A Comparative Study of the Causes of the Tragic Love in A Dream of Red Mansions and Wuthering Heights

Abstract

A Dream of Red Mansions is universally believed to be the most capacious work classical Chinese literature has ever presented, depicting vividly a good number of maidens that bear almost every possible charm traditional Chinese culture has ever endowed its earlier maidens with. Among all the maidens, Lin Dai-yu is most widely loved and sympathized with, whose ever shedding tears and steadfast love undoubtedly have accounted to a good degree for their love’s tragic feelings. Wuthering Heights comes as a cursing surprise to Victorian English literature, and turns to be gradually appreciated and still cherished and relished even today. The love story between Catherine and Heathcliff it has dedicated the whole of itself to can be a very good counterpart to that between Dai-yu and Bao-yu, which is as well founded upon long-term companionship from childhood and loyal oaths, only that no happy matrimony has been gained as wished and expected. This paper means no ambitious novelty, but to draw comparison between the two works and love stories, to trace every clue possibly accessible within the works themselves, and to compare and analyze those picked clues from angles of social and family background as well as personal character. Through such comparison and analysis, the paper attempts to present a clearer perception into the similarities and differences of the two love stories and the negative roles the social and family background and the character of the heroes and heroines have played for the tragic endings.