Distortion And Restoration Of Human Nature

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Thesis statement: Wuthering Heights is a brooding tale which mainly talks about one couple's love, hatred, and revenge set. The aim of this paper is to present readers a detailed analysis of Heathcliff’s human nature from distortion to restoration.

1.0 Introduction---------------------------------------------------------------------------------2

2.0 Family Background and Characters of the Hero and the Heroine-------------------4

2.1 Different Family Background-----------------------------------------------------------4

2.2 Similar Character-------------------------------------------------------------------------6

3.0 The Distortion of Human Nature---------------------------------------------------------6

3.1 Retaliation and Self-degradation-------------------------------------------------------6

3.1.1 Heathcliff’s Retaliation against Others---------------------------------------------6

3.1.2 Heathcliff’s Self-torture--------------------------------------------------------------8

3.2. Reasons for the Distortion--------------------------------------------------------------9

3.2.1 Social Discrimination----------------------------------------------------------------9

3.2.2 The Repressed Childhood-----------------------------------------------------------9

3.2.3 The Love Tragedy-------------------------------------------------------------------10

4.0 The Restoration of Human Nature------------------------------------------------------11

4.1 Love’s Rebirth---------------------------------------------------------------------------11

4.1.1 Resistance of the Younger Generation--------------------------------------------11

4.1.2 Love’s Rebirth in the Younger Generation---------------------------------------12

4.2 Restoration of Heathcliff’s Human Nature------------------------------------------12

4.2.1 Repenting in Missing---------------------------------------------------------------12

4.2.2 Freeing Himself in Repentance----------------------------------------------------13

5.0 Conclusion---------------------------------------------------------------------------------14

Bibliography ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------15

Distortion and Restoration of Human Nature in Wuthering Heights

《呼啸山庄》里人性的扭曲与复苏

Abstract

There is no doubt that Wuthering Heights, the only masterpiece of Emily Bronte, is regarded as one of the most fascinating novels in the history of English literature. After the value of Wuthering Heights is recognized, numerous scholars in western academic world have studied this novel from various perspectives, such as narrative structure, mysterious and frightening settings, symbols and so on. This paper would mainly study the distortion and restoration of human nature in Wuthering Heights and it will help readers deeply understand how social discrimination and Heathcliff’s childhood experience and love tragedy lead to Heathcliff’s loss of human nature. This paper firstly talks about the different family background and similar character between Heathcliff and Catherine. Then, it analyzes Heathcliff’s distorted human nature and the reasons for the distortion. Finally, it discusses love’s rebirth in the younger generation and restoration of Heathcliff’s human nature.

Key words: human nature, distortion, restoration, love

1.0 Introduction

There is no doubt that Wuthering Heights, the only masterpiece of Emily Bronte, is regarded as one of the most fascinating novels in the history of English literature. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights was first published in 1847. It is a brooding tale which mainly talks about one couple's love, hatred, and revenge set in the Yorkshire moors. This paper attempts to study distortion and restoration of Heathcliff's human nature in Wuthering Heights.

After the value of Wuthering Heights is recognized, numerous scholars in western academic world have studied this novel from various perspectives, such as narrative structure, mysterious and frightening settings, symbols and so on.

Matthews (1985) pointed out that in Wuthering Heights Emily tried to describe the outline of the misshaped society which was corrupted by the patriarchy rank sense and gender sense. People, especially proletarians on the edge of society and all women who could not master their own fate and lost their freedom. People were eager to chase happiness but the cruel reality oppressed their desire, as a result, these desires became very deformed and finally, they changed the healthy, positive parts of human nature into sick, negative ones. Catherine and Heathcliff were victims of such an unbalanced society. Bloom（1997）in The Characters of Wuthering Heights tries to analyze the tragic love between Heathcliff and Catherine from their difference in nature and argues that Catherine's values and vanity and selfishness which leads to her eventual betrayal to Heathcliff' love, are only an external factor which contributes to the tragic love between her and Heathcliff.

Several scholars in our country also have made some researches on Emily’s Wuthering Heights from different perspectives.

Shi Yeli(施叶丽)(2004) tried to explain Heathcliff’s and Catherine’s split personalities in terms of sadism and masochism based on Freud’s theory of sexual and psychological development and the theory of death instinct. Liu Jun (刘俊)（2006）holds that Catherine’s betrayal and her love choice of Edgar Linton instead of Heathcliff is the primary, essential reason which causes Heathcliff's distortion as well as tragic personalities. Heathcliff losses Catherine’s love and ultimately becomes a devil. Yang Lijun(杨立军)(2008) analyzed the formation of Heathcliff’s complex personality from his childhood and pointed out that in order to cure the deep hurt in his heart, his human nature had already been distorted and the revenge was an extreme approach to protect his cowardice.

From what is mentioned above, it can be found that the previous studies on this novel at home and abroad covered the characterization, love tragedy between Catherine and Heathcliff, and the split personality of Heathcliff and Catherine and etc. These research findings can provide some references for the present study. However, different from the previous studies, from a new perspective, this paper tries to explore Heathcliff's human nature from distortion to restoration in Wuthering Heights.

The main body of this paper consists of three parts. It firstly talks about Heathcliff's distorted human nature. Then it analyzes the reasons for Heathcliff's distorted human nature. In fact, Heathcliff's distorted human nature is the result of his own split personality, his love tragedy, and the unfair society. Finally, it discusses the restoration of Heathcliff’s human nature. After Catherine dies, moved by the love, kindness, tolerance of the next generation—Cathy and Hareton, Heathcliff gradually gives up his revenge; in addition, there is also good quality in Heathcliff's human nature and that is Heathcliff's love for Catherine and his love for the next generation. The death of Heathcliff at the end of this novel marks his reunion with Catherine and the restoration of his human nature. The aim of this paper is to present readers a detailed analysis of Heathcliff’s human nature from distortion to restoration in Wuthering Heights and it will help readers get a deep understanding of Heathcliff’s human nature development and realize how the split personality, love tragedy, and unfair society lead to Heathcliff’s distorted human nature.

2.0 Family Background and Characters of the Hero and the Heroine

2.1 Different Family Background

Heathcliff was a representative of underclass, and Catherine of middle class. They have passion for each other but they couldn’t join together in love and then painfully separated. To Heathcliff, obviously, Catherine's betrayal took up a great proportion in his split personality. However, what made Catherine give up Heathcliff? The answer was the unfair society. Heathcliff once said, "The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him; they crush those beneath them" (Bronte, 2000:89). It indicated that both Heathcliff and Catherine were the oppressed. It seemed that Catherine occupied a bit higher status than Heathcliff and she had the free right to choose whom to marry. However, was it true?

In the later half of 18 century, the misshaped society was corrupted by the patriarchy rank sense and gender sense, many people in England lost freedom and liberty, especially proletarians on the edge of society and also all women who could not master their own fate. Those middle-class women had a special fate. They didn’t need to work, but they had no freedom. They were treated as symbols of property and status by men, who acted as their life-long support. To those women, their marriage is the best end-result of their life. Being matched for marriage is the primary condition that their families considered. If their families didn’t agree their marriage, the only road left for them is to elope, which meant losing everything. They should not only separate from their families, give up the right to inherit property, and also should endure huge pressure from the society, because elopement was a shameful behavior during that time (Hu, 2007: 69).

Under such circumstances, facing such a dilemma, Catherine must puzzle a long time about this torture. To marry Linton was quite a hard and bitter decision for a helpless girl to make. Once she told her real idea to Nelly, "You think me a selfish wretch, but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggar? Whereas, if I marry Linton, I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother's power" (Bronte, 2000:64). Of course, to marry Linton disclosed Catherine's selfishness. She didn’t have the courage to bear the difference between a middle-class girl and a beggar; she didn’t have the courage to bear poverty and discrimination from whole the society after marrying Heathcliff. So she would rather marry Linton, a young and rich man rather than the beloved. Nobody considered from her point of view that how painful was for Catherine to give up Heathcliff. On the one hand, to aid Heathcliff to rise and to place him out of her brother's power were real reasons for Catherine to marry Linton. On the other hand, it was also an excuse for Catherine to escape from the rebuke of conscience. If Catherine really had the right to make her decision, why didn’t she marry Heathcliff? Besides, people around Catherine infused entrenched traditional values to her. Especially Hindley and his wife, in order to sell Catherine at a high price, they raised Catherine’s self-respect through fine clothes and endless hospitality of flattery and reformed her to be a dignified person. Servants’ sneering at them when Heathcliff and Catherine stayed together all unconsciously influenced Catherine’s concept. These effects all increased Catherine’s vanity, made Catherine unable to reject the lure of property and status, along with contribution to Catherine’s painful decision and her split personality, which on the contrary hurt Heathcliff most and led to his distorted split personality.

All in all, the different family background of Catherine and Heathcliff reflected the sharpening of social contradiction in England. People were eager to chase happiness but the cruel reality oppressed their desire. As a result, these desires became extremely deformed and on the contrary they changed the healthy, positive parts of human nature into sick, negative ones. Catherine and Heathcliff were victims of such an unbalanced and unfair society.

2.2 Similar Character

Heathcliff is wild. After this rebellious orphan bursts into Wuthering Heights, everyone cannot accept him and cannot understand him. Except Catherine, all the people in Wuthering Heights regard Heathcliff as an outsider, and only Catherine loves him because their nature is identical: crazy and changeable. For Heathcliff, as long as he can get together with Catherine, he will forget all the lousy things, such as, the oppression from Catherine’s brother, the hard and dirty farm work, reciting the Bible, etc.

Catherine is very wild and evil. She and Heathcliff grow up together under the oppression of her brother. Lacking family warmth, they always run freely all day in the wilderness. The wilderness is their common home to spirit, and it gives them the same wildness. During the period of fighting against oppression from Catherine’s brother together, their hearts become closer to each other. Catherine and Heathcliff are the same from the perspective of wild factor.

3.0 The Distortion of Human Nature

3.1 Retaliation and Self-degradation

3.1.1 Heathcliff’s Retaliation against Others

It can be said that Hendry has much to do with Heathcliff and Catherine's love tragedy. It is understandable that Heathcliff revenge on Hendry because Hendry is the love tragedy "fuse". They hate each other all the time. Heathcliff’s revenge means are very cold: on the gaming tables, Wuthering Heights is robbed by Heathcliff from the master of Wuthering Heights. He became a master of the Wuthering Heights. Heathcliff’s revenge is crazier than before. The hatred of Hendry can be said to be well-founded, while Harleton’s revenge is not justified. When Heathcliff leave Wuthering Heights, Hareton was a child. So Hareton did not do harm to the interests of Heathcliff. The reason of the Heathcliff to Harleton’s hatred is that he is the son of Hendry.

Heathcliff wants to get the suffering of his childhood , so he revenge on Hareton. Heathcliff would not let him go to school, let him work, let him live with the servants. It is similar to Heathcliff’s childhood. More seriously, Heathcliff educated Hareton against his father; Hendry became homeless and unemployed.

Hareton is not guilty, he did nothing wrong to Heathcliff. His childhood was miserable too: his mother was dead when he was born; his father indulged himself in excessive drinking, and did not care him. So Hareton is a poor many too. But Heathcliff’s heart is full of hate. He wants to revenge on everyone.

Next Heathcliff revenged on Catherine’s husband Edgar who is the master of villa. The author analyzes it in rational faculty, Catherine was willing to marry Edgar, and Edgar did not know about the love between Heathcliff and Catherine. Catherine married Edgar because of his money, fame and power. It is Catherine who betrays Heathcliff, not Edgar. Heathcliff should revenge on Catherine, but the truth is opposite, Heathcliff thinks that Edgar is the killer who made him broken up with his lover (Liang & Liang, 2001: 57). Because of his deep love for Catherine, he become more extremely.

When Heathcliff found that Edgar’s sister Isabella has a crush on him, a new revenge plan was born. He wants to make Edgar miserable. Heathcliff knows that Edgar will not agree with Isabella marrying him. If Isabella married him, Edgar will be sad. And Heathcliff has a chance to take over the villa. That is a perfect plan.

Then Heathcliff and Isabella got married. There is no romance and happiness after Isabella married Heathcliff, just violence and suffering. Isabella did not get the love which she wants, but was left to the torture. "He is ingenious and untrusting in seeking to gain my abhorrence...... He told me of Catherine's illness, and accused my brother of causing it; promising that I should be Edgar's proxy in suffering, till he could get hold of him."

"I do hate him--I am wretched--I have been a fool!" (Bronte, 2000: 114)

Isabella's life is not happy; she is a victim of the marriage. She loves Heathcliff, but Heathcliff does not. He had only hatred. This makes Isabella’s love disappeared. It is a torment for them to live together.

When Heathcliff returned, he became a cold and crazy killer. The fire of hatred sent the blood pulsing. His hatred ruins Hendry; his hatred makes Hareton become a servant. His hatred makes Edgar living in misery. His hatred destroys simple and kindness girl, Isabella. His hatred destroyed his new life (Deng, 2006: 32). Hatred lead Catherine went to death. Heathcliff became a cold-blooded killer. His hatred was like a weapon for killing people who were around him, putting himself into the abyss.

Heathcliff's revenge is crazy, extremely abnormal. In fact, none of his revenge can be the face of the defenseless target for revenge desperate eyes, he was not the slightest pity, but provoked a stronger impulse.

3.1.2 Heathcliff’s Self-torture

Heathcliff angrily left home when the beloved Catherine got married with Thrushcross Grange master Edgar. Three years later he became a devil with a gentleman mask. He swore off the warmth, lost humanity and revenged violently for his trampled personality, self-esteem and love with the attitude of the devil. He let Hindley and Edgar die miserably, had both of the Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange to himself, and their innocent children also suffered a bitter fruit. The revenge motivation of Heathcliff is pitiful; however, his revenge is tragic: he was an underdog originally abandoned by a private ownership of society, but he still used the means of struggle in private ownership of society to resist. Although he achieved his revenge target, he’s insane and became a devil full of hatred and enmity, which eventually leads to the spirit madness to move towards death.

3.2 Reasons for the Distortion

3.2.1 Social Discrimination

The story happened in an isolated, rural area of northern England in 18 century when the industrial revolution and agricultural revolution grew and spread vigorously. During this time there were not only many new technological achievements, but also accompanying with profound effects on the social, socioeconomic and cultural conditions of the times. Capitalism was developing, while its inherent defects were exposed. The rich lived a carefree and leisure lifestyle, while the poor struggled under the survival mode. Economic gap between the rich and the poor constantly expanded, thus, the social conflicts sharpened day by day. The unequal relationship between different roles in the story reflected this unfair society and finally led to revenge and death.

Heathcliff was an orphan in the street before entering Wuthering Height. It could be easily imagined that how tremendously a starving, houseless little boy suffered from this unfair society under people’s discrimination and cruelty; (Richetti, 2005: 163). Although old Earnshaw took him in, Heathcliff’s miserable life didn't come to an end. Gradually, his experience in his childhood distorted his spirit. He thought him as a person not needed by this world especially when he heard his Catherine looked down on him. As a foundling deprived the protection of his parents, Hindley’s lash, the real world and cruel life contributed to his extreme love and hatred. What is more, they taught him that reality would not change even though he swallowed the humiliation. Thus, the formation of Heathcliff’s complex personality emerged from his childhood. Then Pu Haifeng(2004) described him as a terrible avenger who was full of rawness and wildness.

3.2.2 The Repressed Childhood

Love is a profound way to raise a good person, especially in childhood. In terms of psychology, the period of childhood plays a crucial role in one’s formation of personality. Before Heathcliff was adopted by Mr. Earnshaw, he must have wandered for several years, suffering from hunger, horror and hopelessness. These negative experiences do leave deep impressions on Heathcliff’s tiny heart. He must be very fragile in mentality and afraid of any change. What he only pursues was supposed to be survival and peace.

In Wuthering Heights, after the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff’s life became a mess. For social state, Hindley deprived Heathcliff’s right and sent him to the farm as a servant. Hindley’s maltreatment is a disaster to his self-esteem. For love, on one hand, Hindley try his best to stand in the way between Heathcliff and Catherine and on the other hand, Catherine’s values is changed a lot after her one month staying in Thrushcross Grange and begins to betray Heathcliff as Edgar could bring her fame, wealth and social state. Once Heathcliff feels that he losses his last life-saving straw—Catherine’s affection, he would actually break himself down.

3.2.3 The Love Tragedy

The love between Heathcliff and Catherine is fierce and feverish and it leads to the tragedy directly.

They grew up in the same environment. In Hindley’s depression, Catherine thought she should be responsible for Heathcliff and tried her best to protect him. This process stimulates their love to deeper extent. Besides, they live in Wuthering Height where life is relatively isolating and there are no crowds. Their love is pure without any temptation. Peace and tranquility constitute their simple love. All these inflexible elements took root in Heathcliff’s heart and the disguise that Catherine will be together with him forever comes into being.

Unluckily, the potential gap between them does exist. Catherine is a beautiful girl with education, status and wealth, while Heathcliff is merely a poor orphan who is ignorant, rude and owns nothing. Not until Catherine is invited to Thrushcross Grange does she realize the disparity between them. Catherine seeks for gorgeous life and she refuses to live an ordinary life. As a matter of fact, she has been tired of steadiness and longs for passion internally. Although Catherine loves Heathcliff, she is unable to escape from the world value. She desires for status and wealth. Thus she chooses to break up with Heathcliff and marries a man lacking emotions. Catherine’s compromise towards society is another fatal element leading to Heathcliff’s tragedy.

Catherine accepts secular standard, marrying Linton to satisfy her own material desire and vanity. She does so at the expense of betraying her soul and love. Meanwhile, that’s the reason why Heathcliff refuses to forgive her.

In terms of Heathcliff, after the betrayal of Catherine, he feels jealous and unbelievable. He finds it’s unfair and an idea of revenge comes into his mind. The distortion of mind prompts him to take the following series of actions. The emotion alters from love to hatred and he can not persuade himself to put down the burden of hatred.

Eventually, both of them break up the superficial balance and it leads them to the opposite directions.

There are also tremendous examples of this kind of love tragedy in reality. A poor young man fall in love with a girl who has a rich family. They swear to the god that they will love each forever and never break up. However, the girl marry a rich man because of her vanity and the poor become very evil because of despair. But the story would be changed if the poor man or the girl insist on their love. On one hand ,if the poor man insist all the time that he will have a happy ending with the girl he would win his perfect love with the girl; if he size each opportunity which could help him get his would-be father-in-low’s permission to marry the girl he would win his perfect love with the girl; if he show the others his enterprise and make his would-be father-in-low believe that he would be a rich man to give the girl a comfortable and happy life he will win his perfect love with the girl. On the other hand, if the girl believe in their love and try to do everything she can to make her family believe that only with the poor man can she be happy, they will live together; if she get rid of her vanity and believe that the poor man will be rich in the future, they will live together. All in all, when faced with the important decision of love, just insist, believe and then there will be a happy ending waiting for us.

Unfortunately, these things did not happen in Wuthering Heights, as a result, there was no happy ending.

4.0 The Restoration of Human Nature

4.1 Love’s Rebirth

4.1.1 Resistance of the Younger Generation

Little Cathye and Hareton are regarded as the revenge tool of Heathcliff for Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. The same fate makes the two young people from different living environments and cultural backgrounds come together gradually. After her husband's death, little Catherine is often beaten and gradually becomes mature. Little Catherine has the courage to resist and upholds the truth, and dares to resist and believes in herself even when Heathcliff is ready to hit her, eventually she wakes up the heart with a vengeance and finds her own happiness.

4.1.2 Love’s Rebirth in the Younger Generation

Because Hareton and Cathy grew up in different environments, they had many differences in character, education and some other aspects. Although they were so different, Hareton watched the beautiful and arrogant Cathy with admiration in private. In the beginning, Cathy looked down upon Hareton. Because she thought that Hareton was vulgar and ignorant. It made Hareton to feel very sorrowful and want to change himself and his life for the first time. Therefore, he learned knowledge secretly. But his efforts and behavior couldn’t be understood by Cathy and did not make Cathy happy. On the contrary, Cathy often laughed at him and contempt him. She also copied Hareton’s reading tone on purpose in order to humiliate him. She regarded him as Heath cliff’s accomplice. Hareton couldn’t stand any more, and he began to see Cathy in a hostile way. They disliked each other and they often quarreled with each other. However, little by little, they found their strengths in each other and changed their minds. Afterwards, with the help of Nelly, Cathy showed her friendship to Hareton and lent books to him. Hareton accepted her books and sincerity. From then on, they finally removed the obstacle between them and fell in love with each other. Their happy ending implies the rebirth of love and the re-establishment of harmony.

4.2 Restoration of Heathcliff’s Human Nature

4.2.1 Repenting in Missing

Although the revenge fire of Heathcliff burned disputes of two families, he was very painful when Catherine died, because Catherine took his love and everything; he lost the meaning of life and there was no difference from the death. Although he got the Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange and made the people that he hated pay a highly price, it is still insufficient to cover the wounds of his soul, and he did not enjoy the happiness of the success of revenge. When he tortured others crazily, he kept himself hurt severely. When his revenge is achieved, there is no hate but only endless love on Catherine in the heart. The revenge mentality that Heathcliff has maintained for 20 years has completely changed. The infinite love of his heart is awakened and his conscience has been shocked, while the humanity revives with an irreversible trend. Only then it is possible to restore the interrupted spiritual connection with Catherine. The only thing he wants to do is to look for opportunities to meet her soul.

4.2.2 Freeing Himself in Repentance

Luckily, at the end of the novel, when Heathcliff learns that Cathy and Hareton have fallen in love, he seems to find out their strong resemblance to Catherine and himself in the childhood, thereby making a new change in his thoughts and having a recovery in his humanity. He says, "Well, Hareton's aspect was the ghost of my immortal love; of my wild endeavors to hold my right; my degradation, my pride, my happiness, and my anguish..." (Bronte, 2000:262) By this, the love tragedy full of terrifying color is irradiated with the light of human nature which makes people pleased at last.

Heathcliff has such intense hatred just because he has such intense love for Catherine. Love is the origin of hatred, while hatred is the dissimilation of love. When he gets together with Catherine by his death and achieves the redemption of his soul, he no longer has the courage to do evil. This is not because he gives up his hatred, but the love deep inside his heart wakes him up. He has found out the way to relieve his hatred. As a result, love is regarded as the remedy for hatred.

Steming from love, the hatred should be ended by love as well. And no matter in what way, love that cannot be condoned can only continue forever, until the lovers get access to liberation. Heathcliff may be damned, and he also may be the sinner who should be punished. However, he failed all his life to stay together with Catherine, and as long as two decades isolation, is it not the price for his love and hate and the punishment that Heathcliff has received the cruelest? That anxiety and anticipation in the loneliness, fear and despair waiting to meet with the specter are just as a blunt instrument to ​​cut his soul sliced, and little by little to erode his flesh and ultimately put him to death.

5.0 Conclusion

The love in Wuthering Heights is so sincere and frank without any affectation. Only such emotions come from the human heart really and distribute into human nature. This outcast who has experienced the coldness of the life has developed a strong love and hate in a cruel life and carries on unyielding struggle against the miserable fate. Although he comes to the end in tragedy, the devil mind that he formed in the process of growth and revenge is purified.

Heathcliff’s tragic love story is the tragedy of the unjust society that he lives, but also the tragedy of the era that he stays in. His life for love and death for love express his persistent feelings for Catherine. Before he died, he gives up the revenge on the next generation, which shows that his nature is good, but the distortion of brutal reality forces him to become callous and even crazy. Before the choice of love and hate, Heathcliff is a tragedy, but he is happy at last. When he smiled and died, his suffering love and hate have been freed, which is the most beautiful interpretation of love and hate.