the beginning of the tragic story. This was also a big turning point in the novel. Heathcliff with messy clothes, disheveled hair and dirty face was in total contrast to elegant and beautiful Catherine. During the period of recuperation in Thrushcross Grange, Catherine learned to pursue a decent position in life which had never appeared in Wuthering Heights. She also found that she was thorough unable to resist the comfortable and luxurious life in Thrushcross Grange. Catherine's values had undergone tremendous changes when she came back to Wuthering Heights. Her ambition began to expand. In the later days, she even tried to hide her wild side in the face of others. When she heard someone call Heathcliff a rascal, she deliberately reminded herself not to behavior like him. But when she came back home for a while, she once again denied to observe all the rules and regulations. She gradually cultivated a complex personality. In order to acquire the secular interests, Catherine finally decided to marry Edgar Linton. For wealth, for a bright future, she betrayed Heathcliff and their love with little hesitation.
Catherine knew that she was wrong, she knew it clearly. She was the girl who could lie to others but would never lie to herself. She just could not stop and control herself to listen to her heart, and follow her soul. She was aware of that the souls of her and Heathcliff could not be separated. The linked bridge of Heathcliff and Catherine was mysterious which would be hard to explain in words. In their own souls, they were most similar with each other. They were almost as alike as two peas. And Catherine even asserted,
My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning; my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and, if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the Universe would turn to a mighty stranger. I should not seem a part of it. (64)
Catherine’s love for Heathcliff was intense, enthusiastic, and graven. And it was also obvious that she knew all about these thoroughly: she knew herself, knew her love, and knew her whole emotions and feelings. Catherine was never ready to abandon Heathcliff in her mind. And she was so naive that through the marriage with Edgar, she considered she could
help Heathcliff to raise his head, and get release from Hindley’s oppression. What a childish girl she was. However, once she chose to marry Edgar, her beloved Heathcliff was doomed to destruct. And she had never realized the fatal consequence in time. As we have already seen, her marriage was a deadly error in her whole life, and it was also a betrayal to her own humanity.
Three years later, when Heathcliff return to Wuthering Heights, “the gunpowder lay as harmless as sand” (72) was ignited. Catherine began to re-examine what she had done to Heathcliff and herself. She realized her nature had been cut off, and she had actually experienced a spiritual death. The loyalty she had betrayed once made her awake at this time. Catherine only left the memory in the past to Heathcliff when he came back. The memory for her first love as well as her innocent nature was the only loyalty she could share with Heathcliff. But her attention to Linton’s civilization and prosperity reflected her ambition of the big outside world. At first, this ambition always prevailed. So she married Edgar in result of her beloved’s leaving. Leaving from Heathcliff as well as Wuthering Heights, Catherine would surely lose herself. She was actually exiled outside her ideal paradise. Her nature had never been satisfied in the marriage with Linton. Thrushcross Grange, which represented the civilization, had never made her really feel happy, and only brought her the endless loneliness. But Heathcliff’s return brought her great happiness which made her like an angel. She even considered that she could persuade Edgar to accept Heathcliff. How childish. The love between her and Heathcliff could certainly not be tolerable to her lawful husband. Edgar insisted Catherine to make a choice between him and Heathcliff. Apparently, he and Heathcliff represented two different worlds to Catherine, which were impossible to replace with each other. How selfish. Catherine was always so greedy that she could not give up one of them.
Catherine and Heathcliff’s love began to conflict with secular rules. So later their fiery emotions can only expressed through giving pains as well as suffering pains from each other. What a tragedy. Every time they aimed to express their respective feelings of love, they seemed to tear self as well as the other. Their statements were just as primitive and savage as the wilderness around Wuthering Heights. The couple stressed that they could not be separated at all again and again, and vowed to torture each other until their death. And all
these clashes between them inevitably caused the tragic love. Finally Catherine's heart became a battlefield where the clashes happened. But she was too weak to change their destiny. It is impossible for her to choose another marriage again, which made her hopeless and helpless. Though she had regretted, it was too late. She was aware of that return to Wuthering Heights, which meat to go back at Heathcliff’s side, was a path leading to the death. But only could death enable her to escape from her grief completely.
All the time, Heathcliff was recognized as an evil, or Satan, but in fact, we can find Catherine was a lover of devil, who had the passion like fire. She always controlled Heathcliff’s and Linton’s emotions. Actually, whether she was living or dead, Catherine's influence on Heathcliff was equally important to him. Just as she had said to him once, “I shouldn't care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings” (124). In the last part of the novel, Catherine’s ghost had always been stalking Heathcliff, actively influenced him. For him, the world without Catherine was a painful abyss. However he believed that the soul of Catherine was in the world, being always around him. It accompanied him all the time and it would never disappear until he died. But Heathcliff still grieved, because he could never see her once again. And finally, as what Catherine had ever wanted and said, Heathcliff felt too painful to live. He died, and went to find her in the other world. How could this happen? Maybe only woman like Catherine can give us an answer.
In short, a complex personality of angle as well as devil will give you the hope and also destroy it later. And in the thesis this is the last reason which caused the tragedy in Wuthering Heights.
Conclusion
Wuthering Heights was the only novel of Emily Bronte. When the novel was first published, it was not welcomed by critics. Negative comments on this novel covered the positive ones. But it still deeply attracted people with its plot of love as well as Heathcliff’s crazy revenge. And the tragic love as well as the conflicts it depicted was linked to the reality closely, which also made people contemplate for a long time after reading Wuthering Heights. So half a century later Wuthering Heights became very popular in readers and highly praised by critics. The time that they had spent on contemplating about the novel might even longer than that they had spent on reading it.
In Wuthering Heights, Emily described the love tragedy of the two protagonists, as well as Heathcliff’s crazy revenge. When he was very young, the protagonist Heathcliff was found and brought up by Mr. Earnshaw. Mr. Earnshaw was the old master of Wuthering Heights. And Heathcliff fell in love with Mr.Earnshaw’s daughter, Catherine. However Catherine wanted to marry Linton in Thrushcross Grange for a higher status and a better quality of life standard. It enraged Heathcliff. So he left Wuthering Heights for three years. When he came back later, Heathcliff became a representation of the emerging bourgeoisie who owned a large amount of wealth, and used cruel means to revenge and grab. In the process of revenge, Catherine and Linton both died. The love of our protagonists ended with a tragedy, and Heathcliff also succumbed with deeply grief.
The causes for the tragic story of the protagonists can be divided into three parts as follows: the root cause, the historical background and the complex characters of the two protagonists.
The root cause is the social reality which includes the low position of women and the secular concepts about wealth. The cruel society was really influencing people’s life as well as their love life for a long time. Even today the impact of it still exists in our society. And the love between Heathcliff and Catherine was a sacrifice of the secular values, the family status and the unfair position of women. Whether being a man or woman, that a person should be more independent and self-reliant is the enlightenment we should learn from this part.
The historical background in Wuthering Heights was the conflicts of the opposite social classes brought by the Industrial Revolution. It was the particular aspect of Wuthering Heights. The tragic love in the novel was happened in the background. The conflicts between Linton and the protagonist were also the conflicts between the landlord class and the bourgeoisie. And the conflicts enraged Heathcliff, which led to a more frenzied revenge and a more miserable love.
And the internal reasons, the complicated characters of Heathcliff and Catherine caused the love tragedy to a great extent. The evil side of human nature always destroys people’s life as well as their beloved ones. The tragedy in Wuthering Heights mainly manifested this point. By analyzing the personalities of them, we can learn much about love and humanity and it is still useful for our recent life. Only do human beings continue to abandon their deep-rooted bad habits, and get closer to the truth, goodness and beauty step by step, they will save themselves from the collapse and find hope in their life. Wuthering Heights directly revealed the essence of human nature through the description of the extreme opposite sides of love and hatred.
In terms of the causes for the love tragedy, someone considered it was the secular values that created the tragedy; someone thought that it was because the opposite classes clashed fiercely; and others believed the most important reasons were the complex personalities of the protagonists. Everything should happen with causes which always includes more than one or two aspects. The same was the love tragedy. It was happening with all of these kinds of reasons working together. Without any of these reasons, there would be another consequence showed to us.
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