1。2 A Brief Introduction to Wuthering Heights

As the only novel of Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights is now considered a classic of English literature。 It was published in 1847 under the pseudonym “Ellis Bell” because women novelists were not respected at that time。 The novel is so famous that has inspired adaptions, including movies, radio and television dramatizations and so on。 In this novel, Emily Bronte shows the deep love, rebellion and revenge among the main characters。 Wuthering Heights creates eight main characters: Heathcliff, his lover Catherine Earnshaw, Catherine’s elder brother Hindley Earnshaw, Catherine’s husband Edgar Linton, Edgar’s sister Isabella Linton, Hindley’s son Hareton Earnshaw, Catherine’s daughter Cathy Linton, Heathcliff’s son Linton Heathcliff。 The novel deals mainly with the story of Heathcliff, a gipsy waif of unknown parentage, picked up by Mr。 Earnshaw in the streets and brought up with his children。 Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr。 Earnshaw’s house in North England, remote from the outside world and amidst gloomy surroundings。 Heathcliff is treated well by Mr。 Earnshaw at his young age, and he can get along well with other family members。 After Old Earnshaw’s death, the young master Hindley begins to bully and insult Heathcliff, compels him to do much farm work。 Although Heathcliff hates Hindley, he falls passionately in love with Catherine, Hindley’s sister, who loves him but thinks it will degrade her to marry him。 In order to develop his social status, Heathcliff leaves Wuthering Heights and returns three years later, becoming a rich man。 However, he finds that Catherine has married Edgar Linton, a weakling person but has higher social status。 Because of desperation, Heathcliff decides to take revenge on Catherine and Edgar and resumes his love-making, but his violent love brings her to her grave at the birth of her daughter, Cathy。 From then on, he becomes a devil, marries Edgar Linton’s sister Isabella and treats her cruelly instead of loving her。 He also puts Hindley and his son Hareton under his control and treats them cruelly in revenge for Hindley’s tyrannical treatment to him when he was young。 As he nearly succeeds finishing his plan, his sick son dies and Cathy falls in love with Hareton, which reminds him of the life he spends with Catherine。 He realizes the pointlessness of his revenge and longs for his reunion with Catherine after death。 Finally the devil dies, leaving younger generation Cathy and Hareton to have a better life。

In this novel, we can find that Heathcliff is similar to Emily Bronte。 They both live in the wasteland and they are both passionate lover of nature。 Emily is shy and quiet, but there is a strong self-esteem in her mind that encourages her to embrace the free world。 文献综述

1。3 Literature Review

Up to now, numerous researches have been done separately to study the two books in many aspects。 

Robin and Hugh regard Bronte family as a system and find that Emily is ambitious and talented because of her poem No Coward Soul is Mine (Robin, 2001:200)。 Her love of nature and freedom perfectly reflect from Wuthering Heights。 From this novel, we can see that Heathcliff is the person who is quite brutal, tyrannical and has twisted psychology of revenge。 In fact, he is a controversial character that has aroused severe debate among critics and readers since Wuthering Heights was published in 1847。 From Heathcliff’s revenge on Catherine and Edgar, he is a truly devil。 Terence Dawson describes Heathcliff a savage bully who will snap at Catherine and even strike her although he is a gentleman (Terence, 1989:52)。 Qin Ya regards Heathcliff as a cruel person。 She thinks that Heathcliff’s heart is full of hatred and he can do anything to hurt the people he hates。 He changes his frustrated love to cruelty and becomes a powerful, fierce man, using his extraordinary powers to torture Catherine, Edgar and their younger generation (Qin, 2014:15)。 Fu Xin analyzes Heathcliff’s inhumanity from his revenge plans and thinks that his boorish behavior, indomitable stubbornness, later fiery temper, cruel conduct, inhuman revenge and impulsive passion lead to the tragic end of this novel。 He not only takes his revenge on Hindley, Edgar and Catherine, but also on their descendants (Fu, 2015:189)。 Du Hui points out that Heathcliff is full of satisfaction and vacancy after he comes back to Wuthering Heights。 In her paper, she claims that the caring about Catherine and the hatred to Hindley and Linton helps him to live when he lives in the outward, and thus he decides to take vengeance on them to gain his satisfaction (Du, 2009:90)。 As for the root of Heathcliff’s sin, Duan Lifang holds the view that Catherine’s betrayal of love leads to Heathcliff’s revenge, for he loses his only lover and hope so that he has to start to take actions to revenge (Duan, 2014:183)。