DualityInCatherine’sPersonalityInWutheringHeights-2019年文档

1、Duality In Catherine s Personality In Wuthering Heights “Wuthering Heights ” is the representative work of Emily Bronte who was a very famous writer in Britain. And it is also her only novel. In this novel, the center is the story about Catherine, Heathcliff and Linton, a story between one woman and

2、 two men. Emily has broken away from the conventional love in her novel. This novel can be divided into four parts: the first part talks about that the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff and Heathcliff is nature. But along with the development of the western civilization,the womens positi

3、on was improved due to the womens liberation movement which had begun at that time, Victorian Age. It also began in the literature works, but still couldn t shake off the traditional sense of women. From the character Catherine in Wuthering Heights, we can find two contradictory personalities in one

4、 person that Emily created. On one hand, Catherine lived in the moor that was far away from the mundane society. She was simple, wild, willful and free minded without any worldly desires. On the other hand, she was a worldly side in her personality which was manifested by her vanity and she desires

5、for fame and wealth. She was a complicate figure. From Catherine, we can see the women s weakness and stubbornness in her personality combined together through a chain of media. The love between Heathcliff and Catherine was the core of the novel. Catherine loved Heathcliff very much because they are

6、 alike that they have the same wild and stubborn temperament. Heathcliff was adopted memberb y Catherine s father of the Eamshowf amily. WhenC atherine s father died, her elder brother Hindly moved into Wuthering Heights. But they did not get any warmth of the family from him. Even they were ill-tre

7、ated by Hindly, especially for Heathcliff. So Catherine showed sympathy for Heathcliff at the age of her childhood and they became closed friends. They worked and played from childhood and grown up together. They were some resemblance in the dispositions and characteristics. They were both afraid of

8、 nothing and dared to do everything they wanted to do. They cared each other and helped each other, and also stood rebelling against the persecution by Hindly. The loved each other so much due to their love was built up on the basis of understanding and rebelling together. “He shall never know how I

9、 love him; and that, not because he s handsome, Nelly, but because hes more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” “I amH eathcliff!He is always, always in my mind; not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” Catheri

10、ne wanted herself to be a decent when she accidentally went into the Thruschcross Grange in her girlhood; Catherine s nature was quite different from the form of the traditionalwoman. She was uninhibited rude and bold that is not very alike as the docile and meek woman at that time. In humans mind,

11、the woma n must be docile, gentle and soft, so old Mrs. Linton in Thruschcross Grange made a great effort to change Catherine. As a result, she was made a big change as expected that everyone amazed when she went back to the Wuthering Heights. The changes of her dresses, manners and social attitude.

12、 Her dress was suitable in the Thrushcross Grange rather than that in the Wuthering Heights. “She was obliged to hold up with both hands, a long cloth habit. Her fingers are wonderfully whitened with doing nothing, and staying in door. ” She became used to a life that was centered on inside of house

13、, and she can do no work. She had accustomed to such a style of living: others work for her, produce for her and satisfy her needs. From these, we know that Catherine declared her superficial love for Edgar.“My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it. Im well aware, as

14、winter change the tree.” Clearly she accepted the values of the Grange. The ground of her attraction to Edgar was wealth, position and social distinction. But still Catherine could not shun her love for Heathcliff. So she felt unhappy when she accepted the proposal by Linton. She declared that in he

15、r heart and soul she knows she is doing a wrong thing. She did love Heathcliff heartily. As she said to her servant Nelly: “My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliffs miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and

16、 he remained, I should continue to be; and if all else remained, and he was annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty strange: I should not seem a part of it. ” “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. She fell in love wit

17、h Heathcliff without any fear. But her love for him was a mixture, she loved Heathcliff indeed, but she was not willing to marry him lead it would degrade her. She said: “Ive no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff

18、 so low. I shouldnt have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now.” She showed and repaired her love for him in her own peculiar way, as she said:“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 bro

19、thers power. ” And she recounted dream in which she thinks. She was in heaven, but is so miserable and the angels throw her down upon the moors. Where she wakes, completed happy. The first is the social background. Emily lived in a period when the class-struggle was fierce. There were many important

20、 social movements. She was especially interested in the miserable events. During those specific days, a lot of disturbance existed in the social and the sharp contrast laid between the poor and the rich, the nature kindness of human being would be twisted any time. Therefore, the characters that she

21、 described are embodied with personal prejudice and the air of gloom. Also the characters are the products which come out of the specific periods and circumstances. It is the twisted society that creates the twisted characteristics. Their wickedness, weakness and constancy are not only the tragedy of their own, but also of the societ