A Pendulum Between Civilization And Wildness

As the unique novel written by Emily Bronte in her short life time, Wuthering Heights gets its reputation for mysterious themes and strong emotions. It is not until more than a century after its first publication that this marvelous novel was deemed as a world masterpiece of curiosity. For most Victorian writers, romanticism has laid down the sceptre to the rational realism. But for Emily, her realism is so extraordinary with a hue of Gothic tradition, both of which do not enter into complete antagonism with each other, on the contrary, each embodies and nourishes each other.Some special space images create favourable conditions for the research, for they make Wuthering Heights astonishingly dissimilar with other literary works in the Victorian age. Spatial analysis can be served as the very key to open the box of those various mysteries contained in the novel, relating to cultural content and social significance. It is worthwhile to note that the various agitation and collision resulting from the conflicts between wildness and civilization further shows the author's non-compromise on harsh reality and unremitting pursuit of the ideal. To unveil the theme hidden in a Gothic masquerade of horrific contents in Wuthering Heights in contrast with other Victorian works, this thesis explores Emily Bronte's inner conflict between civilization and wildness and her yearning for their fusion by means of analysing her demonstrations of several functional spaces from spatial and cultural perspectives.The abstract essense of the novel manifests itself most often in attachment to these three representative space images such as dwellings, studies, and prisons. By means of analyzing the ubiquitous consciousness of space, which is not sufficiently explored at home and abroad, this thesis might be of use for both of future Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte studies.Chapter one concentrates on the dwellings where some important characters live, making a contrast of two opposite spaces:Wuthering Heights exemplifies itself as a representative of wild force, as manifested in execrable nature, abominable weather and tousy house, but separation from the civil world on the contrary makes the people within get closer to their instincts,which are doubtless substantiated by the inseparable emotion from Catherine and Heathcliff to this abode: while Thrushcross Grange represents itself as the embodiment of civilized world, as reflected in its delicated rooms and elegant inhabitants, to foster a rational attitude at the expense of the repression of natural instinct, alienation from nature, class polarization and social injustice.Chapter two offers an analytic account of studies existed in the novel. By taking diverse treatments toward studies from several people and the corresponding effects into consideration, we can read civilization not only as a messenger of knowledge and prosperity but also as a herald of other bad omens:severe exclusiveness, lineage determinism, overmuch scrupulosity and underestimate of emotions.In chapter three, differential prison images reflect the subsistent existance of wild forces, which can fight against civilization in a civil society, or be repressed by it in turn, to display the violent side of civilization. The production of prison space reveals the latent problems under the superfacial prosperity of Victorian Britain, such as class antagonism, racial discrimination, strict hierarchy, barren effort, and so on and so forth. It is the tolerance and amalgamation of both civilized world and wild world that can ultimately help one avert embarment.In conclusion, the analysis on dwellings, studies, and prisons as a whole demonstrates Emily's contemplation of her society. From either civilization or wildness. she has too many emotions to sever. This kind of complex is reflected in their initial opposition, grandual infiltration and final amalgamation in ideal. She places hope on the cultivation of people in a civilized world, meanwhile she realizes its consequent selfishness and injustice; she dreads to think that wild forces will be uncontrolable and even lead to evil, but she cannot help keeping her reliance away from it for its unfeigned reflection to human nature and intrepid challenge to authority.Emily tends to idealize the end of the story, resorting the appearance of ghosts to weaken those accumulated problems for a long time, and thus she can get rid of the cruel reality. But the superstitious plots are a way of irony to the reality. Along with the foreground of those two irreconcilable forces, Emily's profound consideration on her era is stated by the thorough contrast and interpretation of civilization and wildness. We should learn to deal with both potence and limitation launched by the two forces, giving full scope to their benefits while keeping their side-effects at bay.