The Id Alienation and Lost Harmony―the Character Analysis of the Hero and Heroin

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Abstract. The love between Heathcliff and Catherine in Wuthering Heights shocks so many people because of its violent power and disastrous effects.This paper analyzes the harmony between the two young lovers and the alienation of the two young lovers’natural selves to prove that the alienation causes the losing of the original harmony between the two protagonists , and hence to prove that the lost harmony results in the tragic love and the disastrous effect.

Key words: Harmony, Lost, Alienation, Nature, id.

1. Introduction

As a philosophical category, the alienation comes from Hegel. It means that a person loses the id and he is aware of the existence of "the other" or imitates "the other" under the social concept and system in literature. The burden of the social customs and value concept kills the individual life, chokes the id or the actual self and makes the individual civilized and socialized. Therefore, the person who lives in the stable and the traditional society is doomed to lose the original true self and he is alienated to the civilized person.

The book “Wuthering Heights” is the only novel of the famous British writer Emily Bronte in the 19th century. It describes that the Gypsy foundling named Heathcliff suffered the humiliation and experienced a painful love after being adopted by the old owner of wuthering heights. Because of this, he left the house to pursue the wealth and while he returned, he took revenge on the landlord Edgar Linton who married his girlfriend Catherine and his children. The novel shows the spirit of fighting against the oppression for the happiness and the novel always hangs over the quirky, nervous and romantic artistic atmosphere. Although the hero and heroine of Heathcliff and Catherine are regarded as the children of nature, they cannot escape from the control and influence of social forces and they are alienated at last. As a result they lose the id, and lose the harmony, which causes the love tragedy between the two people.

2. The id alienation and lost harmony

2.1 The similar id and the original perfect harmony between Heathcliff and Catherine

Heathcliff and Catherine are the natural children. The two natural "wild children" are once free and follow their inclinations. The two children are deeply in love with each other, this is a natural feeling. The affection between them is like the plant growth and it is not confined to the civilization establishment. Heathcliff and Catherine build their own small world-the original and the perfect harmony between the two people on the basis of the same nature and the natural love. In this harmonious body, Heathcliff and Catherine lose the ego and they have no difference. The two people regard the other as the externalization of self, at the moment, Heathcliff is Catherine and Catherine is Heathcliff. The original perfect harmony between them becomes the shelter that maintains the id and the holy place of searching for the spiritual comfort. As written in the book, when the old Earnshaw is dead, they burst into tears, then, "the little souls were comforting each other with better thoughts than I could have hit on: no parson in the world ever pictured heaven so beautifully as they did in their innocent talk.” (see page 41). Although Joseph(the Servant) often punished them in the later days, as long as they get together, they will forget everything.

2.2 The id alienation of Heathcliff and Catherine and it loses the harmony between the two people eventually

The original perfect harmony is very fragile between Heathcliff and Catherine in an environment that is full of prescriptive rules. As long as any civilized things are involved, the balance will be broken. Many descriptions of the novel imply that the harmonious relationship between the two people will lose one day.

Heathcliff was an orphan who lived in his own world and he was excluded from the social civilization. But when he was brought back to the Wuthering Heights one day, he was taken into a "nonego" environment and he was faced with the strange, orderly and exclusive people and the world. The name "Heathcliff" which once belonged to a lost boy in the Earnshaw family endowed his family role and deprived his complete and free id. This lets him participate in the transpersonal civilization in the community and at the same time, it dissipates his individuality. Although it is dazzling, the light which represents our civilization and society is bound to make the alienation of his overall personality. In fact, it is so. As it is described in Chapter 4, The orphan can like others and use better ways to achieve his purpose, he got the foal from Hindley (Catherine's brother). This time he used the name and the status which the name gave him in the family. The "tag" which is imposed on him and represents his position in the family embodies the beginning of his alienation. On the other hand, the social inequality deprives Heathcliff’s rights and opportunities of the "decent man" and participating in the society. Because he has no property and social status, he suffers the discrimination and humiliation. The mandatory conventions and social prejudice let Heathcliff have to step away from the original id and be close to the requirement of the society. This kind of practice is contrary to his nature and further leads to the distortion of the id. Especially Catherine left him and went into the arms of the so-called civilized world to marry Edgar Linton, this kind of behavior let Heathcliff's world collapse eventually.

If we say Heathcliff has to change the id to blend in this cruel society because of the social culture or the secular power, the lost alienation of the id of Catherine are largely the result of the active choice. When she saw the Thrushcross Grange first, her wild heart began to change. For a girl who lived in the gritty wasteland with the coarse line, there is a beautiful magnificent place, " a splendid place carpeted with crimson, and crimson-covered chairs and tables, and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold, a shower of glass drops hanging in silver chains from the centre, and shimmering with little soft tapers.” (page 45) This beautiful place lets her heart yearn for it. The maid in Linton’s family washed the feet for her, gave her candy and cookies, brushed her hair and let her fire, the whole family treated her as a princess, this let her feel the unprecedented attention and respect and realized the glory and pride which the decent lady should enjoy. Catherine can't but yearn for it. So she changed when she went back to the Wuthering Heights. Although she missed Heathcliff, she could not help but laugh when she was faced with the sloppy Heathcliff. The distance between her and Heathcliff is gradually larger and larger in the social status and in the behavior. Although sometimes she could also not hide her own nature (such as beating the maid and the little nephew in front of Linton), she still chose the social civilization and bent to the social secular power and the cultural shaping strength to try to make herself like a young lady.

As for marriage, Catherine chose Edgar as her husband. Her "superego" gained the upper hand in choosing a spouse, she chose the status and reputation, but she abandoned the essence of marriage-living with the beloved people. Although she knew that the soul of Heathcliff was the same with her, she chose the self that deviates from the nature and made some declarations and confession. She realized that the original perfect harmony between her and Heathcliff had been threatened and destroyed, it tended to the collapse.

2.3 The deeper alienation and the harmony which never returns between Heathcliff and Catherine

The harmony between Heathcliff and Catherine went forever. No matter how hard they work, they cannot restore the original state and it is impossible to use other harmony to replace it. Because the original perfect harmony was lost, Heathcliff and Catherine's world collapsed. They were no longer one integrated mass and they also lost the ability to build a new harmonious relationship with others.

On the surface, Edgar and Catherine matched each other, because their social status was equivalent and their appearance was also equal. But in fact, the marriage between them is not harmonious and happy truly, because their marriage lacks the source of the balance and coordination. On the one hand, Catherine was not really in love with Edgar. The reason that she married Edgar was that he was the best and most suitable marriage partner whom she encountered in her own life. For Catherine, love and marriage were two different things, the marriage was not for love but for the future glory, reputation and excellent living conditions. Therefore, although she knows her love for Edgar "is like the leaves of the forest... " (page 79), she still rationally chose Edgar. If she marries Heathcliff, she will reduce her own identity. She also hoped to help Heathcliff to improve his identity and get rid of her brother's control through her husband's money. So although sometimes she was full of tender feelings to Edgar, that is not a genuine warmth and it is mixed with too much material desires, it cannot be mentioned in the same breath with her love for Heathcliff. On the other hand, although Edgar was in love with Catherine deeper, and even fell in love with her at first sight, his love was mixed with a lot of rational ingredients. He tolerated his wife's violent temper and capricious character, allowed her to miss Heathcliff, even let her meet Heathcliff in his own house. His love is sacred and rational and it is the love of superego. It is completely different with the natural feeling between Catherine and Heathcliff. There is no true love in the marriage relationship of Catherine and Edgar, the relationship between the two people is not close, so the relationship can't replace the original perfect harmony.

Heathcliff returned home three years later, it seemed that great changes have taken place. But the change was on the surface, the heart of Heathcliff has been bitten by the hatred poisonous snakes and lost its original color. The social discrimination and secular power were alienated further, it distorted his id, killed his human nature and turned him into a madman who only knew the crazy revenge. He wanted to get back not only the things that belonged to him, but also the things that he needed from someone else. So he took a variety of means to achieve the purpose of his revenge. In this case, the marriage between him and Isabella (Edgar's sister) has become one of the means of retaliation. There is no doubt that there was no love between Heathcliff and Isabella. The return of Heathcliff revived the life passion of Catherine, let her find the opportunities for reflecting herself and her husband's behavior. The social status, superior economic conditions and the submission to the social practice made her unable to get rid of the shackles of civilization. Therefore, although she struggled in the struggle of her id and superego, finally she could not return to the original natural state. The id of Heathcliff was lost in the desire of the humiliation and revenge. The social forces and custom power let him alien. The hatred killed his id. Though they still loved each other, the love between the two people also changed for the alienation of nature. The love is no longer the sincere, pure and natural love, but the love that suffered the repression and obstacle and had more strong feelings. The heavy sentiment has the destructive power. It cannot become the foundation and source of the original harmony and it does’t build the new harmonious relationship between the two people, either.

3. Conclusion

Whether it is voluntary or passive, every social member can lose the id for the social system and custom power and they are socialized, this process is called alienation. Heathcliff and Catherine who had the stormy character had been living in the wilderness and they were the natural children, but they cannot the fate of alienation. Two alienated soul lost the original perfect harmony and at the same time, they can not build the new harmonious relationship with others, they can't find the window of the emotional catharsis and sealed themselves in their own world-Heathcliff was distorted in the hatred and Catherine struggled bitterly in the struggle of the id and superego. So the strong love which was bursted between the two people has brought the disastrous consequences and destroyed the external harmony: Catherine died in the depression, Linton siblings and Hindley died because of Heathcliff's revenge, the remaining three children became the control toys in Heathcliff’s hand, the Wuthering Heights and the Thrushcross Grange lost their past color. But the soul of Heathcliff and Catherine was combined happily again at the end of the novel and the children also ended the suffering and had a happy life. This may suggest that only when Heathcliff and Catherine broken the fetters of civilization and the entanglement of secular desires, they can find the lost id once again to rebuild the original perfect harmony and the external harmonious relationship can exist.

References

[1] Jiang Hua. Repressed self and the alienation of life[M]. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 2009:16-19.

[2] Yang Jingyuan. Bronte sisters study[M]. Beijing: China Social Science Press, 2003:136.

[3] Lan Jing. The alienation and crisis [M]. Kunming: Yunnan University Press, 2009:193.