（英语语言文学专业论文）《呼啸山庄》主题和叙述结构创新的研究.pdf

ii 中中 文文 摘摘 要要 艾米丽勃朗特是十九世纪英国文坛最为著名的作家之一，她的小说呼啸山 庄也是英国小说中最广为阅读和研究的小说之一。许多研究评论都围绕着作品的 人物性格和它独特的叙事结构展开。此篇论文主要研究了这部小说的两点艺术创新。 论文一共由四部分组成，第一章主要介绍了小说及其作者在英国文学史上的独 特地位，对小说内容进行了简短的叙述，同时还对有关此小说的文学批评的巨大变 化做了阐述。 第二章着力于分析呼啸山庄这部小说在主题方面的创新。爱情是小说的主 题之一，但是小说主要描述的凯瑟琳和西斯克里夫之间的爱情在现实生活中并不可 能存在，我们也无法想象它的存在。它和维多利亚时期的其它爱情小说截然不同。 同时通过描述这场不合常理的爱情，小说也探讨了人类文明和自然的关系这一主题。 第三章主要分析了小说另一艺术创新之处，也就是它在叙事结构方面的创新即 其作用。第三章首先对相关的叙事学概念做了简单的介绍，然后陈述了这部小说的 时序安排和叙事结构。此章主要集中于分析小说的两个主要叙述者奈丽和洛克伍德 的叙述功能，以及作者安排这两位叙述者所起的作用。 最后一章为总结部分，在这章里，论文作者对论文的主要观点进行了简短的总 结和再次阐述。 关键词：关键词： 呼啸山庄 ；爱情；自然；文明；叙述结构 i abstract emily bront is one of the most outstanding english writers in the nineteenth century. her masterpiece wuthering heights is among the most widely read and frequently studied novel of the english novels. many criticism of the novel is around the analysis of its characters and its special narrative structure. this thesis mainly focuses on the artistic innovations of this novel. the thesis is composed of four chapters. chapter one is the introduction part, which describes the significant position of the novel and its writer in english literature and gives a brief narration of the story. it also includes the dramatic changes of literary criticism on this novel. chapter two is devoted to the analysis of the innovation of the theme of wuthering heights. love is one of the themes of this novel, but the love between catherine and heathcliff can not be seen and imagined in the real life. it is also different from the other love stories in the victorian age. through this unconventional love, emily is trying to explore the relationship between human civilization and nature, which is also one of the themes of this novel. chapter three will be deployed upon the analysis of another artistic innovation of this novel. that is the innovation of the narrative structure. in this chapter, some definitions of narratology will be briefly introduced firstly, and then the time scheme and narrative structure of this novel. this chapter will also focuses on the two main narrators, their functions and the stylistic effects of the application of these two narrators. the last chapter is the concluding part, in which the thesis author will restate and summarize the main ideas briefly. key words: wuthering heights; love; nature; civilization; narrative structure 1 chapter one introduction 1.1emily bront and wuthering heights emily bront is one of the most outstanding english writers in the nineteenth century. her masterpiece wuthering heights is among the most widely read and frequently studied novel of the english novels. emily bront published only one novel, wuthering heights, a story of doomed love and revenge. but this single work has its place among the masterpieces of english literature. emily bront was born in thornton, yorkshire, in the north of england. her father was the rector of haworth from 1820. after their mother died in 1821, the children spent most of their time in reading and composition. to escape their unhappy childhood, anne, emily, charlotte and their brother branwell created imaginary worlds. emily and anne created their own gondal saga, and bramwell and charlotte recorded their stories about the kingdom of angria in minute notebooks. between the years 1824 and 1825 emily attended the school at cowan bridge with charlotte, and then was largely educated at home. her fathers bookshelf offered a variety of reading: the bible, homer, virgil, shakespeare, milton, byron, scott and many others. the children also read enthusiastically articles on current affairs and intellectual disputes in blackwoods edinburgh magazine, frasers magazine, and edinburgh review. in 1835 emily bront was at roe head, but suffered from homesickness and returned after a few months to the moorland scenery of home. in 1837 she became a governess at law hill, near halifax, where she spent six months. to facilitate their plan to keep school for girls, emily and charlotte bront went in 1842 to brussels to learn foreign languages and school management. emily returned on the same year to haworth, where she stayed for the rest of her brief life. unlike charlotte, emily had no close friends. she wrote a few letters and was interested in mysticism. her first novel, wuthering heights (1847), a story-within-a-story, did not gain immediate success as charlottes jane eyre, but it has acclaimed later fame as one of the most intense novels written in the english language. emily bront died of tuberculosis in the late 1848. she had caught cold at her brother 2 branwells funeral in september. after the appearance of wuthering heights, some skeptics maintained that the book was written by branwell, on the grounds that no woman from such circumscribed life could have written such passionate story. in 1848 charlotte and anne visited george smith to reveal their identity and to help quell rumors that a single author lay behind the pseudonyms. after her sisters deaths, charlotte edited a second edition of their novels, with prefatory commentary aimed at correcting what she saw as the reviewers misunderstanding of wuthering heights. the complex time scheme of the novel had been taken as evidence by the critics, that emily had not achieved full formal control over her narrative materials. however, her model in layering narrative within narrative may have been mary shelleys frankenstein (1818). emilys refusal to reduce ambiguity to simplistic clarity did not have any immediate influence on the novel form until wilkie collins experimented with multivocal first-person narratives in such works as the woman in white (1860) and the moonstone (1868). the novel tells us a story about spiritual love. we can understand some aspect of human nature through this story. after moving into thrushcross grange and meeting his landlord, heathcliff, who lives in wuthering heights, a man named lockwood asks his house keeper, nelly dean, to tell him heathcliffs story. the narrative is non-linear, involving several flashbacks, and two narrators mr. lockwood and ellen nelly dean. the novel opens in 1801, with lockwood arriving at thrushcross grange, a grand house on the yorkshire moors he is renting from the surly heathcliff, who lives at nearby wuthering heights. lockwood is treated rudely and coldly by the brooding, unsociable heathcliff, and is forced to stay at wuthering heights for a night when one of the savage dogs of the heights attacks him and the weather turns against him. the housekeeper cautiously takes him to a chamber to sleep through the night and warns him to not speak to heathcliff about where he is sleeping. during the night, lockwood finds a book of the experiences of a girl named catherine earnshaw, in which he discovers that she and heathcliff were extremely close as children. as he dozes off, lockwood has a terrifying dream of catherines ghost coming in through the window, deathly pale and frightening, begging him to let her in to the home. heathcliff, awakened as lockwood shouts in fear, comes running. heathcliffs mood changes dramatically when lockwood tells him of 3 catherines ghost. heathcliff asks mr. lockwood to leave the room and lockwood hears him sobbing outside the door saying, oh cathy, please come in. the following morning, lockwood sets off to thrushcross grange where he asks the housekeeper, nelly dean, to tell the story of heathcliff, catherine, and wuthering heights as he recovers from a cold.nelly takes over the narration and begins her story thirty years earlier, when heathcliff, a foundling living on the streets of liverpool, is brought to wuthering heights by the then-owner, the kind mr. earnshaw, and raised as his own. ellen comments that heathcliff perhaps might have been descended from american origins. he is often described as dark or gypsy. earnshaws daughter catherine becomes heathcliffs inseparable friend. her brother hindley, however, resents heathcliff, seeing him as an interloper and rival. when mr. earnshaw dies three years later, hindley (who has married a woman named frances) takes over the estate. he brutalises heathcliff, forcing him to work as a hired hand. catherine becomes friends with a neighbouring family, the lintons of thrushcross grange, who mellow her initially wild personality. she is especially attached to the refined and mild young edgar linton, whom heathcliff instantly dislikes.a year later, hindleys wife dies, apparently of consumption, shortly after giving birth to a son, hareton. hindley takes to drinking. some two years after that, catherine agrees to marry edgar. nelly knows that this will crush heathcliff, and heathcliff overhears catherines explanation that it would be degrading to marry him. heathcliff storms out and leaves wuthering heights, not hearing catherines continuing declarations that she is heathcliff and that her love for him is immovable like the rocks. after realizing that heathcliff has left her, catherine becomes desperate and is struck down by a fever. edgars attentions slowly return catherine back to health, and some years later she marries him. she lives in apparent happiness for a few months, until heathcliff returns, intent on destroying those who prevent him from being with catherine. he has, mysteriously, become very wealthy. through loans he has made to the drunken and dissipated hindley that hindley cannot repay, heathcliff takes ownership of wuthering heights upon hindleys death. intent on ruining edgar, heathcliff elopes with edgars sister isabella, which places him in a position to inherit thrushcross grange upon edgars death.catherine is initially very happy at seeing heathcliff again, but then becomes very 4 ill after a harsh argument with heathcliff regarding isabella. they reconcile a few hours before her death, however, reaffirming their feelings for one another for the last time. catherine dies after giving birth to a daughter also named catherine, or cathy. heathcliff becomes only more bitter and vengeful towards everybody around him. isabella flees her abusive marriage a month later and subsequently gives birth to a boy, linton. at around the same time, hindley dies. heathcliff takes ownership of wuthering heights and vows to raise hindleys son hareton with as much neglect as he had suffered at hindleys hands years earlier. later on, heathcliff tells nelly that he despises his own son, linton, who reminds him of edgar and isabella, and favours hareton as a son, recognising an element of catherine in him (it having already been established that both catherine and heathcliff considered themselves one and the same person), and therefore himself. yet, heathcliff chooses to ignore these paternal emotions so that he might continue to degrade hareton as hindley degraded heathcliff: thereby achieving his revenge on his hated foster-brother.twelve years later, the dying isabella asks edgar to raise her and heathcliffs son, linton. however, heathcliff finds out about this and takes the sickly, spoiled child to wuthering heights. heathcliff has nothing but contempt for his son, but delights in the idea of him ruling the property of his enemies. to that end, a few years later, heathcliff attempts to persuade young cathy to marry linton. with lintons health diminishing swiftly, heathcliff kidnaps cathy and forces the two to marry. soon after, edgar linton dies, followed shortly by linton heathcliff. this leaves cathy a widow and a virtual prisoner at wuthering heights, as heathcliff has gained complete control of both wuthering heights and thrushcross grange. it is at this point in the narrative that lockwood arrives, renting thrushcross grange from heathcliff, and hearing nelly deans story. shocked, lockwood leaves for london.during his absence from the area, however, events reach a climax that nelly describes when he returns a year later. cathy gradually softens toward her rough, uneducated cousin hareton, just as her mother was tender towards heathcliff. when heathcliff is confronted by cathy and haretons love, notably haretons determination to protect the defiant cathy from heathcliffs attacks, he seems to suffer a mental break from reality and begins to see catherines ghost. he abandons his life-long vendetta and soon dies, smiling at having achieved his life-long dream of joining 5 catherine in the afterlife. nelly describes heathcliffs corpse. it is lying on the bed stiff. the window is open and rain is pouring in through it soaking heathcliffs body. his hand is outstretched as if reaching for somebodys hand (possibly the ghost of catherine as seen by lockwood). he is buried next to catherine, and several villagers swear that they have seen their ghosts wandering together through the moors. the story concludes with lockwood visiting their graves, noting how restful the spot seems. 1.2literature review emily bronts fame lies mainly on her single novel, wuthering heights. when it is published, people dislike this novel because of its brutality and malice. but the astonishing power, the special characters, the ambiguous theme, and the schematized structure was so charming for the readers that it is gradually accepted by the readers and critics. all this has tempted different interpretations about this novel, which becomes the focus for criticism in the twentieth century. first published in 1847, emily bronts wuthering heights ranks high on the list of major works of english literature. a brooding tale of passion and revenge set in the yorkshire moors, the novel has inspired no fewer than four film versions in modern times. early critics did not like the work, citing its excess of passion and its coarseness. a second edition was published in 1850, two years after the authors death. sympathetically prefaced by her sister charlotte, it met with greater success, and the novel has continued to grow in stature ever since. in the novel a pair of narrators, mr. lockwood and nelly dean, relate the story of the foundling heathcliffs arrival at wuthering heights, and the close-knit bond he forms with his benefactors daughter, catherine earnshaw. one in spirit, they are nonetheless social unequals, and the saga of frustrated yearning and destruction that follows catherines refusal to marry heathcliff is unique in the english canon. the novel is admired not least for the power of its imagery, its complex structure, and its ambiguity, the very elements that confounded its first critics. emily bront spent her short life mostly at home, and apart from her own fertile imagination, she drew her inspiration from the local landscape the surrounding moorlands and the regional architecture of the yorkshire area as well as her personal experience of religion, of folklore, and of illness 6 and death. dealing with themes of nature, cruelty, social position, and indestructibility of the spirit, wuthering heights has surpassed the more successful charlotte bronts jane eyre in academic and popular circles. today emily bront and the book has become the focus of many critics. many critics pays their attentions on this book. there are david cecils influential theory of calm and storm(203-157) and brophys critical mock about its gothic characteristics(71-2). macovski gives a psychoanalytic and dialogic interpretation about this book(117-100). matthew analysis it in the aspect of deconstruction(73-54). q. d. levis said it was a humanist work(138-85). the interpretation on reading this novel is never the same, just as readers understanding about it author. emily bronts relationship with the english literary tradition, as mary a. ward observes that emily bronte occupies “a place apart in english letters” (233). wuthering heights is a thrilling tale. its theme on love is so unconventional and extraordinary that it attracts many modern readers. the novel also reflects the authors unique understanding of the essence of human civilization and the nature, the relationship between human being and nature. its application of complex narrative structure has had some modernistic feature, which also have its functions and stylistic effects. this thesis is trying to elaborate the innovations of wuthering heights on its theme and narrative structure. 7 chapter two innovation of the theme 2.1 the extraordinary love emily creates a particular love story with all her imagination. this spiritual love story is consists of universal passionslove, hate and revenge. her love theme is so different from other writers that the love between heathcliff and catherine is thought impossible and is not received by the victorian people. the passionately private relationship of heathcliff and catherine makes no reference to any social convention or situation. in fact, we can say this love is unmoral according to the victorian convention. she portrays a passion that rises above ordinary sexual love. the innovation of the love theme in wuthering heights lies in that the spiritual love and the effect of the horrible atmosphere of the love is obtained by the application of the gothic background and the description of heathcliff s revenge. 2.1.1 love under the gothic setting gothic novel or gothic romance is “a story of terror and suspense, usually set in a gloomy old castle or monastery (hence gothic, a term applied to medieval architecture and associated in the 18th century with superstition)”. gothic novel were very popular in early-victorian england. wuthering heights, like an old castle, gives the reader a sense of mystery. it is a very old house, just as what lockwood describe it when he first visits wuthering heights. “before passing the threshold, i paused to admire