《呼啸山庄》的意象研究

《呼啸山庄》的意象研究

艾米莉·勃朗特是十九世纪英国最重要的小说家之一。她唯一的小说《呼啸山庄》被公认为英国小说中最伟大的作品之一，在英国乃至世界文学史上占有重要的地位。作者在《呼啸山庄》中运用了象征手法和大量的意象，为小说增色不少。本文笔者将小说中的意象归类为自然意象和非自然意象两类。在自然意象中选取荒原，天气和季节，火焰，飞蛾，兰铃花和石楠丛作为研究对象；在非自然意象中选取书籍、窗户、鬼魂、呼啸山庄和画眉山庄作为研究对象。用文学批评的原理，分析这些具有代表性的意象，探讨作品中的象征手法的运用。以此解读《呼啸山庄》，帮助读者更好地理解这一部十九世纪英国最杰出的文学巨作。

1． Introduction

Emily Brontë (1818-1848), the author of Wuthering Heights, is the famous poetess and novelist in the nineteenth century of English literature. However, she is a novelist so much more than she is a poetess, for the only novel Wuthering Heights, which makes her the one of the most famous novelists in nineteenth

century of English literature, even in the world literature. And Wuthering Heights, as well as Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Brontë), is considered as a precious pearl of English literary heritage.

Nevertheless, when Wuthering Heights was first published in 1847, there was little admiration but a torrent of abuse. Owing to the writing style used in

Wuthering Heights against the one in that time, Victorian literary critics and

readers could not understand this work. Nowadays, more and more readers accept

and admire this novel. Besides, considerable scholars study this classical work, basing on the theory of religion, psychology, esthetics, literature and art and the like. Especially, symbolism and imagery used in quantity in Wuthering Heights make the story meaningful and vividly, which impresses readers favourably.

By analyzing some critical images, this thesis studies symbolism and imagery used in Wuthering Heights to explore the real value of this novel and help readers to understand this excellent work better . from http://www.lunwenwx.com/

2．Background of Wuthering Heights

2.1Personal experience of Emily Brontë

The author Emily Brontë lived an eccentric, closely guarded life. She was born in 1818, two years after Charlotte and a year and a half before her sister Anne, who also became an author. Her father worked as a church rector, and her aunt, who raised the Brontë children after their mother died, was deeply religious. Emily Brontë did not take to her aunt’s Christian fervor; the character of Joseph, a caricature of an evangelical, may have been inspired by her aunt’s religiosity. The Brontës lived in Haworth, a Yorkshire village in the midst of the moors. These wild, desolate expanses—later the setting of Wuthering Heights—made up the Brontës’ daily environment, and Emily lived among them her entire life. She died in 1848, at the age of thirty.

2.2 The social background of writing

The thirty years of Emily Brontë’s whole life was the very turbulent times in English history, when capitalism developed on and on, and its internal disadvantage was revealed more and more. The conflicts between employers and employees became intense; unemployed workers were poorer and poorer; a great many of child labors were tortured to death. The famous English poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning expressed her objection to employing child labors in her poem The Cry of the Children. Besides the British government suppressed democratic reform movement and labor movement cruelly, such as Peterloo Massacre, which was reflected in literature works in that time.

Emily Brontë’s family located between town and wasteland, which was near an industrial estate. Emily, with her sister, often took a walk there. On the one hand, Brontë sisters were impressed by the wild and free atmosphere of wasteland; on the other hand, they witnessed the development of capitalism in the town. Furthermore their father was a radical member of Conservative Party, who was against Luddite at his early age, and then stood by Whowose worker for their strike. So Brontë sisters grew up under the nurture of politics, especially Emily, who was incommunicative on the surface but enthusiastic in internal and paid close attention to politics, which done preparation for the writing of Wuthering Heights.

2.3 Different comments on Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights, which has long been one of the most popular and highly

regarded novels in English literature, seemed to hold little promise when it was published in 1847, selling very poorly and receiving only a few mixed reviews.

Victorian readers found the book shocking and inappropriate in its depiction of passionate, ungoverned love and cruelty (despite the fact that the novel portrays no sex or bloodshed), and the work was virtually ignored. Even Emily Brontë’s sister Charlotte—an author whose works contained similar motifs of Gothic love and desolate landscapes—remained ambivalent toward the unapologetic intensity of her sister’s novel. In a preface to the book, which she wrote shortly after Emily Brontë’s death, Charlotte Brontë stated, “Whether it is right or advisable to create beings like Heathcliff, I do not know. I scarcely think it is.” [1]1

Today, Wuthering Heights has a secure position in the canon of world literature, and Emily Brontë is revered as one of the finest writers—male or female—of the nineteenth century. Like Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights is based partly on the Gothic tradition of the late eighteenth century, a

style of literature that featured supernatural encounters, crumbling ruins, moonless nights, and grotesque imagery, seeking to create effects of mystery and fear. But Wuthering Heights transcends its genre in its sophisticated observation and artistic subtlety. The novel has been studied, analyzed, dissected, and discussed from every imaginable critical perspective, yet it remains unexhausted. And while the novel’s symbolism, themes, structure, and language may all spark fertile exploration, the bulk of its popularity may rest on its unforgettable characters. As a shattering presentation of the doomed love affair between the fiercely passionate Catherine and Heathcliff, it remains one of the most haunting love stories in all of literature.

The English poet and critic, Matthew Arnold, says: “Her (Emily) extraordinary

passion, feverish feelings, gloominess and boldness are incomparable after Byron.”

[2]234

The famous English writer Virginia Woolf said in her book The Common Reader, First Series: Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, ”Wuthering Heights is a

more difficult book to understand than Jane Eyre, because Emily was a greater poet than Charlotte. When Charlotte wrote she said with eloquence and splendor and passion ‘I love’, ‘I hate’, ‘I suffer’. Her experience, though more intense, is on a level with our own. But there is no ‘I’ in Wuthering Heights. There are no governesses. There are no employers. There is love, but it is not the love of men and women. Emily was inspired by some more general conception. The impulse which urged her to create was not her own suffering or her own injuries. She looked out upon a world cleft into gigantic disorder and felt within her the power to unite it in a book. That gigantic ambition is to be felt throughout the novel—a struggle, half thwarted but of superb conviction, to say something through the mouths of her characters which is not merely ‘I love’ or ‘I hate’, but ‘we, the whole human race’ and ‘you, the eternal powers…’the sentence remains unfinished. ” [3]34 The English critic Arnold Kettle concluded in the book

An introduction to the English novel, “Wuthering Heights is an expression in the

imaginative terms of art of the stresses and tensions and conflicts, personal and spiritual, of nineteenth-century capitalist society.” [2]268

3．Symbolism and imagery in Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte uses both symbolism and imagery in her novel. The two houses, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, are highly symbolic. The Heights represents a “storm,” whereas the Grange stands for “calm.” Lockwood

explains the meaning of “wuthering” as “descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather.” Brontë takes pains to stress the house's ordinary, unfinished, and provincial nature. But its chief characteristic is exposure to the power of the wind, which makes it appear fortress-like. It is an appropriate house for the Earnshaw family: they are the fiery, untamed children of the storm, especially Heathcliff, the foundling. On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange is set in a civilized valley and stands in a sheltered park. Here, the effects of weather are always gentler, filtered, and diluted. The Grange is a house of soft, clinging luxury, and its inhabitants are guarded by servants and bulldogs. It is “a splendid place,” rich, carpeted and cushioned with crimson. In contrast to the Heights, it belongs to “civilization,” which values comfort more than life itself. Thus, it is a natural home for the children of calm: the gentle, passive and timid Lintons.

Animal imagery is used by Emily Brontë to project her insights into human character. Catherine describes Heathcliff as a wolfish man. Isabella Linton, after she becomes his wife, compares him to “a tiger, or a venomous serpent.” Nelly Dean sees his despair after Catherine's death as not like that of a man, but of a savage beast. Heathcliff himself, when he wishes to insult his enemies, compares them to animals. However, these are not wild creatures he respects for their strength, but gentler animals that he despises. Edgar Linton is “a lamb” that “threatens like a bull.” Linton, Heathcliff's son, is a “pulling chicken.” Heathcliff hates Hindley Earnshaw because he sees him as the author of all his misfortunes. When he dies before the arrival of the doctor, Heathcliff brutally says that “the beast has changed into carrion.”

Symbolism is implicit also in various events of the novel. For example, on the fateful night of Heathcliff's departure from the Heights, the storm comes “rattling over the Heights in full fury.” It symbolizes the storm that eventually destroys the lives of Cathy and Heathcliff. Then again, after three years, on Heathcliff's return, he and Cathy meet by the light of fire and candlelight, symbolizing the warmth of their affection for one another. In these ways, and many others, images and symbols in Wuthering Heights add meaning to characters, theme, tone, and mood.

4. Nature images in Wuthering Heights

4.1 The main image of moors

As Emily Brontë lays emphasis on landscape throughout Wuthering Heights using repetition, the uncultivated and wild Yorkshire moors become of a symbolic importance, representing the disorderly behaviour at Wuthering Heights. The mystery of the moors (meeting places, lurking corners) cannot be separated from mysteries of the characters. Brontë portrays both the harshness and the beauty of the Yorkshire moors, using it, not only as a background, but also as a central image of the passions and longings of the characters. The Yorkshire moors are where Catherine and Heathcliff played as children, and are often described throughout the novel as being isolated, haunting and primitive. It is a symbol of Catherine and Heathcliff’s wilderness and a representation of their love for one another. The moors are symbolic as a place of freedom and escape where Catherine and Heathcliff could get away from the barriers and social expectations of society which divided them. [4]56

4.2 The images of seasons and weather

The seasons are used in the novel as symbols to create mood and suggest the passing of time. The novel opens in winter with snowstorm, symbolic of the atmosphere at Wuthering Heights and associated with grief and tragedy. The novel ends with the flowering of spring, mirroring the passions that fuel the drama and the peace that follows its resolution. Moreover, Catherine compares her love for Linton to the seasons “foliage in the woods” and her love for Heathcliff to the rocks “My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks…” [2]132 Therefore, it is not just love that Catherine and Heathcliff seek but a higher, spiritual existence which is permanent and unchanging.

The theme of Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, is a universe of opposing of forces-storm and calm. On the storm side, the land of storm was also known as Wuthering Heights. The house that is set up high on the windy moors and is highly charged with emotion of hatred, cruelty, violence, and savage love. In comparison, on the calm side, the land of calm was also known as Thrushcross Grange. Unlike Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange is set up in the peaceful valley and is much less full of hatred. Nevertheless, instead of focusing directly on storm and calm, the antithesis of storm and calm and branches is used into more specific comparisons. Three main antitheses are developed in Brontë’s novel originating from storm and calm and those are: the antithesis between man and nature, the antithesis of good and evil, and the antithesis between life and death. However, instead of using the correct, original antitheses in her novel, Emily Brontë does away with all three of the original antitheses.

The first antithesis Emily Brontë does away with is the antithesis between man and nature. Emily Brontë does not animate man revealed against inanimate nature. According to Cecil, “Men and nature to her are equally living in the same way. To her an angry man and an angry sky are not just metaphorically alike, they are actually alike in kind; different manifestations of a single spiritual reality”[5]81. Emily Brontë does not see nature as just being a setting her novel, each piece of nature is associated is a reflection of a character in the novel. Some characters share the same nature which gives them their like qualities. In the novel, Young Cathy and Linton Heathcliff describe what their most perfect idea of heaven’s happiness is. Cathy says his would be only half alive, and he said Cathy’s would be drunk. Their choices represent no chance preference, but the fundamental bias of their different natures. Each is expressing his or her instinctively felt kinship with that aspect of nature of which he or she is the human counterpart. By combining man and nature together, Brontë does away with the original antithesis.

The second antithesis Emily Brontë does away with is the antithesis of good and evil. Typically, there is a fine line between good and evil, but what Brontë does is move away from that and almost combines the two. For example, Young Cathy at first does not like Hareton Earnshaw, but as novel progresses, she begins to change her mind and eventually ends up getting married with him. Cecil states, “To call some aspects of life good and some evil is to accept some experiences and to reject others. Her characters set no bridle on their destructive passions; nor do they repent of their destructive deeds” [5]82. With this example of Young Cathy, Brontë does away with the original antithesis of good and evil.

The third antithesis Emily Brontë does away with is the antithesis between life and death. Cecil explains, “The spiritual principle of which the soul is a manifestation is active in this life; therefore, the disembodied soul continues to be active in this life” [5]83. Emily Brontë believes in the immortality of the soul. Cecil states that the characters my regret dying, but it is only because death means a temporary separation from those with whom they feel an affinity. In the novel, this is clearly seen with Catherine and her ghost. At one point, Catherine Earnshaw dreams that she goes to heaven, but is miserable there because she is homesick for Wuthering Heights; the native country of her spirit, but when in fact she does die, her spirit does take up its abode at Wuthering Heights. The belief in the continuation of the soul shows that Brontë moves away from the original antithesis between life and death.

The influential theory of storm and calm are key concepts in the author’s thought and works. All three antitheses mentioned, derived from the original theme of storm and calm. Emily Brontë however, used these antitheses in a different way, and moved away from them. By combining man and nature, good and evil, and life and death, Brontë has not only written a tragic love story but a work of literature full of layered themes.

4.3 The images of fire and flame

Throughout Victorian literature there is a constant theme of fire and flame imagery representing an innate passionate, masculine force. The passion of Wuthering Heights is personified throughout the novel by the fires that are within

the manor. All life and activity in the house takes place next to an immense fire. This contrasts the fires of Thrushcross Grange which are almost non-existent. Passion is the driving force that motivates all the “children of the storm” and so this is significant in that the fire is the only source of light in the house. Catherine's passion is contrasted to the coolness of Linton, whose “cold blood cannot be worked into a fever” [6]83.

However, Catherine's devotion to Heathcliff is immediate and absolute “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same, and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightning or frost from fire”.

As it was already pointed out, the novel presents the collision between two types of reality, restrictive civilization and anonymous unrestrained natural energies or forces. This collision takes the form of inside or domestic versus outside or nature, human versus the “other”, the light versus the dark within the soul. Catherine and Heathcliff are violent elementals who express the flux of nature; they struggle to be human and assume human character in their passion, confusions, and torment, but their inhuman appetites and energy can only bring chaos and self-destruction.

4.4 The images of moths, heath and hare-bells

As Emily wrote at the end of the last chapter, “I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells; listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass; and wondered how anyone

could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.” It represents a softened, less harsh environment and new hope for the future. There the heath and hare-bells symbolizes the ideal world the author expects, where there is no conflict and oppression between classes, just peaceful and freedom, and human nature is closer to the natural. The moths fluttering among the heath and hare-bells symbolizes the free souls of Heathcliff and Catherine, who was tortured in the real world .Like the Chinese ancient legend Butterfly Love,

Wuthering Heights, is a complex literary works, where author remonstrates about

the unfair world but she found there was nothing she can do to change it. So she made an unreal world to console her console soul. It is considered as the one of the best conclusions of literary works, and is thought-provoking conclusion for readers to study.

5. Non-natural images in Wuthering Heights

5.1 Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange

Both the natural and social settings between Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange form striking ugliness-beauty contrasts in the novel. Wuthering Heights, the house of the moors, and Thrushcross Grange, the house of the valley, present completely opposing worlds and values as they do in their inhabitants: the energetic native civilization and the repressive Christian civilization. The contrast of these two houses adds much to the meaning of this novel, and without it, the story would be less interesting and complex.

Wuthering Heights appears in the novel to be wild, disrupted and hostile. It symbolizes human emotions, love, hate, jealousy, and pride. “Wuthering” is a Yorkshire term for roaring of the wind, thus Wuthering Heights represents nature and the storm. The protagonists Catherine and Heathcliff are driven by irresistible passion-lust, curiosity, ambition, intellectual pride, and envy and are full of wildness just like Wuthering Heights. Natural images that Bronte uses emphasize their bond which is deeply rooted in the free and passionate realms of the natural wilderness. [6]46

On the other hand, Thrushcross Grange appears to be calm, refined and welcoming. It represents the calm and civilization and together with the Linton family symbolizes culture, sophistication, tradition and development. Thrushcross Grange is an estate closer to the town and nicer than that of Wuthering Heights. Thrushcross Grange is in the valley, sheltered from the violent winds and storms that Wuthering Heights tolerated. In a deeper sense, the walls of Thrushcross Grange symbolically protect the Lintons and Catherine from the dangerous influences of Heathcliff and Wuthering Heights itself. It is also described as “buried in trees”, the plants flourishing in the more welcome environment, just as the characters are more able to grow beyond the initial difficulties which impeded their neighbors.[7]1

5.2 Images of Book and wind

Looking at all the times books appear in the novel, it is clearly associated with Thrushcross Grange. There is an entire library of books at the Grange. While

Catherine is sick, Edgar Linton is reading his book. He is in a fit of passion while he resigns to his circle of rational and sophisticated thoughts by reading his books. Thus, books are a symbol in that they represent the culture and sophistication of the Lintons. They are certainly more genteel and possess more reasoning than the Earnshaws and the books represent this. [8]1

Wind represents the very opposite of what the books do. Wind is associated with Wuthering Heights, and therefore with the Earnshaws. Wind represents the uncontrollable passion that the Earnshaws possess and the opposite of the sophisticated withdrawn Lintons. It is raw and natural. Catherine and Heathcliff are the wind because they possess these qualities. Even when Catherine goes to Thrushcross Grange and marries Edgar she cannot deny who she really is on the inside. When she becomes sick after Heathcliff and Edgar have “broken” her heart, she tells Nelly Dean to open the window so that she may feel the wind.

5.3The image of windows

In Wuthering Heights, the interpretation of window imagery causes sudden and quite innovative realization of how Brontë wanted the reader to interpret her words. Windows are transparent, providing a person only with the means by which to see the outside. Windows, like dreams, can cause bitterness simply by making one yearn for what one cannot have. Baring in mind what the cryptic symbol represents, must look upon the elder Catherine in a new light. Nearing the beginning of the story, the elder Catherine and Heathcliff come upon Thrushcross Grange, and wanting to explore this new presence, they “crept through a broken

hedge… and planted (themselves)… under the drawing-room window… and (they) saw—ah! It was beautiful—a splendid place carpeted with crimson… Edgar and his sister had it entirely to themselves; shouldn’t they have been happy? (Catherine and Heathcliff) should have thought (themselves) in heaven!” [1]38. Upon spying the two siblings crying and screaming over minor and insignificant possessions, Catherine and Heathcliff thought that this life style would be a heaven on earth. For Catherine, this vision through the window left her desiring more, instilling a bitterness and sense of inadequacy. Yet even as Catherine comes close to mimicking the scene in the window, her efforts are in vain, for such an existence for her is nothing more than a lie, a dream in which Catherine would be playing as an actor. This can be confirmed by comparing what Catherine sees through a window as a child to what she sees through the window as an adult. In her delirious state prior to death, she fancies that she would be herself again among the heather on the hills. But at this point in the story, the peace of nature and the stability of Heatcliff elude her, and because she is truly delirious, her true dream so to speak is revealed. She bids Nelly to open the window again wide, but Nelly is afraid of Cathy dying a death due to cold. Catherine rebukes her by claiming that Nelly “won’t give (Catherine) a chance at life” [1]98. But this dream, of running free and wild through the moors, is just that, but a dream. Catherine is no longer a child in age, but in maturity she has stopped growing as soon as Heathcliff left. Because of the window symbolism, it becomes clear that Catherine is just acting as a Linton, and that she can never be more than a child in terms of understanding and responsibility. Because of her duplicity she is delirious, losing all sense of true self. This insanity is further established by Edgar telling Ellen to shut the window, when he learns that Catherine is ill. By shutting the window, Catherine’s mind returns as

she delivers a condescending and hurtful speech to Linton, but “By a spring from the window… her soul will be on the hilltop” [1]100 . This means that Catherine’s innate childish, free, and wild like traits, all of the defining innate personality traits that make up the true Cathy, are forever lost in a false dream, a lie. The true Cathy is only attainable by death, by jumping through the window.

Through the image of windows, the true Cathy is described vividly that differs greatly and significantly from a Catherine Linton. A personal growth and change is learnt in perception that Cathy undergoes as she goes from Cathy to Catherine and back to Cathy, this last change being too late to help herself. Windows show what one yearn for, but are unable to reach. They are cruel and deceptive in that they tempt people, but also insightful and resourceful in evaluating one’s desires, personal growth, and oneself. [9]12

5.4 The image of ghosts

The religious images in the book symbolize suppression of feelings because it is all about repenting sins and preparing for death rather than living life to its fullest. The religion used in the book represents the kind of life Catherine and Heathcliff trying to rebel against. [10]44

Ghosts, which is the main religious image in the novel, are apparent throughout Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte emphasizes this by making the reader unsure of whether they really exist or not.

At chapter3, Mr. Lockwood met the ghost of little Catherine, and he stated, “My fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand! The intense horror of nightmare came over me: I tried to draw back my arm, but the hand clung to it.”

[1]20

The theme of the afterlife is repeated all throughout the novel, and is especially reiterated by the fact that Heathcliff had lost Catherine due to consumption. The idea that she could be a ghost is magnified by the fact that Heathcliff had actually seen the ghost himself at the window, and it was Catherine. So author described such a plot that Heathcliff called for the ghost of Catherine insanely. “‘Come in! Come in!’ He (Heathcliff) sobbed. ‘Cathy, do come. Oh do once more! Oh! My heart’s darling! Hear me this time, Catherine, at last!’”

[1]22

Ghosts there are also used in order to explain a character’s personality, and they are used to create suspense in the novel. Brontë uses the presence of ghosts to try and give the reader a greater understanding of Nelly’s character. We are told that she is superstitious, but it is not until she feels the presence of something she thinks of as Hindley that the reader fully understands the extent of her fears and beliefs. [11]1 “It appeared that I beheld my early playmate seated on the withered turf: his dark square head bent forward, and his little hand scooping out the earth with a piece of slate…It vanished in a twinkling; but immediately I felt an irresistible yearning to be at the heights.” [1]92

Nelly is very shaken by the whole experience, and the fact that her superstition

took hold of her, and urged her to the Heights shows that she is very compassionate of her friendship with Hindley as this spot that she saw him in was “a favorite spot twenty years before” . [1]41

Brontë also uses this particular part of the novel to express a certain element of excitement toward the reader. Up until that point in the novel, besides Lockwood’s experience with the ghost of Catherine Linton, there had been few instances where there was a sense of real danger and excitement, and this part is used to this effect.“Superstition urged me to comply with this impulse: supposing he should be dead! I thought-or should die soon! -Supposing it were a sign of death! The nearer I got to the house the more agitated I grew; and catching sight of it I trembled in every limb”. [1]223

The final instance of ghost occurs near to the end of the novel when Catherine and Heathcliff are both dead. There were reported that they had been seen running over the moors together. The significance of this is that it reiterates that of life after death, and in this case the love that Catherine and Heathcliff had for each other still goes on even though they are both deceased. Author wrote that,” and an odd thing happened to me (Mr. Lockwood) about a month ago. I was going to the Grange one evening—a dark evening threatening thunder—and, just at the turn of the Heights, I encountered a little boy with a sheep and two lambs before him; he was crying terribly, and I supposed the lambs were skittish, and would not be guides .’What is the matter, my little man?’I asked. ‘There’s Heathcliff and a woman, yonder, under the ‘Nab,’ he blubbered, ‘un’ I dare not pass ‘em.’” [1]319

All in all, ghosts symbolize the repetition of the past events catching up with the present and the way memories stay with people.

6．Conclusion

Wuthering Heights is a novel, which is full of varied imagery. The author Emily Brontë uses these rich images to describe tense and depressive atmosphere and fierce conflict. In this thesis, imagery is divided into two kinds. One is natural imagery, and the other is non-natural imagery. Different images have different symbolic meaning. The main images Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange symbolize two different cultures. The former, which is wild, disrupted and hostile, symbolizes human emotion, love, jealousy, and pride, connected to Catherine and Heathcliff. The later, which is calm, refined and welcoming, represents the calm and civilization and together with the Linton family, symbolizing culture, sophistication, tradition and development. Storm symbolizes the conflict between these two cultures.

In conclusion, Wuthering Heights is admired not least for Emily Bronte’s poetic vision which is evident in grotesque imagery and symbolism representing the universal opposition between natural world and civilization. Nature wins over culture because it is a living and vitalizing force which offers a refuge from the constraints of civilization.

Acknowledgements

My initial thanks go to my supervisor Jin Fan who patiently supervised my dissertation and was at times very willing to offer me illuminating advice or suggestions. Without her help, I could not have finished this dissertation.

I am also indebted to other teachers and my classmates who have not only offered me their warm encouragements but also shared with me their ideas and books.

My greatest personal debt is to my parents, who have cultivated a soul of sensitivity, hospitality, and honesty out of me, and offered a harbor of happiness and sweetness for me.

The remaining weakness and possible errors of the dissertation are entirely my own.

References

[1] EMILY BRONTE. Wuthering Heights [M]. Britain: Bantam Classics, 1986.

[2] 杨苡译. 呼啸山庄[M]. 上海：译林出版社，1990.

[3] VIRGINIA WOOLF. The Common Reader [M]. Harvest/HBJ Book, 2002.

[4] CRONON, WILLIAM. The Trouble with Wilderness [N].New York: New York Times Magazine, 1995.

[5] CECIL, DAVID. Nineteenth-Century Literature Criticism Volume 16[D]. Gale Research Company, 1987.

[6] Thompson. The Reader’s Guide to Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” [M]. London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1993

[7] 吴华.《呼啸山庄》美丑形态对比研究 [D]. 中南大学,2007

[8] 赵金晶.论《呼啸山庄》中的象征主义[D].河北大学,2008

[9] 张静波.《呼啸山庄》中窗的意象[J].《世界文化》，2007.

[10] GEORGE ORWELL. Literature Study Guides [J].Spark notes.2005.

[11] MORRIS. The Gothic Sublimity [D]. America: Wikipedia, 2005.

This article is from http://www.lunwenwx.com/(鼎力论文网)