An Exploration Of Male Domination Over Nature And Woman: An Eco-feminist Approach To Wuthering Heights

Emily Bronte is regarded as a genius in the history of literature for her extraordinary literary work Wuthering Heights. As time passes by, her novel Wuthering Heights has gained more and more attention. The themes of love, religion and morality as well as class are the traditional analysis of the novel. Other focuses such as its narrative skills, writing styles and language have also been studied. There are also some studies of the novel from the angle of feminism, symbolism and archetypal criticism. However, few critics have studied the novel from the perspective of eco-feminism. Ecofeminism becomes popular in the context of numerous protests and activities against environmental destruction sparked off initially about nature, politics, and spirituality. My thesis tries to apply eco-criticism to analyze the relationship between woman and nature as well as the male domination over women and nature.The thesis is divided into five parts. The introduction makes clear about the literature review on Wuthering Heights at home and broad. The living environment of childhood has a great influence on Emily's attitude towards nature. Thus, Emily Bronte's life related to nature is introduced in the part. A brief introduction to eco-feminism is also illustrated in the part to lay a good foundation for the analysis of Wuthering Heights. Besides, the relationship between women and nature is analyzed in chapterl on the basis of Ecofeminist theories given in the part of introduction. In Wuthering Heights, nature is not only full of vigor and dynamism but also lives as an independent subject embodying hope and life. What's more, literature is a common refuge for women and nature, the hardships and humiliation suffered by women and nature in patriarchal societies are experiential links between nature and female in literature. Therefore, Chapter 2 continually explores the domination of men over women and nature through analysis of the suffering of heroines and nature. Chapter 3 makes the point that the harmony can be achieved between women and men as well as man and nature. In Wuthering Heights, Emily makes us get a good understanding of the male dominance over women and thus her opposition to dominant relationship between women and men is made clear. In the part of conclusion, emphasis of the connections and potential for communication between humans and nonhuman nature is a possible way to overcome dualism and individualism. The common goal of eco-feminists is the liberation of women and nature to set up a more harmonious relationship between the genders, a healthy non-exploitable relationship with the environment. The goal can be achieved through the realization of the harmonious relationship between women and men as well as human being and nature...