The Analysis of the Tragic Love of Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights.doc

the analysis of the tragic love of heathcliff and catherine in wuthering heights呼啸山庄中希斯克里夫和凯瑟琳的爱情悲剧分析【abstract】 this article first introduces the novel of wuthering heights. this book describes the tragic love of heathcliff and catherine. then it analyzes the several factors that determine the tragic love: the social environment, the affinity of the two characters, and the authors personal intention. at the end of it, the novel in conclude that the wuthering heights is a dazzling star in the artistic palace of the world. keywords: love, tragedy, wuthering heights 摘要这篇文章首先引入了呼啸山庄这部小说， 这部小说介绍了希斯克列夫和嘉瑟琳的爱情悲剧。这是艾米莉勃郎特的唯一一部作品。 本文分析了这部小说中造成这个爱情悲剧的三个主要因素，分别是社会环境、两个主人翁的性格倾向和作者的个人意图。最后，这篇文章总结出呼啸山庄这部小说在人类的艺术殿堂中是一颗耀眼的恒星。 关键词：爱情 悲剧 呼啸山庄 contentabstract (english). abstract (chinese) .content.：introduction .1 :analysis of the several factors that determine the tragic love.21) the social environment2) the affinity of the two characters3) the authors personal intention :conclusion. bibliography. introductionwuthering heights is the only novel of emily bronte who died of tuberculosis in 1884 at the age of thirty. the story of her life, like that of her brother and sisters, has long since taken its place among the great literary legends of britain and possesses an almost mythic quality. the originality and intensity of her imagination, which leads her to producing novel unique in english literature, provide a fascinating subject for critical inquiry and psychological peculation .this is a strange book .it is not without evidences of considerable power, but as a whole it is wild, confused, disjointed and improbable. today this novel is still acclaimed as a masterpiece in world literature.the story of heathcliff and catherine is the core of the novel wuthering heights .in the thesis, an attempt is made to discuss the relationship between heathcliff and catherine, the distortion of catherine, her eventual betrayal of heathcliff and love tragedy on grounds of class origin .first the established relations are due to the affinity in their stormy characters .they are wild, vigorous/headstrong and untamed.heathcliff an abandoned child is brought to the heights by old earnshaw .after his death, his son, hindly deprives heathcliff of all the human rights and maltreats him cruelly. during the years of darkness, only catherine, the mistress of the house offers him warmth and friendship .side by side, they fight against hindlys tyranny, and spend their childhood in the isolated moor. embraced by nature, they mould their real temperament. they are closely related and mutually dependent. the same interest and ideal make a bond of the two. they take each other as spirit and life, just as catherine says:“he is more myself than i am. what ever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same”“i am heathcliff. he is always in my heart；not as pleasure, but as my own being.”(emity bronte ,1847)heathliff is equal to the value of her life. in choosing edgar, she is deliberately false to her own world, just as what heathliff comments: an oak is planted in a flower-pot. so when heathcliff returns she is eager to feel the value of her existence in him. she tries to reconcile her feeling with what linton represents, but the two sides cant be reconciled at all. she cant bear such suffering, falls ill and never recovers. here we can understand what heathcliff has condemned her:“why did you betray you own heart, cathy? you love me then what right had you to leave me? what right answer me？because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that god and satan could inflict world have parted us, you, of your own will did it. i have not broken your heart you have broken it, and in breaking it, you have broken mine.”（emity bronte 124,1847） analysis of several factors that determine the tragic love2.1 the social environment catherine dies; existence for heathcliff is nothing but hell. in desperation and madness, he takes revenge on the two houses without any humanity. he doesnt give up his fight until he feels to be surrounded by catherines spirit. he loses interest in the facts of everyday existence and finally absorbs into another world both spiritually and physically. but one thing should not be neglected: the environment that affects the relationship, which is not abstract but concrete. the affinity between them is forged in rebellion, which determines the nature of their relationship. heathcliff, the waif picked up in the streets of liverpool, is treated kindly by old mr.earnshaw but insulted and insulted and degraded by hindley.after the death of mr.earnshaw, hindley reduces the boy to the status of a servant. the situation is vividly described in catherines dairy, which mr.lockwood finds in her bedroom. we should not regard them simply as naughty children disrupting the order of the household. “an awful sunday” catherine wrote in her diary. “i wish my father were back again. hindley is a detestable substitute-h and i are going to rebel-we took our initiatory step this evening.” “all day had been flooding with rain; we could not go to church, so joseph must get up a congregation in the garret; and while hindley and his wife basked downstairs before s comfortable firedoing nothing but reading their bibles. ill answer for it heathcliff, the unhappy ploughboy and myth self were commanded to take our prayer books, and mount. we were ranged in a row, on a sack of scorn, groaning and shivering; i could not bear the employment; i took my dingy volume by the scoop, and hurled it into dog-kennel, vowing i heated a good book. heathcliff kicked his to the same place.then there was a hubbub!”(emity bronte 69, 1847)this passage suggests, to some extent, the nature of their early relationship, these events happen after mr.earnshaw dies and hindley is the master of the heights. both heathcliff and catherine are persecuted .they are forced to sit shivering in the garret ,three hours in the attic listening to joseph reading sermons, while hindly and his wife sit in the fatuous comfort by the fire . so their response to these conditions is to rebel against the regime .the love of catherine and heathecliff as an emotional bond is forged in response to their ill-treatment. this idea is best expressed from the social viewpoint of arnold kettle in his introduction to the english novel. “against this degradation catherine and heathcliff rebel, hurling their books into the dog-kettle. and in their revolt they discover their deep and passionate need of each other. he, the outcast slummy, turns to the lively, spirited, fearless girl who alone offers him human understanding and comradeship. and she, born into the world of wuthering heights, sense that to achieve a full humanity, to be true to her self totally with him his rebellion against the tyranny involves.” through this, we find it is not that heathcliff and catherine are non-human and defective in their characters, but precisely that they are fully human and not passive victims. they reject the order that deprives them of their humanity. their rebellion is concrete and accurate. heathcliff is a conscious rebel. in the rebellion he despises him for his status of an outcaste. she offers him human understanding and comradeship. what they offer each other is non-social relationship, which is inconsistent with the criteria of class structure in a world of exploitation and inequality. and as old mr. earnshaw dies, we see the scene, of how they comfort each other in anguish. the union in the rebellion and emotional needs in their suffering determine the particular quality of their relationship. so we come to understand the nature of the relationship only after we have knowledge of their experience in the stage of their early years. that is the reason why each feels that a betrayal of what binds them together is in a certain sense a betrayal of the most valuable things they represent. why do we say catherines betrayal of heathcliff is the distortion of her personality and self-betrayal? the relationship determines the nature of their love. their demand for love is conveyed in the process of their struggle for individual fulfillment and humanity. their love is thus formed in the rebellion against those social forces, families and classes, which restrict the ideals. their love can be realized only through their rebellion against all that would destroy the inner most needs and aspirations. it is based on mutual faith, mutual understanding in the struggle for love. so in this sense heathcliff is not a separate individual but a port of catherines essence. any separation between them will be disastrous. catherine experiences the most absolute degree of devotion in her account of her deep love for heathcliff and superficial love for edgar linton. “my great miseries in this world have been heathcliff miseries, and i watched and felt from the beginning; my great thought in living is he. if all else perished and he remained, i should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. i should not seem a part of it. im well aware, as winter changes the trees-my love for heathliff resembles the eternal rocks beneatha source of little visible delight, but necessary. nelly, i am heathliff-hes always in my mind-not as a pleasure, any more than i am always a pleasure to myself-but, as my own being“emity bronte244,1847) catherine shows her passionate love for heathliff and inseparability of them. but the nature of love should be explored within a context, because the novel shows love is based on mutual bullion and mutual aspirations. however, catherine eventually betrays heathcliff and becomes the mistress of thrush cross grange. the conflict here is evidently a social one. thrush cross, which embodies the prettier, more comfortable side of bourgeois life, seduces catherine. clearly there is some social distinction between the two houses though both the earnshaw and the linton families belong to the class of the gentry. two houses dont live in equal status. we notice there striking difference of tone and atmosphere, of custom and convention. in a word, culture separates the two widely. the family in wuthering heights is closer to the land and agriculture labor. the linton house stands in a deep valley surrounded by a park. the family has civilized luxury. the difference is well shown in the description of their misadventures in the grange. both of them stand on the basement and cling to the ledge. they see and exclaim, “-ah! it was beautiful-a splendid place carpeted with crimson and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold ,a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the center ,and shimmering with little soft tapers.” helthcliff sees the richness, splendor of the house, and at the same time he observes the nervous boredom and irritation of their lives. though beauty strikes them, it more subtly rouses in them a feeling of reputation. heathcliff says, “we laughed outright at the petted things, we did despise them!” so heathcliff claims that he would not exchange his conditions, for a thousand lives, for edgar lintons at the grange. we think that his judgment is correct. heathcliff represents-rough as he is-more humanity than there appears to be at the grange. heathcliff lays bare the real nature of grange but he underestimates its power .perhaps he fails to anticipate that there can be anything there strong enough to change catherine. the distinction between catherine and heathcliff and the social class separations are beginning of heathcliff tragedy. and seduction by the glamour of the grange is the beginning of catherines change and distortion.2.2 the affinity of the two characters read the text and you will notice catherine: changes of her dress, manners and social attitude. her dress is suitable in the grange rather than in the height. “she was obliged to hold up with both hands a long cloth habit. her fingers are wonderfully whitened with doing nothing, and staying in doors.”emity bronte,1847：69she has become used to a life that is a centered on the inside of houses and she can do not no work .she has accustomed to such a style of living: others work for her, produce for her, and satisfy he needs. this is the change in catherine that we observe for the first time. catherines stay at the grange has brought about changes in her that affect the course of the lives heathcliff and her own, both present and future. some of the lintonsworldliness and luxury have been rubbed on her and she is conscious of the social gulf between herself and heathcliff. catherine personally thinks she can have everything that the other life can offer herfine clothes, flattery and social status of a dayand still retain the old relationship with heathcliff. so the conflict is unavoidable. but heathcliff is not able to accept it:“i shall not stand to be laughed at, i shant bear ti shall be as dirty as i please, and i like to be dirty, and i will be dirty.”(emity bronte 260,1847) catherine s new values determine her choice of edgar linton rather than heathcliff. chapter nine is one of the most dramatic and important chapters in the book. catherine declares her superficial love for edgar and strong relationship with heathcliff. in spite of that, she is prepared to betray heathcliff and her own nature by accepting the values of the lintons. the dual sides of her nature and the inner conflict are clearly exposed here. she chooses edgar because he is “handsome, and pleasant to be with, young and cheerful, but most of all because she will be rich, and i like to be the greatest woman of the neighborhood, and i shall be proud of having such a husband ,”emity bronte 310,1847 hearing this, nelly asks catherine scornfully, but there are several other handsome, rich young men in the world, handsomer, possibly, and richer than he is. what should hinder you from loving them? if there be any, they are out of my way. i have seen none like edgar. emity bronte 336 1847 this is catherines response to the question.clearly she accepted the values of the grange. the grounds of her attraction to edger are wealth, position and social distinction. for that reason, she says hindley has degraded heathcliff so much she can not marry him. but still catherine can not shun her love for heathcliff. so she declares that in her heart and soul she knows she is doing a wrong thing .she recounts a dream in which she thinks she is in heaven, but is so miserable and the angels throw her down upon the moors, where she wakes, completely happy. this reveals her innate conflict and her predicament. catherine naively thinks she can keep edgar and heathcliff both. let us the possible reasons why she chooses edgar.“edgar must shake off his antipathy, and tolerate him, at least. he will when he learns my true feeling towards him. i see now, you think me a selfish wretch, but did it ever strike you that if heathcliff and i married, we should be beggars? whereas, if i marry linton, i can aid heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brothers power.”emity bronte351, 1847nellys criticism of catherine cuts straight in the dialogue through the superficiality of catherines judgments, and at last forces her to admit that marriage to edgar will greatly affect heath cliff and will involve a distortion of her nature. nelly says, i think thats the worst motive youve given yet for being the wife of young linton. as a character in the novel, she lives and moves are entirely within the world of those characters.we do not say nelly has a complete understanding of the depth and degree of love between heathcliff and catherine .but through the common sense, she has no how the separation will affect heathcliff, thus, any attempt for catherine to reconcile the conflict is doomed to fail.in her delirium at the grange after the heartbroken meeting with heathcliff, we are aware of the bursting of catherines repressed love. she fantasizes that she is back at wuthering heights, in her room, and her constant refrain is the wish to be outside on the moors and to be her former self. i wish i were out of doors i wish i were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free.this marks the distortion of her own self and the failure of her attempt at reconciliation between the forces.as stated above, we come to see that catherines betrayal to heathcliff is actually a sort of self betrayal. she alienates herself from her true nature and self essence. catherine becomes a distorted person by betraying herself humanity and by breaking up the relationship with heathcliff. only when she realizes the distortion and improbability of reconciliation between heathcliff and edgar, does death to give her peace.no doubt catherine and heathcliffs tragedy rises from a world of inequality and oppression. the novel is not merely a tragic love s