ABSTRACT
Emily Brontë (1818-1848) is one of the most famous novelists in the nineteenth century of English literature. Wuthering Heights is the only novel she wrote, which is considered as one of the best English novels and has a great influence in world literature. Symbolism and imagery used in Wuthering Heights makes the story vividly and meaningful. The purpose of this thesis is to study the symbolism in Wuthering Heights. Firstly, imagery used in Wuthering Heights is divided into two kinds. One is natural imagery, and the other is non-natural imagery. Secondly, in each kind of imagery, certain typical images are selected to study. In the range of natural imagery, there are moor, season and weather, fire and flame, moths, heath and hare-bells. In the range of non-natural imagery, there are books, windows, ghosts, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Thirdly, with the theory of literary criticism, analyses these images to explore symbolism used in Wuthering Heights, in order to make readers understand this distinguished novel better.
Keywords：Wuthering heights; imagery; symbolism
Contents
1.Introduction 1
2.Background of Wuthering Heights 2
2.1Personal experience of Emily Brontë 2
2.2 The social background of writing 2
2.3 Different comments on Wuthering Heights 3
3.Symbolism and imagery in Wuthering Heights 5
4. Nature images in Wuthering Heights 7
4.1 The main image of moors 7
4.2 The images of seasons and weather 7
4.3 The images of fire and flame 9
4.4 The images of moths, heath and hare-bells 9
5. Non-natural images in Wuthering Heights 11
5.1 Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange 11
5.2 Images of Book and wind 11
5.3The image of windows 12
5.4 The image of ghosts 13
6.Conclusion 16
Acknowledgements 17
References 18
