自考英语毕业论文范文
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级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
高等教育自学考试
毕业论文
Bronte sisters in the literary history
毕业学校:华南理工大学
办学单位:广东XX职业技术学院
班 级:英语10级
学 生:钟 X X
指导老师:曹老师
提交日期:2012年9月30日
华南理工大学高等教育自学考试
二○一二年六月
1
2012
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
附表4
华南理工大学高等教育自学考试
毕业设计(论文)任务书
办学单位
学生姓名
毕业设计(论文)题
目
毕业设计(论文)目
的及成果要求
毕业设计(论文)内
容及要求
华南理工大学公开学院
指
导
教
师
姓 名
专业技术
职 务
课题来源
曹老师
正高 副高
A
B
√
中级
钟XX
Bronte sisters
in the literary
history
C
D
√
This paper helps people know more
about Bronte Sister on literary. It
include four part
.It
expound Bronte
Sisters’ legendary life.
This article
mainly introduced Bronte Sisters who
made
great
contributions to
literary history.
Introduce their lives , works and
Impression
after reading.
(1) The history of foreign
literature《外国文学史》
Zhejiang University Press
浙江大学出版社
(2) Jane Eyre 《简爱》 Charlotte Bronte
(夏洛蒂·勃朗特 著)
The people's Literature
Publishing House 人民文学出版社
(3) Wuthering Heights
《呼啸山庄》 Emily Bronte(艾米莉·勃朗特 著)
Shanghai Translation Publishing House 上海译文出版社
(4) Agnes Greyy 《艾格尼丝·格雷》 (安妮·勃朗特 著)
Chongqing University Press 重庆出版社
(5) http:
(6) http: 百度百科
主要参考文献
工作进度安排
1. Make the content(3 days )
2. Writing
the draft(1 month)
3. Correcting the draft(3
weeks)
ing the essay(3 weeks)
本任务书于2012年 7
月 10 日发出,毕业设计(论文)应于2012年 9 月 30 日前完成,由指
导老师审阅与评
阅老师评阅后,提交毕业设计(论文
30
)答辩小组进行答辩。
指导教师
曹老师
签发 2012 年 9 月 30日
毕业设计(论文)指导小组组长 审核 年 月 日 注:1.毕业设计(论文)任务书由指导教师填写,由指导教师签发,经毕业设计(论文)指导小组组长审核
后生效。
2.“课题来源”一栏:
A.指导教师的科研课题;
B.指导教师收集的科研和生产实际中的课题;
C.学生在科学活动和工程实践中自立的课题;
D.自拟课题。
在表中相应栏内打“√”
。
2
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
华南理工大学自考办制表
附表5
华南理工大学高等教育自学考试
毕业设计(论文)水平指导教师审阅评语书
毕业设计
(论文)题目
Comparative analysis of
video software
平时成绩
(百分制)
质量成绩
(百分制)
70
65
学生姓名 钟XX 专业 英语 年级 10级
指导教师姓名
曹老师 职称 副教授 办学单位
广东XX职业技术学院
在整个毕业论文撰写过程中,该同学能在老师的严格要求下顺利完成论文的撰写
,并主动与老师沟
通中遇到的各种问题及写作进程。
论文题目与论文的内容基本相符,结构完
整,条理清晰,基本上没有大的语法错误。从内容上看,
结构丰满,论述比较充分,论据与论点切题,作
者有自己独特的感受和观点。但仍存在问题的是少数
论点不够深刻和全面.总体而言,这是一篇合格的论
文,同意答辩!
指导教师签名
曹老师
2012 年 9 月 30 日
注:平时成绩评定依据:1、出勤
、纪律、协作精神;2、独立工作能力;3、工作勤奋及刻苦精神;
4、独立思考与主动性;5、外文资
料翻译情况(本科)。
3
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Abstract
The Brontës were a nineteenth-century literary
family associated with the village of Haworth in
the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The
sisters, Charlotte (born 21 April 1816), Emily
(born
30 July 1818), and Anne (born 17 January
1820), are well known as poets and novelists. They
originally published their poems and novels
under masculine pseudonyms, following the custom
of the times practised by female writers.
Their stories immediately attracted attention,
although
not always the best, for their
passion and originality. Charlotte's Jane Eyre was
the first to know
success, while Emily's
Wuthering Heights, Anne's The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall and other works
were later to be accepted
as masterpieces of literature.
Key words:
Bronte Sister, novel, literature
4
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
摘要
布朗蒂,是19世纪,来自英格兰约克郡布拉福德的西北部的小村庄的一个著
名的文
学世家。其中的三姐妹夏洛蒂,艾米莉,安妮是以她们的诗作最为著名。她们根据当
时的
传统惯例,她们以男性笔名的身份出版了诗集和小说。她们的故事很有吸引力,
即使不是最好的,但很有
他们的激情和创造力。《简爱》是夏洛蒂最为著名的作品,而之
后艾米莉的《呼啸山庄》,安妮的《女房
客》和之后的其他的一些作品被当做世界文学史上
不可多得的著作。
关键词:布朗蒂,小说,文学
5
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Contents
Abstract ........................
..................................................
..................................................
.................. 4
摘要 ......................
..................................................
..................................................
......................... 5
Introduction .....
..................................................
..................................................
............................ 7
Chapter1 Brief
introduction of Bronte Sisters....................
..................................................
..................... 8
1.1Charlotte Bronte ..
..................................................
..................................................
........................ 8
1.2Emily Bronte ...
..................................................
..................................................
..........................10
1.3Anne Bronte ..
..................................................
..................................................
............................13
Chapter 2 .
main works of Bronte Sisters .....................
..................................................
......................17
2.1Jane Eyre ........
..................................................
..................................................
...........................17
2.2Wuthering
Heights ..........................................
..................................................
............................ 223
2.3Agnes Grey
..................................................
..................................................
.............................. 299
Chapter 3
Bronte Sisters on the influence of world
literature .......................................
...........................32
3.1Charlotte
Bronte ...........................................
..................................................
................................32
3.2Emily
Bronte ...........................................
..................................................
....................................32
3.3Anne
Bronte ...........................................
..................................................
.....................................33
Chapter 4 Impression after reading ..........
..................................................
.........................................35
4.1The Independent Spirit—— Jane Eyre.........
..................................................
....................................35
4.2Love
and revenge——Wuthering heights....................
..................................................
.....................35
4.3 With the reality
of the struggle——Agnes Grey ......................
..................................................
.........36
Chapter 5 conclusion. ..........
..................................................
..................................................
........38
Referece ..........................
..................................................
..................................................
..............40
Acknowledgement .............
..................................................
..................................................
.............41
6
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Intoduction
Jane Eyre is a independent
character of female narrative. Emily Bronte’s’
Wuthering Heights is
on the extreme love and
personality description. To these fictional worlds
were the product of
fertile imagination fed by
reading, discussion, and a passion for literature.
Far from suffering
from the negative
influences that never left them and which were
reflected in the works of their
later, more
mature years, the Brontë Sisters absorbed them
with open arms .To most people
impressive
lonely mood is Anne Bronte’s’ Agnes conclusion
,they are all talented.
In my paper here
,there will have four chapters to my view my point
:Chapter one describe Brief
introduction of
Bronte Sisters. Chapter two present main works of
Bronte Sisters, such as Jane
Eyre, Wuthering
Heights. Chapter three is that Bronte Sisters on
the influence of world literature.
Chapter
four is the conclusion.
7
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Chpter1 Brief
introduction of Bronte Sisters
1.1Charlotte
Bronte
Charlotte Bronte (21 April 1816 – 31
March 1855) was an
English novelist and poet,
the eldest of the three Brontë
sisters who
survived into adulthood, whose novels are
English literature standards. She wrote Jane
Eyre under the
pen name Currer Bell.
1.1.1
Early life and education
Charlotte was born in
Thornton, Yorkshire in 1816, the
third of six
children, to Maria (née Branwell) and her
husband Patrick Brontë (formerly surnamed
Brunty or
Prunty), an Irish Anglican
clergyman. In 1820, the family
图1- 1
http:
?ct=50331
6480&z=0&tn=baiduimagedetail&
move
d a few miles to the village of Haworth, where
Patrick had been appointed Perpetual Curate
of
St Michael and All Angels Church. Charlotte's
mother died of cancer on 15 September 1821,
leaving five daughters and a son to be taken
care of by her sister Elizabeth Branwell.
In
August 1824, Charlotte was sent with three of her
sisters, Emily, Maria, and Elizabeth, to the
Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan Bridge in
Lancashire (She used the school as the basis for
Lowood School in Jane Eyre). The school's poor
conditions, Charlotte maintained, permanently
affected her health and physical development
and hastened the deaths of her two elder sisters,
Maria (born 1814) and Elizabeth (born 1815),
who died of tuberculosis in June 1825. Soon after
their deaths, her father removed Charlotte and
Emily from the school.
At home in Haworth
Parsonage Charlotte acted as
younger sisters—
Branwell, Emily, and Anne – created their
own
literary fictional worlds, and began chronicling
the lives and struggles of the inhabitants of
these imaginary kingdoms. Charlotte and
Branwell wrote Byronic stories about their
imagined
country,
created were elaborate
and convoluted (and still exist in partial
manuscripts) and provided them
with an
obsessive interest during childhood and early
adolescence, which prepared them for their
literary vocations in adulthood.
8
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Charlotte
continued her education at Roe Head in Mirfield,
from 1831 to 1832, where she met her
lifelong
friends and correspondents, Ellen Nussey and Mary
Taylor.[1] Shortly after she wrote the
novella
The Green Dwarf (1833) using the name Wellesley.
Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a
teacher
from 1835 to 1838. In 1839, she took up the first
of many positions as governess to
families in
Yorkshire, a career she pursued until 1841.
Politically a Tory, she preached tolerance
rather than revolution. She held high moral
principles, and, despite her shyness in company,
was
always prepared to argue her beliefs.
Brussels
In 1842 Charlotte and Emily
travelled to Brussels to enrol in a boarding
school run by Constantin
Heger (1809–96) and
his wife Claire Zoé Parent Heger (1804–87). In
return for board and tuition,
Charlotte taught
English and Emily taught music. Their time at the
boarding school was cut short
when Elizabeth
Branwell, their aunt who joined the family after
the death of their mother to look
after the
children, died of internal obstruction in October
1842. Charlotte returned alone to
Brussels in
January 1843 to take up a teaching post at the
school. Her second stay was not a
happy one;
she became lonely, homesick and deeply attached to
Constantin Heger. She returned
to Haworth in
January 1844 and used her time at the boarding
school as the inspiration for some
experiences
in The Professor and Villette.
1.1.2 Novels
Jane Eyre, published 1847
Shirley,
published in 1849
Villette, published in 1853
The Professor, written before Jane Eyre,
submitted at first along with Wuthering Heights
and
Agnes Grey, then separately, and rejected
in either form by many publishing houses,
published
posthumously in 1857
Emma,
unfinished; Charlotte Brontë wrote only 20 pages
of the manuscript, published
posthumously in
1860. In recent decades, at least two
continuations of this fragment have
appeared:
Emma, by and Another Lady
attributed to
Elizabeth Goudge, the actual author was Constance
Savery.
Emma Brown, by Clare Boylan,
published 2003
9
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Poetry
Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846)
Selected Poems of The Brontës, Everyman Poetry
(1997)
1.1.3 Illness and subsequent death
In June 1854, Charlotte married Arthur Bell
Nicholls, her father's curate and possibly the
model
for Jane Eyre's St. John Rivers. She
became pregnant soon after the marriage. Her
health declined
rapidly during this time, and
according to Gaskell, she was attacked by
nausea and ever-recurring faintness.
the
age of 38. Her death certificate gives the cause
of death as phthisis (tuberculosis), but many
biographers suggest she may have died from
dehydration and malnourishment, caused by
excessive vomiting from severe morning
sickness or hyperemesis gravidarum. There is
evidence
to suggest that Charlotte died from
typhus she may have caught from Tabitha Ackroyd,
the
Brontë household's oldest servant, who
died shortly before her. Charlotte was interred in
the
family vault in the Church of St Michael
and All Angels at Haworth.
Posthumously, her
first-written novel was published in 1857. The
fragment she worked on in her
last years in
1860 has been twice completed by recent authors,
the more famous version being
Emma Brown: A
Novel from the Unfinished Manuscript by Charlotte
Brontë by Clare Boylan in
2003. Much Angria
material has appeared in published form since the
author's death.
1.2 Emily Brontë
Emily
Jane Brontë (30 July 1818 – 19 December 1848) was
an
English novelist and poet, best remembered
for her solitary
novel, Wuthering Heights, now
considered a classic of English
literature.
Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving
Brontë
siblings, between the youngest Anne and
her brother Branwell.
She published under the
pen name Ellis Bell.
Emily Brontë was born on
30 July 1818 in Thornton, near
Bradford in
Yorkshire, to Maria Branwell and Patrick Brontë.
She was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë
and the fifth of
图1- 2
http:?ct=503316480&
z=&tn=baiduimagedetail&word=Emily%2
10
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
six children.
In 1824, the family moved to Haworth, where
Emily's father was perpetual curate,
and it
was in these surroundings that their literary
gifts flourished.
1.2.1 Early life and
education
After the death of their mother in
1821, when Emily was three years old,[3] the older
sisters
Maria, Elizabeth and Charlotte were
sent to the Clergy Daughters' School at Cowan
Bridge,
where they encountered abuse and
privations later described by Charlotte in Jane
Eyre. Emily
joined the school for a brief
period. When a typhus epidemic swept the school,
Maria and
Elizabeth caught it. Maria, who may
actually have had tuberculosis, was sent home,
where she
died. Emily was subsequently removed
from the school along with Charlotte and
Elizabeth.
Elizabeth died soon after their
return home.
The three remaining sisters and
their brother Patrick Branwell were thereafter
educated at home
by their father and aunt
Elizabeth Branwell, their mother's sister. In
their leisure time the children
created a
number of fantasy worlds, which were featured in
stories they wrote and enacted about
the
imaginary adventures of their toy soldiers along
with the Duke of Wellington and his sons,
Charles and Arthur Wellesley. Little of
Emily's work from this period survives, except for
poems
spoken by characters (The Brontës' Web
of Childhood, Fannie Ratchford, 1941).[4] When
Emily
was 13, she and Anne withdrew from
participation in the Angria story and began a new
one about
Gondal, a large island in the North
Pacific. With the exception of Emily's Gondal
poems and
Anne's lists of Gondal's characters
and place-names, their writings on Gondal were not
preserved.
Some
some of which were
written, others enacted with Anne. One dates from
1841, when Emily was
twenty-three: another
from 1845, when she was twenty-seven.
At
seventeen, Emily attended the Roe Head girls'
school, where Charlotte was a teacher, but
managed to stay only three months before being
overcome by extreme homesickness. She
returned
home and Anne took her place.[6] At this time, the
girls' objective was to obtain
sufficient
education to open a small school of their own.
1.2.2 Adulthood
Emily became a teacher at
Law Hill School in Halifax beginning in September
1838, when she
was twenty. Her health broke
under the stress of the 17-hour work day and she
returned home in
April 1839. Thereafter she
became the stay-at-home daughter, doing most of
the cooking and
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
cleaning and
teaching Sunday school. She taught herself German
out of books and practised
piano.
Constantin Heger, teacher of Charlotte and
Emily during their stay in Brussels, on a
daguerreotype dated from circa 1865.
Plaque in BrusselsIn 1842, Emily accompanied
Charlotte to Brussels, Belgium, where they
attended a girls' academy run by Constantin
Heger. They planned to perfect their French and
German in anticipation of opening their
school. Nine of Emily's French essays survive from
this
period. The sisters returned home upon
the death of their aunt. They did try to open a
school at
their home, but were unable to
attract students to the remote 1844, Emily began
going
through all the poems she had written,
recopying them neatly into two notebooks. One was
labelled
Roper have attempted to piece
together a Gondal storyline and chronology from
these poems. In
the autumn of 1845, Charlotte
discovered the notebooks and insisted that the
poems be published.
Emily, furious at the
invasion of her privacy, at first refused, but
relented when Anne brought out
her own
manuscripts and revealed she had been writing
poems in secret as well.
In 1846, the sisters'
poems were published in one volume as Poems by
Currer, Ellis, and Acton
Bell. The Brontë
sisters had adopted pseudonyms for publication:
Charlotte was Currer Bell,
Emily was Ellis
Bell and Anne was Acton Bell. Charlotte wrote in
the
Ellis and Acton Bell
scruple at
assuming Christian names positively masculine,
while we did not like to declare
ourselves
women, because... we had a vague impression that
authoresses are liable to be looked
on with
prejudice[.]
Although the sisters were told
several months after publication that only two
copies had sold,
they were not discouraged.
The Athenaeum reviewer praised Ellis Bell's work
for its music and
power, and the Critic
reviewer recognized
utilitarian age had
devoted to the loftier exercises of the
intellect.
1.2.3 Death
Emily's health, like
her sisters', had been weakened by unsanitary
conditions at home, the source
of water being
contaminated by runoff from the church's
graveyard. She became sick during her
brother's funeral in September 1848. Though
her condition worsened steadily, she rejected
medical help and all proffered remedies,
saying that she would have
her. She eventually
died of tuberculosis, on 19 December 1848 at
around two in the afternoon.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
She was
interred in the Church of St. Michael and All
Angels family vault, Haworth, West
Yorkshire.
1.3 Anne Bronte
Anne Bronte (17 January
1820 – 28 May 1849) was
a British novelist and
poet, the youngest member of
the Brontë
literary family.
The daughter of a poor Irish
clergyman in the Church
of England, Anne
Bronte lived most of her life with
her family
at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire
moors. For a couple of years she went to a
boarding
school. At the age of nineteen, she
left Haworth
working as a governess between
1839 and 1845.
After leaving her teaching
position, she fulfilled her
literary
ambitions. She wrote a volume of poetry with
her sisters (Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton
Bell,
1846) and in short succession she wrote
two novels.
Agnes Grey, based upon her
experiences as a
governess, was published in
1847. Her second and
图1- 3
http:?ct=503316
480&z=&t
n=baiduimagedetail&word=Anne%20Bront%<
br>last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which
is mainly considered to be one of the first
sustained
feminist novels, appeared in 1848.
Anne's life was cut short with her death of
pulmonary
tuberculosis when she was 29 years
old.
Mainly because the republication of The
Tenant of Wildfell Hall was prevented by Charlotte
Brontë after its author's death, Anne is less
known than her sisters, Charlotte, author of four
novels including Jane Eyre; and Emily, author
of Wuthering Heights. Anne's two novels, written
in a sharp and ironic style, are completely
different from the romanticism followed by her
sisters.
She wrote in a realistic, rather than
a romantic style. Her novels, like those of her
sisters, have
become classics of English
literature
1.3.1 Early life
Anne, the
youngest member of the Brontë children, was born
on 17 January 1820, at 74 Market
Street in
Thornton where her father was curate and she was
baptised there on 25 March 1820.
Shortly
after, Anne's father was appointed to the
perpetual curacy in Haworth, a small town seven
13
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
miles (11 km) away. In April 1820, the Brontës
moved into Haworth Parsonage, a five-room
building which became their home for the rest
of their lives.
Anne was barely a year old
when her mother became ill of what is believed to
have been uterine
cancer. Maria Branwell died
on 15 September 1821. In order to provide a mother
for his children,
Patrick tried to remarry,
but he had no success. Maria's sister, Elizabeth
Branwell (1776–1842),
moved to the parsonage,
initially to nurse her dying sister, but she
subsequently spent the rest of
her life there
raising the children. She did it from a sense of
duty, but she was a stern woman who
expected
respect, rather than love. There was little
affection between her and the eldest children,
but she related to Anne, her favourite
according to tradition. Anne shared a room with
her aunt,
they were close which may have
influenced Anne's personality and religious
beliefs.
In Elizabeth Gaskell's biography,
Anne's father remembered her as precocious,
reporting that
once, when she was four years
old, in reply to his question about what a child
most wanted, she
answered:
In summer 1824,
Patrick sent his eldest daughters Maria,
Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily to
Crofton Hall
in Crofton, West Yorkshire, and later to the
Clergy Daughter's School at Cowan
Bridge in
Lancashire. When his two eldest daughters died of
consumption in 1825, Maria on 6
May and
Elizabeth on 15 June, Charlotte and Emily were
immediately brought home. The
unexpected
deaths distressed the family so much that Patrick
could not face sending them away
again. For
the next five years, the Brontë children were
educated at home, largely by their father
and
aunt. The Brontë children made little attempt to
mix with others outside the parsonage, but
relied on each other for friendship and
companionship. The bleak moors surrounding Haworth
became their playground.
1.3.2 Juvenilia
Around 1831, when Anne was eleven, she and
Emily broke away from Charlotte and Branwell to
create and develop their own fantasy world,
Gondal. Anne was particularly close to Emily
especially after Charlotte's departure for Roe
Head School, in January 1831.[30] When
Charlotte's friend Ellen Nussey visited
Haworth in 1833, she reported that Emily and Anne
were
different in appearance from the
others, and she was her aunt's favourite. Her hair
was a very
pretty light brown, and fell on her
neck in graceful curls. She had lovely violet-blue
eyes; fine
pencilled eyebrows and a clear
almost transparent complexion. She still pursued
her studies and
especially her sewing, under
the surveillance of her aunt.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
she returned
from Roe Head. Charlotte returned to Roe Head as a
teacher on 29 July 1835
accompanied by Emily
as a pupil; her tuition largely financed by
Charlotte's teaching. Within a
few months,
Emily unable to adapt to life at school, was
physically ill from homesickness. She
was
withdrawn from school by October, and replaced by
Anne.
Aged fifteen, it was Anne's first time
away from home, and she made few friends at Roe
Head.
She was quiet and hard working, and
determined to stay and get the education she
needed to
support herself. Anne stayed for two
years, winning a good-conduct medal in December
1836,
and returning home only during Christmas
and the summer holidays. Anne and Charlotte do not
appear to have been close while at Roe Head
(Charlotte's letters almost never mention Anne)
but
Charlotte was concerned about her sister's
health. Sometime before December 1837, Anne
became seriously ill with gastritis and
underwent a religious crisis. A Moravian minister
was
called to see her several times during her
illness, suggesting her distress was caused, in
part, by
conflict with the local Anglican
clergy. Charlotte wrote to her father who took
Anne home where
she remained while she
recovered.
1.3.3 A book of poems
The
Brontë sisters, painted by their brother,
Branwell, c. 1834. From left to right: Anne, Emily
and Charlotte (there still remains a shadow of
Branwell, which appeared after he painted himself
out).
In summer 1845, all the Brontës were
at home with their father. None had any immediate
prospect of employment. At this time Charlotte
came across Emily's poems which had been
shared only with Anne, her partner in the
world of Gondal. Charlotte proposed that they be
published. Anne revealed her own poems.
Charlotte's reaction was characteristically
patronising:
reached an agreement. They
told neither Branwell, nor their father, nor their
friends about what
they were doing. Anne and
Emily contributed 21 poems and Charlotte 19. With
Aunt Branwell's
money, the sisters paid to
have the collection published
Afraid their
work would be judged differently if they revealed
they were women, the book
appeared under three
pseudonyms—or pen-names, the initials of which
were the same as their
own.[57] Charlotte
became Currer Bell, Emily, Ellis Bell and Anne,
Acton Bell. Poems by Currer,
Ellis, and Acton
Bell was available for sale in May 1846. The cost
of publication was about
three-quarters of
Anne's salary at Thorp Green. On 7 May 1846, the
first three copies of the book
were delivered
to Haworth Parsonage. It achieved three somewhat
favourable reviews, but was a
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dismal
failure, with only two copies being sold in the
first year. Anne, however, began to find a
market for her more recent poetry. Both the
Leeds Intelligencer and Fraser's Magazine
published
her poem
Fraser's Magazine had
published her poem
1.3.4 Death
Anne
Bronte's grave at Scarborough
In February
1849, Anne seemed somewhat better. She decided to
make a return visit to
Scarborough in the hope
that the change of location and fresh sea air
might initiate a recoveryOn
24 May 1849, Anne
said her goodbyes to her father and the servants
at Haworth, and set off for
Scarborough with
Charlotte and Ellen Nussey. En route, they spent a
day and a night in York,
where, escorting Anne
around in a wheelchair, they did some shopping,
and at Anne's request,
visited York Minster.
However, it was clear that Anne had little
strength left.
On Sunday, 27 May, Anne asked
Charlotte whether it would be easier if she
returned home to
die instead of remaining at
Scarborough. A doctor, consulted the next day,
indicated that death
was close. Anne received
the news quietly. She expressed her love and
concern for Ellen and
Charlotte, and seeing
Charlotte's distress, whispered to her to
Anne
died at about two o'clock in the afternoon,
Monday, 28 May 1849.
Over the following days,
Charlotte made the decision to
Anne was
buried, not in Haworth with the rest of her
family, but in Scarborough. The funeral was
held on Wednesday, 30 May, which did not allow
time for Patrick Brontë to make the 70-mile
(110 km) journey, had he wished to do so. The
former schoolmistress at Roe Head, Miss Wooler,
was in Scarborough and she was the only other
mourner at Anne's funeral. She was buried in St.
Mary's churchyard, beneath the castle walls,
overlooking the bay. Charlotte commissioned a
stone to be placed over her grave, with the
simple inscription
Brontë, daughter of the
Revd. P. Bronte, Incumbent of Haworth, Yorkshire.
She died, Aged 28,
28 May 1849
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Chapter 2 . main works of Bronte Sisters
2.1 Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre
is a novel by
English writer Charlotte Brontë.
It was
published in London, England, in 1847 by Smith,
Elder & Co. with the title Jane Eyre. An
Autobiography
under the pen name
edition
was released the following year by Harper &
Brothers of New York. Writing for the Penguin
edition,
Stevie Davies describes it as an
because of its in-depth exploration of a
strong female
character's
feelings.
Primarily
of the
图2- 1
http:ject2069659
bildungsroman genre, Jane
Eyre follows the emotions
and experiences of
eponymous Jane Eyre, her growth to
adulthood,
and her love for Mr. Rochester, the byronic[1]
master of Thornfield Hall. The novel contains
elements
of social criticism, with a strong
sense of morality at its
core, but is
nonetheless a novel many consider ahead of
its
time given the individualistic character of Jane
and the novel's exploration of sexuality,
图2-
2
http:?ct=503316480&z=&tn=b
aiduimagedetai
l&word=Jane%20Eyre&in=20933
religion, and
proto-feminism.
Jane Eyre is a first-person
narrative of the title character.
The novel
goes through five distinct stages: Jane's
childhood at Gateshead, where she is
emotionally and physically abused by her aunt
and cousins; her education at Lowood School,
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where she acquires friends and role models but
also suffers privations and oppression; her time
as
the governess of Thornfield Hall, where she
falls in love with her Byronic employer, Edward
Rochester; her time with the Rivers family
during which her earnest but cold clergyman
cousin,
St John Rivers, proposes to her; and
the finale with her reunion with, and marriage to,
her
beloved Rochester.
Jane Eyre is
divided into 38 chapters and most editions are at
least 400 pages long. The original
publication
was in three volumes, comprising chapters 1 to 15,
16 to 26, and 27 to 38; this was a
common
publishing format during the 19th century (see
three-volume novel).
Brontë dedicated the
novel's second edition to William Makepeace
Thackeray
2.1.1 Plot summary
Young Jane
argues with her guardian Mrs. Reed of Gateshead.
Illustration by F. H. Townsend.
The novel
begins with a ten-year-old orphan named Jane Eyre
who is living with her maternal
uncle's
family, the Reeds, as her uncle's dying wish.
Jane's parents died of typhus. Jane’s aunt
Sarah Reed does not like her and treats her
worse than a servant and discourages and at times
forbids her children from associating with
her. She claimed that Jane was not worthy of
notice.
She and her three children are abusive
to Jane, physically and emotionally. One day Jane
is
locked in the red room, where her uncle
died, and panics after seeing visions of him. She
is
finally rescued when she is allowed to
attend Lowood School for Girls. Before she leaves,
she
stands up to Mrs. Reed and declares that
she'll never call her
everyone at Lowood how
cruel she was to her. And says that Mrs. Reed is
deceitful, as well as
her daughter Georgiana.
John Reed, her son, a very rude and disrespectful,
even to his own
mother, who he sometimes had
called
hated by her even more than Mrs. Reed.
Mr. Reed had been the only one in the Reed family
to be
kind to Jane. The servant Abbot is also
always rude to Jane. The servant Bessie is
sometimes
scolding and sometimes nice. Jane
liked Bessie the best.
Jane arrives at Lowood
Institution, a charity school, the head of which
(Brocklehurst) has been
told that she is
deceitful. During an inspection, Jane accidentally
breaks her slate, and Mr.
Brocklehurst, the
self-righteous clergyman who runs the school,
brands her a liar and shames her
before the
entire assembly. Jane is comforted by her friend,
Helen Burns. Miss Temple, a caring
teacher,
facilitates Jane's self-defense and writes to Mr.
Lloyd, whose reply agrees with Jane's.
Ultimately, Jane is publicly cleared of Mr.
Brocklehurst's accusations.
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The eighty
pupils at Lowood are subjected to cold rooms, poor
meals, and thin clothing. Many
students fall
ill when a typhus epidemic strikes. Jane's friend
Helen dies of consumption in her
arms. When
Mr. Brocklehurst's neglect and dishonesty are
discovered, several benefactors erect a
new
building and conditions at the school improve
dramatically.
After six years as a student and
two years as a teacher, Jane decides to leave
Lowood, like her
friend and confidante Miss
Temple. She advertises her services as a
governess, and receives one
reply. It is from
Alice Fairfax, the housekeeper at Thornfield Hall.
She takes the position,
teaching Adele Varens,
a young French girl. While Jane is walking one
night to a nearby town, a
horseman passes her.
The horse slips on ice and throws the rider. She
helps him to the horse.
Later, back at the
mansion she learns that this man is Edward
Rochester, master of the house. He
teases her,
asking whether she bewitched his horse to make him
fall. Adele is his ward, left in Mr.
Rochester's care when her mother died. Mr.
Rochester and Jane enjoy each other's company and
spend many hours together.
Odd things
start to happen at the house, such as a strange
laugh, a mysterious fire in Mr.
Rochester's
room, on which Jane throws water, and an attack on
Rochester's house guest, Mr.
Mason. Jane
receives word that her aunt was calling for her,
after being in much grief because her
son has
died. She returns to Gateshead and remains there
for a month caring for her dying aunt.
Mrs.
Reed gives Jane a letter from Jane's paternal
uncle, Mr John Eyre, asking for her to live with
him. Mrs. Reed admits to telling her uncle
that Jane had died of fever at Lowood. Soon after,
Jane's aunt dies, and she returns to
Thornfield. Jane begins to communicate to her
uncle John
Eyre.
St. John Rivers admits
Jane to Moor House.
After returning to
Thornfield, Jane broods over Mr. Rochester's
impending marriage to Blanche
Ingram. But on a
midsummer evening, he proclaims his love for Jane
and proposes. As she
prepares for her wedding,
Jane's forebodings arise when a strange, savage-
looking woman sneaks
into her room one night
and rips her wedding veil in two. As with the
previous mysterious events,
Mr. Rochester
attributes the incident to drunkenness on the part
of Grace Poole, one of his
servants. During
the wedding ceremony, Mr. Mason and a lawyer
declare that Mr. Rochester
cannot marry
because he is still married to Mr. Mason’s sister
Bertha. Mr. Rochester admits this
is true, but
explains that his father tricked him into the
marriage for her money. Once they were
united,
he discovered that she was rapidly descending into
madness and eventually locked her
away in
Thornfield, hiring Grace Poole as a nurse to look
after her. When Grace gets drunk, his
wife
escapes, and causes the strange happenings at
Thornfield. Mr. Rochester asks Jane to go
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
with him
to the south of France, and live as husband and
wife, even though they cannot be
married.
Refusing to go against her principles, and despite
her love for him, Jane leaves
Thornfield in
the middle of the night.
Jane travels through
England using the little money she had saved. She
accidentally leaves her
bundle of possessions
on a coach and has to sleep on the moor, trying to
trade her scarf and
gloves for food.
Exhausted, she makes her way to the home of Diana
and Mary Rivers, but is
turned away by the
housekeeper. She faints on the doorstep, preparing
for her death. St. John
Rivers, Diana and
Mary's brother and a clergyman, saves her. After
she regains her health, St.
John finds her a
teaching position at a nearby charity school. Jane
becomes good friends with the
sisters, but St.
John remains reserved.
The sisters leave for
governess jobs and St. John becomes closer with
Jane. St. John discovers
Jane's true identity,
and astounds her by showing her a letter stating
that her uncle John Eyre has
died and left her
his entire fortune of £20,000 (equivalent to over
£45.5 million in 2009,
calculated using the
share of GDP). When Jane questions him further,
St. John reveals that John
is also his and his
sisters' uncle. They had once hoped for a share of
the inheritance, but have
since resigned
themselves to nothing. Jane, overjoyed by finding
her family, insists on sharing the
money
equally with her cousins, and Diana and Mary come
to Moor House to stay.
Thinking she will make
a suitable missionary's wife, St. John asks Jane
to marry him and to go
with him to India, not
out of love, but out of duty. Jane initially
accepts going to India, but rejects
the
marriage proposal, suggesting they travel as
brother and sister. As soon as Jane's resolve
against marriage to St. John begins to weaken,
she mysteriously hears Mr. Rochester's voice
calling her name. Jane then returns to
Thornfield to find only blackened ruins. She
learns that Mr.
Rochester's wife set the house
on fire and committed suicide by jumping from the
roof. In his
rescue attempts, Mr. Rochester
lost a hand and his eyesight. Jane reunites with
him, but he fears
that she will be repulsed by
his condition. When Jane assures him of her love
and tells him that
she will never leave him,
Mr. Rochester again proposes and they are married.
He eventually
recovers enough sight to see
their first-born son.
2.1.2 Chararscte
Jane Eyre: The protagonist of the novel and
the title character. Orphaned as a baby, she
struggles
through her nearly loveless
childhood and becomes governess at Thornfield
Hall. Jane is
passionate and opinionated, and
values freedom and independence. She also has a
strong
conscience and is a determined
Christian.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Mr. Reed:
Jane's maternal uncle, who adopts Jane when her
parents die. According to Mrs. Reed,
he pitied
Jane and often cared for her more than for his own
children. Before his own death, he
makes his
wife promise to care for Jane.
Mrs. Sarah
Reed: Jane's aunt by marriage, who adopts Jane on
her husband's wishes, but abuses
and neglects
her. She eventually disowns her and sends her to
Lowood School.
John Reed: Jane's cousin, who
as a child bullies Jane constantly, sometimes in
his mother's
presence. He ruins himself as an
adult by drinking and gambling and is thought to
have
committed suicide.
Eliza Reed: Jane's
cousin. Bitter because she is not as attractive as
her sister, she devotes herself
self-
righteously to religion. She leaves for a nunnery
near Lisle after her mother's death,
determined to estrange herself from her
sister.
Georgiana Reed: Jane's cousin. Though
spiteful and insolent, she is also beautiful and
indulged.
Her sister Eliza foils her marriage
to the wealthy Lord Edwin Vere, when they were
about to
elope. She also becomes a friend of
Jane's towards the end of the novel and eventually
marries a
wealthy man.
Bessie Lee: The
plain-spoken nursemaid at Gateshead. She often
treats Jane kindly, telling her
stories and
singing her songs. Later she marries Robert
Leaven.
Robert Leaven: The coachman at
Gateshead, who brings Jane the news of John Reed's
death,
which brought on Mrs. Reed's stroke.
Mr. Lloyd: A compassionate apothecary who
recommends that Jane be sent to school. Later, he
writes a letter to Miss Temple confirming
Jane's account of her childhood and thereby
clearing
Jane of Mrs. Reed's charge of lying.
Mr. Brocklehurst: The clergyman headmaster and
treasurer of Lowood School, whose
maltreatment
of the students is eventually exposed. A religious
traditionalist, he advocates for his
charges
the most harsh, plain, and discipline possible
lifestyle—but not, hypocritically, for
himself
and his family. His second daughter Augusta hereby
states:
and plain all the girls at Lowood
look... they look at my dress and mama's, as if
they never seen a
silk gown before.
Miss
Maria Temple: The kind superintendent of Lowood
School, who treats the students with
respect
and compassion. She helps clear Jane of Mr.
Brocklehurst's false accusation of deceit, and
cares for Helen in her last days.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Miss
Scatcherd: A sour and vicious teacher at Lowood.
Helen Burns: Jane's best friend at Lowood
School. She refuses to hate those who abuse her,
trusting in God and praying for peace one day
in heaven. She teaches Jane to trust Christianity,
and dies of consumption in Jane's arms.
Elizabeth Gaskell, in her biography of the Brontë
sisters,
wrote that Helen Burns was 'an exact
transcript' of Maria Brontë, who died of
Consumption at
age 11.
Edward Fairfax
Rochester: The master of Thornfield Manor. A
Byronic hero, he is tricked into
making an
unfortunate first marriage to Bertha Mason many
years before he meets Jane, with
whom he falls
madly in love.
Bertha Antoinetta Mason: The
violently insane first wife of Edward Rochester;
moved to
Thornfield and locked in the attic.
Adèle Varens: An excitable French child to
whom Jane is governess at Thornfield. She has been
Mr. Rochester's ward since the death of her
mother, Rochester's mistress.
Mrs. Alice
Fairfax: An elderly widow and the housekeeper of
Thornfield Manor. She cares for
both Jane and
Mr. Rochester.
Leah: The young, pretty and
kind housemaid at Thornfield, with an occasional
excitable nature.
Blanche Ingram: A socialite
whom Mr. Rochester temporarily courts in order to
make Jane
jealous. She is described as having
great beauty, but displays callous behaviour and
avaricious
intent.
Richard Mason: An
Englishman from the West Indies, whose sister is
Mr. Rochester's first wife.
He took part in
tricking Mr. Rochester into marrying Bertha,
earning both of their anger. He still,
however, cares for his sister's well-being.
Grace Poole: Bertha Mason's caretaker. Mr.
Rochester pays her a very high salary to keep
Bertha
hidden and quiet, and she is often used
as an explanation for odd happenings. She has a
weakness
for drink that occasionally allows
Bertha to escape.
St. John Eyre Rivers: A
clergyman who befriends Jane and turns out to be
her cousin. He is
thoroughly practical and
suppresses all his human passions and emotions in
favour of piety. He is
determined to go to
India as a missionary, even if it means losing his
love, Rosamond.
Diana and Mary Rivers: St.
John's sisters and (as it turns out) Jane's
cousins. They are poor,
intelligent, and kind-
hearted, and want St. John to stay in England.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Rosamond Oliver: A beautiful, wealthy young
woman, the patron of the village school where
Jane teaches. She falls in love with St. John,
only to be rejected because she will not make a
good
missionary's wife.
Alice Wood: Jane's
maid when she is mistress of the girls' charity
school in Morton.
John Eyre: Jane's paternal
uncle, who leaves her his vast fortune and wishes
to adopt her at the
age of 13. Mrs. Reed
prevents the adoption out of spite towards Jane.
Mr. Oliver: Rosamond Oliver's father. He is a
kind and charitable old man and is fond of St.
John.
.2.1.3 Themes
This section may
contain original research. Please improve it by
verifying the claims made and
adding
references. Statements consisting only of original
research may be removed.
2.2 Wuthering Heights
Wuthering Heights
is the only published
novel by Emily Brontë, written between October
1845
and June 1846 and published in July of
the following year. It was not printed until
December
1847, after the success of her sister
Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, under the
pseudonym
Ellis Bell. A posthumous second
edition was edited by Charlotte in 1850.
The
title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor
on the moors of the story. The narrative
centres on the all-encompassing, passionate,
but ultimately doomed love between Catherine
Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this
unresolved passion eventually destroys them and
the
people around them.
Today considered a
classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights
met with mixed reviews and
controversy when it
first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's
stark depiction of mental and
physical
cruelty. Although Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was
generally considered the best of the
Brontë
sisters' works during most of the
nineteenth
century, many subsequent critics
of Wuthering
Heights argued that it was a
superior
achievement. Wuthering Heights
has also given
rise to many adaptations and
inspired works,
including films, radio,
television
dramatisations, a musical by
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图2- 3
2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Bernard J.
Taylor, a ballet, three operas (respectively by
Bernard Herrmann, Carlisle Floyd, and
Frédéric
Chaslin), a role-playing game, and the 1978 chart
topping song by Kate Bush.
2.2.1 Plot
Opening (chapters 1 to 3)
In 1801, Mr.
Lockwood, a rich man from the south of England,
rents Thrushcross Grange in the
north of
England for peace and recuperation. Soon after his
arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr.
Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland
farmhouse called
the inhabitants of Wuthering
Heights to be a rather strange group: Mr.
Heathcliff appears a
gentleman but his
mannerisms suggest otherwise; the reserved
mistress of the house is in her
mid-teens; and
a young man appears to be one of the family,
although he dresses and talks like a
servant.
Being snowed in, Mr. Lockwood stays the night
and is shown to an unused chamber, where he
finds books and graffiti from a former
inhabitant of the farmhouse named Catherine. When
he
falls asleep, he has a nightmare in which
he sees Catherine as a ghost trying to enter
through the
window. Heathcliff rushes to the
room after hearing him yelling in fear. He
believes Mr
Lockwood is telling the truth, and
inspects the window, opening it in a futile
attempt to let
Catherine's spirit in from the
cold. After nothing eventuates, Heathcliff shows
Mr Lockwood to
his own bedroom, and returns to
keep guard at the window.
As soon as
the sun rises, Mr Lockwood is escorted back to
Thrushcross Grange by Heathcliff.
There, he
asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the
story of the family from the Heights.
2.2.2
The Childhood of Heathcliff (chapters 4 to 17)
Thirty years prior, the Earnshaw family lived
at Wuthering Heights. The children of the family
are the teenaged Hindley and his younger
sister, Catherine. Mr. Earnshaw travels to
Liverpool,
where he finds a homeless dark-
skinned boy whom he decides to adopt, naming him
Hindley finds himself robbed of his father's
affections and becomes bitterly jealous of
Heathcliff.
However, Catherine grows very
attached to him. Soon, the two children spend
hours on the
moors together and hate every
moment apart.
Because of the domestic discord
caused by Hindley's and Heathcliff's sibling
rivalry, Hindley is
eventually sent to
college. However, he marries a woman named Frances
and returns three years
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
later, after
Mr. Earnshaw dies. He becomes master of Wuthering
Heights, and forces Heathcliff to
become a
servant instead of a member of the family.
Several months after Hindley's return,
Heathcliff and Catherine travel to Thrushcross
Grange to
spy on the Linton family. However,
they are spotted and try to escape. Catherine,
having been
caught by a dog, is brought inside
the Grange to have injuries tended to while
Heathcliff is sent
home. Catherine eventually
returns to Wuthering Heights as a changed woman,
looking and
acting as a lady. She laughs at
Heathcliff's unkempt appearance. When the Lintons
visit the next
day, Heathcliff dresses up to
impress her. It fails when Edgar, one of the
Linton children, argues
with him. Heathcliff
is locked in the attic, where Catherine later
tries to comfort him. He swears
vengeance on
Hindley.
In the summer of the next year,
Frances gives birth to a son, Hareton, but she
dies before the year
is out. This leads
Hindley to descend into a life of drunkenness and
waste.
Two years pass and Catherine has become
close friends with Edgar, growing more distant
from
Heathcliff. One day in August, while
Hindley is absent, Edgar comes to visit Catherine.
She has
an argument with Nelly, which then
spreads to Edgar who tries to leave. Catherine
stops him and,
before long, they declare
themselves lovers.
Later, Catherine talks with
Nelly, explaining that Edgar had asked her to
marry him and she had
accepted. She says that
she does not really love Edgar but Heathcliff.
Unfortunately she could
never marry Heathcliff
because of his lack of status and education. She
therefore plans to marry
Edgar and use that
position to help raise Heathcliff's standing.
Unfortunately, Heathcliff had
overheard the
first part about not being able to marry him and
runs away, disappearing without a
trace. After
three years, Edgar and Catherine are married.
Six months after the marriage, Heathcliff
returns as a gentleman, having grown stronger and
richer during his absence. Catherine is
delighted to see him although Edgar is not so
keen.
Edgar's sister, Isabella, now eighteen,
falls in love with Heathcliff, seeing him as a
romantic hero.
He despises her but encourages
the infatuation, seeing it as a chance for revenge
on Edgar. When
he embraces Isabella one day at
the Grange, there is an argument with Edgar which
causes
Catherine to lock herself in her room
and fall ill.
Heathcliff has been staying at
the Heights, gambling with Hindley and teaching
Hareton bad
habits. Hindley is gradually
losing his wealth, mortgaging the farmhouse to
Heathcliff to repay
his debts.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
While
Catherine is ill, Heathcliff elopes with Isabella.
The fugitives marry and return two months
later to Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff hears
that Catherine is ill and arranges with Nelly to
visit
her in secret. In the early hours of the
day after their meeting, Catherine gives birth to
her
daughter, Cathy, and then dies.
The
day after Catherine's funeral, Isabella flees
Heathcliff and escapes to the south of England
where she eventually gives birth to Linton,
Heathcliff's son. Hindley dies six months after
Catherine. Heathcliff finds himself the master
of Wuthering Heights and the guardian of Hareton.
2.2.3 The Maturity of Heathcliff (chapters 18
to 31)
Brontë Society plaque at Top Withens
Twelve years later, Cathy has grown into a
beautiful, high-spirited girl who has rarely
passed
outside the borders of the Grange.
Edgar hears that Isabella is dying and leaves to
pick up her son
with the intention of adopting
him. While he is gone, Cathy meets Hareton on the
moors and
learns of her cousin's and Wuthering
Heights' existence.
Edgar returns with Linton
who is a weak and sickly boy. Although Cathy is
attracted to him,
Heathcliff wants his son
with him and insists on having him taken to the
Heights.
Three years later, Nelly and Cathy
are on the moors when they meet Heathcliff who
takes them to
Wuthering Heights to see Linton
and Hareton. He has plans for Linton and Cathy to
marry so that
he will inherit Thrushcross
Grange. Cathy and Linton begin a secret
friendship.
In August of the next year, while
Edgar is very ill, Nelly and Cathy visit Wuthering
Heights and
are held captive by Heathcliff who
wants to marry his son to Cathy and, at the same
time, prevent
her from returning to her father
before he dies. After five days, Nelly is released
and Cathy
escapes with Linton's help just in
time to see her father before he dies.
With
Heathcliff now the master of both Wuthering
Heights and Thrushcross Grange, Cathy has
no
choice but to leave Nelly and to go and live with
Heathcliff and Hareton. Linton dies soon
afterwards and, although Hareton tries to be
kind to her, she retreats into herself. This is
the point
of the story at which Lockwood
arrives.
After being ill with a cold for some
time, Lockwood decides that he has had enough of
the moors
and travels to Wuthering Heights to
inform Heathcliff that he is returning to the
south.
2.2.4 Ending (chapters 32 to 34)
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In
September, eight months after leaving, Lockwood
finds himself back in the area and decides to
stay at Thrushcross Grange (since his tenancy
is still valid until October). He finds that Nelly
is
now living at Wuthering Heights. He makes
his way there and she fills in the rest of the
story.
Nelly had moved to the Heights soon
after Lockwood left to replace the housekeeper who
had
departed. In March, Hareton had an
accident and has been confined to the farmhouse.
During this
time, a friendship developed
between Cathy and Hareton. This continues into
April when
Heathcliff begins to act very
strangely, seeing visions of Catherine. After not
eating for four days,
he is found dead in
Catherine's room. He is buried next to Catherine.
Lockwood departs but, before he leaves, he
hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to marry on New
Year's Day. Lockwood passes the graves of
Catherine, Edgar and Heathcliff, pausing to
contemplate the peaceful quiet of the moors.
2.2.5 Characters
Heathcliff: Found, and
presumably orphaned, on the streets of Liverpool,
he is taken to
Wuthering Heights by Mr.
Earnshaw and reluctantly cared for by the rest of
the family. He and
Catherine later grow close,
and their love becomes the central theme of the
first volume; his
revenge and its consequences
are the main theme of the second volume.
Heathcliff is typically
considered a Byronic
hero, but critics have found his character, with a
capacity for self-invention,
to be profoundly
difficult to assess. His position in society,
without status (Heathcliff serves as
both his
given name and surname), is often the subject of
Marxist criticism.[6]
Catherine Earnshaw:
First introduced in Lockwood's discovery of her
diary and etchings,
Catherine's life is almost
entirely detailed in the first volume. She
seemingly suffers from a crisis
of identity,
unable to choose between nature and culture (and,
by extension, Heathcliff and
Edgar). Her
decision to marry Edgar Linton over Heathcliff has
been seen as a surrender to
culture, and has
implications for all the characters of Wuthering
Heights. The character of
Catherine has been
analysed by many forms of literary criticism,
including: psychoanalytic and
feminist.
Edgar Linton: Introduced as a child of the
Linton family, who resides at Thrushcross Grange,
Edgar's life and mannerisms are immediately
contrasted with those of Heathcliff and Catherine,
and indeed the former dislikes him. Yet, owing
much to his status, Catherine marries him and not
Heathcliff. This decision, and the differences
between Edgar and Heathcliff, have been read into
by feminist criticisms.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Ellen
each generation of both the Earnshaw and
Linton families. She is presented as a character
who
straddles the idea of a 'culture versus
nature' divide in the novel: she is a local of the
area and a
servant, and has experienced life
at Wuthering Heights. However, she is also an
educated woman
and has lived at Thrushcross
Grange. This idea is represented in her having two
names,
Ellen—her given name and used to show
respect, and Nelly—used by her familiars. Whether
Nelly is an unbiased narrator and how far her
actions, as an apparent bystander, affect the
other
characters are two points of her
character discussed by critics.
Isabella
Linton: Introduced as part of the Linton family,
Isabella is only ever shown in relation to
other characters. She views Heathcliff as a
romantic hero, despite Catherine's warning her
against
such a view, and becomes an unwitting
participant in his plot for revenge. After being
married to
Heathcliff and abused at Wuthering
Heights, she escapes to London and gives birth to
Linton.
Such abusive treatment has led many,
especially feminist critics, to consider Isabella
the
trueconventional 'tragic romantic' figure
of Wuthering Heights.
Hindley Earnshaw:
Catherine's brother who marries Frances, an
unknown woman to the family,
and only reveals
this when Mr. Earnshaw dies. He spirals into
destructive behaviour after her
death and
ruins the Earnshaw family with his drinking and
gambling.
Hareton Earnshaw: The son of Hindley
and Frances, initially raised by Nelly but passed
over to
in effect Joseph and Heathcliff. The
former works to instill a sense of pride in
Earnshaw heritage,
even though Hareton has no
right to the property associated with it. The
latter strives to teach him
all sorts of
vulgarities as a way of avenging himself on
Hareton's father, Hindley. Hareton speaks
with
a similar accent to Joseph and works as a servant
in Wuthering Heights, unaware of his true
rights. His appearance regularly reminds
Heathcliff of Catherine.
Cathy Linton: The
daughter of Catherine Earnshaw and Edgar Linton,
she is a spirited girl,
though unaware of her
parents' history. Edgar is very protective of her
and as a result she is
constantly looking
beyond the confines of the Grange.
Linton
Heathcliff: The son of Heathcliff and Isabella, he
is a very weak child and his character
resembles Heathcliff's, though without its
only redeeming feature: love. He marries Cathy
Linton,
but only under the direction of his
father, whom he discovers only as he enters his
teens.
Joseph: A servant at Wuthering Heights
who is a devout Christian. He speaks with a very
thick
Yorkshire accent.
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Lockwood: The
first narrator of the novel, he comes to rent
Thrushcross Grange from Heathcliff
to escape
society but finally decides he prefers company
rather than ending up as Heathcliff. He
narrates the book until Chapter 4 when the
primary narrator, Nelly, then takes over.
Frances: A generally amiable character, her
marriage to Hindley is unrevealed until Mr
Earnshaw
dies.
Kenneth: A doctor in the
nearby village of Gimmerton.
Zillah: A servant
to Heathcliff at Wuthering Heights in the time
after Catherine's death.
2.2.6 Relationships
map
图2- 4
Key:
black line: son or
daughter of; if dotted it means adoption
red
line: wedding; if double it means second wedding
pink line: love
blue line: affection
green line: hate
light yellow area: active
heroes
violet area: external observers
2.3
Agnes Grey
Agnes Grey is the debut novel of
English author Anne Brontë, first published in
December 1847,
and republished in a second
edition in 1850. The novel follows Agnes Grey, a
governess, as she
works in several bourgeois
families. Scholarship and comments by Anne's
sister Charlotte Brontë
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suggest the
novel is largely based on Anne Brontë's own
experiences as a governess for five years.
Like her sister Charlotte's novel Jane Eyre,
it addresses what the precarious position of
governess
entailed and how it affected a young
woman.
The choice of central character allows
Anne to deal with issues of oppression and abuse
of
women and governesses, isolation and ideas
of empathy. An additional theme is the fair
treatment
of animals. Agnes Grey also mimics
some of the stylistic approaches of
bildungsromans,
employing ideas of personal
growth and coming to age, but representing a
character who in fact
does not gain in virtue.
The Irish novelist George Moore praised Agnes
Grey as
English letters,
critics have made
more subdued claims admiring Agnes Grey with a
less overt praise of Brontë's
work than Moore.
2.3.1 Plot summary
Agnes Grey is the
daughter of a minister, whose family
comes to
financial ruin. Desperate to earn money to
care for herself, she takes one of the few
jobs allowed
to respectable women in the early
Victorian era, as a
governess to the children
of the wealthy. In working
with two different
families, the Bloomfields and the
Murrays, she
comes to learn about the troubles that face
a
young woman who must try to rein in unruly,
spoiled
children for a living, and about the
ability of wealth and
status to destroy social
values. After her father's death
Agnes opens a
small school with her mother and finds
happiness with a man who loves her for
herself. By the
end of the novel they have
three children, Edward,
Agnes and Mary.
图2- 5
2.3.2 Themes
Social instruction
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Throughout Agnes Grey, Agnes is able to return
to her mother for instruction when the rest of her
life becomes rough. F.B. Pinion identifies
this impulse to return home with a desire in Anne
to
provide instruction for society. Pinion
quotes Anne's belief that
instruction
is...[so that] right and wrong
will be clear in a discerning reader without
sermonizing.
discussion of oppression of
governesses, and in turn women, can be understood
from this
perspective.
Oppression
Events representative of cruel treatment of
governesses and of women recur throughout Agnes
Grey.[ Additionally, Brontë depicts scenes of
cruelty towards animals, as well as degrading
treatment of Agnes. Parallels have been drawn
between the oppression of these two
groups—animals and females—that are
treatment of animals reflected on the
character of the person.[11] This theme of
oppression
provided social commentary, likely
based on Anne's experiences. Twenty years after
its
publication Lady Amberly commented that
governess and shall read it through again when
I have a governess to remind me to be human.
Animals
Beyond the treatment of animals,
Anne carefully describes the actions and
expressions of animals.
Stevies Davies
observes that this acuity of examination along
with the moral reflection on the
treatment of
animals suggests that, for Anne,
human
protection.
Empathy
Agnes tries to impart
in her charges the ability to empathise with
others. This is especially
evident in her
conversations with Rosalie Murray, whose careless
treatment of the men who love
her upsets
Agnes.
Isolation
Maria H. Frawley notes
that Agnes is isolated from a young age. She comes
from a
heritage
become a governess, she
becomes more isolated by the large distance from
her family and further
alienation by her
employers. Agnes does not resist the isolation,
but instead uses the opportunity
for self-
study and personal development.
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Chapter 3
Bronte Sisters on the influence of world
literature
3.1 Charlotte Bronte
In view
of the success of her novels, particularly Jane
Eyre, Charlotte was persuaded by her
publisher
to visit London occasionally, where she revealed
her true identity and began to move in
a more
exalted social circle, becoming friends with
Harriet Martineau and Elizabeth Gaskell, and
acquainted with William Makepeace Thackeray
and G. H. Lewes. She never left Haworth for
more than a few weeks at a time as she did not
want to leave her ageing father's side.
Thackeray’s
daughter, the writer Anne Isabella
Thackeray Ritchie recalled a visit to her father
by Charlotte:
…two gentlemen come in, leading
a tiny, delicate, serious, little lady, with fair
straight hair, and
steady eyes. She may be a
little over thirty; she is dressed in a little
barège dress with a pattern of
faint green
moss. She enters in mittens, in silence, in
seriousness; our hearts are beating with wild
excitement. This then is the authoress, the
unknown power whose books have set all London
talking, reading, speculating; some people
even say our father wrote the books – the
wonderful
books… The moment is so breathless
that dinner comes as a relief to the solemnity of
the
occasion, and we all smile as my father
stoops to offer his arm; for, genius though she
may be,
Miss Brontë can barely reach his
elbow. My own personal impressions are that she is
somewhat
grave and stern, specially to forward
little girls who wish to chatter… Every one waited
for the
brilliant conversation which never
began at all. Miss Brontë retired to the sofa in
the study, and
murmured a low word now and
then to our kind governess… the conversation grew
dimmer and
more dim, the ladies sat round
still expectant, my father was too much perturbed
by the gloom
and the silence to be able to
cope with it at all… after Miss Brontë had left, I
was surprised to see
my father opening the
front door with his hat on. He put his fingers to
his lips, walked out into
the darkness, and
shut the door quietly behind him… long afterwards…
Mrs. Procter asked me if
I knew what had
happened… It was one of the dullest evenings [Mrs
Procter] had ever spent in
her life… the
ladies who had all come expecting so much
delightful conversation, and the gloom
and the
constraint, and how finally, overwhelmed by the
situation, my father had quietly left the
room, left the house, and gone off to his
club.
3.2 Emily Bronte
In 1847, Emily
published her novel, Wuthering Heights, as two
volumes of a three-volume set
(the last volume
being Agnes Grey by her sister Anne). Its
innovative structure somewhat
puzzled
critics。The Climb to Top Withens, Yorkshire, gh it
received mixed reviews
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
when it first
came out, and was often condemned for its
portrayal of amoral passion, the book
subsequently became an English literary
classic. In 1850, Charlotte edited and published
Wuthering Heights as a stand-alone novel and
under Emily's real name. Although a letter from
her publisher indicates that Emily was
finalizing a second novel, the manuscript has
never been
found.
3.3 Anne Bronte
A
year after Anne's death, further editions of her
novels were reprinted but Charlotte prevented
re-publication of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
In 1850, Charlotte wrote damningly
it hardly
appears to me desirable to preserve. The choice of
subject in that work is a mistake, it
was too
little consonant with the character, tastes and
ideas of the gentle, retiring inexperienced
writer.
Brontë bandwagon. Anne's novel was
daring for the Victorian era with its depiction of
scenes of
mental and physical cruelty and
approach to divorce. The consequence was that
Charlotte's
novels, and Emily's Wuthering
Heights, continued to be published, launching
these two into
literary stardom, while Anne's
work was consigned to oblivion. Anne was only 28
when she
wrote The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; at
a comparable age, Charlotte had produced only The
Professor.
A view has been that Anne is a
mere shadow compared with Charlotte, the family's
most prolific
writer, and Emily, the genius.
This occurred to a large extent because Anne was
very different, as
a person and as a writer,
from Charlotte and Emily. The controlled,
reflective camera eye of
Agnes Grey is closer
to Jane Austen's Persuasion than to Charlotte
Brontë's Jane Eyre. The
painstaking realism
and social criticism of The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall directly counters the
romanticised
violence of Wuthering Heights. Anne's religious
concerns, reflected in her books
and expressed
directly in her poems, were not shared by her
sisters. Anne's subtle prose has a fine
ironic
edge; her novels reveal Anne to be the most
socially radical. Now, with increasing critical
interest in female authors, her life is being
re-examined, and her work re-evaluated. A
re-
appraisal of Anne's work has begun, leading to her
acceptance, not as a minor Brontë, but as a
major literary figure in her own right.
Agnes Grey was popular during Anne Brontë's
life, despite the belief of critics at the time
that the
novel was marred by 'coarseness' and
'vulgarity.' The novel lost some of its popularity
after
Brontë's death due to disfavour of its
perceived moralising. There has, however, been a
recent
increase in examination by scholars of
Agnes Grey and Anne Brontë herself.
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In
Conversation in Ebury Street, the Irish novelist
George Moore provides a commonly cited
example
of these newer reviews, overtly praising the style
of Anne in the book. F.B. Pinion
agreed to a
large extent that Agnes Grey was quite a
masterwork. However, Pinion felt that
Moore's
examination of the piece was a little extreme and
his
have blinded him to the persistence of her
moral purpose
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Chapter 4 Impression after reading
4.1
The Independent Spirit—— Jane Eyre
without feelings? and can bear to have my
morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop
of living water dashed from my cup? Do you
think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and
little, I
am soulless and heartless? You think
wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as
much heart!
And if God had gifted me with some
beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as
hard for
you to leave me, as it is now for me
to leave you. I am not talking to you now through
the
medium of custom, conventionalities, nor
even of mortal flesh;--it is my spirit that
addresses your
spirit; just as if both had
passed through the grave, and we stood at God's
feet, equal,--as we are!
This paragraph of
words that is Jane Eyre said to Mr Rochester.
This is a story about a special and unreserved
woman who has been exposed to a hostile
environment but continuously and fearlessly
struggling for her ideal life. The story can be
interpreted as a symbol of the independent
spirit. Jane Eyre as a native, kind-hearted,
noble-minded woman who purses a genuine kind
of love. She represents those middle-class
working women who are struggling for
recognition of their rights and equality as a
human being.
The vivid description of her
intense feelings and her thought and inner
conflicts brings her to the
heart of the
audience.
The work is one of the most popular
and important novels of the Victorian age. It is
noted for its
sharp criticism of the existing
society. For example, the religious hypocrisy
criticism of charity
institutions such as
Lowood School where poor girls are trained.
Jane Eyre is charming. Because she dares to
struggle. At last, she wins her love ,marriage and
dignity. She is all female glory.
4.2 Love
and revenge——Wuthering heights
When I first
read Wuthering heights ,I had been Deeply
attracted.
Wuthering heights is a love and
revenge story, which tells about two families and
an intruding
stranger .A beggar boy, who
named heathcliff in Liverpool's streets were good
earnshaw picked
up, home, and the adoption of
XinDeLei earnshaw son and daughter Catherine live
together,
XinDeLei hate heathcliff and his
sister likes heathcliff, earnshaw died, XinDeLei
into a
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
householder,
heathcliff's servant and tenants treated when,
deprived him of the right to education,
abuse,
half of indignities. Meanwhile, and Catherine
heathcliff because the disposition and
interest the consistent and become the best of
friends and hazy love. The sons of rich gentry
adjacent to Catherine linton courtship,
frequently visited, Catherine said unto him a good
and
decided to marry him, heathcliff's anger
and flee. Three years later married Catherine
linton.
Heathcliff is rich, and back exact
revenge. Because of his wife and XinDeLei stained
with the
habit of drinking and gambling,
heathcliff entice him further fall easily occupied
all his house,
and his son into an illiterate
and abetting rogue. Heathcliff married by
fraudulent means sister
Isabella linton for
his wife, she married every abuse. Catherine
ailments in small daughter
Catherine, who died
after next, isabelle in recognizing heathcliff's
face also leave him, and gave
birth to sons
xiao. Later, his son was dead, Isabella column to
heathcliff from his hand, and with
little love
Catherine tempt him. In linton critically ill, he
took little Catherine, design with his son
forced her to marry, Lin's swallowed linton,
all the house of his revenge plan was completed.
Lin,
small Catherine's died shortly after the
meal with XinDeLei son has love. Harry, Meanwhile,
Catherine heathcliff is the ghost of coil to
splutter, sleep, he from harry diet and small
Catherine's
eyes saw Kathleen's eyes reluctant
to obstruct their love, in depression and insanity
die. At last,
Lockwood departs but, before he
leaves, he hears that Hareton and Cathy plan to
marry on New
Year's Day. Lockwood passes the
graves of Catherine, Edgar and Heathcliff, pausing
to
contemplate the peaceful quiet of the
moors.
The novel is riddle which means
different things to different people. Form the
social point of
view, it is a pool nobody. As
a love story ,this is one of the most moving; the
passion between
Heathcliff and Catherine
proves the most intense, the most beautiful and at
the same time the
most horrible passion ever
to be found possible in human beings.
In
general, Wuthering heights is a love and revenge
story.
4.3 With the reality of the
struggle——Agnes Grey
The story is about a
governess, who struggles with the reality.
Agnes Grey is the daughter of a minister,
whose family comes to financial ruin. Desperate to
earn
money to care for herself, she takes one
of the few jobs allowed to respectable women in
the
early Victorian era, as a governess to the
children of the wealthy. In working with two
different
families, the Bloomfields and the
Murrays, she comes to learn about the troubles
that face a
young woman who must try to rein
in unruly, spoiled children for a living, and
about the ability
of wealth and status to
destroy social values. After her father's death
Agnes opens a small school
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
with her
mother and finds happiness with a man who loves
her for herself. By the end of the
novel they
have three children, Edward, Agnes and Mary.
Cates Baldridge describes Agnes Grey as a
novel which
bildungsroman
reasons.
Baldridge says that the early emphasis on the
bourgeois upbringing of Agnes allows the
presuppositions of the reader that the
transformative bourgeois class will develop an
ideal person
of virtue. However, Agnes stalls
in her development because of the corrupted nature
of the
household in which she is employed and
the ineffectiveness of the moral transformation,
become
a static member of the bourgeois,
ambivalent to the Victorian value of moral
transformation in
virtue.
Agnes Grey is a
great book about a Noble women.
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Chapter 5
conclusion.
The lives of the Bronte sisters
has been the subject of public interest. Charlotte
was born in 1816,
Emily in 1818 and Anne in
1820.
Charlotte who lived the longest was
seen as the most talented of the sisters. Her
mother died in
1821 leaving her six children
in the care of their aunt. Charlotte's two elder
sisters died only four
years later. At the
rectory, Charlotte would have little to do but
read and write and occasionally
walk on the
moors The loneliness experienced by Charlotte was
clearly sharp. So it is less shocking
that in her early teens she wrote at least 23
complete ―novels‖
(they were of little or no
real value). She attended Roe Head school
betwee
n 1831 and 1832, and then taught at the
same school later in the decade. From 1839 to 1842
she
worked as a governess
Meanwhile, Emily attended Roe Head in 1835 but
returned to the rectory due to homesickness.
Like her elder sister she became a governess.
She seems to have been the most introspective
(内
省的) of the sisters, having very few friends.
Nevertheless, she was a tough woman, controlling a
fierce dog with her bare hands.
Anne,
the youngest sister also attended Roe Head school
in 1837. She also became a governess,
actually
for some time longer than her elder sisters. Anne
found material for Agnes Grey (1847)
in the
spoilt children of her employers.
By
1847, the three sisters had each written a novel.
Emily produced Wuthering Heights Anne
Agnes
Grey. Both were criticized by the press, Emily's
novel especially for its supposedly morbid
outlook and inappropriate subjects.
Nevertheless, history and particularly the great
success of the
novels have vindicated them.
Charlotte wrote Jane Eyre at this time and it was
immediately
successful.
In 1848,
Emily died in December with Anne following less
than a year later. Charlotte continued
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
to write and
produced Shirley (1849). Her final novel Villette
appeared in 1853. Her marriage
in 1854 to A.
B. Nicholls was followed only months later by her
death from tuberculosis.
In
brief
,
they have made contributions to the literature
is very big.
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References
(4) The history of foreign literature《外国文学史》
Zhejiang University Press
浙江大学出版社
(5) Jane Eyre 《简爱》
Charlotte Brontë
(夏洛蒂·勃朗特 著)
The people's Literature
Publishing House 人民文学出版社
(6) Wuthering Heights
《呼啸山庄》
Emily Bronte(艾米莉
·勃朗特 著)
Shanghai Translation Publishing House 上海译文出版社
(4)
Agnes Greyy
《艾格尼丝·格雷》 (安妮·勃朗特
Chongqing University Press 重庆出版社
(5)
http:
(6) http: 百度百科
著)
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2012级华南理工大学自考本科英语毕业论文
Acknowledgement
I am greatly thank a
number of people , without their help this thesis
could not be completed .
First of all , I must
thank my adviser Miss Cao .She gives me some
helpful suggestinons
Without her help, this
paper haven’t completed .
Secondly, I must
thanks my friend , Palace , who helps me collect
materials and collect my
thesis’ form.
In
the end, I must express my thanks to my family who
haven shown
patience
and understanding
to entire period of this work..
Especially
my Dad, he supports me theoretically ,
encourage me
spiriually.
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