Abstract

Wuthering Heights was hailed as a masterpiece in the world literature. For a long time, people think of Emily Bronte as the “Sphinx” of English literature, because mysteries on Emily and her works abound. Plenty of critics study this novel from different angles, and different studies have pointed to different conclusions. Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights was known as a character of duality of humanity and brutality. This classic literature image, with mysterious origin, strange appearance and twisted soul, is the representative of the Gothic villains. This paper, with Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights as an example, analyzes the features and the unique connotation of the Gothic villains.
This paper consists of four parts. The first part introduces the origin, development, and influence of the Gothic novels, and the characteristics of villain-heroes. The second part illuminates the social factors in the making of Heathcliff as a classic villain, including the unhappy childhood, class oppression and social devastation, and Catherine’s betrayal of love. The third part is about the psychological features of Heathcliff. Finally, the paper analyzes the prototype of Gothic villains and the social problems reflected by the image of Heathcliff. It points out analytically that the image of Gothic villain heroes actually reveals the human’s subconscious desire.

Key words: the Gothic villain; social factors; psychological features

摘  要

《呼啸山庄》被奉为世界文学史中的经典之作。长期以来，人们视艾米莉•勃朗特为英国文学中的“斯芬克斯”，关于她本人和她的作品都有很多难解之谜。评论者们从不同的角度研究这部旷世奇作，得出了不同的结论。书中的男主人公希斯克利夫是人性和兽性的化身，他有着谜一般的身世，奇怪的外表和扭曲的灵魂。作为一个经典的文学形象，他是哥特式恶棍的典型代表。本文以希斯克利夫为例，对哥特式恶棍的特点和深刻内涵作了初步分析。
本文由四部分组成：第一部分介绍了哥特小说的起源、发展和影响，以及恶棍英雄的特征。第二部分阐明了诱导希斯克利夫成为恶棍英雄的社会因素，包括他那不幸的童年，阶级压迫和社会摧残，以及凯瑟琳对他们爱情的背叛；第三部分介绍希斯克利夫的心理特征；最后分析哥特式恶棍的社会原型以及希斯克利夫所反映的社会深层问题。通过分析，指出哥特式恶棍英雄形象实际上揭示出了人类潜意识的愿望。

关键词：哥特式恶棍；社会因素；心理特征