"Wuthering Heights" by the outstanding British female writer Emily Bronte is known as "one of the most successful novels of the Victorian era", attracting hundreds of millions of readers with its touching emotional power. When I read this novel, I deeply felt that such emotional power is exactly a battle between love and hate, humanity and secularity, freedom and restraint, wildness and civilization based on the three different forms of love in the novel. , which contains the restraint of human nature by secular concepts and the resistance of human nature to the secular world, but the depressing and gloomy plot and writing also embody Emily Bronte's good wishes for love, freedom and eternal hope.
? "Wuthering Heights" is Emily Bronte's only novel. When it was first published in 1847, this novel was actually quite ignored by people. It was not until thirty years later, when Mary Robinson's "The Biography of Emily Bronte" was published, that "Wuthering Heights" really came into the attention of readers. , a work known as "one of the most successful novels of the Victorian period".
For more than 100 years, "Wuthering Heights" has attracted countless readers and critics with its gripping storyline, poetic descriptions of scenery, lifelike characterization and turbulent love, hate and hatred. Listed as one of the top ten novels in the world. Reviews of "Wuthering Heights" have always been mixed. Those who appreciate it praise it as a masterpiece of a peerless talent and a rare book, comparable to Shakespeare's "King Lear"; those who don't like this novel praise it. Others think that it is just a branch outside the mainstream and has no significance to British literature. However, the novel "Wuthering Heights" has been able to capture the attention of hundreds of millions of readers for a long time, and it obviously has its own unique charm. The famous literary translator Fang Ping said: "No matter the theme, artistic conception, or artistic skills, the depth cannot be seen to the end at a glance or described in one sentence. Instead of using 'great', 'unique', and 'outstanding' For this type of adjective, I would rather express my praise like this: "Wuthering Heights" is really indescribable! Just like my country's "Red Studies", Europe and America's "Shakespeare", and "Hu Studies" (if "Wuthering Heights" is also If it can be named like this, there is no end to it."
Three kinds of love between one and two generations
? A thousand readers and a thousand Hamlets, different readers and Critics can dig out a shining point of "Wuthering Heights" from different angles, and then try to analyze the soul of this novel. The novel revolves around the love triangle of Heathcliff, Catherine and Linton. The superhuman life-and-death love between Heathcliff and Catherine is the main line, supplemented by the marriage love between Catherine and Linton, and the love between Hareton and Cathy. Happy love is the ending. Here we compare and analyze three different modes of love, and explore the light of humanity revealed in the sharply opposing contradictions of freedom and oppression, wildness and civilization, and love and hate.
(1) The Call of Freedom and the Wild: The Transhuman Love of Heathcliff and Catherine
The British critic Maugham once said: "I don't know where else In a novel, the pain, obsession, cruelty, and persistence of love have been described so surprisingly. "The complicated love here is exactly the life-and-death love affair between Heathcliff and Catherine. Love is divided into two stages: boyhood and adulthood.
1. Teenage love as transparent as crystal
Heathcliff and Catherine are childhood sweethearts, and their relationship in their youth is the purest and most beautiful part of this love.
? Heathcliff is the "little poor boy" brought back to Wuthering Heights by the squire Mr. Earnshaw, while Catherine is the rich lady of Wuthering Heights. Judging from their origins, they belong to two different classes. The reason why the two people's initial love broke through the shackles of class was due to the same desire and enthusiasm for freedom in their characters.
In essence, Heathcliff and Catherine attach great importance to the liberation and freedom of personal emotions, but they also encounter constraints from different aspects.
Heathcliff is just an outcast on the streets of Liverpool. He has no country, no status, no property and no even race. All of this is destined to cause him to be attacked and oppressed from the outside world during his growth in Wuthering Heights. Although Mr. Earnshaw loved him in every possible way, Hindley, the young master of the Villa, felt threatened and hated him. After his father's death, he was even tortured and humiliated. In such an authoritarian and repressive living environment, the lively and cute little Catherine is Heathcliff's sunshine and warmth. Although the kind maid Nellie is also very kind to Heathcliff, she only takes care of him as a child and treats him as a child. The weak come to sympathize. Catherine is different, she is Heathcliff's staunch ally,
"She likes Heathcliff too much. If we really want to punish her, the most powerful way is to separate the two of them. For Heathcliff , He was scolded more than any of us."
?Thus, his love and protection for Heathcliff established Catherine's irreplaceable position in his heart.
? From Catherine's perspective, as a noble lady, she has been subject to various requirements for a lady from the outside world, secularity, and etiquette. Her words and deeds must conform to the requirements of her noble lady. identity, and these are contrary to the nature of young people. After all, in the eyes of the maid Nellie, she is a "wild and naughty girl":
"She can make us all lose patience more than 50 times a day. She goes downstairs from From that moment until she went to bed, she was always mischievous and disturbed us all. Her mood was always very high and her tongue couldn't stop singing and laughing. She, she will pester anyone."
It can be seen that the young Catherine is definitely not a rich lady in the traditional sense. Her character is lively, full of wild and rebellious elements. She longs for freedom and emotional liberation, and in this regard, in the entire Wuthering Heights or in Catherine's entire life, only Heathcliff is the same as her. In other words, Heathcliff, as an outsider in Wuthering Heights, has the kind of flamboyant, rebellious, and free atmosphere that she longs for. Valesif said: "The choice of love object is a specific preference for one of the many familiar people of the opposite sex, which is the idealization of this person's value."
Therefore, Heathcliff and Catherine Juvenile The love of this period originated from knowing each other, falling in love because of knowing each other, and is not mixed with various other factors. Therefore, the love of this period is as transparent as crystal, pure and beautiful.
2. Adult love of ice and fire
The appearance of Linton is the beginning of this love's tragedy. His appearance awakens the secular concepts and girlish vanity deeply buried in Catherine's mind. Heathcliff is no longer the only one in her world, although she still loves him deeply.
Many readers have accused Catherine of being unfocused and vain, but in fact the heroine is understandable. Linton is a beautiful, young, lively and wealthy well-educated young man. He has everything that girls are fascinated by, plus the luxurious balls, beautiful clothes and men's attentiveness that Catherine saw through peeping. These have a fatal temptation for a young girl who is not familiar with the world. What's more, perhaps it is the price of growth. As Catherine grows up, she begins to awaken to her innate class consciousness. In her view, marrying Heathcliff will degrade her status, but marrying Linton can make her Become the most distinguished woman in the area. This is not entirely due to vanity, but the most realistic and practical social concept of that era. In addition, Catherine was originally a noble lady, and it was shocking to fall in love with an illiterate and poor man like Heathcliff. Therefore, although Catherine's wavering due to Linton was emotionally unacceptable, it was also reasonable.
Hegel divided love conflicts into three categories: first, the conflict between honor and love; second, the power of eternal entities such as political interests, love for the motherland, and family responsibilities; third, some Obstacles from external circumstances, such as the ordinary evolution of things, prose events in life, disasters, passions, prejudices, narrow-mindedness, selfishness of others, and accidents of many kinds. The most important source of the love tragedy between Heathcliff and Catherine is the first type of conflict: the conflict between honor and love. Honor is the power of society plus the shackles on the young lovers, or the oppression from the world. They tried to resist, but unfortunately they could not succeed. In this battle, Catherine chose to surrender first, which also exposed the weak parts of her character - the selfishness, vanity and cowardice of human nature.
Although Catherine betrayed Heathcliff to a certain extent, she still loved him deeply in her heart. The reunion with Heathcliff made her so excited that she ignored Linton's existence and even asked Linton to share this happiness with her. This made her very painful when facing the conflict between Linton and Heathcliff, or it was painful for her inner struggle. Her ignorance when she was young led to a dilemma later on, which made her doubt herself. Catherine's final collapse is also when she truly wakes up and truly faces her love. She regretted, struggled, and finally carried this pain, regret, and guilt with her until her death. Here, the contradictions in human nature are once again revealed.
Heathcliff is the only soldier who holds the fort in this battle of love. Unfortunately, the facts are irreversible. Finally, after Catherine chose Linton as her marriage partner, she was so miserable that she finally ran away from home. After disappearing for several years, Heathcliff finally returned home in fine clothes. Time has allowed the wild boy to grow into a handsome and strong man, but it has never cooled his feelings for Catherine. Instead, under the dual catalyst of time and distance, this man who has been stubborn since childhood has deepened his attachment to his lover. And longing for her, especially after meeting Catherine, he was sure that she still loved him in her heart, which made him even more unable to let go of Catherine, and his love for Catherine became even more fanatical, almost falling into a morbid obsession.
In his heart, Catherine still belongs to him, she is his treasure and his lifeblood! What does Linton mean? "With his weak body, even if he devotes all his energy to falling in love for 80 years, it is still not as good as my falling in love for one day." Even death can't stop Heathcliff's love. He believes that Catherine will always be by his side. Never left. Hear the affectionate call: "Come in! Come in! Cathy, come on. Oh, come on, do it again! Oh! My dear, just listen to me this time! Catherine, the last time!" This What a humble begging, and what a strong and passionate love! On the eve of his death, Heathcliff was full of hallucinations about Catherine's soul. He was so eager to die, because death could truly unite him and Catherine, so death was heaven to him.
His experiences in his youth made Heathcliff develop an extreme and rebellious character. His love for Catherine could not tolerate separation, and all obstacles would inevitably arouse violent revenge. Although there is a twisted side of his human nature, in any case, extreme hatred and destruction, in terms of psychological mechanism, come from love.
In the love affair between Heathcliff and Catherine, what the hero and heroine pursue is not the satisfaction of physical desires, but a kind of soul compatibility. In Catherine's own words, "No matter what my soul is, What material is it made of? His soul is exactly the same as mine." In the end, it turned into a soul-dwelling ending, which sublimated it into a life-and-death love that transcends the human world. Their union originated from the desire for freedom in human nature. They had worked hard together; but it was also the weakness of human nature that made them leave each other with lifelong regrets. They torture each other while giving each other happiness. The two worlds of ice and fire are the most realistic portrayal.
? (2) Emotional and material transactions: the love between Linton and Catherine
? The relationship between Linton and Catherine, in one sentence, is: at the right time Meeting the wrong people.
? Linton and Heathcliff are two completely different beings. As mentioned before, Linton is a beautiful, young, lively and wealthy educated young man. If Heathcliff is the violent sandstorm in winter, then Linton is the warm sunshine in spring. No matter in terms of identity, status, wealth, upbringing, appearance, or character, Linton forms a strong and sharp contrast with Heathcliff. If these two people appear in front of any girl except Catherine at the same time, Linton is definitely more charming than Heathcliff in attracting girls. It is the existence of this strong contrast that makes Catherine feel a call from the civilized world, making Linton a sharp turn in the love road between Catherine and Heathcliff.
I have to say that Linton is a good husband. In our era, he should also be a very popular and warm man. He loved Catherine, tolerated her unconditionally, was considerate of her, was afraid of making her angry, and carefully concealed this fear. He was a well-educated man, but he would be very angry because the servants did not respect Catherine enough. He remained silent with Catherine, beaming with joy at her happiness. He is even willing to accept a visit from Heathcliff, a rude love rival that he has always despised, for Catherine. If the shadow of Heathcliff could be completely eliminated from Catherine's life, they would be a very happy and perfect couple. Unfortunately not.
?Catherine belongs to Ellington, but this kind of love is mixed with too many impurities. It is definitely not a love engraved deep in the heart and soul, but like the leaves in the forest, time will change. It is like trees dying in winter. This is what Nellie said: "The reason why you love Mr. Edgar is because he is beautiful, young, lively, rich, and loves you. In any case, this last point is not a reason. He just doesn't love you." You, you may still love him; and even if he loves you, you would not love him if it were not for the four attractive conditions mentioned above.”
Yes, Catherine’s love is not. Impure, what she loves is not Linton himself, but the halo that surrounds Linton, his identity, status and wealth. She even naively hopes that she can use these to help Heathcliff improve his status and change his identity. In order to win Linton's love, she always concealed her true temperament in front of him; in her subsequent marriage life, Catherine always involuntarily suppressed herself, hiding the wild and free side of her character in the noble lady. With his graceful and noble status, he strives to create a harmonious and happy family atmosphere to respond to the call from a civilized family.
The love between Linton and Catherine did not originate from human desire and mutual attraction of the soul, but a natural combination under the guidance of secular concepts in civilized society. If Linton had lost his halo, Catherine would not be able to marry him; similarly, if Catherine were not a rich lady, she would not be Mrs. Linton. Although their marriage also has the shadow of love, it is to a greater extent an emotional and material transaction that goes against nature.
(3) New sprouts breaking through the permafrost: the love between Hareton and Cathy
Hareton and Cathy are the happiest couple in the whole novel.
Their love broke through the shackles of the world, the prison of identity, and the entanglement of love and hate, completely interpreting the true nature of human nature and the ultimate happiness.
They have all been victims of Heathcliff's revenge plot. Heathcliff's passionate love for his lover turned into a deep-seated hatred for his enemies and love rivals after encountering many obstacles, driving him to launch crazy revenge against Linton, Hindley and their descendants, and attempted to continue by torturing the next generation. own "mission".
Heathcliff tempted Hindley to gamble and drink heavily, causing Hindley to owe him a large debt. Not only did Wuthering Heights change owners, but even little Hareton had to become his slave and be his slave. Driven. Little Cathy was forced to marry the cold and selfish Linton, and soon became a young widow. But these cannot erase the enthusiasm, kindness and hope in their characters. Although little Cathy once expressed contempt and disgust for Hareton's vulgar conversation and behavior, Hareton also served as Heathcliff's accomplice in imprisoning Cathy. However, these two young hearts who longed for happiness in life still sprouted the seeds of love from the frost and frozen soil of Wuthering Heights.
The love between Hareton and little Cathy is actually seen as a continuation of the love between Heathcliff and Catherine in their youth. Heathcliff and Catherine have the same rebellious character and desire for freedom and emotional liberation, while Hareton's little Cathy also has the same yearning for beautiful things and longing for a happy life. The most important thing is that they all worked hard for their love. Heathcliff and Catherine were once staunch allies, fighting against the family oppression from Hindley and the religious spiritual restraint from Joseph; while Hareton and little Cathy helped each other under Heathcliff's oppression. Therefore, Heathcliff finally gave up revenge, not because of a moment of remorse, but because the scene of the two children reading closely together touched the memory deep in his soul, thus awakening the paranoid character in Heathcliff's character. And gloom covers the long-lasting love and kindness.
In order to get closer to Cathy, Harreton always secretly learns culture; in order to help Harreton free himself from ignorance, Cathy teaches him to learn culture enthusiastically. Every time Hareton made a little progress, Cathy rewarded him with a series of sweet kisses. What a heartwarming and touching picture! The housekeeper Nellie once lamented: "My biggest wish is that these two people get married. On the day of their wedding, I will not envy anyone. There will be no happier woman in Britain than me!"
The love between Hareton and Cathy represents the purest love and the most sincere desire in human nature! They don't think about the heroes and heroines of the previous generation. When it comes to love, they don't consider too many external factors. Everything follows the truest feeling of the soul. Their love is like the green buds bursting out of the ice and snow, the golden sunshine breaking through the haze, and the seven-color rainbow after the storm. They use their sincere true love, passion and desire for happiness to break the shackles of the world and the shackles of identity. The cage also broke through the entanglement of love and hate.
? 2. Emily Bronte’s Hopes
? Like many people, I have been curious about how people who have never experienced love and marriage are almost out of touch with the world. How could the isolated Emily Bront? write something of such heartfelt emotional power? The most common view I have read is that Emily Bronte regarded Heathcliff as the embodiment of her own personality and the expression of the author's self-awareness in the work. However, the author would rather understand that Wuthering Heights is another world imagined by Emily Bronte, and the composition of this world is half containing Emily's criticism of the real world, and the other half embodying Emily's view of human nature. hope and blessing.
The thrilling love between Heathcliff and Catherine contains realistic helplessness and sorrow, as well as superhuman romance. As a young lady from a wealthy family, although Catherine has the same rebellious and free, passionate and rough nature as Heathcliff, she still cannot escape the shackles of worldly ideas. Heathcliff has always had nothing, and Catherine is everything to him. He enjoys the joy of being with Catherine, and hates and takes revenge on all obstacles that hinder their love. The extreme love and hate turned him into a demon, raising a sharp sword made of hatred to launch crazy revenge on his enemies. Here, Emily expresses the contradiction between "bondage" and "freedom", and conveys a kind of helplessness and dissatisfaction with the cruel reality through the pain and anguish of the hero and heroine struggling in bondage, but she also creates a super Experiencing the world allows Heathcliff and Catherine's souls to fly together, thereby achieving "freedom".
The love between Linton and Catherine is a very bitter irony for her. Linton and Catherine's marriage seemed harmonious and happy, but in fact it was just a sad one-man show, a helpless victim. The happiness it once had is like fragile glass. It looks crystal clear and beautiful, but in fact it is fragile.
On the contrary, the perfect love between Hareton and little Cathy is Emily's sincere blessing and wish. This love can be said to be the regretful compensation for the love between Heathcliff and Catherine. All the bad things, pain and regrets before have come to an end here.
The love, hatred and resentment of the previous generation have come to an end with the passing of the predecessors. What is left is only beauty and happiness, just like the sunny day after the storm, the haze has been swept away. And this love tree that breaks through the frozen soil and thrives is swaying with the light of victory of human nature in the wind of freedom.
? Three different kinds of love, three different endings. Emily Bronte used her prose-like language to tell a touching love tragedy, the love and hatred of two generations. , shows readers a battle between human nature and secularity, a conflict between love and hate, a war between freedom and bondage.
The miserable tragedy makes people shed tears of sympathy, and the ruthless reality is heartbreaking, but it cannot drown out the fire of freedom. The hope contained in human nature will eventually break through the frozen soil and grow into a big tree of happiness!