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Clashes between Nature and Culture in Wuthering Heights

Author(s)

Xiuqin Huang

Affiliation(s)

Department of Foreign Languages, Software Engineering Institute of Guangzhou, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Abstract

This paper is to explore the clashes between nature and culture in Emily Bronte’s novel Wuthering Heights. The conflicts between nature and culture have been long argued and the social norms and expectations of the 19th century have influenced Bronte’s portrayal of the two conflicting forces. By employing a comparative studying of the lifestyles, the characters and their interactions in the novel, the research method highlights the symbolic representation of nature and culture through a close reading supported by thematic analysis. The inhabitants at Wuthering Heights, which is a symbol of nature, are setting in contrast to and conflict with those at Thrushcross Granges, which is a symbol of culture and pose conflicts. And the different ways of life and varied loves between the lovers of the two generations at Wuthering Heights and at Thrushcross Granges can be interpreted as natural and cultural force respectively. Hareton Earnshaw’s transformation from a coarse country boy to an educated civilized man symbolizes that eventually nature and culture reach a time of equilibrium by culture’s triumph over nature.

Keywords

Emliy Bronte; Wuthering Heights; Nature; Culture; Clashes

References

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