[呼啸山庄英文读后感]
Between Love and hatred
-----on Wuthering Heights by Emily
Bronte
Wuthering Heights told the story happened between
two old families, the Earnshawn family living in Wuthering Heights
and the Linton family living in Thrushcross Grange.
The story began when old Mr. Earnshawn one day took home an
orphan who he adopted on his way to Liverpool. He named the boy
Heathcliff. From the very beginning, Mr. Earnshawn’s son Hindley
hated Heathcliff for he shared Mr. Earnshawn’s love. Hindley often
beat Heathcliff. Though Heathcliff never complained, quiet anger
grew inside.
On the contrary, Mr. Earnshawn’s daughter Catherine became
Heathcliff’s close friend soon after his arrival. They played
together and grew up together. As time went by, their affection
towards each other became increasingly deep.
Years later, Old Mr. Earnshawn passed away. Hindley became the
head of the family. He began to abuse Heathcliff, treated him as a
servant and forbade Catherine from being together with him.
Heathcliff sliently tolerated all these insults, but inside his
heart anger turned into extreme hatred, which made his character
more twisted.
Then, an accident happened. One evening, Catherine and
Heathcliff slinked into Thrushcross Grange to have fun.
Unfortunately, they were discovered and Catherine was bitten by a
dog. The master of Thrushcross Grange Mr. Linton drove away
Heathcliff and kept Catherine to recover from the wound for 5
weeks. During her stay at Thrushcross Grange, Catherine became
friends with Mr. Linton’s son Edgar and daughter Isabella. The
brother and sister not only took good care of Catherine but also
taught her good manners which changed her from a vulgar girl into a
graceful lady.
However, at the same time Catherine’s affection towards
Heathcliff also underwent a subtle change. Although she knew she
still loved Heathcliff very much, she came to feel it a shame to
marry him, a servant. When Edgar, a handsome wealthy kind but
sheepish young man proposed to her, she betrayed her true feelings
and accepted the proposal. Hearing the news of Catherine’s
engagement by chance, Heathcliff left angrily and sadly.
Three years later, Catherine married Edgar and led a peaceful
and happy life. But the happiness ended when Heathcliff suddenly
came back. He had made his fortune and acted like a gentleman.
Catherine was quite delighted and wanted her husband and Heathcliff
to be friends, but Heathcliff came back only to take revenge for
the happiness and love he lost.
Heathcliff gambled with Hindley who had been lost in alcohol
after his wife’s death and tricked him out of money. In this way
Heathcliff became the master of Wuthering Heights. Besides, when
Heathcliff found Edgar’s sister Isabella was foolishly admiring his
appearance and wealth, he deceived the poor girl and persuaded her
to run away with him. Angry with a fight between Edgar and
Heathcliff, Catherine went on a hunger strike and became ill. At
that time she was already pregnant. Although Edgar looked after her
extremely carefully, Catherine’s health condition just went from
bad to worse. Finally, after she gave birth to a baby girl who was
also named Catherine, she died in Heathcliff’s arms, wearing a
smile.
During the following 16 years, Hindley, Isabella and Edgar died
in succession. Nevertheless, although he was for long soaked in the
misery of losing Catherine, Heathcliff’s hatred did not fade. He
turned to take revenge on the next generation. He taught Hindley’s
son Hareton to be rude. He tricked Edgar’s daughter little
Catherine into marrying his own son Linton Heathcliff, with the
intrigue that since Little Linton suffered from constant illness
and was dying, he would be in possession of Thrushcross Grange once
his son died. At that time he would be able to do whatever he
wanted and took revenge on anybody. But when the time came, he
suddenly realized that revenge didn’t make him happier but more
miserable. He lost the interest of destroying the next generation
and approved of little Catherine remarrying Hareton. The two later
lived a happy life together.
In the end, on a cold and rainy night, Heathcliff ended his own
life tragically. But it was said that after his death, people often
saw two spirits haunting near Wuthering Heights. And the two
spirits looked just like Heathcliff and Catherine.
From my point of view, the theme of Wuthering
Heights is stormy love and hatred, just as the book title
suggests. It is beyond doubt displayed most thoroughly by the hero
Heathcliff. On the one hand, He loved Catherine so much that she
was the whole world to him. Losing Catherine equaled losing
everything. He couldn’t free himself from misery for even a single
minute after Catherine’s death. On the other hand, he hated Hindley
and Edgar so much that seeing them suffering was not enough. He
even felt like torturing the next generation. Another character
with strong love and hatred was Hindley. Heathcliff once remarked
that Hindley’s wife was the only person who loved Hindley.
Apparently Hindley thought so and returned all his love to his
wife. Thus, when his wife died in childbirth, he had nobody to love
but everybody to hate, including himself. Unlike Heathcliff who
expressed his hatred by taking revenge on others, Hindley poured
the hatred on himself by indulging in alcohol. He even didn’t
bother to continue hating Heathcliff and destroying him, he chose
to bring himself to distruction. Both Heathcliff and Hindley were
eventually devoured by their own strong love and hatred.
As far as I am concerned, I do not appreciate the stormy love
and hatred. The one I appreciate is Edgar, the man who also had
deep love but expressed it like running stream. His love for
Catherine was not necessarily less than Heathcliff’s and he was
more sensible. He loved Catherine so he proposed to her, took good
care of her, had a great fear of upsetting her and suffered greatly
seeing his dear wife troubled. His love was like the gentle breeze
that makes people feel comfortable and never smothered. Though he
met the similar fate as Hindley, he never abandoned himself. He
gave his love to their daughter, while never forgetting Catherine.
Of course, Edgar also had hatred. He had a thousand reasons to hate
Heathcliff, the person who got the true love of his wife, who
deceived his naive sister, who indirectly led to his wife’s death.
However, Edgar vented his hatred not even once. He did as he said:
punishment of the wicked belongs to God, we should learn to
forgive.
We all have love and hatred in our heart, more or less, weak or
strong. However, we should never turn them into devastating storm
which will not only hurt others but ourselves. We may find the best
way out by learning from Edgar to properly love, to forget hatred
and to forgive.
　　〔呼啸山庄英文读后感〕随文赠言：【这世上的一切都借希望而完成，农夫不会剥下一粒玉米，如果他不曾希望它长成种粒；单身汉不会娶妻，如果他不曾希望有孩子；商人也不会去工作，如果他不曾希望因此而有收益。】

After reading Wuthering Heights, the love and the hatred between Catherine and Heathcliff still linger in my head. Wuthering Heights gives me a cold, withering, and lonely feeling; however, at the end the book the author shows us that the human kindness is not diminished at Wuthering heights, even though the wind can break off a tree that doesn’t mean it can break off the whole forest. Even though hatred destroyed Heathcliff , Catherine, Edgar and Elizabeth’s happiness, that doesn’t mean Cathy and Hareton’s happiness. Actually, there is no such a character I really like in Wuthering Heights, every character seems teemed with agony and animosity, especially Heathcliff. Heathcliff is an orphan before Mr.Earnshaw adopt him, and in the novel, it says that Mr.Earnshaw treats Heathcliff even better than his own son, Hindley Earnshaw. It’s quite amazing that in spite of Earnshaw’s nice treatment, Heathcliff has no gratitude at all, he revenged Hindley and Catherine, even their heirs. After reading Heathcliff’story, my feeling is complicated, although he is the avenger who dominate the whole story by using his vengeful machinations, he is also the most pitiful guy in Wuthering Heights; he doesn’t know what is love and don’t know how to love. Heathcliff has lived with the Earnshaws for more than 10 years, but there is no attachment between him and the whole family except Catherine, but even Catherine who was died because of Heathcliff’s tournament. When he is torturing others, he is also giving himself a suffering. Catherine, who is the heroine in the book, is described by Nelly as capricious and selfish. She is just like Heathcliff, doesn’t know how to love at all. Anyways, Wuthering Heights gave me a torment, you can’t see any warm scene in the book, all you see is the fierce wind howled, and wild moor. However, at the end, the combination between Hareton and Cathy seems a hopeful light in the darkness, and the break of the day finally coming!