Comparisons of the Characters’ Tragic Origins between Wuthering Heights and Tess of the D’urbervilles.doc

PAGE  PAGE 8 《呼 啸 山 庄》与《苔 丝》人 物 悲 剧 根 源 比 较 Comparisons of the Characters’ Tragic Origins between Wuthering Heights and Tess of the D’urbervilles Abstract: Emily Bronte and Thomas Hardy are among the greatest novelists in the 19th century in English literature. Wuthering Heights and Tess of the D’Urbervilles can respectively be regarded as their representative works. The paper tries to dig out the origins of the main characters’ tragedies in the two novels. Through comparisons from several aspects, we can find the similar tragic origins of Catherine and Tess and the different tragic origins of Heathcliff and Angel. Key words: tragic origins; similarities; differences 1. Introduction Emily Bronte and Thomas Hardy are both among the greatest writers in the Victorian age (1837-1901) in English literature. Emily Bronte (1818-1848), the writer of Wuthering Heights, is a daughter of Patrick Bronte, who is educated at Cambridge. The evasive writing, transcribed in tiny script on small pieces of paper, continues into her adulthood and is a remarkable key to the development of the gift in Emily. Though she produces only one novel and a few poems in her short life, she is ranked among the giants of English literature. As her masterpiece, Wuthering Heights (1847) tells the reader a story of a gypsy boy named Heathcliff. He is picked up by Mr. Earnshaw and brought up together with his children. Heathcliff and the daughter of the family Miss Catherine have loved each other since their childhood, but the love is crushed by Catherine’s brother, Hindley. Unable to bear Hindley’s insult, Heathcliff joins the army. Three years later he becomes a rich man. Later, Heathcliff becomes the master of the family and takes revenge upon the next generation. He treats Hindley’s son Hareton very cruelly and compels Catherine’s daughter Cathy to marry his own sick child. The novel has been studied a lot since it was published. Terry Eagleton co