The different love between two generations in wuthering heig
IntroductionEmily Bronte is considered as one of the greatest female writers in the history of English Literature .The long novel Wuthering Heights is her masterpiece and shows her unique opinions of love and marriage . In this novel , the hero is Heathcliff , and the heroine is Catherine . Through them , “ Emily ranges human passions against social conventions with extraordinary violence , while at the same time retaining a cool artistic control .” (王佩兰,马茜,黄际英,2002: 368)
In terms of the plot of this novel , the writer narrates a story about love , hate and revenge. Originally , Heathcliff and Catherine loved each other . Because of her vanity , Catherine married Edgar who was a rich and handsome gentleman . Then Heathcliff converted his love into hate and revenged the persons who related to Catherine . The love between Heathcliff and Catherine makes people understand them gradually instead of thinking that they were crazy . The mistake, which Catherine chose her marriage , is the masterstroke of the novel . Her mistake influenced the fate of the two generations . In the novel , there are two triangle patterns in two generations------one pattern includes Catherine , Heathcliff and Edgar ; the other includes little Cathy, Hareton and little Linton . Emily used the two patterns to narrate the love story between a woman and two men . Though little Cathy was Catherine’s daughter , they lived in different periods and their characteristics were completely different . Both of them played more important roles in their own triangle pattern and inpenetrated the development of the whole plot . Their opinions and choices in the road of love reflected different love of the two generations . Just the different love , the results they got were also different .
ChapterⅠ Sensibility vs. Sense
Anyone , who reads Wuthering Heights ,will be moved by the holy love and deep emotions between the hero and the heroine . Heathcliff was brought up by Mr. Earnshaw . Catherine and he loved each other when they were very young . Later, she met Edgar in Thurshcross Grange by accident and lived there for a short time . She felt the obvious difference between Edgar and Heathcliff . One was a handsome , young , lively , rich and decent gentleman , while the other was an ill-mannered , ill-tempered , stubborn and poor villager . When Edgar asked Catherine to marry him, she in fact had the answer in her mind . If she married Edgar , she would become the greatest woman in the neighbourhood . If she married Heathcliff , her identity would be degraded and she would always live a poor life . When she considered whether she married Edgar or not, there were some dialogues between Catherine and her servant Nelly:
“Why do you love him , Miss Cathy?”
“Nonsense, I do—that’s sufficient.”
“By no means; you must say why?”
“Well, he is handsome, and pleasant to be with.”
“Bad!” was my commentary.
“And because he is young and cheerful.”
“Bad , still.”
“And because he loves me.”
“Indifferent ,coming there.”
“And he will be rich , and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood , and I shall be proud of having a husband.” (Emily,2004: 91-92)
Catherine couldn’t find the reasonable explanations and answered why she loved Edgar . In fact , she didn’t love him at all , and her vanity drove herself to accept Edgar ,whereas who she loved all the same was Heathcliff . However , at the Victorian Period , a person was only judged by his economic status and social background . Influenced by the current society , Catherine was occupied by the vanity and married Edgar , regardless of the past passion for Heathcliff . From the latter plots , we can see who she really loved was Heathcliff, however , she couldn’t calm down at that time because she lacked of the sense .
When Heathcliff knew Catherine would like to marry Edgar , he left her . After three years , he appeared again and became a rich gentleman . Since Catherine became Edgar’s wife , her life seemed to be happy and harmonious . But when she met Heathcliff again , she was particularly excited and forgot her identity , even wanted Edgar to accept him . As Edgar’s wife , I think , she ought to respect his husband and care for his feelings . Just because of her strong sensibility , she ignored everything and still loved Heathcliff insanely . When she was ill, she yearned for Heathcliff and the life in Wuthering Heights . Even when she was dying , who she wanted to meet was still Heathcliff , on the contrary , she didn’t remember Edgar clearly.
From these unreasonable plots , we can see that Catherine is an emotional person . She preferred her sensibility to her sense . If she could calm down and choose to marry the person who she really loved , I think , for her sensibility , she would not regret her choice .
Little Cathy was Catherine’s daughter . She had a good looking just like her mother . Unlike her mother, she had a kind heart and the genteel behavior . Edgar took “Cathy’s education entirely on himself ”(Emily, 2004: 220 ) when she was very young . So Cathy studied very hard and eagerly . She grew up under the surroundings of the adults , so she was always considerate to others . In fact , she was well educated under the surroundings of sense from childrenhood . Little Linton was her little cousin . The reason why she fell in love with him was that she thought she was elder and wiser than he , and she wanted to protect her little brother who was coward and frail . When Linton had a bad temper , she was always patient with him , told stories and shared jokes with him . She thought that he had the poor health , so she had the right to help him and give him her love .When she was prohibited to meet little Linton , she was very sad and seemed to make a mistake herself .
During the time that her servant Nelly was ill , Cathy “behaved like an angl
e”(Emily, 2004:284) and kept Nelly company and took care of her .Unfortunately , her father was ill at the same time . So she was busy to keep her father company as well as Nelly . Her days were completely divided into two parts—to her father and Nelly , and she didn’t leave a second for herself . Because of Linton , she secretly met him after taking care of Nelly in the evening . The purpose that she didn’t let them know was that she didn’t want them to worry about her . Cathy loved her father very much . When her father was ill , she felt sad and once said to Nelly: I care for nothing in comparisons with papa . And I’ll never—never—oh , never , I have my senses , do an act or say a word to vex him . I love him better than myself , Ellen ; and I know it by this— I pray every night that I live after him ; because I would rather be miserable than that he should be: that proves I love him better than myself . ( Emily, 2004: 270) From her words , we can see that she was a very filial and kind daughter , and she freted about “nothing on earth except papa’s illness .”(Emily, 2004:270) Sense made her realize that her father was most important person in her life . Nobody can replace her father’s place in her mind . She was willing to give up everything , including love and her beloved Linton , only for her dear father . From these plots , we can see that Cathy’s sense was beyond her sensibility . ChapterⅡ Primitive Love vs. Civilized Love Catherine was born in Wuthering Heights , which symbolized freedom, primitivity and savagery . When she was young , she was a little trulculent and intractable . She wouldn’t like to read books , but like to play and run with boys . She often laughed at the Bible , she even didn’t go to the church on Sundays . However , Cathy was different from her mother . Cathy was born in Thrushcross Grange , which symbolized civilization and the upper class . She grew up in the surroundings of adults , for there wasn’t a friend of the similar age . “Her anger was never furious ; her love was never fierce : it was deep and tender .”(Emily, 2004: 220) Under her father’s good education , she “ learned rapidly and eagerly .”(Emily, 2004: 221) When she was forced to marry Linton by Heathcliff , she couldn’t bear the days in Wuthering Heights without a book . In her opinion , she couldn’t live on the earth without books . As we all know , reading books is a way to develop from the primitivity to the civilization . From their different attitudes about books , we can see that what they pursued was completely different .
[NextPage] Catherine pursued the freedom and the primitivity , while Cathy pursued the civilization and the ethic . Therefore , Catherine is the representative of primitive love , whereas Cathy is the representative of civilized love . |