《呼啸山庄》的意象研究.doc

呼啸山庄的意象研究艾米莉勃朗特是十九世纪英国最重要的小说家之一。她唯一的小说呼啸山庄被公认为英国小说中最伟大的作品之一，在英国乃至世界文学史上占有重要的地位。作者在呼啸山庄中运用了象征手法和大量的意象，为小说增色不少。本文笔者将小说中的意象归类为自然意象和非自然意象两类。在自然意象中选取荒原，天气和季节，火焰，飞蛾，兰铃花和石楠丛作为研究对象；在非自然意象中选取书籍、窗户、鬼魂、呼啸山庄和画眉山庄作为研究对象。用文学批评的原理，分析这些具有代表性的意象，探讨作品中的象征手法的运用。以此解读呼啸山庄，帮助读者更好地理解这一部十九世纪英国最杰出的文学巨作。 1 IntroductionEmily Bront (1818-1848), the author of Wuthering Heights, is the famous poetess and novelist in the nineteenth century of English literature. However, she is a novelist so much more than she is a poetess, for the only novel Wuthering Heights, which makes her the one of the most famous novelists in nineteenth century of English literature, even in the world literature. And Wuthering Heights, as well as Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bront), is considered as a precious pearl of English literary heritage.Nevertheless, when Wuthering Heights was first published in 1847, there was little admiration but a torrent of abuse. Owing to the writing style used in Wuthering Heights against the one in that time, Victorian literary critics and readers could not understand this work. Nowadays, more and more readers accept and admire this novel. Besides, considerable scholars study this classical work, basing on the theory of religion, psychology, esthetics, literature and art and the like. Especially, symbolism and imagery used in quantity in Wuthering Heights make the story meaningful and vividly, which impresses readers favourably. By analyzing some critical images, this thesis studies symbolism and imagery used in Wuthering Heights to explore the real value of this novel and help readers to understand this excellent work better . from / 2Background of Wuthering Heights2.1Personal experience of Emily Bront The author Emily Bront lived an eccentric, closely guarded life. She was born in 1818, two years after Charlotte and a year and a half before her sister Anne, who also became an author. Her father worked as a church rector, and her aunt, who raised the Bront children after their mother died, was deeply religious. Emily Bront did not take to her aunts Christian fervor; the character of Joseph, a caricature of an evangelical, may have been inspired by her aunts religiosity. The Bronts lived in Haworth, a Yorkshire village in the midst of the moors. These wild, desolate expanseslater the setting of Wuthering Heightsmade up the Bronts daily environment, and Emily lived among them her entire life. She died in 1848, at the age of thirty.2.2 The social background of writingThe thirty years of Emily Bronts whole life was the very turbulent times in English history, when capitalism developed on and on, and its internal disadvantage was revealed more and more. The conflicts between employers and employees became intense; unemployed workers were poorer and poorer; a great many of child labors were tortured to death. The famous English poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning expressed her objection to employing child labors in her poem The Cry of the Children. Besides the British government suppressed democratic reform movement and labor movement cruelly, such as Peterloo Massacre, which was reflected in literature works in that time. Emily Bronts family located between town and wasteland, which was near an industrial estate. Emily, with her sister, often took a walk there. On the one hand, Bront sisters were impressed by the wild and free atmosphere of wasteland; on the other hand, they witnessed the development of capitalism in the town. Furthermore their father was a radical member of Conservative Party, who was against Luddite at his early age, and then stood by Whowose worker for their strike. So Bront sisters grew up under the nurture of politics, especially Emily, who was incommunicative on the surface but enthusiastic in internal and paid close attention to politics, which done preparation for the writing of Wuthering Heights. 2.3 Different comments on Wuthering HeightsWuthering Heights, which has long been one of the most popular and highly regarded novels in English literature, seemed to hold little promise when it was published in 1847, selling very poorly and receiving only a few mixed reviews. Victorian readers found the book shocking and inappropriate in its depiction of passionate, ungoverned love and cruelty (despite the fact that the novel portrays no sex or bloodshed), and the work was virtually ignored. Even Emily Bronts sister Charlottean author whose works contained similar motifs of Gothic love and desolate landscapesremained ambivalent toward the unapologetic intensity of her sisters novel. In a preface to the book, which she wrote shortly after Emily Bronts death, Charlotte Bront stated, “Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know. I scarcely think it is.” 11Today, Wuthering Heights has a secure position in the canon of world literature, and Emily Bront is revered as one of the finest writersmale or femaleof the nineteenth century. Like Charlotte Bronts Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights is based partly on the Gothic tradition of the late eighteenth century, a style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, 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, dissected, 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. As a shattering presentation of the doomed love affair between the fiercely passionate Catherine and Heathcliff, it remains one of the most haunting love stories in all of literature. The English poet and critic, Matthew Arnold, says: “Her (Emily) extraordinary passion, feverish feelings, gloominess and boldness are incomparable after Byron.” 2234 The famous English writer Virginia Woolf said in her book The Common Reader, First Series: Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, ”Wuthering Heights is a more difficult book to understand than Jane Eyre, because Emily was a greater poet than Charlotte. When Charlotte wrote she said with eloquence and splendor and passion I love, I hate, I suffer. Her experience, though more intense, is on a level with our own. But there is no I in Wuthering Heights. There are no governesses. There are no employers. There is love, but it is not the love of men and women. Emily was inspired by some more general conception. The impulse which urged her to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book. That gigantic ambition is to be felt throughout the novela struggle, half thwarted but of superb conviction, to say something through the mouths of her characters which is not merely I love or I hate, but we, the whole human race and you, the eternal powersthe sentence remains unfinished. ” 334 The English critic Arnold Kettle concluded in the book An introduction to the English novel, “Wuthering Heights is an expression in the imaginative terms of art of the stresses and tensions and conflicts, personal and spiritual, of nineteenth-century capitalist society.” 22683Symbolism and imagery in Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte uses both symbolism and imagery in her novel. The two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, are highly symbolic. The Heights represents a “storm,” whereas the Grange stands for “calm.” Lockwood explains the meaning of “wuthering” as “descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather.” Bront takes pains to stress the houses ordinary, unfinished, and provincial nature. But its chief characteristic is exposure to the power of the wind, which makes it appear fortress-like. It is an appropriate house for the Earnshaw family: they are the fiery, untamed children of the storm, especially Heathcliff, the foundling. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange is set in a civilized valley and stands in a sheltered park. Here, the effects of weather are always gentler, filtered, and diluted. The Grange is a house of soft, clinging luxury, and its inhabitants are guarded by servants and bulldogs. It is “a splendid place,” rich, carpeted and cushioned with crimson. In contrast to the Heights, it belongs to “civilization,” which values comfort more than life itself. Thus, it is a natural home for the children of calm: the gentle, passive and timid Lintons. Animal imagery is used by Emily Bront to project her insights into human character. Catherine describes Heathcliff as a wolfish man. Isabella Linton, after she becomes his wife, compares him to “a tiger, or a venomous serpent.” Nelly Dean sees his despair after Catherines death as not like that of a man, but of a savage beast. Heathcliff himself, when he wishes to insult his enemies, compares them to animals. However, these are not wild creatures he respects for their strength, but gentler animals that he despises. Edgar Linton is “a lamb” that “threatens like a bull.” Linton, Heathcliffs son, is a “pulling chicken.” Heathcliff hates Hindley Earnshaw because he sees him as the author of all his misfortunes. When he dies before the arrival of the doctor, Heathcliff brutally says that “the beast has changed into carrion.” Symbolism is implicit also in various events of the novel. For example, on the fateful night of Heathcliffs departure from the Heights, the storm comes “rattling over the Heights in full fury.” It symbolizes the storm that eventually destroys the lives of Cathy and Heathcliff. Then again, after three years, on Heathcliffs return, he and Cathy meet by the light of fire and candlelight, symbolizing the warmth of their affection for one another. In these ways, and many others, images and symbols in Wuthering Heights add meaning to characters, theme, tone, and mood. 4. Nature images in Wuthering Heights4.1 The main image of moorsAs Emily Bront lays emphasis on landscape throughout Wuthering Heights using repetition, the uncultivated and wild Yorkshire moors become of a symbolic importance, representing the disorderly behaviour at Wuthering Heights. The mystery of the moors (meeting places, lurking corners) cannot be separated from mysteries of the characters. Bront portrays both the harshness and the beauty of the Yorkshire moors, using it, not only as a background, but also as a central image of the passions and longings of the characters. The Yorkshire moors are where Catherine and Heathcliff played as children, and are often described throughout the novel as being isolated, haunting and primitive. It is a symbol of Catherine and Heathcliffs wilderness and a representation of their love for one another. The moors are symbolic as a place of freedom and escape where Catherine and Heathcliff could get away from the barriers and social expectations of society which divided them. 4564.2 The images of seasons and weatherThe seasons are used in the novel as symbols to create mood and suggest the passing of time. The novel opens in winter with snowstorm, symbolic of the atmosphere at Wuthering Heights and associated with grief and tragedy. The novel ends with the flowering of spring, mirroring the passions that fuel the drama and the peace that follows its resolution. Moreover, Catherine compares her love for Linton to the seasons “foliage in the woods” and her love for Heathcliff to the rocks “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks” 2132 Therefore, it is not just love that Catherine and Heathcliff seek but a higher, spiritual existence which is permanent and unchanging.The theme of Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bront, is a universe of opposing of forces-storm and calm. On the storm side, the land of storm was also known as Wuthering Heights. The house that is set up high on the windy moors and is highly charged with emotion of hatred, cruelty, violence, and savage love. In comparison, on the calm side, the land of calm was also known as Thrushcross Grange. Unlike Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange is set up in the peaceful valley and is much less full of hatred. Nevertheless, instead of focusing directly on storm and calm, the antithesis of storm and calm and branches is used into more specific comparisons. Three main antitheses are developed in Bronts novel originating from storm and calm and those are: the antithesis between man and nature, the antithesis of good and evil, and the antithesis between life and death. However, instead of using the correct, original antitheses in her novel, Emily Bront does away with all three of the original antitheses.The first antithesis Emily Bront does away with is the antithesis between man and nature. Emily Bront does not animate man revealed against inanimate nature. According to Cecil, “Men and nature to her are equally living in the same way. To her an angry man and an angry sky are not just metaphorically alike, they are actually alike in kind; different manifestations of a single spiritual reality”581. Emily Bront does not see nature as just being a setting her novel, each piece of nature is associated is a reflection of a character in the novel. Some characters share the same nature which gives them their like qualities. In the novel, Young Cathy and Linton Heathcliff describe what their most perfect idea of heavens happiness is. Cathy says his would be only half alive, and he said Cathys would be drunk. Their choices represent no chance preference, but the fundamental bias of their different natures. Each is expressing his or her instinctively felt kinship with that aspect of nature of which he or she is the human counterpart. By combining man and nature together, Bront does away with the original antithesis.The second antithesis Emily Bront does away with is the antithesis of good and evil. Typically, there is a fine line between good and evil, but what Bront does is move away from that and almost combines the two. For example, Young Cathy at first does not like Hareton Earnshaw, but as novel progresses, she begins to change her mind and eventually ends up getting married with him. Cecil states, “To call some aspects of life good and some evil is to accept some experiences and to reject others. Her characters set no bridle on their destructive passions; nor do they repent of their destructive deeds” 582. With this example of Young Cathy, Bront does away with the original antithesis of good and evil. The third antithesis Emily Bront does away with is the antithesis between life and death. Cecil explains, “The spiritual principle of which the soul is a manifestation is active in this life; therefore, the disembodied soul continues to be active in this life” 583. Emily Bront believes in the immortality of the soul. Cecil states that the characters my regret dying, but it is only because death means a temporary separation from those with whom they feel an affinity. In the novel, this is clearly seen with Catherine and her ghost. At one point, Catherine Earnshaw dreams that she goes to heaven, but is miserable there because she is homesick for Wuthering Heights; the native country of her spirit, but when in fact she does die, her spirit does take up its abode at Wuthering Heights. The belief in the continuation of the soul shows that Bront moves away from the original antithesis between life and death.The influential theory of storm and calm are key concepts in the authors thought and works. All three antitheses mentioned, derived from the original theme of storm and calm. Emily Bront however, used these antitheses in a different way, and moved away from them. By combining man and nature, good and evil, and life and death, Bront has not only written a tragic love story but a work of literature full of layered themes.4.3 The images of fire and flameThroughout Victorian literature there is a constant theme of fire and flame imagery representing an innate passionate, masculine force. The passion of Wuthering Heights is personified throughout the novel by the fires that are within the manor. All life and activity in the house takes place next to an immense fire. This contrasts the fires of Thrushcross Grange which are almost non-existent. Passion is the driving force that motivates all the “children of the storm” and so this is significant in that the fire is the only source of light in the house. Catherines passion is contrasted to the coolness of Linton, whose “cold blood cannot be worked into a fever” 683. However, Catherines devotion to Heathcliff is immediate and absolute “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Lintons is as different as a moonbeam from lightning or frost from fire”.As it was already pointed out, the novel presents the collision between two types of reality, restrictive civilization and anonymous unrestrained natural energies or forces. This collision takes the form of inside or domestic versus outside or nature, human versus the “other”, the light versus the dark within the soul. Catherine and Heathcliff are violent elementals who express the flux of nature; they struggle to be human and assume human character in their passion, confusions, and torment, but their inhuman appetites and energy can only bring chaos and self-destruction.4.4 The images of moths, heath and hare-bellsAsEmilywroteattheendofthelastchapter,“Ilingeredroundthem,underthat benign sky: watched th