Comparisons of the Characters’ Tragic Origins between Wuthering Heights and Tess of the D’urbervilles

1、呼 啸 山 庄与苔 丝人 物 悲 剧 根 源 比 较comparisons of the characters tragic origins between wuthering heights and tess of the durbervillesabstract: emily bronte and thomas hardy are among the greatest novelists in the 19th century in english literature. wuthering heights and tess of the durbervilles can respecti

2、vely be regarded as their representative works. the paper tries to dig out the origins of the main characters tragedies in the two novels. through comparisons from several aspects, we can find the similar tragic origins of catherine and tess and the different tragic origins of heathcliff and angel.k

3、ey words: tragic origins; similarities; differences1. introductionemily bronte and thomas hardy are both among the greatest writers in the victorian age (1837-1901) in english literature. emily bronte (1818-1848), the writer of wuthering heights, is a daughter of patrick bronte, who is educated at c

4、ambridge. the evasive writing, transcribed in tiny script on small pieces of paper, continues into her adulthood and is a remarkable key to the development of the gift in emily. though she produces only one novel and a few poems in her short life, she is ranked among the giants of english literature

5、. as her masterpiece, wuthering heights (1847) tells the reader a story of a gypsy boy named heathcliff. he is picked up by mr. earnshaw and brought up together with his children. heathcliff and the daughter of the family miss catherine have loved each other since their childhood, but the love is cr

6、ushed by catherines brother, hindley. unable to bear hindleys insult, heathcliff joins the army. three years later he becomes a rich man. later, heathcliff becomes the master of the family and takes revenge upon the next generation. he treats hindleys son hareton very cruelly and compels catherines

7、daughter cathy to marry his own sick child. the novel has been studied a lot since it was published. terry eagleton considers the novel as “the great irish famine and concurrent political insurgency” (eagleton, 1995: 130).thomas hardy (1840-1928), the writer of tess of the durbervilles (1891) is an

8、english novelist and poet and one of the greatest english writers in the 19th century. the son of a stonemason, he derives a love of music from his father and a devotion to literature from his mother. hardy can not afford to pursue a scholarly career as he wishes and is apprenticed to john hicks, a

9、local church architect. he continues, however, to study the greek and latin classics. from 1862 to 1867 he serves as an assistant to arthur blomfield, a london architect. his declining health forces him to return to dorset, where he works for hicks and his successor until 1874. despite his employmen

10、t, hardy is writing continually during this period of his life. such early novels as under the greenwood tree(1872) and a pair of blue eyes（1873）meet with small success and may be considered formative works. after the appearance of far from the madding crowd（1874）, critical acclaim enables him to de

11、vote himself exclusively to writing. hardy writes many novels, including those he refers to as romances and fantasies, most of which are first serialized in popular magazines. his major works are the return of the native (1890), the mayor of casterbridge (1886), tess of the durbervilles (1891) and j

12、ude the obscure (1890). tess of the durbervilles (1891) is often considered as his masterpiece. it tells the story that the heroine tess is a poor dairymaid who has been seduced by alec durbervilles, a wealthy villain, and gives birth to a child. later she falls in love with a man called angel clare

13、. on their wedding night, the honest girl confesses to her husband that she has been seduced and given birth to a child. her husband can not accept the fact and goes abroad. some years later, her husband returns and wants her to come back to him. tess murders her seducer and is thus arrested and han

14、ged. this is a great tragedy made by various factors of the whole society.2. the similar tragic origins of catherine and tess2.1 the similar social backgroundsboth hardy and emily are living in the victorian times, so their fictional characters tess and catherine have the same background. they suffe

15、r from the cruelty of the capitalist society.in brontes times, there are two famous movementsyoung ireland and the chartists. thus, challenged by the ruling middle and upper classes through their calls for a more equitable distribution of social and political power, women of the middle class simulta

16、neously utilize their domesticity to justify their involvement in political resistance. because of the mid-19th centurys middle class courtship system, women are chosen for marriage partners primarily according to their financial prospects and their appearance. although companionate marriage is beco

17、ming more and more widespread, financial status continues to be of much importance as middle-class families strive to maintain or elevate their positions in the social hierarchy. moreover, while many women are allowed by their parents to reject a potential suitor, rarely do they actively pursue a po

18、ssible partner. within the nineteenth century capitalist patriarchy, one of the primary roles of middle and upper class women is to produce heirs in order to facilitate the perpetuation of their husbands wealth. virginity at marriage and monogamy after marriage is therefore extremely important in th

19、at era. catherine, with her desire for continued intimacy with heathcliff after her marriage to linton, disrupts this crucial control on womans sexuality, for once intimate with a man other than her husband. unfortunately, pressed by the dominance of the particular class and gender relations of the

20、time, her rebellion is unsuccessful. as foucault says the social class prevents women to live their own life. (foucault, 1990: 131)therefore, the social background causes the tragic origins. tess is seduced by alec. this event is truly a catastrophe for her, because in victorian england, any kind of

21、 sexual encounter would earn a young woman moral rebuke and social condemnation, regardless of how the man conducted himself. in the victorian times, it is harsher to judge the woman than the man. when tess tries hardest to be good, her bad luck conspires to get her into more susceptible to alecs de

22、predations. 2.2 their similar personalitiesalthough catherine and tess fight against the capitalist systems, in their deep minds, they both submit to the society. when catherine is young, she once writes a diary, “i wish my father were back again, hindley is a detestable substitute-his conduct to he

23、athcliff is atrocious-heathcliff and i are going to rebel-we take our initiatory step this evening.”(emily, 1847: 18) catherine first “rebels” against the “tyrant”. hindley rebels through destroying the religious texts they have been given to read. they then appropriate the diary womans cloak and go

24、 out for an illicit sunday “scamper on the moors”. (emily, 1847: 20) upon being punished by hindley for this violation of laws, catherine angrily observes that hindley has been blaming his father for treating heathcliff too literally and swears he will reduce him to his right place rather than forci

25、ng catherine to conform to expected standards of behavior. heathcliffs punishment confirms her role of rebel. she verbally challenges hensleys authority here. but when she has been living in thrushcross grange for about five weeks, she becomes another person. the members in thrushcross grange feed h

26、er rich food-negus and cakes from their own table, washing her feet, combing her hair, dressing her in enormous slippers and wheeling her like a doll. but nelly notices that, on her return from the lintons, catherines fingers are wonderfully whitened with doing nothing and staying indoors. catherine

27、, for her part, observes that heathcliff is dirty. he has “dusty fingers” (emily, 1847: 54). she does not want to come back to the former situations. she thinks that heathcliff does not match her. when nelly questions her why she does, catherine replies, “linton will be rich, and i shall like to be

28、the greatest woman in the neighborhood”. (emily, 1847: 78) finally catherine betrays heathcliff, which makes heathcliff very angry. his mental is distorted. at length, heathcliff determines to take revenge on catherine and linton, which causes a great tragedy. as to tess, she is also resistant. afte

29、r she is seduced by alec, she flees to trantridge, pledging violence to alec in an unusual manner, which proves that she does not remain in complicit with fate but to promises to act in advance to change it. when she works in the diary, she does not want to rely on anyone else. this independence con

30、trasts with the way tesss mother used to consult the fortune -telling book for her guidance. angel seeks to become independent from his familys current legacy. tess wants to become independent by herself. but she also submits to the society. she is not forgiven by angel after she tells him that she

31、is seduced by alec before. she loses strength and tells angel that she wishes to submit. she never complains about his feelings and she only criticizes and blames herself. as angel carries her over the narrow bridge, she imagines both of them falling over the side to their deaths in each others arms

32、. she wants to commit suicide but-as with her inability to tell angel about her past-she can not summon the courage. as they say good-bye, tess is little more than a walking corpse. indeed, it seems that angel has killed her soul and her desire to live. it is apparent now that tess can never escape

33、the past, either socially or personally. 2.3 their similar love attitudesboth catherine and tess are persistent in their love. catherine and heathcliffs love surpasses the natural love. after catherine marries linton, she can be seen as subversive in her own right as she struggles against the strict

34、ures of the marriage to linton. during nellys confrontation of catherine over her decision to marry linton, catherine makes it clear that her marriage will in no way separate her from heathcliff. “he quite deserted! well separated!” (emily, 1847: 79) she exclaims, with an accent of indignation. “who

35、 is to separate us？pray!”(emily, 1847: 79) “every linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing, before i can consent to for sake. heathcliff, oh, thats not what i intend-thats not what i mean! i shouldnt be mrs. linton. hell be as much to me as he has been all his lifetime”.(emily, 1847:

36、81)yet when nelly objects to this, catherine replies, “nelly, i see now, you think me a selfish wretch, but did it never strike you that if heathcliff and i married, we would become beggars!” “if i marry linton, i can aid heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brothers power”. (emily, 1847: 81)

37、 upon heathcliffs return from 3 years absence, catherine voices to linton her desire to remain “friends” with heathcliff. when he objects it, catherine attempts violently. catherine has no weapons other than her own body, but she continues to strive for her version of love. when she hears that heath

38、cliff will marry lintons sister, she is depressed to death. as dorothy van ghent says in her account of wuthering heights, it is impossible for two persons to be each other without destruction of personality bonds by rending flesh and at last by death. (ghent, 1981: 161) when tess works in the dairy

39、, she has loved angel deeply, but in her deep mind, she thinks that she is inferior to angel. she conceals her love when she faces to angel. when angel proposes to tess, she agrees to marry him. on their wedding day, angel leaves tess, he heart is broken. as angel returns with renewed loyalty and lo

40、ve for tess, it becomes apparent that alec has considerably broken down tesss loyalty to angel. tess recovers this love and loyalty when she sees angel again, and she feels guilty about how far she has drifted. however, she has gone with alec. whether she is intentional or not, tess has fulfilled an

41、gels proclamation that they can not be together as long as alec is alive. though the murder may appear justified to us at this point, we may sympathize with tesss actions. the only reason she wants to kill alec is that she can live with angel without interruption. in my opinion, she is not a murder

42、but a victim made by the society. the society refuses the woman who is seduced by the man before her marriage. tess murders alec in order to live with angel happily. 3. the different tragic origins of heathcliff and angel3.1 their different personalitiesit is true that heathcliff and angel have abso

43、lutely different personalities. in wuthering heights, emily describes heathcliffs hair and clothes are whitened with snow, and his sharp cannibal teeth. he has a suggestively paradoxical relationship with animals. because of his low social status, he becomes introversive. all passions are filled wit

44、h his inner part. when he and catherine fall in love with each other, he thinks that catherine is his whole. however; catherine betrays him and marries linton. he hears catherine says that if hindley has not brought heathcliff so low, she should have never had to marry edgar. this causes heathcliffs

45、 revenge, which is in the form of his obsessive attempts to secure the financial inheritance of the linton family. it throws the superficially well-bred cannibalism of edgar back in his face, and in a form that is physical as well as financial. that is why heathcliff becomes a master of the wutherin

46、g heights and thrushcross grange. unlike heathcliff, angel does not take any revenge on tess and alec. he chooses to go abroad to leave tess. in the novel, angel is a little bit snobbery. he finds that his mother wants him to marry a suitable girl-meaning highborn. he is pleased to discover tesss no

47、ble background in this section because he knows that it will comfort his mother, who will conclude that tess must be worthwhile if she has such a remarkable origin. when angel visits his parents, it seems that angel is more conventional than his parents in his definition of wifely virtue. the bible

48、passage that his parents read say nothing about the condition of being unmarried, but angel seems to describe tess accurately. he is blinded by his failure to accept tess for who she really is. angel proves him more judgmental and flexible than his mother, who turns out to be surprisingly adaptable.

49、 when angel runs into izz, she freely admits that no one can love him than tess does. she thinks she loves him too but angel is unable to register these testaments to tesss worth, as he is still sleepwalking through life. he takes tesss violation of law as a personal attack on him, which makes him u

50、nable to see her clearly. so we can find tesss distress for the beloved man whose unyielding judgment has caused her all these later sorrows.3.2 their different moral attitudes heathcliff and angel are born in different social status, so they have different moral attitudes. but these different moral

51、 attitudes all become the tragic origins. heathcliff is a gypsy, brought up by mr. earnshaw. after mr. earnshaws death, his son hindley treats heathcliff as a slave, heathcliff “insist that he should labor out of doors instead, compelling him to do so, as hard as any other lad on the farm.” (emily,

52、1847: 46) hindley is punishing heathcliff for his free status, as a fostered member of the family rather than merely a laboring body, by secretly subjecting him to the conditions of slavery. born in the lower class, heathcliff receives little education. his language is quite violent. these factors c

53、ause heathcliff to become a wild person. heathcliffs wife describes that heathcliff may take use of hindleys flesh food. certainly, she describes his violence in terms that may be called appetitive. “he exacts human self-denial in abstaining from finishing hindley completely. (emily, 1847: 177) the

54、implication here is that heathcliff must exercise more than human will in order to resist his less than human appetite. hindleys apparently inanimate body is already nearly the “carrion”. (emily, 1847: 185) heathcliffs moral attitude causes the great tragedies in wuthering heights. on the part of an

55、gel, he is a free-thinking son born into the family of a provincial parson; he determines to set himself up as a farmer instead of going to cambridge like his brothers. angel represents a rebellious man striving toward a personal vision of goodness. he is a secularist who yearns to work for the “hon

56、or and glory of man”. (hardy, 1890: 101) as a typical young 19th -century progressive man, angel sees human society as a thing to be remolded and improved, and he fervently believes in the nobility of man. he rejects the values handed to him, and sets off in search of his own. his love for tess, a m

57、ilkmaid is one expression of his disdain for tradition. this independent spirit contributes to his personal charm and general attractiveness that make him the love object of all the milkmaids who work at talbothays. as his name in french, close to “bright angel”-suggests angel is not quiet of this w

58、orld, but floats above it in a transcendent sphere of his own. his love may be more abstract, as we guess when he calls her “daughter of nature” or “demeter”. tess may be more an ideal to him than a flesh and blood woman with a complicated life. angels ideals of human purity are too elevated to be a

59、pplied to actual people: mrs. durbeyfields easygoing moral beliefs are much more easily adapted to real lives such as tesss. angel awakens to the actual complexities of real world morality after his failure in brazil, and only then he realizes he has been unfair to tess. his moral system is readjusted as he is brought down to earth. but it is obviously too late.3.3 their different love attitudescatherine and tesss lovers are heathcliff