ABSTRACT:After its first publication, Wuthering Heights has attracted a great deal of academic interests. There are various studies from different perspectives, like that of feminism, and its themes. This thesis is concerned with the development of the love story in Wuthering Heights, and attempts to explore the reasons why the deep and intense love ended up into a regretful tragedy. By using the method of documentation, i.e. reading the original work and the studies at home and abroad, this thesis explores the roots of this tragic love from the aspects of social background, the weaknesses of Catherine and Heathcliff, and the twisted mentality of Heathcliff. Therefore, a conclusion comes into being: it is not only a love tragedy, but also a character tragedy, a mentality tragedy, as well as a social tragedy. Finally, the background is taken into consideration that at that time capitalism developed rapidly, and reached its climax at the 19th century, which brought about great changes in many fields like economy, culture and society. In this way, it is easy to have the significant conclusion: the tragic love in Wuthering Heights is essentially the production of the irreconcilable contradiction betwween nature and civilization; of social change; as well as of capitalism development and the penetration of capitalism values.
Key words: Wuthering Heights; tragic love; Catherine; Heathcliff; social background
中文摘要:《呼啸山庄》自问世以来就引起了文学批评界的广泛关注，而对其从复仇主题，女性主义等各个方面进行的研究也层出不穷。本文拟以《呼啸山庄》中男女主人公爱情悲剧的发生，发展的过程为研究中心，探究男女主人公深刻而炽热的爱情最终成为一场令人扼腕的悲剧的根源。本文通过文献研究法，即阅读原著和分析中外研究成果，试图从社会环境，社会习俗，男女主人公性格缺陷与弱点，男主人公扭曲的心理等方面解读这部作品中爱情悲剧的根源，最终得出结论：这既是一场爱情悲剧，也是性格悲剧，心理悲剧，更是社会悲剧。结合当时资本主义蓬勃发展，并相继带来经济，文化，社会各个方面的变革这一背景，深刻地认识到《呼啸山庄》中爱情悲剧实质上是自然和文明不可调和的产物，是时代变化发展的产物，也是资本主义社会发展，资本主义价值观渗透的产物。
关键词：《呼啸山庄》；爱情悲剧；凯瑟琳；希斯克利夫; 社会环境
In the novel, the author tried her best to depict this tragic character—Heathcliff, who was evil, brutal and cruel. He had wicked soul and distorted humanity and what he had done can never be justified in our moral system. In fact, Heathcliff committed so many crimes: he destroyed Hindley, tortured Hareton, and little Cathy ruthlessly. His callousness and cruelty made people tremble with fear. He should never be forgiven for his sin from every aspects. However, it is not difficult to find that he should not assume full responsibility for this tragic love story and he was just a crazy revenger—the victim of the tragedy.
It is Catherine that directly caused the tragedy. She knew very clear that she had no affection for Linton and Heathcliff was the only reason for her life, but she betrayed her love because of her vanity and selfishness, and her wrong choice between love and reality. However, if women’s status in Victorian times is taken into consideration, we will find that Catherine’s choice was determined by the social background. Women’s value only lay in marriage, which was judged by money. Marrying the rich men became the dream of all those women. Otherwise, they would be treated as worthless. It was under this circumstances that Catherine betrayed herself as well as her affection.
