Study Of Heathcliff's Ethic Confusion

Emily Bronte, a well-known English poet and novelist in the nineteenth century, is the author of Wuthering Heights which is her only novel and combines great efforts of her brief life. This novel tells about a tragic love story of Heathcliff and Catherine. The hero Heathcliff, an adopted son in the fashion of "Actual Adoption", was Catherine's brother without blood relationship. Although their love was a violation of ethics, Heathcliff, who had never been fairly treated by his adoptive father, couldn't get a thorough understanding of his ethics status. Therefore, when Heathcliff lost his lover as a brother, hoping breaking away from misery and taking vengeance on the man tortured him, he married Isabella, who was the sister of Catherine's husband. Impenetrably, he still payed court to Catherine after marriage, and again their love landed up to a tragedy. Heathcliff was wondering why true lovers could not be with each other and why did he lost Catherine again when he became a nobleman after discarding his humble origin. It was the very perplexity that leads Heathcliff to crazy revenge. Only the answer to this perplexity can lead to redemption of Heathcliff's spirit.This paper employs method of Ethical literary criticism to analyze Heathcliff s ehic confusion. Three parts constitute this paper. The first part talks about Heathcliff's inner self and his confused ethic when playing the role of Catherine's brother, lover, then brother-in-law and uncle of Catherine's daughter. It was these roles that he utilized to court his lover but that deeply entrapped him in ethic confusion. The second part emphasizes causes of Heathcliff's tragic love through analyzing three couple's marriages: Catherine and Linton, Heathcliff and Isabella, and Cathy and junior Linton. The last part presents us with methods of saving Heathcliff from crazy revenge and reflections on love ethic.