloved son, and named him after the name of his son died in infancy. but after mr. earnshaws death, his childhoods sense of superiority, developed by the favor of mr. earnshaw, had faded away. hindley drove heathcliff from their company to the servant and made him do labor work as hard as any other lad on the farm. whats even worse, the only thing that he had-catherines affection, was transferred to edgar. what could a man become without love? he decide to seek revenge.i. 1 heathcliffs revenge on hindleythree years after heathcliff ran away from wuthering heights, he came back. he made his revenge plan on hindley. he set a booby-trap, and hindley fell into it step by step. hindley sit up all night playing cards with heathcliff, drinking and corrupting all the time. to his expectation, hindley lost all his money on the bet and had to borrow money on his land. when he died, he owned nothing. “his father died in debt, the whole property is mortgaged, and the only chance for the natural heir is to allow him an opportunity of creating some sympathy in the creditors heart, that he may be inclined to deal generously with him.” this is the final verdict of his lawyer towards him-his son had to live at his enemys mercy and his past servant became the owner of his property-wuthering heights.i. 2 heathcliffs revenge on catherineheathcliff returned to appear in catherines life not because he still loved her but because he wanted to remind her of her humiliation on him. he made her believe that it was her betrayal that made him become so cruel and cold-blooded a man. he also attributed isabellas tragic marriage on her telling him isabella is the heir of her brother unless she bore a son. so catherine would torture herself to death with self-reproach and remorse. booby-trap again.i. 3 heathcliffs revenge on edgaredgar is the man who scratched his lover, heathcliff also took revenge on him. he pretended to flirt with his wife to provoke him and make him feel that catherine loved heathcliff more than himself. he didnt want his daughter cathy to marry weak linton. heathcliff detain his daughter and made her marry linton. edgar was so furious that he died in grief. he did make a will that he will left his legacy to his daughter or her son if she died. heathcliff enjoyed his suffering even when he died, he took away everything he had, and became the master of thrushcross grange. edgar had been in complete control of heathcliff.ii. the will of conquest deep in heathcliffii.1 the origin of the will of conquestthe causes of the revenges are the will of conquest, the poison that permeates in heathcliffs body. this part will deal with the origin of the will of conquest.in the oxford dictionaries, this item ”conquest” is defined as the act of gaining control of someone or something or deal with something that is difficult or dangerous.the will of conquest is our free will. in the book ”free will” by sam harris, the author gave his opinions”free will is an illusion. our wills are simply not of our own making. thoughts and intentions emerge from background causes of which we are unaware and over which we exert no conscious control. we do not have the freedom we think we have.”yes. heathcliffs will of conquest comes from prior causes-the humiliations from hindley, lintons family and the society, the oppression of hindley and most deadly, the betrayal of catherine. he is abandoned by the world. so he seeks revenge to conquer all the people and properties over which he had no control in the past, which gives him the perceived greatest pleasure.ii.2 the act of conquest by the will of conquestin his revenges, hindley, catherine and edgar are completely in control of heathcliff, hence he felt the satisfaction of conquest. the occupation of the wuthering heights and thrushcross grange he didnt have in the past also gave him a sense of superiority.not only that the act of revenges and the possession of the land and money, position help heathcliff get the achievement of conquest but that his successful control on hareton, his son and cathys fate. hareton now lives at the mercy of heathcliff, he becomes the poor thing like heathcliff used to be-a servant under oppression. but heathcliff becomes the dominator not the one being conquered. his son linton and cathy are his captives. they are detained as he arranges and married as he plans. linton dies and leaves his legacy to him as he will. until now, his ambition of conquest is achieved. everything is under his control thus he has nothing to wake up his desire of conquest which is all that he lived for. he doesnt want revenge anymore because the will of conquest has gone. he becomes a shell with a corroded heart. so he died soon.iii. heathcliff is a shell without lovein terms of free will, seeming acts of volition merely arise spontaneously (whether caused, uncaused, or probabilistically inclined, it makes no difference) and cannot be traced to a point of origin in our conscious minds. one can choose to do by free will or not because he can refer to his conscious minds. tragically, heathcliffs mind is corrupted by his will of conquest so he loses his conscious mind to refer to when he take actions, all he does is by his will of conquest. he lost his puppy love, then he took revenge and put everyone under his control, in which no sign of love could be seen. he is no longer the pure heathcliff, no longer catherines beloved man. he turns into a shell with a corrupting heart of no feeling of love.iii.1 heathcliff is no longer in love with catherinelove is not possession but the attempt to make the other happy. heathcliff doesnt let the past be past, he takes revenge on the earnthaws and the lintons. he makes use of hindleys addiction to drink and gamble to turn him into a corrupting penniless gambler. he also marries isabella because he knows she is the legal heir of her brother. he does destroy the two families successfully and his desire of conquest is realized to his greatest satisfaction. this, more or less, have made catherine suffer a lot. 18 years after her death, he even breaks the peace by digging her grave, removing the earth from her coffin-lid and opening it, wanting to possess her when himself dies in order to overrun edgar. is he still in love with catherine? i dont think so. the moment catherine abandoned him, his heart had been torn into pieces. if a man has no heart, is he still alive? can he love anymore?iii. 2 heathcliff shows no love in his husband-wife bondingisabella eloped with heathcliff because of her affection towards him but he is completely aloof and indifferent to his wifes devotion. she is just a chessman in his perfect plan. he exerts no responsibility in this family and there was no sign of care or mercy to his wife in his behavior. his wife couldnt stand the relationship anymore. she ran away to live an isolated life, pregnant with a baby. knowing all her suffering, he didnt fulfill his obligation but leave the mother and son alone. his corrupting heart can not feel or show love any more. its dead.iii.3 heathcliff doesnt give little linton his deserved dads loveevery child deserves his dads love. but poor little linton didnt get the privilege. he has the same destiny as his mother. he is also the chessman in the process of heathcliffs conspiracy of scratching everything from lintons family. he leaves little linton to death and he even show his unconcealing disgust towards his son. what a poor little thing! how can a dad with a slightes