《呼啸山庄》中希斯克里夫和凯瑟琳的爱情悲剧分析(毕业论文)1

1 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 论文作者 作者学号 2007610123 所在学院 外语学院 所学专业 英语 指导老师 论文完成日期 2008 11 09 TheThe analysisanalysis ofof thethe tragictragic lovelove ofof HeathcliffHeathcliff andand CatherineCatherine inin WutheringWuthering HeightsHeights 呼啸山庄 中希斯克里夫和凯瑟琳的爱情悲剧分析 2 AbstractAbstract 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 author s 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 KeywordsKeywords love tragedy Wuthering Heights 3 摘要摘要 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 关键词关键词 爱情 悲剧 呼啸山庄 4 ContentContent AbstractAbstract English English AbstractAbstract Chinese Chinese Content Content IntroductionIntroduction 1 1 Analysis Analysis ofof thethe severalseveral factorsfactors thatthat determinedetermine thethe tragictragic love 2love 2 1 1 TheThe socialsocial environmentenvironment 2 2 TheThe affinityaffinity ofof thethe twotwo characterscharacters 3 3 TheThe author sauthor s personalpersonal intentionintention Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography 5 IntroductionIntroduction Wuthering 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 6 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 hindly s 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 can t be reconciled at all She can t 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 AnalysisAnalysis ofof severalseveral factorsfactors thatthat determinedetermine thethe tragictragic lovelove 2 1 The social environment 7 Catherine dies existence for Heathcliff is nothing but hell In desperation and madness he takes revenge on the two houses without any humanity He doesn t give up his fight until he feels to be surrounded by Catherine s 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 Catherine s 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 fire doing nothing but reading their Bibles I ll 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 8 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 9 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 Catherine s 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 Catherine s 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 I m well aware as winter changes the trees my love for Heathliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath a source of little visible delight but necessary Nelly I am Heathliff he s 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 10 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 don t 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 11 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 Catherine s 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 69 She 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 Catherine s 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 Lintons worldliness 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 her fine clothes flattery and social status of a day and 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 shan t bear t I 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 12 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 Catherine s 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 brother s power Emity Bronte351 1847 Nelly s criticism of Catherine cuts straight in the dialogue through the superficiality of Catherine s judgments and at last forces her to 13 admit that marriage to Edgar will greatly affect heath cliff and will involve a distortion of her nature Nelly says I think that s the worst motive you ve 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 Catherine s 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 Catherine s 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 Heathcliff s tragedy rises from a world of inequality and oppression The novel is not merely a tragic love story but has much more significance It is an expression of the impossibility of true love in an unjust money arranged society and of cruel damage to the ideal happiness 2 3 The author s personal intention 14 The last factor which has predicated the tragedy comes from the author s personal social value Emily Bronte who died of tuberculosis in 1848 at the age of thirty was a daughter of a poor clergyman in the little village of Haworth Yorshire in northern England When she was three her mother died and left six children to the care of their aunt a woman who was afraid of catching cold and who therefore kept to her own room much of the time Mr Bronte took his meals in his own room and the children generally left to their own devices formed among themselves a close companionship Later all the girls except Anne the younges