Wuthering Heights---The Call of True Love and Humanity.doc

wuthering heights -the call of true love and humanityi. introductionemily bronte was an authoress of england, who was born in haworth, a yorkshire village in the midst of the moors in 1818, and died in 1848. she lived an eccentric, closely guarded life. wuthering heights, what has been one of the most popular and highly evaluated novels in english literature, written by emily bronte. in emilys whole life, she has not written any other works except one novel and some poems. however, the only novel of her wuthering heights, seemed to hold little promise when it was published in 1847, receiving only a few mixed reviews. victorian readers found the book shocking and inappropriate in its deception of passionate, ungoverned love and cruelty, and the work was virtually ignored.wuthering heights is a story, which is mainly about love and humanity. the love between heathcliff and catherine, hareton and cathy and the exchange of heathcliffs humanity are woven in this novel. heathcliff is an extremely complex character. because he, a waif of the lowest order in society, is eager for love and friendship, but is forever looked down upon and rejected by such a society. at first glance, readers may feel him wicked, even a criminal. however, after nelly deans narrative, there are some explanations for him. thus, finally he earns the sympathy and understanding of the readers. all of these are connected with his miserable experience in so kind a society. while although hareton has been ill treated by heathcliff, he has not taken the same action as heathcliff has done.heathcliff, the hero of the novel, is an orphan, who has been picked up by mr. earnshaw and brought up together with catherine and hindely, two children of the earnshaw family. heathcliff is treated badly by every one except old earnshaw and catherine. however, catherine forsakes him and marries edgar linton. heathcliff is hurt by catherines vainglory, so he runs away. three years later, heathcliff has become a rich man and come back to seek revenge on hindley, edgar and all the others that he hates. his humanity has completely twisted. in the novel, hindley, catherine, edgar, isabella and heathcliffs little son linton all die. heathcliff is left in full possession of the properties of both wuthering heights and thrushcross grange and the two children of his enemies cathy and hareton, who have fallen in love with each other, to be tormented at his pleasure. finally, heathcliff realizes his revenge is foolish and senseless, so he abandons his revenge, his humanity recovers again and he starves himself to death. hareton and cathy get married and live happily in thrushcross grange.today, wuthering heights has a secure position in the world literature, and emily bronte is revered as one of the finest writers in the 19th century. wuthering heights is based partly on the gothic tradition of the late 18th century, a style of literature that features supernatural encounters, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear. but wuthering heights transcends its genre in its sophisticated observation and artistic subtlety. the novel has been studied, analyzed and discussed from every imaginable critical perspective, yet it remains unexhausted. and while the novels symbolism, themes, structure and language may all spark fertile exploration; the bulk of its popularity may rest on its unforgettable characters. and as a shattering presentation of doomed love affair between the fiercely passionate catherine and heathcliff, it remains one of the most haunting love stories in all of literature.this paper mainly focuses on heathcliff and hareton. it first explores the recovery of heathcliffs humanity. moreover, it concentrates on the hero of the second generationhareton, whose forbearing characteristics and the union with cathy show people a wonderful sight. by the contrast between heathcliff and hareton, the paper reveals that only true love can conquer the evil and make the twisting humanity be recovered. it is just the recovery of his humanity and the love between hareton and cathy that make the tragic love story reveal a hopeful light.ii. the recovery of heathcliffs humanityheathcliff, who is an orphan, as he first comes to wuthering heights, he is a dirty, ragged, dark child and he is lack of education and looks like a gypsy. in that family, only old earnshaw and catherine are kind to heathcliff, so heathcliff and catherine quickly becomes friends. after old earnshaw dies, only catherine becomes heathcliffs spiritual pillar, so “heathcliff bore his (hindley) degradation pretty well at first, because catherine taught him what she learnt, and worked and played with him in the fields. they both promised fair to grow up as rude as savages.” (chap.6 p.53) for other people, heathcliff is just a person who has come from outside, only catherine loves him, and also because the two have the same natural character: crazy and willful. it just likes what catherine has told nelly: “he shall never know how i love him: and that, not because hes handsome, nelly, but because hes more myself than i am. whatever our soul are made of, his and mine are the same;” (chap.9 p.97) because they both like the same things and feel about things in the same way, the union of the two becomes inevitable. in a sense, catherine is heathcliff. she says: “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 himselfi am heathcliff! hes always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than i am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being. so dont talk of our separation again: it is impracticable.” (chap.9 p.99)for heathcliff, catherine is more important than him, he has said to catherine “you are we come to torture me to death for your amusement if i imagined you really wished me to marry isabel, id cut my throat!” (chap.11 p.139) although catherine has married edgar, heathcliff still loves her. and when heathcliff and catherine are young, and see that edgar linton lives in a rich family, he still says, “id not exchange, for a thousand lives, my condition here, for edgar lintons at thrushcross grange not if i might have the privilege of flinging joseph off the highest gable, and painting the house-front with hindleys blood!” (chap.6 p.56) and although heathcliff looks forward to having rich life and revenging hindley, he loves catherine so much, anything cannot exchange with their relations. heathcliff has said to nelly: “two words would comprehend my future death and hell: existence, after losing her, would be hell. if he (edgar) loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldnt love as much in eighty years as i could in a day. he is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her horse. it is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him what he has not?” (chap.14 p.185) through these words, we can learn that by degenerating edgar lintons love to catherine, it clearly shows heathcliffs much stronger love to her, no one elses love is beyond his.also heathcliff has said to catherine as far as she knows if he forgets her, he will forget himself. even after catherine dies, she has been lingering over him for nearly twenty years. heathcliff has told nelly: “for what is not connected with her to me? and what does not recall her? i cannot look down to this floor, but her features are shaped in this flags! in every cloud, in every tree filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day i am surrounded with her imagine!” (chap.33 p.402-403) everywhere, every time and even on everything, heathcliff seems to see catherine, he is totally surrounded by herall of these things and places where catherine has passed seem to make him remind her, and for a long time, he has been wishing to meet catherine again in paradise eagerly. in order to meet catherine, heathcliff bribes the sexton and strikes one side of catherines coffin so as to be interlinked with catherines when he dies. finally, he dies with a smile for his memories to catherine. their love is a natural love, an original love, a souled love, for the two souls is a union that cannot be parted, but only just has two bodies.however, in fact, from heathcliffs words that edgar linton cannot love as much in eighty years as he can in a day, we can see that the “love” that he himself shows off can only admit catherine, while his revenge is for all the human being except one. comparing with his unforgotten revenge, how insignificant his dedicated love is! it is completely exclusive and closed love, selfish and unduplicated love. the target of love and coverage of revenge are out of proportion. only catherine, who even has been dead for nearly twenty years, still has taken his deep-rooted love. however, we can just say that heathcliff has just been the terrible hate incarnation for all living things.it is also this kind of love that makes heathcliff become a “devil”, a disgusting person. it is exactly this kind of love that twists him greatly and makes him have a terrible world view and values. this kind of love even makes him not feel regretful for his own behavior: “as to repenting of my injustices, ive done no injustice, and i repent of nothing.” (chap.34 p.414) he believes firmly that there are ghosts, and the ghosts can and really exist among people. he thinks he will have to enter the heaven to get together with catherine but not to the hell: “last night i was on the threshold of the hell, today, i am within sight of my heaven. i have my eyes on it: hardly three feet to sever me.” (chap.34 p.408) obviously, he thinks he will enter the paradise when he dies. for such a person, who realizes his crime but refuses to repent, this is really something strange. from this we all know that heathcliffs characters are incompatible, complicated and dual, his dual character has not only reflected the unity of opposites of virtue and vice but also reflected the transformation from beauty to ugliness.heathcliff has tried to overcome great hindrance to get his union with catherine. he regards catherine as his life, his only meaning of life, but he has first made up for his poverty, his lack of education, taste and manners, he also has to get rid of all his enemies in order to reach his hearts desire. the pity is that he cannot accomplish all this in a conventional society. such love affairs will usually end in tragedy. and yet the stormy love between heathcliff and catherine, with their strong desire of mutual possession and torment, with their mutual belonging in life and in death, makes it a most terrible yet wonderful tale of love.from the social point of view, the love between heathcliff and catherine is a tragedy of social inequality. heathcliff, a waif of the lowest order in society, is eager for love and friendship but is forever looked down upon and rejected by society. while ralph fox has reviewed: “wuthering heights is certainly the novel become poetry, it is beyond all doubt one of the most extraordinary books which human genius has ever produced, yet it is these things only because it is a cry of despairing agony wrung from emily by life itself. her love must triumph, and in the violent, horror-laden atmosphere of the stone farmhouse on the moors (i.e. wuthering heights), it did triumph. catherine and heathcliff are the revenge of love against the nineteenth century.” ( liu, 378)as we all know, when heathcliff, the rebellious orphan, comes to wuthering heights, life of there cannot be calm again. he seems to be antipathetic to wuthering heights and all people cannot make him bend into their life, certainly all people cannot understand him. so his leaving and revenging after coming back again become inevitable. this is a terrible avenger: “the cheeks were sallow, and half covered with black whiskers; the brows lowering, the eyes deep-set and singular.” however, he attracts isabella, and later she marries him. but heathcliff is not the same as what she has thought after marriage. so later she runs away from him and calls him a devil, nelly refutes: “he is a human being there are worse men than he is yet!” (chap.17 p.214) while after heathcliff dies, nelly has thought deeply: “is he a ghoul or a vampire? (chap.34 p.410) later on nelly recalls again, heathcliff has been looked after by her since childhood, she has been watching him grow to youth, nearly all his life. unexpectedly, he then, how fantastic, scares her!heathcliff is isolated and excluded by the people who live in wuthering heights, he replies them, and in other words, nearly he is hostile to all of them. he also thinks that edgar is “the worthless person of thrushcross grange”. he lowers the good love that edgar has given to catherine (“he could not love so much in eighty years as i could in a day”,) (chap.14 p.185) and catherine has given to edgar (“he is scarcely a degree dearer to her than her dog, or her horse.”). (chap.14 p.185) he also lowers little cathy that he hopes not to see her eagerly.as he calls edgar the “lamb” and says “he is worthless of hit”, heathcliffs values depend on his original savagery, and strength determines values. he despises edgar in his mind, after hearing a part of what catherine has told nelly which comes from her mind, heathcliff runs away, and his purpose is to exceed edgar. three years later, he comes back, but catherine has already been mrs. linton, so he revenges edgar and hindley for his losing love. in him, we see a most terrible picture of love scorned turning into desperate hatred and revenge that is destructive to both the avenger and the revenged. in this novel, ironically, what method he has adopted while revenging is still others measure of value: wealth and social status. his goal is to get higher status, certainly including the wealth, and leads his enemies astray at the same time.finally, heathcliff takes possession of wuthering heights and thrushcross grange, makes hareton degenerate, he treats hareton as hindley has treated him. he takes money and arranges marriage as the weapon of fighting against the family of earnshaw and linton. moreover, since hindley dies, heathcliff leads hareton more and more astray.heathcliff is complaced over haretons lapsing good virtue into vice. later on, he tells nelly that comparing with haretons evil father, he pinches him much more tightly, presses him much lower, because hareton is proud of his own vulgarity. heathcliff also teaches him how to laugh at the things outside the brutehood and thinks that is stupid and good for nothing. actually, there is an implied value on hareton: crazy and savagery, and this exactly is the natural humanity of heathcliff too.still, as heathcliff meets his son for the first time, he “dragging him roughly between his knees, and then holding up his head by the chaini will tell you; and your mother was a wicked slut to leave you in ignorance of the sort of father you possessed. now, dont wince, and color up! though it is something to see you have not white blood! (chap.20 p.258-259) there is not a least kindred feelings, it only has the naked, undisguised loathing. under his control, wuthering heights has become a cruel and absurd house, which is full of revenge and the humanity has suspended. the authoress gives heathcliff a dual nature, which is mainly showed up at his strong love and fierce revenge. he loves inflexibly and revenges fiercely. if he is not a fierce lover, he would be a violent tyrant. when the tyrant does evil without any doubt, he exactly becomes the hate incarnation.although at the beginning, heathcliff cannot still revenge for the time being, the seeds of revenge have deeply been hidden in his heart“i am trying to settle how i shall pay hindley back. i dont care how long i wait, if i can only do it at last. i hope he will not die before i do!” (chap.7 p.72) his hatred is so deep and his desire for revenge is so fierce that he says “let me alone, and ill plan it out: while im thinking of that i dont feel pain”. (chap.7 p72) heathcliff is unwilling to twist his personality. however, in capitalist society, materials control people, heathcliff has nothing money or social status. he only has a strong sense of inferiority and this sense extremely makes him hate hindley, who represents the upper class, but right now heathcliff is unable to revenge. he has only to bear all the suffering. while in his bearing, there are still hopes, which are revenge and love.but life is serious, although the inflexible love between heathcliff and catherine is honest and natural, it is incompatible with the reality, for heathcliff cannot give catherine even the basic assurance of life. “did it never strike you that 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 brothers power.” (chap.9 p.98) what catherine faces is not only the choices between heathcliff and linton, wuthering heights and thrushcross grange, but also the choices between idea and reality, nature and civilization. finally, the latter defeats the former. catherine abandons her instinctive, natural and savage love, leaves wuthering heights and her deep lover and marries edgar linton.the social cause is that catherine realizes there is a great disparity in social status between her and heathcliff, but she fancies to rely on edgar lintons richness, what catherine has envied to “aid heathcliff to rise”, and makes him out of her brothers power. it is certainly impossible, we can learn from that when the next time heathcliff appears, linton suggests “the kitchen as a more suitable place for him”, (chap.10 p.115) thus we can see that the tragic love of heathcliff has rudiment. since he has ignored the concept of social sta