《呼嘯山莊》凱瑟琳愛情與婚姻的困境

1、畢 業(yè) 論 文Catherine's Dilemma Between Love and Marriage in Wuthering Heights呼嘯山莊凱瑟琳愛情與婚姻的困境學(xué) 院 專 業(yè) 級(jí) 班學(xué)生姓名 學(xué) 號(hào) 指導(dǎo)教師 職 稱 完成日期 教務(wù)處 制Abstract: Emily Bronte is a famous British poet and novelist in mid-19th century. Her novel Wuthering Heights tells a poignant love story. This paper is to analyze Cathe

2、rine's plight between love and marriage, and irreconcilable contradictions which have led to the tragedy. The aim of the paper is to make people aware of which is extremely wrong that people measure personal values on social status. It is not only cruel, but will have devastating consequences to

3、 destroy the natural and sincere feeling.Key words: Love; marriage; tragedyContentsIntroduction 11. Discussion of Catherine's Love 21.1 Influences of Natural Society 21.2 Love Between Catherine and Heathcliff 31.3 The True Love of Catherine 42. Discussion of Catherine's Marriage52.1 Influenc

4、e of Materialistic Society 52.2 Catherine's Unlucky Marriage 63. The Irreconcilable Contradictions Between Love and Marriage 73.1 Catherine's Childhood Repressive Stage 73.2 Youthful CatherineNegative Stage 83.3 Mature CatherineDisillusioned and Destructive Stage 9Conclusion 10Bibliography 1

5、3Acknowledgement 14IntroductionEmily Bronte only wrote a long novel which was named Wuthering Heights. No matter from the content or the format, this novel is absolutely a unique one. This is a novel with a strong passion and little wild even some freak opus. Wuthering Heights was themed by the love

6、 of Heathcliff and Catherine. It shows the love story between two families of two generations. This novel has two main narrators and five minor narrators, plus the time, the perspectives, the views, the intertextures between love and hate, hate and enmity. These conditions make the whole opus filled

7、 with mysterious atmosphere. Wuthering Heights is the exploration and extension of the meaning of the romance. The strong passion and natural love of Heathcliff and Catherine in contrast with the marriage according with social norms, Emily Bronte put forward her own point to support personal choice.

8、 Catherine and Heathcliff often said that they got to know each other as they understood themselves. They are the indivisible lovers. The death of one of them would inevitably lead to the death of another. However, Catherine and Heathcliff's love met a lot of obstacles in their periods. Heathcli

9、ff not just had an unknown background, but was poor and did not accept education. These have fundamentally denied the possibility which he wanted to marry with a gentlewoman as his wife. It is obviously that Emily Bronte was deeply influenced by the romantic poetry. Emily fashioned Heathcliff into a

10、 person who was similar to the Byronic hero. In fact, the description of this kind of character also denied the possibility of the integrating happiness of Catherine and Heathcliff. Heathcliff is the person who had stronger desire of love and lived in a far higher place than any one else in daily li

11、fe. He regarded revenge as the only way for him to live in an appropriate way of life after he was rejected by Catherine. Although Catherine was very fond of the strong and provocative love, she did not master enough consciousness to protect her and could not really realize the shortcomings of Heath

12、cliff. In Catherine's vision, the choice that Catherine chose Edgar Linton as her husband would lead to her spirit coming into being a separation. However, she had no choice but to do it. She could not find any reason to refuse Edgar Linton who can provide her with social privileges and luxury l

13、ife. What happened in the novel seems unreasonable, but sensible either. In some theorists' opinions, either the technique to solve the romantic theme that Scott required, or the surface reflection that the eighteenth century put forward the traditional requirements for real of life. All of thes

14、e are profoundly and drastically broken up by Emily Bronte who is the author of Wuthering Heights.Catherine is the heroine in this paper. Her love is the soul and body separated from the love, full of irreconcilable contradictions and conflicts. Catherine's love for Heathcliff is the spirit of l

15、ove, narcissistic love, and love for Linton is the love of the flesh, materialized love, compensatory loveCatherine accepts and loves them who are different. Her love for greed is over their mental load, so it enhances the psychological conflict. It set fire to the hatred of Heathcliff when she marr

16、ied Linton. His hatred accumulated over the years in his heart. The hatred grew rapidly and exploded, leading to the subsequent a series of tragedies. The contradiction between the absurdities of eros, she endured the spirit of self-destruction, which not only brewed on the tragedy of love and marri

17、age, but also ultimately led to Catherine's early physical death. As far as I am concerned, the story of revenge and love helps reveal the weaknesses in human nature: hatred, jealousness and consistency. When confronting with maltreatment and oppression, human beings will struggle so fiercely an

18、d bravely for freedom and dignity. Though love and hatred of Catherine were settled down with death of the three main characters in Wuthering Heights, but the sense and sensibility of human nature never rest, contradicting human's thinking and decision making, and revealing the weaknesses of eve

19、ry single detriment of human nature. 1. Discussion of Catherine's Love1.1 Influences of Natural SocietyThe whole world of Wuthering Heights was made up of the desolate land, the storm and the strange stones. Wuthering Heights was the symbol of serious, violent and vibrant of original power. Wuth

20、ering is an interior adjective which contains a significant meaning. It described the place that was disturbed by the storm under the pressure of the weather. Indeed, they must have that pure air to rise with their force and spirit at any time. Turning our vision into another side, we can saw that t

21、here were a few stunted trees that became to lean excessively. At the same place, a row of thin thorns branched into a same direction, as if they were begging the warm from the sun. Now you can guess how powerful the north wind is there. Thanks to the architects of Wuthering Heights, their foresight

22、 made it possible for them to build the houses in a strong condition. Narrow windows were deeply embedded in the wall and the foundation of this house was formed with large pieces of protruding stones. Wuthering Heights was the center of the storm with circulating air which could inspire the people

23、in Wuthering Heights throughout the year. The strong wind represents a kind of primitive power. In the eyes of Lockwood, Wuthering Heights is the ideal paradise of the pessimistic person. It is hard for us to look for a second place which is entirely far from the secular persecute as the Wuthering H

24、eights in the British territory. Wuthering Heights was located in remote, the natural and social outlook and nature of the original shape influenced Catherine in her childhood. She was an untamed, stubborn and bold girl, and full of rebellious spirit. Her rebellion, unrestraint, contempt for the hyp

25、ocrisy of civilization and morality were often against her father, and didn't want to be a "good boy" by her father's will. When the old Sean brought Heathcliff to Wuthering Heights, it drew the whole family on this dirty little boy, certainly they disgusted him. However, Catherine

26、 and Heathcliff became good friends gradually, because the two children were mutual attracted together by a strange and primitive emotions. They run in the profusion of heather, the wilderness of thorns everywhere together, it seemed that they were immersed in the old days which fell behind others.

27、The wilderness became a secluded paradise to escape the reality and be far from the madding crowd for them. All secular ethics, religious values did not apply to them completely. Playing freely in the wilderness and enjoying nature were Catherine and Heathcliff's most favorite things in their ch

28、ildhood. They hated all hypocrisy and cruelty and had the courage to tread the sacred books under feet and throw them into the kennel. Especially when the old Sean was dead, they found indispensable to each other in the resistance to Hedley and Joseph, Catherine gave the understanding between people

29、 and companion friendship to Heathcliff, but Catherine's nature got a response from Heathcliff.We can sum up that Catherine was born in storm township of Wuthering Heights, with free days in wild in her childhood. She inherited the characters of moor besom: she had a scrumptious beauty containin

30、g a natural harbor, a doughty will and a freedom of thought. However, people unanimously esteemed that women should be the angel at home of the Victorian era in Britain. With the continual sigh of the old Sean, Catherine perceives that her father did not like her very much. Nevertheless, as a matter

31、 of fact, it did not affect her to recognize her real personality. On the contrary, it evoked forward a single step Catherine's inner female consciousness. The nature influenced Catherine to develop the Catherine natural friendliness, make her have a primitive wild elements in her body, be simpl

32、e on her thought, be free and not with any flashy. It was just about the natural law of human growth that Catherine was naive and pure in her childhood. 1.2 Loves Between Catherine and HeathcliffThe affection between Catherine and Heathcliff has begun to set up from their childhood. Heathcliff was o

33、riginally a Liverpool street homeless orphan, and was adopted by Mr. Sean. Although in period of taking him home, he was unwelcome by a pair of children of Mr. Sean who were called Catherine and Hedley. But Catherine gradually began to like Heathcliff and got closer to him. When they were just the c

34、hildren, they didn't know class differences, wealth and fame in their mind. Yearning for nature put them tightly in union; both of them were wild children and also liked roaming in the wilderness freely. Their love was developed from childhood and based on the nature, so the love between them wa

35、s sacred and pure.The appetency between Catherine and Heathcliff derived from their piggy's childhood. Catherine thought of Heathcliff as her everything and her most favorite person. Heathcliff was absolutely obedient to Catherine. He would do everything no matter what Catherine required him to

36、do. How did this kind of innocent, childish and lifelong love derive from? Catherine spoke loudly and clearly of her being equal to Heathcliff. She firmly believed she was an outcome of the nature. Catherine and Heathcliff conjointly owned a same character that both of them melting into the wild nat

37、ure. Catherine's attitude towards the wild and the attached feeling of her childhood implied that she would never be a part of the civilized world. Her heaven was in the midst of the desolate Champaign and her soul and spirit would never get rid of Heathcliff. After the death of Mr. Sean, Heathc

38、liff lost a relative who supported and loved him. From then on, he was often maltreated by the new owner of Wuthering Heights, Hedley. Hedley deprived his rights to educate and let he become the servant here. Even so, Heathcliff did not feel lonely and depressed, because Catherine always stood by hi

39、m, understood him and love him. As long as he got together with his lover, he considered all of the unhappy experience and ill- treatments as nothing. He could share his everything with Catherine. As regard to Heathcliff, Catherine was the only hope in his life. His love for Catherine could be descr

40、ibed with two words that were warm and crazy. In his eyes, there was nothing important but his love for her, and he also did not allow anyone to carry off Catherine from his side.Because of what Catherine and Heathcliff had some one fit of things in their nature, they relied on each other, comforted

41、 each other, thus became intimates, and germinated a sincere love in a common resistance, when they were subject to exclusion in isolation, Catherine told Nelly:"I love him so much (Heathcliff, not because he looks handsome, but he is more like him than my own. No matter what our souls are made

42、 of, his and mine are exactly the same. In this world, my greatest grief is Heathcliff's grief . I live to him and my biggest purpose is also him. Even if everything else all die, as long as he left, I can continue to live; and if the others all left, only he is dead, in that way the whole world

43、 has become a very strange place, I will not like a part of it. My love for Heathcliff is precisely compared to the constant rock under our feet I am Heathcliff! He is not as a pleasure, but as myself and present on my own heart."11 The love between them is deep, intense and fanatical. Maintain

44、ing a high degree of fit on mentality, their emotional bond is tied more and more tightly, till the last it can not be separated. It can be said that the love between Catherine and Heathcliff pursuing the original self-love, is a product of primitive nature.In Wuthering Heights, the love of Heathcli

45、ff and Catherine is the best prototype of the original love. Plato made an annotation of this kind of prototypical love, as follows: "love is rooted in the ancient human beings." It led us to return to the original state. The effort to combine two people into one and to heal the cracks in

46、the people is all the manifestation of love. Everyone is only the half of the other person and always seeks for their own the other half.Two thousand years later, the analytical psychologist Jung Carl Gustav gave new life to this old idea that the pursuit of a complete desire and process is the prot

47、otypical model of the love. It is the precious spiritual products with long traditional history in the development of human beings. As Catherine said, "I am Heathcliff. He lives in my heart forever. He is not regarded as a kind of fun, but as my own to exist."11 1.3 The True Love of Cather

48、ine Catherine told Nelly:"I love him so much (Heathcliff, not because he looks handsome, but he is more like him than my own, he is not as a pleasure, but as myself and present on my own heart. He is absolutely necessary for me."10 From these words, we would find Catherine and Heathcliff w

49、as an organic whole, Heathcliff was the most real for Catherine, and Catherine loved him actually because she loved the most authentic of herself. We could see Heathcliff's shadow from Catherine. It was obvious that they were similar in character. Catherine had a strong feeling like Heathcliff.

50、Before meeting Linton, she was the same as Heathcliff who was unrestrained in both emotion and behavior. However, when she met Linton, secular ethics and norms suppressed her nature and made her grow as Catherine, not as Heathcliff.Catherine had told Nelly:"she loved Linton, because Linton was

51、handsome, young, active, and he loved her too. And Linton would be very rich in the future, if she married him, she would be the most amazing woman in that area."11 Thus we could see that Catherine preferring to Linton was just for his etiquette, wealth and fame that is, Catherine gave up her t

52、rue love, but chose a person who was more identified by the society than herself, such choice even in Nelly's opinion, and it seemed also ridiculous. Second, when Catherine met Heathcliff, she often expressed her dissatisfactions, and so it has harmed Heathcliff's dignity as a man, it also b

53、uried the curse for Catherine and Heathcliff's tragedy.Staying in the villa for a few weeks could be the turning point for Heathcliff and Catherine's emotion. During this time, Catherine began to realize that she should marry a very rich people with their position; she also revealed that she

54、 liked Linton a little. Eventually Catherine could not resist the material temptation and married Linton. In this connection, we could know that Catherine loving Heathcliff was not because she really loved him, but just because she loved herself actually.2. Discussion of Catherine 's Marriage2.1

55、 Influence of Materialistic Society In the 19th century of Victorian era in England, although Britain has already been a major industrial country at that time, social progress and development did not change the status of women' dependency and subordination, they were either hard labors and serva

56、nts who worked ten hours a day, but the wages were meager; or did tutors who not only had low wages but also no dignity. In addition, women did not have a better career to make a living, so their marriage was still a better means of livelihood that was to put them to a man. Accepting their subordina

57、te status, women wanted marriage to change their fate was very common; this was the womens living landscape in that era. 12 At the same time, the nineteenth century of British was still in the patriarchy society. The female completely lost their identity under the utterance hegemony of male's po

58、int, thought, behavior, ethics and value. At that time, the England was the advocates of "family angle". Mary Wollstonecraft has said in the Women' Right for a Debate, "Women are kept in captivity at home and also in the dark."12 The fate of the middle class women was particu

59、larly lamentable. They were thought as the males property and social relationship at home. They can not find their main position in their society and they were at the edge of the patriarchy-centered culture status. As the saying of Francis Maher Grace goes, they are only the subsidiary items of the male as the symbol of women. In The Crazy Woman on the Attic of Gilbert and Cuba told us that the traditional patriarchy's lite