Chapter 39 postscript

("Wuthering Heights") was written by Emily Bronte (Emily Bronte, 1818-1848), a famous British poet and novelist in the nineteenth century.The female writer passed away in obscurity after only thirty years in the world.It should be said that she is a poet first and has written some extremely profound lyric poems, including narrative poems and short poems, some of which have been selected into the anthology of twenty-two first-rate poets in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Britain .However, her only novel has established her position in the history of English literature and the history of world literature.She and ("Jane Eyre") author Charlotte Bronte ("Charlotte Bronte D, 1816-1855), and their little sister, "Agnes Gray" ("Agnes Grey") author Ann Brown Anne Bronte (Anne Bronte D, 1820-1849), known as the three Bronte sisters, shined brilliantly in the British literary world in the nineteenth century. In particular, Bronte and Bronte, like a pair of small but dazzling cat's-eye gems, the world is browsing in the nineteenth century. When it comes to the British literary heritage, one cannot but be surprised to find that this is a rare treasure, and one of them is so memorable that people can't help but regret that this talented girl, if she does not die prematurely, will leave behind How many bright chapters to nourish the hearts of readers!

The thirty years that Emily Bronte lived were the era of social turmoil in England.Capitalism is developing and exposing its inherent defects more and more; the contradiction between labor and capital is sharpening; the poverty of unemployed workers; a large number of child laborers are cruelly tortured to death (this is from the famous British poetess Elizabeth Barrett Browning's long poem "Children's Cry", you can see some outlines).Add to this the heavy-handed approach of the British government to the struggle for democratic reform and the labor movement: the Peter Road massacre in 1819 was an example.Therefore, the literary works of this period are also reflected.Our female writer Emily Bronte was born in such an age of struggle!She was born in a pastor family, her father named Patrick Bronte (1777-1861), was originally an Irish priest, in 1812 married Maria Bronte, a native of Cornwall in southwestern England. Lanweier is his wife and has six children.The eldest daughter Maria (1814), the second daughter Elizabeth (1815), the third daughter Charlotte (1816), the only son Branwell (1817), and the following are Emily (1818) and Ann (1820).The latter four were all born in the village of Thornton in the Yorkshire Moors, the parish in which Mr. Bronte was priest.In 1820 the family moved to the Howarth area and settled in a remote corner of the moor.The three sisters spent their whole lives in this place.

When their mother died in 1827, their aunt came from Cornwall to look after the family.Three years later, the four sisters headed by Maria entered the boarding school.Due to the poor living conditions, Maria and Elizabeth died of tuberculosis, while Charlotte and Emily survived. Since then, they have been studying at home with their brother Branwell.This family has always lived in isolation, and the four brothers and sisters often pass the lonely time by reading, writing poetry, and fabricating legends.Charlotte and Branwell centered their novels on an imagined Angrian dynasty, while Emily and younger sister Ann created a Pacific island they called Gondor to invent.

Although their home is close to the Howarth industrial estate, the house is smack in the middle of town and wilderness.Emily often went for walks in the moors to the west with her sisters.Therefore, on the one hand, the Bronte sisters saw the developing capitalist society in the town, and on the other hand, they were also infected by the atmosphere of the wilderness.Especially Emily, she is taciturn on the surface, but passionate in her heart. Although she doesn't understand politics, she cares about politics very much.The three sisters often read the periodicals of the Liberal Party or the Conservative Party, and like to discuss politics. This is of course influenced by their father.Patrick Bronte, a more radical Conservative, had opposed the Lutheran movement in his early years, and later also helped the Haworth workers and supported their strike.Emily and her sisters inherited his sense of justice and sympathized with the resistance and struggle of handicraft workers.This created the conditions for the birth of .

The family has very little income and is quite struggling financially.The three sisters had to go out frequently to make a living, supplementing their family income by teaching or working as tutors, and suffered hardships and setbacks in the past few years.Charlotte had planned to open a school by herself, so she and Emily went to Brussels to study for a year, and then left because Charlotte was broken in love.In 1846 they raised their own funds to publish a collection of poems under a pseudonym, but sold only two copies.In 1847, the three novels⑤ by the three sisters were finally published, but they only achieved success and gained attention.The publication of the novel was not understood by readers at the time, and even her own sister Charlotte could not understand Emily's thoughts.

In 1848, their only brother Branwell died in September due to long-term alcoholism, drug abuse, and tuberculosis. Although the death of the family tyrant was also a relief for the three sisters, however, As it is said in Sister Charlotte's Letters: "Mistakes and sins are forgotten, what remains is pity and sorrow occupying the heart and memory..." Tributes to Branwell shorten Emily's journey to the grave Emily finally passed away in December of the same year.Their little sister Ann also died in May of the following year. At this time, the last members of the family were only Charlotte and her old father.

This very talented young female writer who became well-known in the world literary world later regretted leaving the world that could only make her feel indifferent, and silently bid farewell to the only three relatives in her family!She once wrote in a poem of her teenage years: "I'm the only one, destined No one asks, no one mourns with tears; Since I was born, never caused A ray of worry, a happy smile. In secret joys, secret tears, This ever-changing life slips by like this, Eighteen years later and still helpless, Just as lonely as the day I was born. ..." In the same poem she concludes with a sigh:

"At first the hope of youth was melted, Then the iridescence of fantasy recedes swiftly; So experience tells me, speak the truth Never grow up in the human heart. ..." May 17, 1837 But she really wanted to cheer up and make a difference, but she couldn’t afford it anymore. This painful ideological struggle and the feeling of being on the verge of despair can also be found in her poems of the same period: "But now when I wish to sing, My fingers pluck a soundless string; And the refrain of the lyrics is still 'Stop struggling,' all in vain. " August 1837

In the famous biography "Life of Charlotte Bronte D" ("Life of Charlotte Bronte D")⑥ by the British realist female writer Mrs. Gaskell (1810-1865) in the nineteenth century, there is a passage about Emily Bronte Description of the dying moment: "She rose one Tuesday morning in December, dressed and washed as usual, pausing now and then, but went about her own business, and even took up her needlework as best she could. The servants looked on and knew how The suffocating rapidity of breathing and the dullness of the eyes certainly foreshadowed something, but she went on with her business, Charlotte and Ann, in spite of unutterable terror, with the faintest glimmer of hope. ...By noon, Emily's condition worsened: she could only gasp and say: 'If you send the doctor, I want to see him now.' It was too late by then. She died around two o'clock .”

In Charlotte's letter ⑦, she recorded a lot of words about Emily's grief and feelings after her death, so I won't repeat them here. Emily Bronte's life is introduced here.The famous British poet and critic Matthew Arnold ⑧ (Matthew Amold, 1822-1888), once wrote a poem called "Howarth Cemetery", in which the verses of Emily Brontë said that her soul The extraordinary enthusiasm, the intensity of emotion, the melancholy, the audacity of the book are unmatched since Byron's death. It can be said that this is the reason why her only remaining novel has shocked people's hearts.

Regarding this book, every time the literature of the 19th century in Western Europe has been discussed in the world literary world for many years, it must be discussed.Many famous critics and novelists have written articles on it.For example, the famous British female writer Virginia Woolf (Viginia Woolf, 1882-1941) ⑨ wrote "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights" in 1916.She made a comparison between the two books.She wrote: "When Charlotte writes, she says 'I love', 'I hate', 'I suffer' with eloquence, brilliance, and passion. Her experience, though more intense, is one with our own level. But in there is no 'I', no governess, no boss. There is love, but not love. Emily is motivated by some of the more common ideas, and the impulse that drives her to create is not her own. suffering or damage to herself. She looks out at a world torn apart and feels herself empowered to piece it together in a book. That ambition can be felt throughout the novel—a partial Frustrated, but a struggle of grandiose faith, it is not just 'I love' or 'I hate' that come out of the mouths of her characters, but 'We, all of humanity' and 'You, the everlasting force...  . . .' the sentence was not finished." British progressive critic Arnold Kettle (Arnold Kettle) ⑩ in the third part of the book "Introduction to British Fiction" when discussing the novels of the nineteenth century, also has a special article for a longer review. He concluded: " In the form of artistic imagination, it expresses the spiritual oppression, tension and conflicts of people in the capitalist society in the nineteenth century. This is a film without idealism, without false comfort, and without any hint of manipulating them. The forces of destiny are beyond the reach and action of man himself. The powerful calling of nature, of wilderness and storm, of stars and seasons, is an important part of the true movement that reveals life itself. The men and women in the book are not prisoners of nature, they live To be in this world, and to try to change it, is sometimes successful, but always painful, with almost constant difficulties and constant mistakes." The famous contemporary British novelist and creator William Somer Eset Maugham (William Somer Eset Maugham, 1874-1985)⑾, in 1948 at the request of the American "Atlantic" magazine to introduce the ten best novels of world literature to readers, he chose In one of four English novels, he concludes his long essay: "I don't know of any other novel in which the pain, obsession, cruelty, persistence of love, have been described so startlingly. Reminds me of one of those great paintings by El Greco, In that painting was a scene of a dark barren land under dark clouds, thunder rumbling drawn out haggard figures tottering about, dazed by an emotion that was not earthly, holding their breath. A flash of lightning across the leaden sky added a finishing touch to the scene, adding a sense of mysterious horror." In short, it is a great work, and it is also known as "the most peculiar novel".But as Arnold Keitel said: "Heathcliff's revolt was a special kind of revolt, those who were physically and mentally degraded by the conditions and social relations of this same society (referring to Victorian society). It is true that Heathcliff later ceased to be an exploited man, but it is also true that precisely because he adopted the standards of the ruling class (in a way that terrified even the ruling class itself), in Gone are the human values ​​implied in his early rebellion and in his love for Catherine. Everything contained in Catherine's relationship with Heathcliff, everything represented in human needs and hopes It can only be achieved through the active resistance of the oppressed." The social tragedy of Heathcliff and Catherine is that Catherine, aware of their social disparity, imagines that she can use the wealth of the Lintons she admires to "help Heathcliff." Cliff was promoted", leaving her brother "out of the question".This is of course impossible, as can be seen from Linton's suggestion, when Heathcliff reappears later, that he be seated in the kitchen rather than in the drawing room.It was a great mistake, and she fell into a net of her own making.And after she had agreed to marry Linton, she clearly said: "My greatest grief in the world is that of Heathcliff, and I have noticed and felt it from the first, and in my life he is the center of my thoughts. If all else perishes and he remained, I could go on living, and if everything else remained and he was destroyed, the world would be a very strange place to me. I was not a part of it. I My love for Linton is like the leaves in the wood: I know full well that time changes the leaves as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff is like the unchanging rock below, though it may seem It doesn't give you much pleasure, but this pleasure is necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He will always be in my heart..." And in this way she betrayed the person she loved the most , that is, betrayed herself, then she could only struggle to die in the net she wove. Before she died, Heathcliff angrily reprimanded her: "Why did you deceive your own heart... you killed yourself. . . Misery, shame, and death, and all the blows and pains that God or Satan could inflict, could not separate us, and you, from your own will, did this.” And he said, “I Love the man who has killed me—but what about the man who has killed you? How can I love him?” This leads to Heathcliff’s tragedy—revenge by cruel means.He was rejected by the private ownership society, but he still used the struggle methods of the private ownership society to resist.He had no property, but plundered it, and became the owner of the manor; His son retaliates, with the result that his victory must equal his own spiritual defeat.When he found that the eyes of Linton's daughter (that is, Catherine's daughter) and Hindley's son (that is, Catherine's nephew) were exactly the same as Catherine's eyes when he was alive, when he found that Hareton (son of Hindley) seemed to be him He never wanted to raise his hand to hit them when his youth was incarnate.He himself admits that "this is a very bad ending", and he no longer wants to take revenge, because such an "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" way of revenge will inevitably lead to loneliness and emptiness! In any case, Heathcliff was a sympathetic figure for his age, and his revenge is understandable.For more than ten years, Catherine's lonely soul wandered and cried in the wilderness, waiting for Heathcliff, and finally Heathcliff passed away. Their souls were no longer alone, and they walked in the wilderness and under the rocks at night... ...This is of course all nonsense, but as the author wrote at the end: "I lingered in front of these three tombstones under the mild sky, watching the moths fluttering among the heather and orchid bells, listening Floating in the grass with the gentle wind, I wonder who can imagine the restless sleep of the sleepers under the peaceful land." In the novel, Heathcliff and Catherine, the two main characters in the world The literature has left an unforgettable deep impression on the readers; their unyielding and unswerving love is just a stubborn resistance to the old era in which they were manipulated by evil forces. Their resistance is passive and powerless, but their love finally overcomes death and reaches the realm of sublimation in the author's writing.And this talented female writer, Emily Bronte, will always emit a unique and brilliant brilliance among the brilliant stars of the British literary world in the nineteenth century because of her only work! translator Nanjing in the spring of 1980 Note: ①Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806-1861) - a famous British poetess in the Victorian era in the 19th century, and the wife of the famous poet Robert Browning (Robert Browning, 1812-1889) .Author of "Portuguese Sonnets" and various anthologies. ② Thornton (Thornton) - the name of a village in the moors of Yorkshire in northern England. ③ Luther movement (Luddite)-this is the movement of burning factories and destroying machines from 1811 to 1813, which expanded from Nottingham hosiery workers to major cities.This is due to the rapid development of the British Industrial Revolution in the early nineteenth century, the factory system severely exploited workers, and the deterioration of workers' lives led to workers' spontaneous movement against machines.It is said that Worker Luther was the first person to destroy his own working machine, so it is called the Lutheran movement. In 1812 Congress declared the death penalty for machine destroyers. It was suppressed in 1813. ④ Poems ("Poems") - This collection of poems was published in London by the three Bronte sisters under pseudonyms.The pseudonyms they used were Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. ⑤ Three novels—namely, as an autobiography compiled by Currer Bell;: as a novel written by Ellis Bell; and "Agnes Gray" is a novel written by Acton Bell. ⑥ Mrs. Elizabeth Gleghorn Gaskell (Mrs. Elizabeth Gleghorn Gaskell, 1810-1865) - a famous British novelist in the nineteenth century, author of "Mary Barden" and so on. In 1850, she met Charlotte Bronte and became close friends. In 1857, two years after Charlotte died, she wrote the famous biography "The Biography of Charlotte Bronte". ⑦Charlotte's Letters—partially disclosed in the biography written by Mrs. Gaskell after the death of Charlotte Bronte.Later, in the seven volumes of "Biography and Letters of the Bronte Sisters" published from 1899 to 1900, all Charlotte's letters were collected and published. ⑧ Matthew Arnold (Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888) - British poet and critic.He wrote many commentaries and poetry anthologies.The most famous long narrative poem is "Sola and Rose" (1853). ⑨Virginia Woolf (Mrs.Virginia Woolf, 1882-1941) was a famous British female writer in the 20th century.She is full of talent, has her own genre, and is good at using the technique of stream of consciousness to portray the psychology of characters.In 1941, due to external and personal reasons, she drowned herself.His works include "Mrs. Dellaville", "The Waves", "To the Lighthouse", "Between the Acts" and other novels and collections of literary criticism. ⑩ Arnold Kettle (Amold Kettle) - British contemporary progressive critic. In 1951, he published the second volume of "Introduction to British Novels", which commented on British novels from the perspective of the development history of British novels, especially the novels of the 19th century. He selected ten famous novels and made a more scientific introduction, with penetrating insights . ⑾ Maugham (William Somerset Maugham, 1874-1965) is a famous contemporary British novelist and playwright.There are many works.He is the author of such novels as "The Debt" (1915) and "The Razor's Edge" (1944).Plays include "Circle" (1921), "Holy Flame" (1928) and so on. ⑿El Greco (El Greco, 1541-1614) famous religious painting and portrait painter.Born in Greek Crete; studied painting in Italy. In 1577, he settled in Toledo, Spain (the city was the capital of Spain from 1087 to 1560).The painting Maugham mentioned here may refer to the picture of his famous painting "Toledo".