Abstract

Emily Bronte was a famous female novelist in Victorian age in England. She wrote Wuthering Heights. Emily Bronte made Catherine and Heathcliff's love tragedy as the main line. It describes the heroine’s freedom of marriage, love and freedom, independent consciousness reflected in the patriarchal society. In male-dominated society, women almost have no their own independent consciousness in the novel. However, Catherine is a representative of that era with rebellious spirit. Feminist literary mainly criticize the eliminated male centered culture and advocates of the patriarchal ideology, trying to build a feminist thought. 

This paper describes feminism from the following angles and the feminist ideas are analyzed respectively. First is introduction of definition of feminism, Wuthering Heights and Emily Bronte and Catherine. Then this paper is about feminism in Wuthering Heights, including education, social status, philosophy, view of love. After that is about similarity and difference between Catherine’s and Isabella’s views of marriage. At the end of the paper, it is about reasons of emergence of feminism —— long term suppression of female and the rise of bourgeois female writers in Victorian. Finally, I make a conclusion. Emily Bronte interpreted Catherine the lady who has independent consciousness, courage to resist social customs and male authority in detail. The writer created a figure of ideal woman in the era and the heroine can be said to be a new image of women beyond the era. Emily's bold feminist consciousness plays a more or less influence on the writing of future generations, but also guides our new generation of women to explore the independence of the self and realize the self-value.

Keywords : feminism; paternity; independence; views of marriage

Contents

Abstract

摘要

1. Introduction1

1.1 Definition of Feminism1

1.2 Brief Introduction of Wuthering Heights2

1.3 Emily Bronte and Catherine 4

2. Feminism in Wuthering Heights4

2.1 Feminism in Education.4

2.2 Feminism in Social Status6

2.3 Feminism in Philosophy.6

2.4 Feminism in View of Love7

2.4.1 Similarity and Difference between Catherine’s and Isabella’s Views of Marriage7

3. Reasons of Emergence of Feminism.7

3.1 Long Term Suppression of Female.7

3.2 The Rise of Bourgeois Female Writers in Victorian8

4. Conclusion15

6. Reference.17