1、1Duality In Catherines Personality In Wuthering Heights中图分类号:I06 文献标识码:A 文章编号:1673-0992(2010)07A-0169-01 Abstract: The heroine Catherines personality is filled with contradictions in Wuthering Heights. On the one hand, she represents a girl of simple nature and free mind without any worldly sophisti
2、cation. On the other hand, she is worldly in her personality, which is manifested by her vanity she desires for fame and wealth. Key words: Catherine, double personality, vanity “Wuthering Heights” is the representative work of Emily Bronte who was a very famous writer in Britain. And it is also her
3、 only novel. In this novel, the center is the story about Catherine, Heathcliff and Linton, a story between one woman and two men. Emily has broken away from the conventional love in her novel. This novel can be divided into four parts: the first part talks about that the relationship between Cather
4、ine and Heathcliff and Heathcliff is nature. 2But along with the development of the western civilization, the womens position was improved due to the womens liberation movement which had begun at that time, Victorian Age. It also began in the literature works, but still couldnt shake off the traditi
5、onal sense of women. From the character Catherine in Wuthering Heights, we can find two contradictory personalities in one person that Emily created. On one hand, Catherine lived in the moor that was far away from the mundane society. She was simple, wild, willful and free minded without any worldly
6、 desires. On the other hand, she was a worldly side in her personality which was manifested by her vanity and she desires for fame and wealth. She was a complicate figure. From Catherine, we can see the womens weakness and stubbornness in her personality combined together through a chain of media. T
7、he love between Heathcliff and Catherine was the core of the novel. Catherine loved Heathcliff very much because they are alike that they have the same wild and stubborn temperament. Heathcliff was adopted member by Catherines father of the Eamshow family. When Catherines father died, her elder brot
8、her Hindly moved into Wuthering Heights. But they did not get any warmth of the family from him. Even they were ill-treated by Hindly, especially for Heathcliff. So Catherine 3showed sympathy for Heathcliff at the age of her childhood and they became closed friends. They worked and played from child
9、hood and grown up together. They were some resemblance in the dispositions and characteristics. They were both afraid of nothing and dared to do everything they wanted to do. They cared each other and helped each other, and also stood rebelling against the persecution by Hindly. The loved each other
10、 so much due to their love was built up on the basis of understanding and rebelling together. “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 souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” “I am Heathcliff! He is alw
11、ays, always in my mind; not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being.” Catherine wanted herself to be a decent when she accidentally went into the Thruschcross Grange in her girlhood; Catherines nature was quite different from the form of the traditional wom
12、an. She was uninhibited rude and bold that is not very alike as the docile and meek woman at that time. In humans mind, the woman must be docile, gentle and soft, so old Mrs. Linton in Thruschcross Grange made a great effort to change Catherine. As a result, she was made a big change as 4expected th
13、at everyone amazed when she went back to the Wuthering Heights. The changes of her dresses, manners and social attitude. Her dress was suitable in the Thrushcross Grange rather than that in the Wuthering Heights. “She was obliged to hold up with both hands, a long cloth habit. Her fingers are wonder
14、fully whitened with doing nothing, and staying in door.” She became used to a life that was centered on inside of house, and she can do no work. She had accustomed to such a style of living: others work for her, produce for her and satisfy her needs. From these, we know that Catherine declared her s
15、uperficial love for Edgar. “My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it. Im well aware, as winter change the tree.” Clearly she accepted the values of the Grange. The ground of her attraction to Edgar was wealth, position and social distinction. But still Catherine could
16、 not shun her love for Heathcliff. So she felt unhappy when she accepted the proposal by Linton. She declared that in her heart and soul she knows she is doing a wrong thing. She did love Heathcliff heartily. As she said to her servant Nelly: “My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliffs mi
17、series, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is 5himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should continue to be; and if all else remained, and he was annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty strange: I should not seem a part of it.” “My love for
18、 Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. She fell in love with Heathcliff without any fear. But her love for him was a mixture, she loved Heathcliff indeed, but she was not willing to marry him lead it would degrade her. She said: “Ive no mo
19、re business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man in there had not brought Heathcliff so low. I shouldnt have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now.” She showed and repaired her love for him in her own peculiar way, as she said: “If Heathcliff
20、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.” And she recounted dream in which she thinks. She was in heaven, but is so miserable and the angels throw her down upon the moors. Where she wakes, completed happy. T
21、he first is the social background. Emily lived in a period when the class-struggle was fierce. There were many important 6social movements. She was especially interested in the miserable events. During those specific days, a lot of disturbance existed in the social and the sharp contrast laid betwee
22、n the poor and the rich, the nature kindness of human being would be twisted any time. Therefore, the characters that she described are embodied with personal prejudice and the air of gloom. Also the characters are the products which come out of the specific periods and circumstances. It is the twis
23、ted society that creates the twisted characteristics. Their wickedness, weakness and constancy are not only the tragedy of their own, but also of the society. To environment also plays a significant part in creating the uniqueness of Emily Bronte. The village of Haworth was extremely isolated and pe
24、ople there in sharp contrast with people in the other regions. They were blunt, stubborn, vigorous, rude, harsh and brutal. These are the products of the moors, where north wind shrinks mercilessly, and only softening influence is the sheep, the purple hearten and fenny bracken. It is moors that exact the spirit of Emily Bronte, and fill her soul to produce so strong love. References: 1Woman And DemonM?Nina Aurabach?Harvard Univ.Press.1979 72勃朗特姐妹的世界M?简?奥尼尔.三环出版社.2004 3对呼啸山庄中的凯瑟琳悲剧的女性主义解读A.邓志辉?中山大学学报论丛.2000 4女权主义与英国小说家J?高万隆?外国文学评论.1997
