论文总字数：27574字

摘 要

本文将从三个方面来分析凯瑟琳的双重性格。首先，将分析凯瑟琳所具体体现出的几个双重性格以及具体事例。原本在呼啸山庄的凯瑟琳单纯、善良，嫁入呼啸山庄后却变得虚伪、粗暴。然后，将分析凯瑟琳双重性格的形成原因。社会环境、家庭背景、周围人物影响等都是其原因。最后，将分析凯瑟琳的双重性格对其生活、人生的影响, 以及与希斯克利夫的爱情如何走向悲剧。

关键词：双重性格；原因；影响；悲剧

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 2

3 The Study on Catherine Earnshaw’s Dual Character 4

3.1 Catherine’s innocence in Wuthering Heights 4

3.2 Catherine’s hypocrisy in Thrushcross Grange 5

3.3 Her complicated action and words due to her dual character 5

4 Reasons for Catherine’s Dual Character 6

5 Her Character’s Influence on Her Life 8

6 Conclusion 10

Works cited 12

1 Introduction

Emily Bronte, the writer of Wuthering Heights, finished the masterwork in 1800s. Wuthering Heights was the sole novel Bronte has written, and that established her status in the history of British and International literature. People regard Emily Bronte as ‘Sphinx Riddle’ of British literature. There are a lot of puzzles in Wuthering Heights. For a long time, Wuthering Heights has been studied by many scholars and experts. As David Cecil says, ‘That bustling, prosaic, progressive world of nineteenth-century middle-class England, which is the background of their whole picture, simply does not come it on her view at all’(Cecil 183). Emily loves moors, loves nature and more loves freedom. As Charlotte says in the preface of Wuthering Heights in 1850, ‘my sister Emily loves the moors. Flowers are brighter than the rose blooms in the blackest of the heath for her; out of a sullen hollow in a vivid hill-side, her mind can make an Eden. She can find in the bleak solitude many and dear delights’(Yang 31).

The core and quintessence of the novel is the story of Catherine and Heathcliff. The novel can be divided into 4 parts. The first part is terminated in Thrushcross Grange. It is about the establishment of the natural and special relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff and their corporate defiance to Hindley and his government in Wuthering Heights. The second part is about Catherine’s betrayal on Heathcliff, her suffering subsequent and the culmination of her death. The third part is about the demonic revenge of Heathcliff. The forth part is about the variation of Heathcliff and his death. Even in the last two parts, the relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff is still the center subject, which is the base of every other matter.

The paper would study one of these puzzles—Catherine’s dual character. Catherine is the heroine of the novel, whose character is complicated. She is not only the key of the whole novel, but also always linked with Heathcliff, the soul of revenge. Furthermore, she is even more noticeable than Heathcliff(Chen 101). The novel also aroused the feminism, as Li Jianping said, ‘Description of Characters in Wuthering Heights—From the Perspective of Feminism’, in which she indicated that ‘the author is eager to get freedom and equality with men, so that women can be liberated’(Li 107). At the beginning, Catherine was so innocent that she enjoyed herself, especially after Heathcliff was adopted into Wuthering Heights. However, something was changing after Catherine came into Thrushcross Grange. It can be said that the plot is a turning point of the novel, which is also the beginning of Catherine and Heathcliff’s tragedy. From that time, the dual character of Catherine emerged. After she got married with Linton, she became madder and more frenzied. In the end, she was dead with much sorrow. There were many reasons for her dual character, which were the family background, the social environment, people surrounding by, etc. In brief, the discussion on Catherine’s dual character would be quite significant in the study of Wuthering Heights.

2 Literature Review

On the topic of Wuthering Heights, there have been many scholars or experts studying.

M Homans had research of that, “Although most of Wuthering Heights takes place indoors, readers sense that nature is a major element in the novel. Nature is present in figurative language, which accounts for the impression of realism. The figurative uses of nature form a highly abstract symbolic system, distinct from "real" nature, while ‘real’ nature is unrepresentative. Psychoanalytic theory may account for this discrepancy, if the text is treated as if it were a psyche. Nature, or the destructive reality it represents, is so threatening that it must be repressed, while the figurative use of nature is a sublimation, redirecting the dangerous force into a safe and constructive channel. Analysis of the heroine, Catherine, helps to confirm this reading. Similar forces are at work in her psyche, but unlike the author she cannot sublimate and succumbs to nature"s power.” M Homans, “Repression and Sublimation in Wuthering Heights.” Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 1978, 93(1):9-19

Garofalo said about that, “In Heathcliff’s form of love energizes a culture of both production and consumption. The story of Heathcliff’s life provides an exciting and mysterious narrative of the origins of capitalist desire. He represents the fantasy that some erotically compelling power underlies this economy. It is, instead, Catherine’s love that functions in opposition to the culture of capitalist accumulation. Catherine stands for a kind of love that undermines the desire necessary for capitalism to function smoothly. She offers an alternative to an economy of unsatisfied desire, threatening to undermine both a capitalist and patriarchal logic.” D Garofalo, “Impossible Love and Commodity Culture in Emily Brontë"s Wuthering Heights.” Elh English Literary History, 2008, 75(4):819-840
Tytler called Wuthering Heights as an unusual among masterpieces of fiction for its elaborate treatment of the relationship between masters and servants. She said, “Such relationship plays a significant part both in developing the plot and in revealing character. Although masters (and mistresses) ultimately have the upper hand of their servants, it is noteworthy how much power servants exercise within the sphere of domination to which they are subject. The tendency of servants to be insubordinate for one reason or another highlights the problem of a hierarchical society while raising certain questions of peculiar moral interest. That the author herself seems to call the system of masters and servants in doubt is hinted at throughout the narrative, and more especially through her presentation of Hareton and the younger Catherine. Emily"s ingenious handling of this theme helps us to recognize that her novel is concerned not merely with a singular love relationship but with human relationships in general.” G Tytler, “Masters and Servants in Wuthering Heights.” Bronte Studies, 2008, 33(1):44-53

Carroll wrote in her passage, “Wuthering Heights has proved exceptionally elusive to interpretation. By foregrounding the idea of human nature, Darwinian literary theory provides a framework within which we can assimilate previous insights about Wuthering Heights, delineates the norms Bronte shares with her projected audience, analyzes her divided impulses, and explains the generic forms in which those impulses manifest themselves. Bronte herself presupposes a folk understanding of human nature in her audience. Evolutionary psychology converges with the folk understanding that provides explanations that are broader and deeper. In addition to its explanatory power, a Darwinian approach has a naturalistic aesthetic dimension that is particularly important for interpreting Wuthering Heights.” J Carroll, “The Cuckoo"s History: Human Nature in Wuthering Heights” Philosophy amp; Literature, 2008, 32(2):241-257

Inman’s opinion was, “Wuthering Heights’ death dominates the narrative, drives the plot, and is expressed thematically and symbolically. However, its centrality has not been identified or explored by other analyses. Emily Bronte’s own experience with death serves in part to explain the focus on death in the novel and, in particular, the presence of numeric symbols of death, which have gone unnoticed by critics. Further, her poetic proclivity is the basis for understanding why Wuthering Heights is a veritable meditation on death.” L Inman, “The Awful Event in Wuthering Heights”, Bronte Studies, 2008, 33(3):192-202

3 The Study on Catherine Earnshaw’s Dual Character

3.1 Catherine’s innocence in Wuthering Heights

Before marrying Linton, Catherine lived in Wuthering Heights, which made her tameless, obstinate, and bold. She was filled with rebellious spirit and her favorite toy unexpectedly was lash. She was innocent and pure. However her character was complicated and puzzling, innocence and purity was her original side. Although she was naughty, she didn’t have bad ideas. If she made someone cry, she would cry too. When Heathcliff was been closed by Hindley, Catherine didn’t want to eat anything. In her childhood, with the primitive and untouched environment, what we see was her wild feminine beauty. She had her own ideas, and favored the equality of men and women, not taking orders from men.

After her father adopted Heathcliff, most members of the family didn’t like the black dirty little one. However, instead of excluding Heathcliff, Catherine was very kind to him and helped him a lot, then they became good friends—they worked together, played together and lived together. Furthermore, they loved each other, which based on the consistency of character, the resonance of emotion and the identical of pursue. Catherine was friendly and she accompanied with Heathcliff all the time, in contrast, other people in the family, except her father, mainly her brother Hindley hated Heathcliff and excluded him. She was also selfless and treacherous. She gave Heathcliff the whole love; she loved the nature and hated the regulation, just like Heathcliff: she yearned for freedom, which involved primitivism and wild; she was innocent, with no interference of foreign inventions.

3.2 Catherine’s hypocrisy in Thrushcross Grange

But things were changed after she came into another mountain villa—Thrushcross Grange. At that time, Heathcliff and she formed a evident contrast. During that time, her dual character emerged. Catherine became peacockish, and she was drawn by Thrushcross Grange, where life totally differs from that in Wuthering Heights. She loves both Heathcliff and Linton, however, the two love is entirely different. Catherine’s love to Linton was a very civic love. For many girls, Linton, a young and rich Mr Right was a hopeful person to accompany with, and Catherine wasn’t the exceptional one. In contrast, her love with Heathcliff was natural and primitive, permeating into the spirit and the soul.

Plato explained this type of love’s archetype, ‘the ancient that love root in human beings is visible, which takes us back to the primitive situation. Love was tried to be the whole and cure people’s crack. Everyone was just one part of a whole, always pursue their own other half.’ Catherine gradually yielded to the material wealth, she wanted to get into the upper class and Thrushcross Grange was a suitable one. In her whole life, she loved Heathcliff mostly. Between her real heart and the social reality, she chose the second one.

3.3 Her complicated action and words due to her dual character

Many girls as young as her played with cloth dolls while Catherine was fond of riding. When her father asked what she wanted, she demanded a lash under the age of six. Although she was a daughter in a feudal manor, Catherine put away religious services and rejected the life of gentlewomen in the upper class. When Hindley asked Catherine to read the Bible, she trod the holy book under her foot and threw it into the doghouse. However, coming back from Thrushcross Grange, she bore herself gracefully and wore herself fashionably, which was totally different from the former barbaric little goblin with hair disheveled. When she heard other people talking about Heathcliff’s wildness, she tried to hide her wildness. She even started dislike Heathcliff’s dirtiness and wildness. When she once saw Heathcliff, she told him, ‘You are so dirty.’ Her value had got a great change and she gradually hided her wild. Although she still loved Heathcliff in the depth of her soul, continually encountering the great strength of common views, her heart was not firm any more. Catherine was drawn by Linton’s polite manners and silent and mild appearance, and finally she married Linton. Several days before she married Linton, she told Nelly, the housekeeper of Wuthering Heights, her own real idea that who she really loved was Heathcliff and she really didn’t want to hurt Heathcliff. Wherever in Wuthering Heights or Thrushcross Grange, she still loved Heathcliff in her whole life. When she met with Heathcliff in Thrushcross Grange, she was happier than in any other time. When she was in Thrushcross Grange, she tried to perform like a person in the upper class. In contrast, in Wuthering Heights, she showed her wild totally.

Catherine once said about Linton and Heathcliff, ‘My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath…’(Bronte 2000). She was selfish, her marriage with Linton hurt Heathcliff a lot. To Heathcliff, she was both an angel and demon. Whenever she was alive or dead, she influenced Heathcliff a lot. Due to Catherine, Heathcliff took his revenge and was sorrowful in his whole life. Definitely, Catherine was Heathcliff’s hope to be alive. After Catherine passed away, Heathcliff lost his hope and would never be happy any more. Catherine was also berserk, sometimes she raged for some trifles. After Heathcliff left her, she was lonely. Therefore, she was more and more impolite, laying out the loneliness and sorrow in her heart by a more arrogant way.

4 Reasons for Catherine’s Dual Character

There are many factors for her dual character, the society, the family environment, people surrounding by, etc. At that time, Britain was a patrilineal society, where women didn’t have enough right in the family. Because of the deficiency of physiology, compared to men, women were regarded as the family angel, who should contribute their everything to the family. Almost every person in Victorian thought that women existed just as the role of daughter, wife or mother. So, women in the patriarchy were not the whole ones, but some parts of a whole. They were incomplete, whose self was dissociated. Most women in that time recognized the role under compulsion, while a small minority rebelled against it due to the awakening. Even some women fought to death. Catherine was the later kind. In that time, marriage was often a form with some intentions. The marriage must be properly matched, and the senior in the family always interfered the marriage. So, most women couldn’t choose their husband on their own, who were just tools for the material and wealth.

Catherine was born in Wuthering Heights, which is raging, noisy and unconstrained. That made Catherine’s character similar with the nature. At that time, Britain was in the Victorian, when people prefer the docile and mild character. Catherine was not favored by her father, so in the family even the servants could punish her by hunger and beat. The low status and indifferent family environment stimulated her rebel part of characters, which made her become a woman with great self-consciousness, pursuing self bravely. Heathcliff was a significant person that accounted for Catherine’s dual character. When Catherine’s father brought Heathcliff, she was likely to find a friend whose character was similar to her. Since that time, Catherine had one person accompanying with her, and she pursued her freedom more firmly. Heathcliff was Catherine herself, therefore there was one character of Catherine, rebelling against the upper class and persuing the real self.

It would be going on that Catherine and Heathcliff loved each other violently and rebelliously. However, their once trip to Thrushcross Grange caused Catherine’s the other side, since which their destiny had been changed.

One day, in order to get out of the rain, Catherine and Heathcliff came to Thrushcross Grange. Thrushcross Grange was completely different from Wuthering Heights, and it was quiet, peaceful and civilized. Thrushcross Grange had white roofs edged with a border of gold; little candles in that was shining; human beings in that were rich ,mild and polite; capitalist heaven in that was shining with a golden border. But in there, Catherine and Heathcliff encountered completely different treatment. Heathcliff was evicted and ran to Wuthering Heights alone with a violent storm. On the contrary, Catherine was arranged sitting on the sofa. The housemaid brought a basin of water and washed Catherine’s feet. Mr Linton mixed drink and Isabella poured a full plate of biscuits into Catherine’s arms. Catherine was touched by the Lintons’ polite care. In some words, it opened the door for Catherine into the capitalist rich life. During the five weeks in Linton’s family, Catherine’s ideas were impacted and got the baptism significantly. She started to recognize the upper class, which she hated before. After she came back from Thrushcross Grange, Catherine greatly hurt Heathcliff with her elegance she learned. From that time, Heathcliff and she were going to be more and more separated from each other. Instead of Heathcliff, Catherine was closer to Edgar Linton, the young host of Thrushcross Grange. Then, Edgar was the second person contributing to Catherine’s character. At last, he married Catherine. Edgar and Catherine were entirely different from each other. As a husband, he was good enough to be a mode. He spoiled her self-willed wife while that made her more and more exorbitant. After she married into Thrushcross Grange, her free and unrestrained side was declined while her exorbitant and self-willed side was continually aggravated. Edgar never violated Catherine’s will, except one matter was that he couldn’t stand her relationship with Heathcliff. However, what Edgar insisted broke her dream and made her mad. Edgar was a symbolization of capitalist civilization, disdaining poor people with low status. The principle ‘money is king’ covered the true disposition and contorted the humanity. However, the bourgeoisie accepted Catherine, aiming at making Catherine be used to the capitalist life and become consisted with them. Nonetheless, Catherine’s emotion couldn’t be tamed. At last, she was separated from the world.

5 Her Character’s Influence on Her Life

When she was in Wuthering Heights, her innocent and kind-hearted characters made her get through many glad days. She chatted, worked, played with Heathcliff, who she loved all her life. It could be said that time was the happiest time in her whole life. Nothing could be happier than staying with a person who one loves the most. Her love with Heathcliff was the wild love of spirit, without hypocrisy of human beings and the society. They went along with each other, just like finding their own heaven. They wondered as they desired, fully enjoyed their joy and lived without rules and confine. The same personality and similar quality linked them with each other, and each of them is the other’s one part; they had similar character and identical aspiration; their first was not the pursue to happiness, but the pursue to themselves. Their bond of feeling was more and more tight, and in the end they became inseparable.

However, when Catherine came to Thruscross Grange, her vanity emerged from her depth of heat. This was the beginning of her tragedy. She started to go after the fame, the wealth and the position. Catherine had got the need of physiology and safety, and the need of love had been got from Heathcliff and Edgar. So Catherine wanted to get the respect. She wanted to receive high regard from other people and the society, getting good fame. Her value had become transformed greatly. After she had seen the polite and mild manner, she produced a shameful feeling of rude manners. She really wanted to change her manners, making herself look like a mild and polite woman. But she didn’t see that her wild character was too deep in her heart to be wiped off. Hence, she distorted her humanity; she dressed like an elegant lady in the presence of others while she presented her wild in Wuthering Heights.

After Catherine married Linton, Heathcliff disappeared in her life. Because of Catherine’s betray, she was lonely. Therefore, she laid out her loneliness and sorrow in a ruder way. She had a deep sense of emptiness. The happiness was not the real happiness she desired, which could only bring her limited joy. However her husband was good to her, she was still unhappy. Linton and she did not belong to one world, while only Heathcliff did. So when Heathcliff appeared again in her life, she was so happy that forgot everything surrounding by, only immersed in the world where Heathcliff and she existed.

Influenced by her dual character, Catherine generated abnormal mind and manner. Catherine’s abnormity generated from her disrupt humanity, which was gradual. When Edgar forced Catherine to make a choice between Heathcliff and him, she was broken absolutely, which beat her entirely. Three days without meals and rests made her more frenzied and wilder. Her soul was separated from the body, wondering in the unreal world. She couldn’t control her tongue and brain because of her madding mind, so she crazily said some words like in the dream and took abnormal actions dementedly. On this occasion, Catherine wore down herself, so the eventual crazy led to the eventual ruin. At last, when she was dying, her madness and bewilderment reached the highest situation. With no doubt, Catherine was an abnormal person distorted by the reality. As a person, what we need is not just the physiological one but also the mental one. Because Catherine’s mind couldn’t be met, she became mad and frenzied, which was an abnormal phenomenon. Just like Catherine said, ‘supposing at twelve years old I had been wrenched from the Heights, and every early the association, and my all in all, as Heathcliff was at that time, and been converted at a stoke into Mrs Linton, the lady of Thrushcross Grange, and the wife of a stranger: an exile, and outcast, thenceforth, from what had been my world. You may fancy a glimpse of the abyss where I groveled! (Bronte 91) In fact, Catherine had two egos and two personalities. This was Catherine’s tragedy, with tragic and deeply moved charm, and that showed the incomparable and abundant connotation.

6 Conclusion

With no doubt, Wuthering Heights is a love tragedy novel. From the tragedy, we observe the extreme of human being’s love and hate, which is inevitable and irresistible. Moreover, humanity is the source led to the tragedy. The heroine in the novel had a unique character. Although it is quite intense about the feelings of rebel and wilderness, the readers can still notice her beauty. The original factor is doubtlessly a unique classic landscape in the history of literature. Catherine was a tragic person in the novel. She didn’t pursue her real love, but married the person she didn’t love the most. After all is said and done, her tragedy was caused by her dual character. In the whole life, she was indecisive. Her dual character was just like the two mountain villa—Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Wuthering Heights was raging, wild and noisy, while Thrushcross Grange was peacefully, quiet and soft.

Catherine was just a representative of British girls, who loves freedom, instead of rules. So to speak, the historical background, local environment and some people surrounding made Catherine’s dual character.

‘On the other side of continuous progress and development of material civilization, out of anxiety about materialistic desire, distortion of humanity and corruption of nature, men of insight call human pure feelings and return to nature again and again. The melody of Wuthering Heights can always harmoniously resonate with new generations’ voice of the call. This is probably the eternal realistic meaning of the novel’(Swinburne 1883). Her dual character reflected the new era and the old era, so her mind’s struggle is also a fight between the new era and the old era, and it is also the fight between the capitalist, constrained, material world and the free, unconstrained, wild world. In the end, Catherine was defeated. What she chose was the capitalist world, and she yielded to the reality of the society.

Works cited

Bronte, Emily. Wuthering Heights(2000)，Central Compilation Translation Press: 25.

Cecil, David. Essays in Revolution, London: Constableamp;Co.Ltd: 180-219.

Swinburne, Algernon Charles.1883. “Emily Bronte.” The Athenaeum: 762-63

陈瑛,《文学教育》(下)，上海教育出版社，2008（6）：101-103

[Chen Ying, Education of the literature (continued), Shanghai Education Press, 2008 (6): 101-103]

李建萍, 《从女性主义视角看呼啸山庄中人物形象的塑造》， 《电影文学》, 长影集团期刊出版社，2000（14）：107

[Li Jianping, “From a Feminist Perspective Shaping Characters in Wuthering Heights”, Film Literature, Changying Group Periodical Press, 2000 (14): 107]

杨静远， 《勃朗特姐妹研究》，中国社会科学出版社, 2004: 23

[Yang Jingyuan, Study of the Bronte Sisters, China Social Science Press, 2004: 23]

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