The Cause of Tragic Love between Heathcliff and Catherine An Analysis of Wuthering Heights

1、the cause of tragic love between heathcliff and catherine - an analysis of wuthering heightsabstract: the love between catherine and heathcliff gives a deep impression on readers in emily brontes world-famous novel wuthering heights. their tragic love is formed for several different causes, includin

2、g catherine herself and social factor. by analyzing their tragic love in wuthering heights, we can notice the whole novel is imprinted with the feature in capitalist society. in peoples mind, social status and fortune is the more important than other things (especially love). through the whole novel

3、, the weakness of human and traditional concepts can be found everywhere.key words: wuthering heights, cause, tragic love, statue, fortune, class distinctioni introductionwuthering heights plays a very important role in english literature, not only because of the portrayal of characters, but also th

4、e love and conflict among people. emily puts most of her effort on describing the love between heathcliff and catherine. through analyzing their love, we can feel the confusion of catherine. on one hand, she wants to be with heathcliff who she really loves; on the other hand, she pursues for the soc

5、ial status, and cant stand to marry a servant who is born in a low-class family. that is why she is in a dilemma. but after a long period of tormenting in her mind and her body, she died. as follow, the article will give some detailed analysis about the reason of their tragic love in the perspective

6、 of catherine and social factors.ii from social aspects in the capitalist society, the concept of class is rooted in peoples mind. so does catherine. as a lady in a minor, her potential need for vanity lets her give up her true love, and has to marry “up” into the world of the upper. although she lo

7、ves heathcliff, the class distinctions require her to give the love between her and heathcliff, and marry edgar. the concept of class in her mind does not allow her to marry a low-class person. what she needs is to be respected and gained social statue that heathcliff cant give her. only edgar can p

8、rovide her with all of these. therefore, in spite of the firmness of love to heathcliff, she marries edgar. that is one social reason what makes their love become tragic. iii from catherines aspects catherine is the main character who makes the love between her and heathcliff become tragic. in the b

9、ottom of her heart, she loves heathcliff very much. but at last, she betrays her love and marries edgar. her betrayal is the main reason of their tragic love. because of her betrayal, heathcliff becomes distorted; because of her betrayal, she becomes unhappy and psychopathic. because of her wrong ch

10、oice, two families are plunged into chaos. that is the first reason of their tragic love from catherines aspect.whats more, catherines pursuit for social status and fortune is also the reason that makes their love become tragic. the psychologist maslow comes up with his hierarchy theory of needs. in

11、 his opinion, personal need can be divided into five levels, including need for physiology, need for safety, need for love, need for respect and need for self-realization. to catherine, her need for physiology and safety has been satisfied. as for the need for love, it has been satisfied by edgar an

12、d heathcliff. because of the satisfaction of the first three levels, she wants to gain respect from others. from the view of her, if she wants to be respected by others, she must be rich and have social status. thats why she betrays heathclifff and marries edgar. because her pursuit for vanity,their

13、 love breaks up. in other words, their love becomes tragic. this is the second reason from catherines aspect. iv conclusion all the analysis presents us the reasons why the love between heathcliff and catherine becomes so tragic. it reflects the weakness of human and the rooted concept of class. generally speaking, their tragic love is influenced by internal and external factors. however, their tragic ends with catherines death. their tragic love is the most shining part in wuthering heights.bibl