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摘 要

作为19世纪英美两国复仇文学的代表作品，艾米莉•勃朗特的《呼啸山庄》和纳撒尼尔•霍桑的长篇小说《红字》在描写人物复仇方面给予后辈诸多创作经验及启示。本研究从复仇对象、复仇方式、复仇结果、复仇成因等角度出发，对希斯克里夫和齐林沃思的复仇道路进行了对比研究。从复仇对象看，希斯克里夫仅对所憎恨的人进行了报复，包括亨得利、埃德加以及亨得利的儿子哈里顿，而齐林沃思只对情敌丁梅斯代尔进行了报复。从复仇方式看，希斯克里夫侵占亨得利和埃德加的财产，并剥夺了哈里顿的教育权，而齐林沃思则采取心理折磨的方式对待丁梅斯代尔。从复仇结果看，两人基本上都达到了自己的目的：亨得利和埃德加最终都以死亡结局，哈里顿则变成粗鄙之人，而丁梅斯代尔最终也以死亡告终。从复仇成因的相似点来看，爱情失利是导致复仇的直接原因,社会矛盾则是复仇根源。其他因素包括不同的家庭环境、个性特征和文化水平，是导致两者复仇成因的区别所在。通过比较研究，一方面作者希望本文能给予人们敢于追求真爱和自由的勇气，并且呼唤人们时时保留人性美好的一面，减少悲剧在现实生活中发生的机率。另一方面，希望本文可以为之以后从复仇角度出发的研究提供新的视角和思路。

关键词： 《红字》 《呼啸山庄》 齐林沃思 希斯克里夫 复仇比较

1. Introduction

1.1 Research background

Nathaniel Hawthorne is the 19^th-century greatest romantic novelist and psychological novelist of America. He was born in 1804 from a declining family in New England. After his father died of yellow fever at sea when he was only four years old, his mother became overly protective and pushed him towards more independent pursuit. He fell under the influence of the family which practiced the Puritan tradition. In 1941, Hawthorne was dismissed from the Salem Custom House by means of public humiliation, both a great shame and anger for him. Hawthorne had never made much money as an author and the birth of his first daughter added to the financial burden; therefore, he had no choice but to support his family by taking up writing. Consequently, The Scarlet Letter was published a year later, which he wrote out of sheer vindictiveness. As the representative of American psychological revenge novels, the book with which characters’ revenge is intertwined has established Hawthorne’s reputation in American literature.

Emily Bronte is a 19^th –century novelist and poet. She was born in the mountains of northern England. The lonely purple moors became one of the most important shaping forces in the life of Emily who had no close friends. To escape her unhappiness, she began to write fiction. Her only novel, Wuthering Heights, full of mysticism, did not gain immediate success as Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, but it has acclaimed later fame as one of the most intense novels written in English language. The character of Heathcliff was the reflection of her lonely mind. Her revenge was done just like Heathcliff’s. Wuthering Heights has laid the groundwork for Emily Bronte’s status both in the history of English and world Literature.

The thesis will conduct a comparison between Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter and Healthcliff in Wuthering Heights, aiming to disclose the abuse of the capitalist society, remind people of the importance of pursing true love, and make people maintain kindness.

1.2 Need for the study

As for the need of the study, first, both America and England were turbulent times during the creation period. The developed Capitalism increasingly exposed its inherent defects by depicting grim surroundings, morbid psychology of the characters, and distorted human nature. This study can help people realize that the capitalist system can be advisably modified. Next, it helps us know the essentiality of true love, which can have the power to heal all wounds, bind us together, and create relationships beyond our present capacity. Last, this essay may call for the awakening of human nature. The two novels transcend the traditional concept of absolute opposition between good and evil in terms of human nature and shows that there is kindness in human nature. We need to face evil and purify our souls by means of redemption and repentance so as to achieve the transformation of mind.

2. Literature Review

Previous studies on Wuthering Heights and The Scarlet Letter will be reviewed in this chapter.

2.1 Previous studies on The Scarlet Letter

Up to now, some scholars have analyzed ideological themes in light of social background and story structure; some have studied symbolism the author applies. But most have done research on characters’ psychology, disposition and revenge. On cnki.net, there are about 60 academic vengeance-related essays. The great mass of websites always lay emphasis on Chillingworth’s personality and psychology which lead to his revenge.

Eitetsu Sasaki (2001) detects the common anxiety shared by the intelligent men of the seventeenth century like Chillingworth and the men of power of the nineteenth century like Hawthorne to find out how Chillingworth the cuckold and Dimmesdale the paramour contribute together to the American Way; that is to say, Chillingworth’s revenge on Dimmesdale shows a kind of disordered American social state. Jiri Dolezal’s (2005) medical palimpsest challenges the orthodox critical judgment of Chillingworth as a demon image by reconsidering him as Hawthorne’s audience in several aspects of curative effects, so Chillingworth is facing a re-recognition process beyond his revenge. Retno Wulandhari (2015) interprets the motivation of Chillingworth’s destructive revenge and explains the implication of the name Roger Chillingworth, believing it represents his tragic life, which can be said to be a new point.

In China, Chillingcliff’s revenge is a hot topic. Huang Ming (2004) attempts to study what kind of person Chillingworth is and what personality he has, for love and hate are intertwined on the man. Zhang Hairong (2006) further defines Chillingworth as a symbol of the old tradition from the perspective of convention, believing people of that era can never break away from the feudal tradition. According to Zhang, Chillingworth with sophisticated medical knowledge and an evil heart represents the religious evil and serious constraint in Puritanism, whose appearance and body signal his soul, ugly, tortured and dirty. Ren Suli (2012) finds out the causes of Chillingworth’s revenge and depicts his revenge process, ultimately summarizing that Chillingworth walks into darkness and his soul cannot get the sublimation. Luo Ling (2013) makes full use of Jungian psychoanalytic theory, persona and shadow, to explore causes of Chillingworth’s revenge. As shadow is the worst in all prototypes, Luo analyzes how Chillingworth turns to be a demon and points out that the personality will become pale and weak when the shadow of evil factors are not in harmony with the spirit.

Although many scholars have interpreted such a successful novel The Scarlet Letter in different ways, the deep study of Chillingworth’s revenge is still rare.

2.2 Previous studies on Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is a romantic miracle in British literature, with surprising and exciting love affairs, whose themes “hatred, revenge and the grasp of heritage” are the traditions of Gothic style. The construction of characters’ psychological activities, atmospheres, and environment accords with Gothic characteristics. On cnki.net, there are about 40 academic articles on vengeance from 2009 to 2012. One perspective causes hot discussion: Heathcliff’s vengeance.

The international arena has witnessed Thomas Vargish’s (1971) detailed analysis of Heathcliff’s living background who claims that as a waif, Heathcliff has no parents and no love from them, thus a bit unsociable and eccentric. At the same time, Heathcliff was upset about his own identity and position, which causes his shame and bitterness. The reasons why Heathcliff seeks vengeance and the results he has to face make up a sizeable proportion in Leni Chandra’s paper (2005). Agus Santoso (2006) applies Sigmund Freud’s theory of anxiety and defense mechanism to analyze the causes of Heathcliff’s problem. He points out that Heathcliff’s anxiety comes from the painful experience and the unpleasant memory which leads to rebellion.

In China, Hu Jiansheng (2007) puts the writer Emily Bronte and the protagonist Heathcliff together, investigating the similar plot of revenge. He Daozhong (2009) studies Heathcliff’s revenge from the beginning of the abuse of evil, ending up with the recovery of human nature. Heathcliff’s physical and mental injury makes him go on the road of revenge. Zhang Xia (2010) analyzes the reasons for Heathcliff’s great changes in personality. Treacherous love, low status and careless deportment are three factors that result in unthinkable vengeance. Wang Chunhui (2012) dissects causes of Heathcliff’s revenge, saying that his paranoid personality which determines his tragic destiny is caused by the surrounding environment. He ulteriorly reveals the strong value of the times -- poverty is shameful. Long Jixing’s (2012) applies Abrahamh H. Maslow’s motivation theory to the analysis of Heathcliff’s revenge by describing the origin of his motive and connecting it with the necessity of goodness of human nature.

The revenge theme is the main discussion of The Scarlet Letter and Wuthering Heights, for instance, similarities in Xu Xiaoying’s (2010) article. Chen Wei (2005) intends to explore Gothic villains like Heathcliff and Chillingworth, with its unique charm through the analysis of the text and the protagonists’ psychological changes. She aims to show the dark side of human nature vividly in Erich Fromm’s view that violence tends to be human nature, and at the same time to provoke a sense of fear and a double effect of the resonance of the play. Lin Ping (2012) analyzes the psychological changes of Heathcliff and Chillingworth, and finally prompts a ruination of their revenge results. Wang Yanbing (2012) makes further comparison between Heathcliff and Chillingworth by depicting their similar affective encounters, finding that vengeance cannot soothe the pain but love and kindness can.

Although there are comparisons between Heathcliff and Chillingworth, scholars do research from the perspective of psychology, or just analyze the resemblance of the two story lines. However, differences are rarely discussed in such studies. As far as the author of this thesis is concerned, it is of necessity to conduct such a detailed comparison.

3. A Comparison of Chillingworth’s and Heathcliff’s Revenge

This chapter conducts a detailed comparison between Chillingworth’s and Heathcliff’s revenge, i.e. objects of revenge, ways of revenge, and results of revenge.

3.1 Objects of revenge

Fond of bullying Heathcliff since childhood, Hindley is one of his revenge objects. Hindley doesn’t want Heathcliff to go with people and put him in the middle of the servant; he deprives Heathcliff of the opportunity to be taught by the vice minister, insisting that he should work outside; he forces him to work as hard as the other boys in the manor; he whips Heathcliff at will and punishes him for reading The Bible in the cold attic; he stops him from Catherine and drives him out of the house. The adopted Heathcliff has been subjected to unfair treatment in that family and can’t bear any more, so he rises up against Hindley who despises and hurts him.

Edgar, who marries Catherine, is Heathcliff’s next object. By having received so many unfair treatments, Heathcliff can hold a strong face all the way. One of the most important reasons is his love of Catherine, the only reason he survives. Catherine is the hope in his life. When he hears about the news that Catherine marries Edgar, he collapses. The man who robs Catherine’s love makes him crazy. Catherine adores Linton and she says to Nelly that she will marry Linton, for he is young and rich. Also, the fact that she marries Heathcliff is equal to marry a servant, which may low down her identity. Therefore, Edgar becomes the next prey.

In The Scarlet Letter, Chillingworth’s revenge rests only on his rival Dimmesdale. The fact that Hester commits adultery with Dimmesdale means Hester cuckolds him. Being a man, he is neither willing to suffer such a disgrace nor wants anyone to violate his personal dignity, so he takes revenge on the damned ‘third person’. His behavior tends to reach absurdity. To that extent, Chillingworth’s vengeance is a vent of desperation and helplessness. When disappointment turns to despair, he resists the loss of emotion by means of revenge. He does not take any measures to punish Hester partly because he expresses hopes for her. He gives chances for Hester to confess the truth at the foot of the scaffold. On the other hand, he thinks the scarlet letter on her punishment is enough. Hence, he only seeks revenge on Dimmesdale.

3.2 Ways of revenge

Heathcliff adopts different tactics against people he hates. Firstly, he takes the plunder of the property from Hindley and Edgar. After three years, Heathcliff returns to Wuthering Heights with a heart filled with pain. He knows Hindley is excessively drinking and is infatuated with gambling, so he sets a trap to make him dissipate his fortune. As is expected, Hindley eventually dies for alcoholic disease; therefore, Heathcliff then becomes the owner of Wuthering Heights. Then he marries Isabella who is Edgar’s sister. He makes use of her silly love, tempting her to elope. Edgar Linton clearly senses Heathcliff’s ambition, but he is unable to change all these. Later, Edgar is seriously ill; Heathcliff uses a trick to prompt Cathy’s marriage with his son Linton. Everything is under his palm. Edgar’s Thrushcross Grange unsuccessfully escapes from Heathcliff’s clutches and ultimately becomes his personal property.

Heathcliff deprives Hindley’s son Hareton of his education. After Hindley dies, Wuthering Heights together with Hareton falls into his hands. He ill-treats Hareton in the way Hindley has abused himself. In his words, ‘Put gold as paving stones.’ Heathcliff doesn’t let Hareton receive education. Hareton is taught to say bad words, and even to abuse his father Hindley. Howling winds relentlessly twist tree trunk and branches and little Hareton is undoubtedly a strain of young sapling. Heathcliff prepares him for long years of cruel torture. Hareton in the dehumanized world has gradually become a rude, abusive savage. His heart has been for long in the darkness of ignorance, but Heathcliff gets the satisfaction of the revenge. He hopes that Hareton can taste contempt and ridicule he has ever suffered.

Unlike Heathcliff, Chillingworth punishes the priest in a more insidious way. Psychological torture is his main way of revenge. He follows the priest as a parish, and tries to win friendship and trust from him. He gets close to the priest with the identity of a doctor. Rather than care about his disease, he inquires the priest of his personality and temperament. He utilizes the priest’s trust to ruthlessly destroy his painful soul, making the priest continue thinking that he is evil, hypocritical and dirty. In the process of torturing the priest, he feels the crazy pleasure. Chillingworth wants his rival to pay the price of his life, answering for having hurt his dignity. Anyway, the betrayal of his wife for a man is intolerable. Thus, his merciless revenge on Dimmesdale is predictable.

3.3 Results of revenge

For one thing, to people he hates, Heathcliff intends to get his way by hook or by crook: Hindley and Edgar dies; Hareton becomes a vulgar illiterate; Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange are under his control. Revenge has been completed, but Heathcliff really collapses perhaps because he does not get what he wants from the revenge. For another, to his lover Catherine, Heathcliff has regrets. The most important thing is that the estimation of his love will never revive; the ghost of Catherine will be always wandering in the wilderness. Nearly twenty years of revenge has exhausted his efforts. Maybe he cannot see his face, forgetting the original look of his fresh soul. Heathcliff gives up the final revenge, locking himself in the room Catherine had lived. Heathcliff ends his life, which shows that at the last moment of his life, goodness in the human nature eventually defeats the evil side and makes him stop the revenge, thus fulfilling the happiness of next generation.

Conversely, Dimmesdale dies and Chillingworth withers after losing his avenge target in the end. To tell the truth, Chillingworth’s revenge is very unique. He disguises himself as a doctor of taking care of Dimmesdale’s health to irritate and torture the priest’s fragile soul every hour and moment. He wants to make his opponent’s soul die in slow agony. While Dimmesdale opens heart to the outside world, he tries to drag around because he wants to continue his revenge. However, Chillingworth is not so happy after the death of Dimmesdale; instead, his energy and strength disappear. After losing the value of revenge, his life obviously trails away. In Chillingworth’s heart, revenge sustains his belief in letting himself live on and his opponent suffer. As a result, he is transformed from a vicym into a persecutor. At the end of the story, Chillingworth seems to have repentance so that he donates a sum of considerable property to Hester’s daughter Pearl. However, his arrogance and stubbornness make himself a sinner who cannot be redeemed.

1. Causes of Revenge

In this chapter, similarities and differences of the revenge causes will be elaborated at length.

4.1. Similarities

Similarities on the motivation of Heathcliff’s and Chillingworth’s vengeance, is mainly shown in two aspects. One is failure of love. The rival in love has become the object of revenge. In Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff’s lover Catherine marries Edgar who has the same social status as her. In virtue of betrayal, Heathcliff wants revenge against Edgar, even against their posterity. After the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley abuses him so that he lost the opportunity of education, and works in menial labor like animals. The strange thing is that he and Catherine are unusually intimate. Heathcliff plays with Catherine in the mountains, and gradually has a crush on her. Catherine becomes the only one in his life, in other words, Heathcliff puts his love in a more important position than his life. For love, he can even sacrifice his own life. However, such an intense love is not strong enough. Therefore, when Heathcliff realizes that Catherine is totally enamored of Edgar, a man with status and wealth, he is quite annoyed and decides to shake the dust off his feet.

In The Scarlet Letter, the abnormal but famous scholar Chillingworth marries Hester Prynne who comes from a declining aristocratic family. There is no great feeling of love between them. Two years ago, Hester moves to Amsterdam from Boston Massachusetts. However, her husband disappears on the way, never to be heard from. Glamorous widow Hester in Boston lives a quiet life alone and then a handsome pastor Dimmesdale breaks into her life. Hester falls in love with Dimmesdale and they have a period of privacy but a warm love life. After a few years, Chillingworth comes back. He finds his wife derailed and gives birth to a child. His wife commits adultery with the priest, which makes him lose dignity as a husband. There isn’t any human feeling more powerful than that of betrayal. The failure of the family causes him on the road of revenge. Therefore, the failure of love leads to their losing mentality and becoming merciless avengers.

Anomic and class contradiction is another cause that triggers their revenge. With the development of capitalism, the intensification of class contradictions is increasingly outstanding. Due to this, Heathcliff can’t live with Catherine. Secular prejudice forces them to separate and coerce Catherine to choose another man. As Catherine says, ‘It would degrade me to marry Heathchliff now’ (Bronte 73). Catherine is aware of the disparity of their social status. She dreams that Edgar’s wealth can help Heathcliff get promotion and make Hindley “has no right to intervene”. Of course this is impossible. It is because of the existence of class contradiction that Heathcliff and Catherine can never get united.

Also, in the period of rapid development of American capitalist economy, social contradictions are becoming more and more serious, and then lead to social instability. Under the cruel rule of the colonial period, the religion is almost equivalent to the law. What dominates human thought is not personal independence of judgment but the Magisterium^[1], which has replaced people’s thinking and judgment. Together with influence of Puritanism^[2], Chillingworth can’t accept the fact his wife jumps the rails. In a word, intensification of class contradictions triggers their vengeance.

4.2. Differences

The two leading characters differ in at least three aspects. Firstly, they differ in family background. Heathcliff is a foundling who wanders in the street of Liverpool. Mr. Earnshaw takes him home out of compassion and gives him enough love and affection. Earnshaw’s daughter Catherine keeps good relationship with him. Yet, Earnshaw’s wife bores a grudge against him, trying to get rid of him. Her son Hindley is full of resentment towards him, thinking that Heathcliff steals the privileges and love from his father. The servant Nelly utterly despises him as well. Due to his humble origin, he suffers all kinds of discrimination in those dark days. This has planted the seeds of hatred in his young heart. Chillingworth originally is a faithful, erudite scholar with a considerate and altruistic heart. He has love for his wife, longing for a better family life. When he finds his errant wife ditches him, he is so wrathful that he can no longer enjoy the warmth of the family; instead, he loses dignity as a husband. Hence, he seeks revenge to satisfy his own desire.

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