Wuthering Heights is the one and only novel byEmily Bronte， who died at the age of twenty-nine， ayear after the publication of her novel. Her short lifewas found to be quite as enigmatic as her masterpiece.Born in 1818， she was the fifth of the six children ofan Irish country parson and his frail wife. Two yearslater， when all six children were under the age of 7， theBrontes made the Haworth Parsonage on the Yorkshiremoors their home， where the mother died of cancer soonafter her arrival. Her sister Elizabeth came aod stayedon to look after the motherless family. But the childrenhad little affection from either the aunt or the father.They kept very mucb to themselves， and imagined adven-tures for their toy soldiers. So Emily and her youngersister Anne invented a saga devoted to the island ofGondal， in tiny books in microscopic writing which oc-cupied them for years. They also had real adventuresof their own in the moors that stretch to a radius ot" 20miles around the hill village of Haworth， which wereundoubtedly also a stirnulus to invention. After briefunhappy experiences at schools and later working as agoverness， Emily returned at the end of 1842 to Haworth，where she spent the rest of her brief life.In 1845， ber elder sister Chariotte discoveredEmily's poems， and brought them out the followingyear in a joint publication， Poems by Currer， Ellis dndActon Bell. These poems by "Ellis Bell" （the pseudonymof Emily） placo their author among the most originalpoets of the century. Wuthering Heights， written be-tween October 1845 and June 1846， was published by T.C.Newby in December 1847. Unlike Charlotte's novelJane Eyre， it only rnet with hostile incomprehension.A year later， the young authoress of the unrecognizedmasterpiece died of consumption December 19， 1848.Of her last days， Charlotte wrote： "Day by day， when 1saw with what a front she met suffering， 1 looked onher with an anguish of wonder and love. 1 have seennothing like it; but， indeed， 1 have never seen her paral-lel in anything. Stronger than a man， simpler than achild， her nature stood alone."It was from this unparalleled nature of hers that anunparalleled novel came into being. The central actionof the novel evolves around Heathcliff's unparalleledrelationship with Catherine： from union to separation，then from separation to reunion in death. It is set inmotion with the arrival of Heathcliff at WutheringHeights， a gypsy waif whom Mr. Eamshaw has pickedup in the streets of Liverpool and brings home to rearas one of his own children. Heathcliff and the daughterCathy become attached to each other， while the father'saffection for the foundling makes his son Hindley furi-ously jealous. Upon the early death of his father， Hind-ley， now master of the house， bullies Heathcliff andreduces him to the humiliating position of farm drudge，though Cathy remains loyal as ever. An accident， how-ever， brings her into Thrushcross Grange， where the younggirl becomes attracted by the young master Edgar Lin-ton's good looks and good manners and the family'ssocial standing. When Heathcliff overhears her de-claririg that she cannot marry him because it" would de-grade her， he runs away in a rage of passion. The separa-tion lasts until he returns three years later， mysteriouslyenriched， to find Cathy unhappily married to Edgar.Inflamed by Cathy's betrayal， the stormy eruptions ofhis passionate and ferocious nature now make life in-tolerable for her and promptly send the rueful broken-hearted Cathy to her grave. Now that their earthlyseparation is complete， the vengeful Heathcliff pursuesrelentlessly the ruination of the two houses. The de-monic thirst for revenge， however， brings him neithersatisfaction nor peace. Onlv. the memory. of the deadCathy drives him on with the "one universal idea" ofa final union with her spirit， which he ultimately bringsabout with a wilful fast.This strange tale is without question one ofthe great-est tragic love stories of all times， comparable to Tol-stoy's Anna Karenina and Cao Xueqin's The Dream ofthe Red Chamber. However， there are significant dif-ferences. Whereas both the Russian and the Chinesemasterpiece have for their background the glamourouspanorama ofglittering bigh society life， the tragic life anddeath of Heathcliff and Catherina is set against the "at-mospheric tumult" of the wild moors of the north of Eng-land. Stripped of external trappings， the drama of their"immortal" love appeals by an emotional power andintensity of its own that defies mundane imagination.But it is more than a great love story. For it isalso a tragedy of human alienation. Heathcliff beginshis fictional career as "a dirty， ragged， black-hairedchild，" a homeless gypsy foundling： an archetypal childof nature. Once thrust into the midst of "h.uman" so-ciety， his innocent nature begins to be twisted and distort-ed by the forces of hate which tura the Heights into aplace "where every man's hand is against his neighbour."Still he might endure it all and retain his human dignity，did he not find himself betrayed by the only love whichis nothing less than his life itself. When that love isbeyond redemption in this world， Heathcliff's course ofutter alienation is destined not to end until it reaches，inexorably， the other extreme of angelic innocence： "alying fiend， a monster， not a human being." After all，"Heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned！"Most of all， however， the novel is a supreme truetragedy in that it depicts the drama and spectacle of themost poignant sufferings of a noble human soul. Heath-cliff is a peculiar sort of the noble savage， and his nobi-lity as a tragic hero lies essentially in his soul's great capa-city for suffering. Linton suffers （innocently by mun-dane standards）， Cathy suffers （largely because she betraysher true selt'）， but the emotional focus of the novel， thatwhich dominates and organizes the sequence of emo-tional responses on the part of the attentive and sen-sitive reader， is the sustained course of intense sufferingsthat turns the hero's soul into a living hell. Read in thislight， the controversial "mysterious" novel becomes atonce a masterpiece comprehensible and admirable mall its aspects and proportions.Why does the novel open with a most bizarre blood-curdling incident as it does？ Simply because it meansto strike unerringly from the very beginning the keynotedf the hero's ever-suffering soul. Heathcliff's haunt-ing cry "Come in！ Come in！ Cathy， do come in！"echoes throughout the story. Even the commonplaceyoung city spark Lockwood is shaken by "such anguishin the gush of grief that accompanied this raving， that mycompassion made me overlook its folly." The siage isset for a powerful tragedy of the ever-suffering soul.One thing that has baffled and even repelled somecritics and readers alike is Heathcliff's "demonic" thirstfor revenge that plunges him into abysmal plots and fero-cities against others， mostly innocent victims. Even hersister Charlotte felt compelled to apologize for such "im-morality" and send the "unredeemed" Heathcliff "neveronce swerving in his arrowstraight course to perdition."But for Heathcliff， love is suffering， from the beginningto the end. What happens after Cathy's death is butan intensified continuation of 'what has happened before.So if one rose above Charlotte's "Christian ethics" orthe like， one could perhaps see and feel all Heathcliff'sunspeakable outrages are nothing but horrifying symp-toms of the upheavals in his tormented soul. Heath-cliff is after all a giant defying a world of dwarfs and thedrama of his ordeal the highest homage to man's spiri-tuality.Wu Ningkun
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