A Study Of The Beauty-Ugliness Contrasts In Wuthering Heights

Emily Bront(e|¨) is one of the most important figures in the English literaturein the nineteenth century. Wuthering Heights, her only novel, is now generallyregarded as one of the greatest English novels. As a unique literary piece, itoccupies a prominent place in the history of English literature and has attractedconsiderable critical attention. The critical reflection it stimulates pours forth atan amazing rate, ranging from perceptive literary analysis to sentimentalinterpretations of her life story.The novel presented manifold beauty-ugliness contrasts represented by thetwo rival men and houses. It is reasonable to say that the aspects of this novel,mainly the character, setting and plot, form sharp beauty-ugliness contrasts. Thethesis explores the contrasts in these aspects respectively in the application ofAlbert Hofstadter's theory of beauty and ugliness.Heathcliff and Linton are the two major male characters in the novel.Heathcliff is totally different from Edgar Linton, mainly in the aspects ofphysical appearance, physical faculty, intellectual faculty and ideological state.They represent two very diverse opposing forces. They are locked in conflictwith each other over their varying forms of love for the heroine Catherine.Based on the appreciation of beauty and ugliness, Heathcliff is a union of powerand passion, full of vital power and splendid passion, whereas Linton is a total opposite on these aspects. He is a union of weakness and inaction, the static anddying combination.Both the natural and social settings between Wuthering Heights andThrushcross Grange form striking beauty-ugliness contrasts in the novel.Wuthering Heights, the house of the moors, and Thrushcross Grange, the houseof the valley, represent completely opposing worlds and values as they do intheir inhabitants: the energetic native civilization and the repressive Christiancivilization. The contrast of these two houses adds much to the meaning of thisnovel, and without it, the story would be less interesting and complex.The plot in Wuthering Heights is dense and moving and structured inparallel. Heathcliff's manly actions are based on both his powerful physical andmental faculties and the plot related to him is the most poetic description in theEnglish literature and generates readers' aesthetic feeling. However EdgarLinton behaves cowardly. Christian morality restrains his hands by taming him,by draining him of all vitality. The plot related to him suggests weakness andsickness and genders a feeling of displeasure.And Catherine's traveling between beauty and ugliness, i.e., Catherinetravel between Heathcliff and Linton, is complemented to emphasize thebeauty-ugliness contrasts demonstrated in the novel. When the heroin Catherinebetrays her true self and marries Linton, she denies her nature and faces personaldisintegration. She is tortured by the separation at the cost of her life. Once shethrows away the skeleton and returns to the moors, she revives her real life. Wuthering Heights is a poetic work, exposing multiple contradictions andopposed forces that display and prove the theories of beauty and ugliness. Yet itis not just a sentimental romance. It is a presentation of life, an essay on love,and a glimpse into relationships.