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摘 要

《呼啸山庄》是十九世纪英国女作家艾米莉·勃朗特生平创作的唯一一部小说。小说的故事情节主要是围绕希斯克厉夫和凯瑟琳的爱情展开的,希斯克厉夫的“爱—恨—复仇—人性复归”既是小说的精髓,又是贯穿作品始终的线索。本文采用文本分析法,通过对希斯克厉夫的个人生活历程回顾,探讨希斯克厉夫的人性回归这一主题。首先，文章介绍了希斯克利夫人性的丧失，内心深处爱与恨的挣扎以及他与命运的抵抗。文章最后分析了希斯克利夫人性的回归，帮助读者更好地理解主题。作家通过解释希斯克利夫人性的复苏，揭示了无论发生什么，人性的自然之美都会占上风这一主题。

关键词： 《呼啸山庄》；希斯克利夫；人性；复苏

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. The Loss of Humanity in Heathcliff 3

3.1 A Cloudy, Cruel, Mad and Evil Man 3

3.2 Death of Mental Support 4

3.3 Death of Human Nature 4

4. Conflict within Heathcliff between Love and Hatred 5

4.1 Torment of Heathcliff’s Inner Being 5

4.2 Heathcliff"s Resistance against his Fate 7

5. The Recurrence of Humanity 8

5.1 Strength from the Betrayal of Pure Love 9

5.2 The Recurrence of Humanity 10

6. Conclusion 11

1. Introduction

In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the capitalism in England achieved a full-way development. After that, the class conditions became increasingly acute and mass campaigns rolled on with full force: Luther Movement, the Parliamentary Reforms in 1832, the struggles in order to increase the factory conditions and oppose the Poor Law Bastilles of 1834, the Chartist Movement from 1838 to 1848. All the struggles centered on west Yorkshire in the north England. Emily Bronte, the authoress of Wuthering Heights, was practically living in isolation, in a distant village of Haworth, a lonely village set in wild moors of Yorkshire. However, the sensitive writer wouldn"t be affected by the disordered and confused social fighting. Although Wuthering Heights doesn’t represent the conflicts between the working class and the capitalist class, the readers with the sharp eyes can get a meaning of social contradictions from the story and the complicated relationships.

The story of Wuthering Heights is related to two symmetrical families and a lonely orphan. The Earnshaws are rough in manner, including Mr. Earnshaw, his son Hindley, and his daughter Catherine. They live in their old house, Wuthering Heights, the wild places. The Linton family, richer and more genteel, includes Mr. Linton, his wife, his son Edgar, and his daughter Isabella, and they live down in a neighboring valley at Thrush cross Grange. One day Mr. Earnshaw brings home an ugly looking little boy he finds in the streets of Liverpool. Catherine loves Heathcliff; While Hindley hates him, being jealous of his father’s love for the stranger comer. After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley baits Heathcliff in every method he can. Heathcliff grows cruel and heartless, and Catherine turns from him to the gentleman Edgar Linton. Heathcliff runs away and returns when Catherine has become Edgar’s wife. Heathcliff is now rich and is determined to take revenge on Hindley and the Lintons. Between Heathcliff and Edgar, Catherine becomes distracted. She gives birth to Edgar’s daughter and dies. Heathcliff turns Hindley into a drunkard and gambler and wins all his professions so that Hindley’s son Hareton becomes a beggar in his house. Moreover, he makes a decision to marry Edgar Linton’s vain and normal sister Isabella, and marries Linton’s daughter, the younger Catherine, to his own perish ailing son, Linton Heathcliff. But Catherine and Hareton, who love each other, fail all his revenge. Heathcliff dies as a defeated man. After his death, people see the ghost image of Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshaw wondering on the moor.

2. Literature Review

In the past few years, many studies have been done and published on the only novel of Wuthering Heights of Emily Bronte, who has been widely regarded as one of the American’s controversial contemporary novelists. It also has aroused lots of researchers’ interests, and gets more and more attention from the literature circle both at home and abroad. Many critics adopt different methods to study the novel from different aspects and to draw different conclusions. So Emily and her works seem to be an endless puzzle to researchers.

Some critics and scholars have concentrated on Wuthering Heights from different aspects. For example, Janet.C.James writes Cliff’s Notes on Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, which intends to help the readers understand the subject better. The book resolves some problems that confuse everyone especially the social roots of Heathciff’s revenge, and helps us understand better about the plot of the novel. Another critic Hardy Barbara concentrates on the contents of Wuthering Heights and analyze the passionate and unique love through the process and reasons of Heathcliff’s changes, which help us to catch the meaning of the book better. Other critics read Wuthering Heights from different themes, such as the theme of revenge, theme of love, theme of humanity and female consciousness. Pu Ruoqian compares the love between Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights with the love in Greek myth, putting forward that love between Heathcliff and Catherine is the reappearance of the oldest love. Dong Junfeng views that Catherine’s relationship with Heathcliff and Edger shows the predicament of the female characters and even the survival crisis of human beings.

In my opinion, Heathcliff is a figure full of tragedy and he also suffers a lot. His befalling is worthy to be pitiful. This paper, therefore, attempts to make a general survey into the recurrence of humanity, analyzing the reasons resulting in the change, and focusing on the humanity of Heathcliff rather than his beastliness.

3. The Loss of Humanity in Heathcliff

3.1 A Cloudy, Cruel, Mad and Evil Man

Emily describes Heathcliff as a cloudy, cruel, mad and evil man. In the article, Catherine promises to marry Linton because of her ignorance, stupidity, vanity; But she betrays the pure love eventually. It is admitted that Catherine’s original purpose is to help Heathcliff and to make her brother has no right to interfere. However, after Heathcliff’s leaving, she eventually marries Katherine Linton, for she cannot afford the burden of reality, and the exposure of her own ideal personality finally led to their destruction. Catherine ruined not only her youth, love and life, but also ruined her love for Heathcliff. Her love for Linton is confined to a shallow, narrow level, like green leaves in forest, for time will make its color changeable, and her love for Heathcliff is more deeper, like the eternal rock, not as smooth as jade, but it is necessary. It is tantamount to lack of spiritual death. “He used divine restraint to subdue himself, so Hindley didn’t lose his life” (Bronte, 1985: 168). As far as I’m concerned, they love each other deeply, but what they have done is pitiful because of the different ways they express.

The thing Catherine done indeed harms Heathcliff, and let him to travel in the distant places. But during the process, when Linton marries Catherine, this love has become hatred, and irreversible desire. Even after the old Earnshaw"s death, Hindley let Heathcliff become a servant as the adopted son, to abuse him by all sorts of measures; Heathcliff carries the past, just because Catherine stands in his heart and supports him. This is the reason he doesn’t complain. But Catherine’s foolish actions let him into the hell and feels hopeless. So three years later, Heathcliff began to revenge. First he uses Hindley’s weaknesses, to seek Wuthering Heights, in order to retaliate against Linton, and cheat his sister. A few years later, he makes tragedy between the next generations. He arrests Cathy in house and forces her to marry his dying son, and torture his son Hadley like what that Hindley has ever tortured him.

He is a crazy avenger, to exhaust tormented his enemies and his children by all the way. This hatred is like a cancer, and increasingly enlarges to cover up the original pure heart over time. He also conceals his kindness and gives birth to the ugly side of human nature. Therefore, Heathcliff was bestial against humanity. It shaped a cloudy, cruel, mad and evil figure, Heathcliff, the hero of Wuthering Heights.

3.2 Death of Mental Support

To Heathcliff, the most significant thing in his heart is Catherine. Everything he does is for Catherine. Due to the different environment of growth, Catherine’s pride and vanity makes her get married to Edgar Linton. Heathcliff hates and takes revenge to Edgar. In Heathcliff’s world, Catherine was his moral support. When Catherine is ill, Heathcliff says to her: “Catherine, you know that I could as forget you as my existence!”(Bronte, 1985: 231) He is so sad with bitter hatred, but everything cannot be returned again. When they reunion again, they are all so happy to see each other, but Catherine Earnshaw has married to Hindley Earnshaw, which makes Heathcliff miserable. He hurts Catherine Earnshaw"s brother, Hindley Earnshaw; he gets Wuthering Heights, he marries Isabella, all of which are deeply destroyes Catherine. Heathcliff forces Catherine Earnshaw into a dilemma. She pleads with Heathcliff, but Heathcliff rejects her. Catherine Earnshaw is sick and she chooses to die to get rid of Heathcliff. This time, Heathcliff really loses Catherine Earnshaw, and he can never meet her again, which means the breakdown of Heathcliff"s spiritual world. This attack is a big damage. From now on, the only support that makes Heathcliff to live is the revenge and even he would like that Catherine’s soul can find him and brings him away. He loses his mind and cannot control his temper. The most terrible thing is the fall of the spiritual pillar, and Heathcliff has no direction since then.

3.3 Death of Human Nature

Heathcliff does not like Isabella, but he marries her for revenge. No matter what motive he has, he marries her and becomes Isabella’s husband. Still, he has his son Linton Heathcliff. Isabella and Linton Heathcliff are his relatives. As a husband and father; he should love them, but not hurt and torture them. For retaliation, he makes use of everyone, including his relatives. To some degree, he is really hateful; he has lost the basic humanity. In his world, what he behaves is revenge and selfish, cruel and cold-blooded. When Catherine died, humanity, love and all others are dead. Generally speaking, he is a poor man. For revenge, he must give up everything; he had no opportunity to enjoy a happy life. Then, to Heathcliff, there is no any meaningful to live in the world. He can’t feel anything except revenge and the life must be terrible for him. In order to revenge, Heathcliff has completely lost the human nature.

4. Conflict within Heathcliff between love and hatred

4.1 Torment of Heathcliff’s inner being

Since he comes to Wuthering Heights, he bears the stress and loneliness that others can’t imagine. Heathcliff makes the wholehearted love turn to incomparable hate completely, which is a perverted reflection of human nature. At this moment, for Heathcliff, love and hatred cross each other, and coexist together. Heathcliff"s character embodies the opposites of good and evil. His love and his revenge give him too much pressure and he keeps his trap shut, especially the death of Catherine Earnshaw. When he opens the coffin of Catherine, he begins to understand that revenge is not important in fact and that Catherine is his happiness. He has tortured others so much, but that is not as well as that in the torture of his own. He says to Nelly:

An absurd termination to my violent exertions, I get levers and mattocks to demolish the two houses, and train myself to be capable of working like Hercules, and when everything is ready and in my power, I find the will to lift a slate off either roof has vanished! My old enemies have not beaten me; now would be the precise time to revenge myself on their representatives: I could do it; and none could hinder me. But the trouble to raise my hand! That sounds as if I had been laboring the whole time only to exhibit a fine trait of magnanimity. It is far from being the case: I have lost the faculty of enjoying their destruction, and I am too idle to destroy for nothing. (Bronte, 1985: 156)

These words show that he has realized his revenge is meaningless except hurting his lover. From the beginning to the end, he suffers from torments because of the love and the death of Catherine and the revenge. Heathcliff is not a neurotic devil completely. He cannot enjoy the warmth of family and community like other people, and his childhood was full of humiliation, ridicule and hostility, which makes his character more and more withdrawn, and full of hatred to people around him. It leads him down to the extreme lack of regular spiritual needs over time, so as to build a preliminary basis for the revenge in the future; while he is concerned about the failure of love between Catherine, he loves Catherine with all his heart and soul, but such good wishes is ruthlessly broken, which fueled the formation of his twisted personality.

4.1.1 Heathcliff’s Love for Catherine

As is mentioned in the introduction, Heathcliff is a deserted orphan adopted by Mr. Earnshaw. The old Earnshaw likes him. But his own son, Hindley, hates him very much. Under such horrible environment, Heathcliff still bears it because the love from the elder Earnshaw and Catherine supports him to live with the torture and pain from others, especially for Catherine’s love.

After the death of old Earnshaw, Hindley becomes brutal and treats Heathcliff cruelly as a servant. The maltreatment from Hindly is enough to make Heathcliff mad, but Heathcliff still bears the misfortune and shame because of the love for Catherine. Catherine teaches everything she learns from the deputy priest. She also helps Heathcliff do the farm work. They run around on the deserted moor and stay together to fight with Hindly’s torture. Gradually they turn into deep love from dependence on each other. After Heathcliff sees the scene that Linton and Isabella enjoy the rich life in Thrushcross Grange, he still says to Nelly “even if he has one thousand lives, he is not willing to exchange his life in Wuthering Heights here with Edgar Linton in Thrushcross Grange, and he will not do it if he has the right to throw Joseph from the top of mountain or he can pain the wall with Hindly’s blood”. (Bronte, 1985, 165) He believes if Catherine is still alive in the world, it’s meaningful to him no matter how the world looks like; if Catherine is dead, life will has no hope. For him, he is just a wondering ghost. Their love is rooted in their childhood and is marked by the refusal to change and embrace those changes. Moreover, their love is based on their shared perception that they are identical, even if their souls are shared by one. Heathcliff’s love is pure in intention and never changes. His love just has the human nature’s emotion without any kind of direction. Heathcliff never express his “love” directly, but his love for her is stronger.

4.1.2 Heathcliff’s Hatred for Catherine

Because of humble backgrounds, Heathcliff suffered all unequal treatments. This kind of social inequality oppression is easily endured for him, but he can’t stand the torment of love. Catherine is forced to remain at Thrushcross Grange—the Linton’s home, which isolates Catherine from Heathcliff and her former world of reckless freedom. She is betrayed by the temptation of material benefit and the infrared culture society. Her transformation and betrayal drifts Heathcliff apart, also her soul mate and the love of her life. Catherine’s betrayal and final marriage with Edgar make Heathcliff lose the hope of life which he insists on. It can be said that the love from Catherine is his only possession. He can survive with Catherine’s love even if he loses everything. But he has nothing without Catherine’s love.

When Heathcliff heard that it would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now, he even doesn’t finish the rest of Catherine’s great manifesto of love “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary... but as my own being” (Bronte, 1985: 240). He withdraws in a rage of shame, humiliation, and despair. Three years later, Heathcliff comes back with power and money, and he is desired for meeting Catherine, but at this time he begins to do a seamless plan for revenge. His cruel and harmful behavior comes from the betrayal of his love. He becomes a friend, a devil, toward every person around him. He intends to marry Isabella even if he doesn’t love her to make Catherine jealous and even has a son with Isabella to torture Catherine. In chapter sixteen, he curses Catherine for the pain. She has caused him and pleads with her spirit to haunt him for the rest of his life. The deeper he loves, the deeper he hates.

4.2 Heathcliff"s Resistance against his Fate

In the certain condition, such as society and crackdown, Heathcliff retaliates against his suffering, and the resistance is as strong as rain storm (Wu Xiaoyun, 1998: 93). No one can pass him, no matter physically or mentally among the people inside. Hindley abandons himself to drinking and gambling, which results in losing all his fortune. Heathcliff beasts him finally, and he grinds his teeth with hatred, and is ready to kill him with swords and guns. Edgar Linton is elegant, cowardly by nature and more ineffective. To their next generation, Hareton is thankful for him, and takes the foe for his father. Little Linton is invalid and fearful on seeing his father. Since little Cathy stands up to him, even if it meant fists, she also has to submit to his savage. Therefore, Heathcliff’s fights are countless. For example, he gets the money of Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, defeats Hindley and Edgar. Linton thoroughly, frustrats Isabella and little Cathy’s dash etc. However, ironically, the methods he takes for revenge is still the same with high social measure of value. With Heathcliff"s pain, Emily melts into her own repression, humiliation and pain sensation in the real world. Heathcliff is eventually returned to the alienation of the human person under Emily’s pen. He ends his life by the hunger strike way, for he believes that he has got back to himself, and had a new beginning in another world with Catherine.

5. The Recurrence of Humanity

At Heathcliff’s childhood and boyhood, the old Earnshaw dotes on him, while Nelly commiserates him and Catherine likes him. However, Hindley abominates him because his father’s love is captured by him. Although Hindley often hits him, he hardly notifies old father about it since Earnshaw believes him absolutely. After Earnshaw passes away, Hindley demeans him to become a servant and deprives him from being educated, but he still puts up with all, listens to Nelly’s suggestion and aspirant, because Catherine’s love is in favor of him. However, on hearing of Catherine’s thinking that she decides to marry Edgar, he breaks down. He leaves Wuthering Heights with endless umbrage. Three years later, he comes back with a crazy vengeance plan. He does not only aim at Hindley and Edgar, but also goes down to the next generation. He regards his son as a tool of vengeance to trample Hareton’s personality and destroy Catherine’s daughter’s happiness. Even his lover Catherine still gets his retaliating. Everybody relates to Catherine and Catherine are the victims under his vengeance plan. The way to vengeance is wondrously brutal, and the extent of the vengeance is crazy. Therefore, Heathcliff is out of his senses and metamorphic, and isn’t tolerant by social morality.

5.1 Strength from the Betrayal of Pure Love

As a child, Catherine is a wild, stubborn and bold girl, who is full of the spirit of rebellion .When the whole family dislike Heathcliff, they slowly become good friends. The understanding and companionship between person and person that Catherine gives Heathcliff is real. Catherine"s nature has been answered from Heathcliff. But Catherine has its own innate sense of superiority and born of pride and vanity. Catherine clearly knows she is wrong, because their relationship cannot be disassembled. Catherine had confessed to Nelly: “She loved the Heathcliff because he was more than I was. Whatever our souls are made of, he and me are from the same world.” (Bronte, 1985: 116) She even asserted: “the biggest upset of this world is Heathcliff’s upset; he is the biggest miss in my life. Even if everything else is destroyed, the unique him to stay, I was still me. If everything else to stay, exclusive to destroy him, and that the entire universe becomes a huge stranger, I were no longer a part of it”. (Bronte, 1985: 116) Although Catherine never thought of abandoning Heathcliff, in fact she did. She is even naive to think that after marrying Edgar, she thought she could help Heathcliff to stab, and since then he could no longer bear the oppression against Hendry. However, once she chooses to marry Edgar, her beloved Heathcliff would be destroyed. In fact, her choice of marriage in her life is a fatal mistake and a betrayal of her own humanity.

It’s meaningless for Heathcliff that he losses Catherine. Then revenge takes the place of love, and becomes the driving force behind his cruel actions. Heathcliff tries to seize the mind of Catherine in his desire to make peace with her. After Catherine dies, he tears with great pain because he cannot live without his soul. He is filled with strong love. Although in this procedure, there are no certain words to describe Heathcliff’s love, it is nonetheless known and deeply rooted in their hearts, never losing their passion. Because of the strength from the betrayal of his love for Catherine, Heathcliff bears all the pressure and he only endures in silence. When Heathcliff finishes his revenge, he finds that the initial pleasure is no longer fits him. It’s time for him to wake up and follow his footsteps is to be with Catherine. In this sense, his love appears again. Catherine’s shadow spreads all over in Heathcliff’s life; they share the same soul, longing to become together forever. Heathcliff becomes more and more indulged in the happy times with Catherine, and begins to talking with her soul. The beautiful and unforgettable night on the moors occupies him for a very long time, and these visions mingle with his dreams. Two opened souls fuse together.

5.2 The Recurrence of Humanity

As a lonely child adopted by old Earnshaw, Heathcliff is plain and genuine. He gets more Earnshaw’s favor than his son Hindley. Hence he does have his own peculiarity. By the description of Heathcliff’s childhood, Emily doesn’t definitely tell us Heathcliff’s features. But with others’ protection, the writer gives us a picture that the primitive Heathcliff is kind and remarkably brave boy.

Heathcliff’s kindness is manifested in the following ways. To Catherine, his love for her lasts as long as his live. To his rival Edgar, at first he is full of patience. In fact, he loves Hareton, and he respects servant Nelly, which are hidden. Therefore, the twisted and transformed humanity is temporary and reversed. When his revenge reaches the high peak, Heathcliff is so powerless to corrupt the boy: even the curate"s tuition as a measure of revenge is laid on the father; his project is killed by a love he could not remove from his mind. He thinks Hareton is the phantom of him, and gradually comes to realize the cause of his loneliness is the closing of Catherine. Then he hears Catherine’s call, and wants to be together with Catherine, the other half of his soul. When Heathcliff completes his revenge, he finds that revenge is no longer his main pleasure. He begins to give up revenge, only to hope to be together with Catherine. Sincere love appears again, and the love for Catherine erodes his desire for revenge. In Heathcliff"s life, he sees Catherine"s shadow everywhere. Heathcliff"s revenge looks for the feeling of his lost love, and eventually returned to the original source. When Heathcliff dies on the bed like a bier with his window opens, and his eyes shows the terrible joy like living person’s stare.

In the end, Heathcliff and Catherine meet in the heaven, and the two halves of a soul, are in one combined after death, realizing their lifetime pursuit which could not come true in the real world and completes the surpassing of the whirligig of love.

6. Conclusion

The publication of Wuthering Heights established Bronte’s position in the literary world. Although it is her only novel, Bronte vividly depicts her characters to the reader and represents the eccentric and special personality of the heroes and heroines in the novel.

In Wuthering Heights, Bronte expresses her deep concerns for the human beings’ nature and development. Through the description of the death of humanity, Bronte expresses that the betrayal and hatred is of great destruction in driving human beings to the state of despair and the loss of human nature. In the process of Heathcliff’s revenge, he gradually recovers from the conflict within himself to the recurrence of humanity. In doing so, the writer exhibits that although human beings are tortured; there still exists the hope to establish the harmonious human relationship. In this way, she expresses her wishes for a beautiful human world.

Many a writer expresses their concerned about human nature in order to evoke the beauty in human nature and urge them to live harmoniously with each other. In this sense, this thesis, written from the humanity, can enhance our understanding of the novel as well as Emily’s unique viewpoint on the human nature. It is valuable and important to reread the novel and learn some lessons to treat human beings.

Works Cited

[1] Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights. London: Penguin Group, 1985.

[2] Kiely, Robert. “Wuthering Heights: Emily Bronte” The Romantic Novel in England.

Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003.

[3] Thormahlen, Marianne. The Bronte’s and Education. London: Cambridge University Press, 2007.

[4] 方平，《希望在人间——论〈呼啸山庄〉》.上海：上海译文出版社，2000.

[5] 郭尚兴，《圣经成语及其掌故》.河南：河南大学出版社, 1992.

[6] 宋赵琳，《〈呼啸山庄〉序言》.北京：北京燕山出版社，1999.

[7] 吴晓云，《〈呼啸山庄〉希刺克利夫形象解析》.重庆科技学院学报,5（2008）.

[8] 王嘉美. 《〈呼啸山庄〉中希克厉形象异议》.山东：山东大学出版社,2004.

[9] 张京媛，《当代女性主义文学批评》.北京：北京大学出版社，1992.

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