Christian Ethics in Wuthering Heights
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8863486 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marianne Thormahlen (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2014 |
| Volume | 95 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 637-653 |
| Publication date | 2014-08-18 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | English Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0013-838X • E-ISSN: 1744-4217 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0013838x.2014.942089 |
| OpenAlex | W2047695049 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
Even the first reviewers of Emily Brontë's novel thought it lacked a moral, and literary critics have struggled to find an ethical dimension in it. Many of them have concluded that the book is “amoral” and that it constitutes a world of its own to which no extraneous rationale can be applied. This article maintains that there is in fact a moral to Brontë's story, and that that moral is consistent with the ethical teachings of Christianity. When the actions of characters and the outcomes of their individual life stories are examined, it turns out that whatever lasting happiness any one of them experiences is the outcome of loving-kindness that is, patient and forgiving, in accordance with 1 Cor. 13:4–7. The concluding section of the article looks at the reasons for the inability of generations of readers and critics to perceive this ethical pattern. Finally, the significance of Heathcliff's strange way of dying is seen in relation to the loss of his desire for revenge
Aesthetics · Art · Christianity · Happiness · Kindness · Literature · Psychoanalysis · Relation (database · Sociology · Theology · Contemporary Literature and Criticism · Emotions and Moral Behavior · Ethics, Aesthetics, and Art · Psychology · Philosophy · Religious Studies · Social Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
|---|