Ethical Dilemma And Moral Evaluation

Wuthering Heights is the only novel of Emily Bronte which is alone sufficient to establish the unshakable status in the history of world literature. And the critics use different methods to undertake unscrambling from different angles since its publication, which makes its study detailed and comprehensive. But a problem is still worth our attention:who’s Heathcliff and his identity. Most critics have noted its outcasts, orphans, fosterage, however the problem is not the identity itself, but the transformation of the identity to Heathcliff and the tragic results caused by it. The transformation from the waif into the adopted son brings great disaster to Wuthering Heights and the Grange as well as two generations of the two families, which also demonstrates a serious family ethical dilemma and personal ethical dilemma. And the struggle and resistance in the ethical dilemmas lead to a series of tragedies.It is a family tragedy of an "adopted son" in Wuthering Heights, which tells us that we should always pay attention to the order of family relationships and family ethical construction and maintenance, to coordinate family relationships among members and maintain the family harmonious and healthy.This paper discusses the identity of Heathcliff based on moths of ethical literary criticism from a close reading of the text, and three parts constitute the main research contents. The first part talks about Heathcliff s identity problem, who is Heathcliff and where he come from become the key to unlock the mystery of his identity. The second part discusses identity transformation and the ethical tragedy caused by it. Mr Earnshaw adopts Heathcliff which makes him turn into an adopted son from a waif, which brings about devastating disasters to the two families and two generations. The third part emphasizes the ethical dilemmas and morality evaluation in the tragedy of the adopted son. The transformation from the waifs into the adopted son of Heathcliff breaks the family ethical rule in a deeper sense, which causes consequence of tragedies. Heathcliff fells into a deep personal ethical dilemmas, faces difficult ethical choices in the tragedy, and his return to revenge directly causes the tragedy. After the tragedy is subsided, we should consider the moral evaluation of his behavior. Whether it is moral or not, which is not the key but moral enlightenment and edification to us in the tragedy. The last part of the dissertation is the summary to the ethical tragedy of the adopted son. Emily Bronte portrayed the life of Heathcliff, which tells the story of the adopted son’s ethical tragedy of survival, and the tragedy is not just a personal tragedy, but also a family tragedy, as well as tragedy of the society.