The Analysis of Catherine’s Personalities in Wuthering Heights

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 曲靖师范学院外国语学院/秦丽华

【Abstract】 As the most important heroine in WutheringHeights, Catherine strongly captures readers’ mind with herunique and complicated personalities which greatly causes her lifeand love tragedy. This paper analyzes changes of Catherine’spersonalities in her three life phrases.

【Key words】 Catherine; personalities

In Wuthering Heights, protagonists’ vivid personalitiescontribute to the significance of this novel. Specifically, as theheroine, Catherine’s personalities strongly attracts readers. Herdual and complicated personalities in three different phrases ofher life contribute to her love tragedy and her miserable death.

Firstly, before getting to know the Lintons, Catherine lovesHeathcliff passionately and unrestrictedly, which is the happiestyears in her life. Although Catherine comes from a rich, middleclass family, she is brought up without much family educationand restriction. She is a wild, rebellious, and bold girl. She growsup with Heathcliff, whom she gradually falls in love with. Theyspend most of their happy free childhood in the wide moors.

During this period, she loves Heathcliff wholeheartedly becausethey love is built up on the base of understanding, and they bothstand together to rebel against the family and other restrictingrules. Later, when Catherine is on her deathbed, all she canremember is the happy memory spent with the young Heathcliffin her childhood.

Secondly, she suffers from controversial personalities. AfterCatherine gets to know Edgar Linton who deeply loves her, sheis in a dilemma of choosing a husband between Heathercliff andEdgar. She is so hesitant and confused that she doesn’t knowwhether she should be true to her own heart to be with Heathcliff,or get married with Edgar. Her controversial personalities isshowed by the names she repeatedly writes on her books asCatherine Heathcliff or Catherine Linton. At last, she chooses tomarry Linton, which betrays her true feeling and makes her restlife regrettable. However, she longs for the comfortable and richlife. She is attracted by the decent and civilized lifestyle of theLinton family. She is motivated by the desire of high social status,economic abundance, and a rich lifestyle. She is afraid that “IfHeathcliff and I married, we should be beggars?” (Bronte, 62-65)Although she refuses to marry Heathcliff, Catherine lovesHeathcliff more deeply than anything else in the world. Shecompares her love to Linton as the “changeable foliage” .

However, she thinks her love to Heathcliff as the “eternalrocks” . She says that she and Heathcliff are essentially the sameperson. She insists that, “Heathcliff is more myself than I am. Iam Heathcliff!” (Bronte, 65) Nevertheless, she cannot marry himbecause they would lead a poor life like beggars. Unfortunately,her choice of marrying Linton finally proves to be a wrongdecision, because she never regains happiness after her marriage.

Thirdly, after Heathcliff returns back to Wuthering Heights,Catherine’s personalities is mixed with hesitance and conflict,which means that she wants to keep Linton as her husband,and she also hopes Heathcliff be her lover. After she marriesLinton, she tries to behave elegantly and courteous, just likethe conventional housewives of the gentry class. However, shedoesn’t really understand Linton and feels his lifestyle boring,and Catherine describes their difference as “Edgar is as differentas a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.” (Bronte,64) Three years’ after Catherine marries Linton, Heathcliffreturns home. When Catherine meets him, her inner passion toHeathcliff arouses again. She hopes Heathcliff and Linton couldget along with each other harmoniously. Moreover, she doesn’tplan to choose between these two men, and she wants to get theirlove at the same time. Nevertheless, it is impossible for Edgarand Heathcliff to make friends. Being tortured by inner conflictand dilemma, Catherine begins to get sick and almost insane,which finally leads to her tragedy death. Only with her death, shecan escape from the dilemma of choosing between Edgar andHeathcliff.

To boil it down into the briefest summary, as the novel’sheroine, Catherine deeply impresses readers with her dual personalitiesand her conflicting emotion towards Heathcliff and Edgar. Herpersonalities make this book an everlasting classic in literature.

References:

[1]Bronte,Emily.2004.Wuthering Heights[M].Xi’an:WorldPublishing Corporation.

[2]Pinion,F.B.1975.A Bronte Companion[M].Bristol:WesternPrinting Services Ltd.

作者简介：秦丽华(1985.10-)，女，汉族，云南曲靖人，曲靖师范学院外国语学院讲师，研究方向：美国文学。