《文学概论》期末论文 经典范文
职位名称-古语名句
浙江万里学院20152016学年第二学期
《文学概论》期末论文
班级： 学号： 姓名： 成绩：
The Feminist Approaches to Wuthering Heights
Abstract:
As Wuthering Heights is deemed
to a classic of English literature, it has been
always
attracting considerable readers and
scholars to investigate from different
perspective. Wuthering
Heights expressed the
mental oppression, tension and contradiction of
human beings in capitalist
society in
19
th
century. Based on the previous
studies at home and abroad, this paper will
introduce the female perspective into the
study of Catherine’s tragic fate.
Key words:
Wuthering Heights, the Feminist Approaches,
Catherine, tragic fate
1. The Feminist
Approaches
Feminism is the theory of the
political, economic, and social equality of the
sexes.
Examines ways in which literature
reinforces or undermines the oppression of women.
Feminists examine the experiences of women
from all races and classes and cultures.
According to feminist criticism, the roots of
prejudice against women have long
been
embedded in Western culture. Some say it
originated with biblical narrative
where the
fall of man is blamed on Eve, not Adam. Ancient
Greeks (Aristotle) “The
man is by nature
superior, and the female inferior; and the one
rules and the other is
ruled.” Therefore,
feminism’s goal is to change these degrading views
of women so
that all women will realize they
are not a “non-significant other” and will realize
that
each woman is a valuable person
possessing the same privileges and rights as every
man.
Feminism has caused a major
relocation of values in literary studies and
elsewhere
in Western culture, and it will
continue to challenge long-held beliefs and
practices.
Feminism, as a catalyst for so much
of postmodern literary and cultural studies, will
find itself transformed by its own creations.
2. Human and Nature
1
Emily Bronte was born in a poor priest
house. She is introverted, often wander
wilderness alone to experience the intimate
connection between man and nature.
Besides, at
the end of the 18th century the feminist movement
touched Emily Bronte
deep inside. In her mind,
human and nature is a part of the universe like
everything
else, human being is not the master
of natural, nature provides the spiritual homes
and
shelters for the human, and nature also
consulates the human soul. It is not difficult
for readers to find these thoughts in her
works.
In the Wuthering Heights, the author
often mention wilderness. Actually, the eternal
wilderness is a symbol of nature. Through the
description of moor, the readers can see
the
endless sky, the gurgling streams and the crazy
growing black heather. In the
childhood of
Heathcliff and Catherine, this vast moor is their
amusement park. When
they feel suffocated,
they will flee to this wild vivifying moor to
breathe fresh air, and
release their spirits.
Sometimes, in order to play in the wilderness for
a whole day,
they even do not go to church on
Sunday. Yet the costs have been enormous,
Heathcliff will get a flogging, Catherine will
be hungry for a meal. However, they
would
rather accept the punishment than go to the church
on Sunday. In their
childhood, they’re souls
are connected with the nature. At this time, human
and nature
live in harmony, showing a
beautiful and harmonious scene. At the same time,
the
wilderness is also their love paradise,
their love is very pure, and like the wild plants
grow slowly.
The ecological feminism
believes that women are the most close to the
nature
gender, and the nature is often endowed
with feminality, so natural empathy with
women. In the Wuthering Heights, Catherine is
the daughter of nature, so natural
empathy
with her. When Heathcliff runs away from home, the
thick clouds depress
the wilderness. In other
words, it also depresses Catherine's heart. She is
so anxious
that crying and shouting
constantly. At the same time, the nature seems
that
sympathetic visage, the storm makes a
surprise attack on wuthering heights. It is a
perfect fusion between Catherine’s sadness and
nature’s storm. Actually, after getting
married, Catherine's heart is still yearning
for the wuthering heights and moor.
Besides,
the nature also gave strength to Catherine, when
she falls ill, the nature gives
2
her hope. When she died, she
thinks she go back to the wuthering heights.
Catherine
believes that as long as she return
to the wilderness and breathe the free air over
there,
she will become better.
3. Under
the Patriarchy, Women Lost Their Self
In the
Wuthering Heights, the patriarchy is display well
on the Earnshaws. When
heroine Catherine was a
child, she received a lot of corporal punishment.
Later,
Catherine also achieved maltreatment by
his brother Hindley. Under the domination
of
the patriarchy, the character of Catherine has
been distorted. For Catherine,
Heathcliff just
like her soul. However, Hindley degrades Catherine
and Heathcliff in
every way he can, and
separates them relentlessly. This repression and
bondage hurt
Catherine deeply; she tried her
best to revolt. However, the newly-built firewall
has
been lost due to an accident. She went to
the Thrushcross Grange accidentally; she
lost
herself in the elegant rich atmosphere. She wanted
to change her status by
marriage, she felt
hesitate before the strong desire. She hopes that
she can get a
foothold in the upper society.
“I love the ground under his feet, and the air
over his
head, and everything he touches, and
every world he says – I love his looks, and all
his actions, and him entirely, and altogether.
There now!” Catherine finally chose to
marry
Linton, entered into paradise which arranged by
patriarchal society. The
patriarchy highlight
that marriage is the only way that women can
change their status.
Being set in this
background, Catherine lost herself, gave up her
original intention and
chose to compromise.
Actually, after getting married, Catherine had
to suppress the original self and make
her
behavior correspond to social criterion. This long
depression made her sad and
melancholy. When
she knew Heathcliff came back to Wuthering
Heights, she was in
the seventh heaven of
rapture and hoped she can be freed from the
shackle. She
looked forward to going back to
the joyful and unfettered child life. When she was
sunk into the illusion of the high fever, she
ripped the pillow, the eiderdown fluttering
all over the sky. Perhaps in her
hallucination, the flying eiderdown was
transformed
into the free bird. It indicated
Catherine’s desire for freedom; she gradually
escaped
from confusion, and eventually walked
up on the path of awakening and resistance.
3
4. Awakening and Resistance
Wuthering Heights is a social epitome of the
Victorian Age. At that time, the real
society
is a patriarchal society filled with sharp class
contradiction and racial struggle.
Under the
patriarchy, although Catherine was deprived of all
right, she has never
given up the pursuit of
happiness, which reflected the woman’s rebellious
psychology.
When she was a child, she is
passionate about playing the hostess and giving
orders. It
is thus clear that Catherine wants
to grasp her destiny in the subconscious. Her
father
and brother’s maltreatment also raised
her spirit of resistance. She did not afraid her
brother’s control and abuse even challenge
him, ignored his bans, spent the whole day
on
playing and running with Heathcliff in the
wilderness. All of these are a forceful
resistance to patriarchy.
When Catherine
knew Heathcliff came back to Wuthering Heights,
she could not
restrain the excitement.
Gradually, she was awakened and seemed to retrieve
her soul.
When she sunk into the welcome for
Heathcliff's return, Linton (the spokesman of the
patriarchy) was strictly prohibited for their
close contact. Owing to Catherine has
gradually awakened from the restraint of
marriage, she could not accept this ban and
expressed her strong resistance, and she
demanded that she wanted to have dinner
with
Heathcliff alone. When she sunk into seriously
ill, she mentioned the cemetery,
Ah! You are
come, are you, Edgar Linton? She said, with angry
animation. You
are one of those things that
are ever found when least wanted, and when you are
wanted, never! I suppose we shall have plenty
of lamentations now-I see we
shall-but they
can’t keep me from my narrow home out yonder: my
resting-place, where I’m bound before spring
is over! There it is: not among the
Lintons,
mind, under the chapel-roof, but in the open air,
with a head-stone; and
you may please yourself
whether you go to them or com to me!
These
sharp words indicated that Catherine want to break
the relationship between
her husband who
behalf the patriarchal moral principles. Her
constancy of love is the
stubborn resistance
to the patriarchy. Although the resistance is weak
and forceless,
under the description of Emily
it has achieved sublimation.
5. Conclusion
4
All in all, from the
feminist approaches, Wuthering Heights reveals
that the women
sit on the humble status due to
under the oppression of the patriarchy; women are
subjected to physical abuse and mental
bondage. Although they have lost themselves,
they fight back bravely after awakening.
Catherine spreads infinite strength and
courage to women: break the male culture bound
and achieve female self pursuit.
Catherine's
tragedy is determined by she is too idealistic
about love. She is too
naive, too love
fantasy, and she is always self-centered.
Catherine's marriage and
emotional tendency
reflect that the women in Victorian Age is very
pitiful, when they
pursuit their love and
marriage have to face the predicament, it also
indicates that
eventually their pursuit of
happiness is defeated.
5
Reference:
[1]
王轶美，从《呼啸山庄》看女性的自我追求[J].哈尔滨学院学报，2003（3）： 97-102
[2] 钱青，英钱青，英国19 世纪文学史[M].北京：
外语教学与研究出版社，2006：327-328
[3]
邹广胜.西方男权话语中的女性形象解读[J].外国文学研究,1999,(3).
[4]
Elaine Showalter.A Literature of Their Own─British
WomenNovelists from Brontë to
Lessing[M].Princeton UniversityPress, 2004.
[5] Gilbert Sandram, Gubar Madwoman in the
Attic- the Woman Writer and the
Nineteenth
Centuruy LiteraryImagination[M]. New Haven:Yale
University Press, 1979.
6