An Analysis Of Tragic Characters In Wuthering Heights From The Perspective Of Attachment Theory

Emily Bronte (1818-1848), a novelist and poet, and one of the famous Bronte Sisters in the 19th century, is considered to be a talented woman writer. The love story of Heathcliff and Catherine is the essence of Wuthering Heights, the masterpiece of Emily Bronte. The story is also called the riddle of riddles. The reason for that Wuthering Heights has always been famous in the world when it comes to Western Europe literature in the 19th century is the complex characters shaped in the strange story which is embodied in the mutual relationship of the main characters. On the basis of intensive reading of the novel, this thesis will use a new theory of modern psychology, Attachment Theory, as theoretical guidance to profoundly analyze the personalities of main characters in this novel, especially the hero and heroine and analyze their emotional world to dig out the tragic nature deep in their consciousness, as a result, a better understanding of the character’s state of mind and behaviors can be got, thus a more comprehensive understanding of this novel.This thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its main contents are as follows:The first part is the introduction to the thesis. It introduces the novel and the study of the Attachment theory both at home and abroad. In addition, it also puts forward the realistic significance of the thesis.The second part is the main body of the whole thesis, including three chapters.In Chapter One there are two parts. The first part gives a brief introduction to Wuthering Heights, which helps to reveal the relationship among different characters and the development of the plot in this film. The second part gives an overview of the Attachment Theory, including its definition, Attachment doctrines and Attachment styles as well as features of child Attachment and adult Attachment.In Chapter Two, it analyzes the main characters, especially Heathcliff from the perspective of two doctrines. At first, the content that the Attachment objects of Heathcliff are introduced and the Attachment of Heathcliff in his childhood is analyzed in detail by Prototype Perspective, including using Revisionist Perspective to interpret traits of character of Heathcliff in his adulthood is the first part. Then the features of other characters are also analyzed, mainly Catherine and her daughter from Attachment doctrines through introducing their love process. At last, tragic inevitability from the perspective of two Attachment doctrines is analyzed. Deformity of Attachment psychology will lead to irrational jealousy. This part from the perspective of Heathcliff’s jealousy expounds the relationship between adult Attachment and envy, and influence of jealousy on tragic characters, aimed to explain the inevitability of tragedy.In Chapter Three, perspective of Attachment styles supports another new way to analyze the character of Heathcliff. Attachment styles will change over time and keep unstable, therefore the same one behaves different characters in every period. This chapter is also divided into three parts. The first part analyzes Attachment styles of Heathcliff in his childhood and adulthood in detail through digging out the relation between Heathcliff’s character and his emotional experience and introducing Attachment Strategy Heathcliff used in various Attachment styles. Namely, each Attachment produces single performance. In second part, Attachment styles of other tragic characters are analyzed other characters by introducing the influence of adult Attachment on interpersonal relationship and presenting the interaction relation of characters. The third part gives an explanation of tragic inevitability of main characters through interpreting the consequence of mental Attachment, aimed at understanding the tragic characters of profoundly and precisely.The third part is the conclusion of the whole thesis. It not only generalizes the Attachment psychology and behavior of the main character in this extraordinary plot how the characters behave in the novel but analyzes their complicated and changeable character personalities. And also it has an emphasis on the limitation of character analysis due to imperfect Attachment theory, as well as puts forward other practical significances and some suggestions for future study with the purpose of analyzing tragic character in a more systematic and comprehensive way.