Works Cited 13

1. Introduction

1.1 Introduction of Emily Bronte

Catherine is a heroine in Wuthering Heights written by Emily Bronte, a British writer who has the only masterpiece. But the publication of this great work established her fame in British literature. And since the advent of Wuthering Heights in 1847, more and more people had been attracted by it.

Emily Bronte was born in 1818 at Thoruton in Yorkshire and she was one of the renowned Bronte sisters in British literature. She was best remembered by people because of her only masterpiece—Wuthering  Heights.  Emily Bronte was  the fifth  child  in  her  family.

Since their father did not lead a sociable life, the Bronte children formed a closely integrate society of their own. They seldom left their hometown—the bleak and isolated countryside  in Yorkshire and spent most of their time at home, and they had no chance to find out about how things were at the outside world. When they stayed at home, they almost lived in the world of imagination. The five children wholly depended on what resources they had and each other, on books and study, for the happiness and occupations of their life. And the Bronte children liked to read whatever they had in hand. Emily often read the works of Byron, Scott, Shelly and some other German romantics and she was also a listener to her father’s stories. When they went  out,  they walked  on  the  moors.  All  these led  Emily to  write  the  great work—Wuthering Heights.

1.2 Introduction of Thomas Hardy

Tess is a heroine of Tess of the D’Urbervilles written by Hardy, who is one of the British critical realism writer. Thomas Hardy was born in 1840, in Higher Bockhampton in Dorset, a rural area of the southwestern Britain which was to become the focus of his novel. Since hardy was a child of a builder, he had no money to attend school. Lacking of money forced him to pursue a career in writing. In the early years, he produced many unsuccessful novels. However, soon after Tess of the D’Urbervilles was published, the novel aroused a considerable amount of controversy and the sales of this novel also assured his financial future. In this novel, Hardy demonstrates his sympathy for the lower classes of England, especially for rural women. The young woman Tess is probably the best one for him to demonstrate his sympathy for rural women.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Literature review of Catherine

Since Wuthering Heights was published, there are many readers who have discussed the causes of the Catherine’s tragic fate from a variety of different perspectives, such as: Tian Peng stated that the direct reasons caused the tragic fate of this woman were society, Catherine’s character and the author. Ma Danrong discussed the character of Catherine from the independent personality and free character, self-restrain, the conflict between Catherine and another herself, she concluded that selfishness and self-center caused her tragedy. Jia Mengli began with a discussion of the dual personality of the hero and heroine in Wuthering Heights, and studied its exposure and criticism to the reality of British society

2.2 Literature review of Tess

Tess of the D’Urbervilles was published one hundred years ago. It is still very popular and attracts generations of scholars’ attention and interests. Many readers and critics at home and abroad tend to feel that the most prominent achievements of this novel is that it successfully created the image of the heroine Tess, but they interpret heroine Tess from different points of view. Like Liu Kaifu interpreted Tess’ fate from the perspective of pessimism. And Tess’ fate was influenced by British society, economy, law, religion and moral hypocrisy in people’s lives in the19th century. Qian Yanqiu analyzed Tess’ rebellious spirit through Tess’ resistance of her fate. We could find the change of Tess’ thoughts from three parts: from passive to active, from unconscious to rational, from blind to mature, the complicated description of Tess’ inner heart modeled the charming heroine image. Yang Yang, from two aspects: the relationship between men and women and the relationship between human  and  nature,  revealed  the  reasons  of  Tess’  tragedy  with  the  ecological     feminist principles. By using ecological feminism theory, Yang Yang thought that the social transformation was not always making progress especially in the Victorian era, the social transformation can also make some bad influence on the society.