《呼啸山庄》阅读笔记 | 第八章 绝望的爱情与爱情的绝望（下）

凯瑟琳、希斯克利夫、埃德加

让我们把目光调回到本书的三个主角，也是最具故事张力的三角恋里来。现在孩子们趋渐成年，由小小少年成长为青少年了，当然，在他们所处的18世纪末，应该被视作青年。三个人都是十五六岁的年纪，可以谈婚论嫁了。那么他们的性格都有哪些变化呢？我们先来看女主角凯瑟琳，这也是本章中艾伦重点交代的，她的性格脾性和处事原则深深地影响着两个男主角，也指引着整个故事的走向。

At fifteen she was the queen of the country-side; she had no peer; and she did turn out a haughty, headstrong creature!

艾伦的叙事简洁利落，字字锋芒。“the queen of the country-side”包含两层意思，其一：她最美；其二：她在“村儿”里最美。这两个要素太重要了，女人是怎么成为“女王”的？首要条件必须是美，故这里虽未着一词去描绘她的外貌，但一个queen就说明一切了，完全没有文化障碍。其二则更为重要，它隐含说明了一个很多读者感到困惑的原因：为什么凯瑟琳这么作，这两个男人还都围着她不放？特别是林顿少爷？答案就在这里。他们所处的地方是个地处偏僻，人烟稀少的所在，林顿少爷虽然是上等人，但囿于地理环境他也见不到什么大世面，换言之，没什么好的选择。在他的狭小的世界里，所能接触到的，外在条件最迷人的就只有凯瑟琳。当然，一般来讲像林顿少爷这样出身的上等人，看人只看脸的话说出去显得自己太肤浅，多少要表示一下自己是追求内涵的。那么他又为什么没有早早看出凯瑟琳的内在，深深地陷入了对她的迷恋呢？让我们接着往下看。

艾伦说了，由于凯瑟琳大小姐是“村儿”里的“女王”，导致了她自视甚高，但艾伦可不管那套，大小姐越是耍脾气她越是毒舌。不过，她同时也敏锐地发现了一件事情，即凯瑟琳额性格发展出了一种双重性（double character），这让她的表现在艾伦眼中显得极为矛盾。但有趣的是，她又不屑于做虚伪的人，故而双重性格所造成的种种笨拙的表现则更成为了艾伦的笑料。凯瑟琳对此既懊恼又无能为力，同样囿于地理环境，以及糟糕的家庭环境，她没有其他人可以交流倾诉，不得不把所有心里话都告诉了高低看不上她的艾伦。

那么，凯瑟琳的双重性格是什么意思呢？具体有哪些表现呢？艾伦给出了一些解释，让我们看一下究竟是怎么回事。

Catherine had kept up her acquaintance with the Lintons since her five-weeks’ residence among them; and as she had no temptation to show her rough side in their company, and had the sense to be ashamed of being rude where she experienced such invariable courtesy, she imposed unwittingly on the old lady and gentleman by her ingenious cordiality; gained the admiration of Isabella, and the heart and soul of her brother: acquisitions that flattered her from the first—for she was full of ambition—and led her to adopt a double character without exactly intending to deceive any one. In the place where she heard Heathcliff termed a “vulgar young ruffian,” and “worse than a brute,” she took care not to act like him; but at home she had small inclination to practise politeness that would only be laughed at, and restrain an unruly nature when it would bring her neither credit nor praise.

这一段有点长，但建议仔细阅读一下。我们看到，凯瑟琳开始被所处的环境撕裂为两半，一半是旧有的，呼啸山庄里的人和读者都已经熟知的那个野姑娘。另一半则是慢慢从与林顿一家的交往中衍生出来的，符合当时主流价值观、上流社会要求的标准淑女。乍一看，我们会以为她是个虚伪的女人，人前一套背后一套。但艾伦却持否定态度，她特别强调了凯瑟琳并没有刻意欺骗，但她特别容易受到外部环境的影响，根据环境的变化而变化。这里我们可以看到她的成长中的不稳定性。前几章的内容里我已经着重分析了她内心对上流社会淑女的向往，这一内在原因导致了她并非假意逢迎，而是真心追求。但同时依然本性难改，当外部社会不需要甚至排斥她去做淑女时，她就自然而然随弯就弯，把那一套社会准则统统抛弃了。显然，凯瑟琳是个肤浅的女人，也可以说整个故事里鲜有深刻的人。那么作者是怎么把一群肤浅的人之间发生的故事讲得如此深刻的呢？这就很值得思考一下，特别是喜欢写作的朋友。

这里可以稍稍比较一下《飘》中的斯嘉丽和凯瑟琳。两者有些共性，都美、任性、傲慢、肤浅、想当淑女、不按套路出牌，但两者的性格发展却没有走同一条线。我们从不会觉得斯嘉丽的性格是双重的，她的表现也始终表里如一，这从周围人对她的评价就可以知道。除了时代、地域等显而易见的大环境外，有一个重要的内在原因就是斯嘉丽对所谓的上流淑女其实没有认同和向往，她的“想成为”其实出于对母亲的爱与崇拜，同时也有被迫的成分。尽管她极力伪装，还是被大家看得清清楚楚。一旦社会环境突变，旧有的价值观崩塌，她便更无须伪装。周围人虽然对她的举动表示不满，但内心也都会有她什么事干不出来的心理准备。然而，凯瑟琳则不同，她打心眼里想做淑女，完全认同主流价值观，并且稳定的时代让主流价值观延续得相当长久，故事里的所有人都活不到新时代的到来（二战）。“野姑娘”只是本性难移，也可以视为缺乏合理管教导致的不良行为。这也是为什么林顿一家都认为她和善淑顺，喜欢得不得了。那么，凯瑟琳怎么处理与两位男主人公之间的关系呢？下面这段也颇有趣：

she was not artful, never played the coquette, and had evidently an objection to her two friends meeting at all; for when Heathcliff expressed contempt of Linton in his presence, she could not half coincide, as she did in his absence; and when Linton evinced disgust and antipathy to Heathcliff, she dared not treat his sentiments with indifference, as if depreciation of her playmate were of scarcely any consequence to her.

凯瑟琳是个笨姑娘，她不懂得如何化解性格上的矛盾，恰恰因为她的所有表现都是真性情，导致她被自己的性格问题缠住了。因为无法解决自己的矛盾，她只好通过解决外在矛盾来缓解自身的性格矛盾，即尽量不让两位男主见面。前面的情节发展已经让两位少年表现出水火不容的态势，并且表现得剑拔弩张，大战一触即发。而夹在中间的凯瑟琳根本不懂得如何化解，当希斯克利夫在埃德加面前出口不逊时她不敢劝解也不敢与他成为盟友，导致希斯克利夫认为她已经变心了。而当埃德加反过来攻击希斯克利夫时，她也不敢（注意艾伦这里用了dared not）劝说或是表现得漠然，就好像埃德加的侮辱对她一点影响也没有，他们俩是站在一个立场上的。结果就是她成为最为难的那个人，心里又高傲，不肯服软。艾伦是这样评价她的：

I’ve had many a laugh at her perplexities and untold troubles, which she vainly strove to hide from my mockery. That sounds ill-natured: but she was so proud it became really impossible to pity her distresses, till she should be chastened into more humility.

艾伦看到了凯瑟琳的笨拙、无助、受挫、委屈，但她一点也不同情她，而是报之以嘲弄，有点幸灾乐祸的意思。看起来艾伦似乎冷酷无情，为人苛刻，其实她的视角恰恰是旁观者视角，即我们在生活中遇到凯瑟琳同类人时会有的正常反应。但艾伦其实要比大多数人更具同理心，因为她洞悉了事件的内在，所以尽管嘴上刻薄，但心里是明白的。她既然可以同情辛德利的暴虐，也同样对凯瑟琳的性格缺陷有所同情，只不过表现得并不明显，或者她自己不愿承认，也许有同性相斥的隐含原因吧？

以上是艾伦给出的一个概括性的基调，接下来，情节继续展开，三个重要人物按照铺好的基调展开互动。

我们立即看到一段非常重要的情节，凯瑟琳与希斯克利夫爆发了争吵，这是两人在本书中的第一次争吵，也是自相识以来爆发的第一次冲突。篇幅虽然不长，但刀刀见血，杀伤力极大。先看下面截取的最关键的一段：

“Order Ellen to say you are engaged, Cathy,” he persisted; “don’t turn me out for those pitiful, silly friends of yours! I’m on the point, sometimes, of complaining that they—but I’ll not—”

“That they what?” cried Catherine, gazing at him with a troubled countenance. “Oh, Nelly!” she added petulantly, jerking her head away from my hands, “you’ve combed my hair quite out of curl! That’s enough; let me alone. What are you on the point of complaining about, Heathcliff?”

“Nothing—only look at the almanack on that wall;” he pointed to a framed sheet hanging near the window, and continued, “The crosses are for the evenings you have spent with the Lintons, the dots for those spent with me. Do you see? I’ve marked every day.”

“Yes—very foolish: as if I took notice!” replied Catherine, in a peevish tone. “And where is the sense of that?”

“To show that I do take notice,” said Heathcliff.

“And should I always be sitting with you?” she demanded, growing more irritated. “What good do I get? What do you talk about? You might be dumb, or a baby, for anything you say to amuse me, or for anything you do, either!”

“You never told me before that I talked too little, or that you disliked my company, Cathy!” exclaimed Heathcliff, in much agitation.

“It’s no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing,” she muttered.

怎么回事呢？原来这一天辛德利不在家，饱受压迫的希斯克利夫打算给自己放一天假。他的假期还能有啥事？无非是凯瑟琳在一起待着。然而，他发现凯瑟琳在家里梳妆打扮，这就引起了他的猜疑，质问她是不是要出门。对，就是质问。从希斯克利夫的语气里我们可以觉察到一种理所当然，凯瑟琳理所应当陪着他，跟他好，以他为太阳围着他转。这些年一直这样的，今天有什么特别吗？

还真是特别，今天大小姐不出门，但是有客要来。而凯瑟琳一开始面对他的质问是心虚的，言辞左躲右闪，最后被逼到墙角了不得不说出实情。恼羞成怒时迁怒正在给她梳头的艾伦。直到希斯克利夫逼得太紧了，于是她也爆发了，便有了以上引文的对话。因为句句是精华，让我们逐条看。

希斯克利夫一听林顿兄妹要来气得够呛，责怪凯瑟琳为了俩不值当的傻子冷落他，他已经忍了很久了，后半句咽回去了，但这触怒了凯瑟琳，逼着他说到底想说啥。希斯克利夫还是没直说，转而让凯瑟琳看看他在日历上做的记号，有哪些天她是和他在一起，哪些天她陪着那俩傻子。他为什么要让凯瑟琳看这个？不言自明，就是他想让对方看到自己的情感需求。那么凯瑟琳什么反应呢？

Yes—very foolish: as if I took notice!” replied Catherine, in a peevish tone. “And where is the sense of that?”

凯瑟琳从这一刻开始对希斯克利夫说话就不留情面了，而且非常伤人。但她这么说也确实有符合逻辑的内在原因，即：

“What good do I get? What do you talk about? You might be dumb, or a baby, for anything you say to amuse me, or for anything you do, either!”

整天和你在一起对我有什么好处呢？你整天摆一张臭脸，连句讨人开心的话都不会说。听了以上这番话，希斯克利夫的反应很耐人寻味：

“You never told me before that I talked too little, or that you disliked my company, Cathy!” exclaimed Heathcliff, in much agitation.

很显然，他根本没意识到凯瑟琳不喜欢这种坐在一起无话可说的窘境，因为凯瑟琳没告诉他。听起来非常可笑，简直缺乏常识，我们惊讶于他竟然完全感知不到问题，那么为什么会变成这样呢？艾伦在前面提前打了预防针，我们回溯引用一下：

…….He had reached the age of sixteen then, I think, and without having bad features, or being deficient in intellect, he contrived to convey an impression of inward and outward repulsiveness that his present aspect retains no traces of. In the first place, he had by that time lost the benefit of his early education: continual hard work, begun soon and concluded late, had extinguished any curiosity he once possessed in pursuit of knowledge, and any love for books or learning. His childhood’s sense of superiority, instilled into him by the favours of old Mr. Earnshaw, was faded away. He struggled long to keep up an equality with Catherine in her studies, and yielded with poignant though silent regret: but he yielded completely; and there was no prevailing on him to take a step in the way of moving upward, when he found he must, necessarily, sink beneath his former level. Then personal appearance sympathised with mental deterioration: he acquired a slouching gait and ignoble look; his naturally reserved disposition was exaggerated into an almost idiotic excess of unsociable moroseness; and he took a grim pleasure, apparently, in exciting the aversion rather than the esteem of his few acquaintances.

Catherine and he were constant companions still at his seasons of respite from labour; but he had ceased to express his fondness for her in words, and recoiled with angry suspicion from her girlish caresses, as if conscious there could be no gratification in lavishing such marks of affection on him.

同样是一段很长但需要细读的段落。我这里总结一下。随着年龄的增长，希斯克利夫和凯瑟琳之间的相处发生了微妙的变化，我们先看第二段：他不再向凯瑟琳表达爱意，同时，面对她的关心也感到不快，好像她这样对他是在浪费感情。那么为什么这么矛盾呢？原因在第一段里，他已经常年未受到任何正规教育，在认知能力和处事上与不断接受教育的凯瑟琳逐渐拉大距离。起初他也努力追赶，但残酷的现实终于让他放弃。他在十六岁的大好年纪变成了吊儿郎当、无精打采、粗暴无礼的粗人，这是他让凯瑟琳感到难过的根本原因。然而他自己意识不到，亦拒绝交流，凯瑟琳一方越来越难以忍受，最后喊出了：“It’s no company at all, when people know nothing and say nothing”这样的话。

争吵到这里就停止了，因为埃德加来了。不过并非像凯瑟琳说的那样是带着妹妹来的，而是独自来的。那么妹妹怎么没来呢？从后面的情节我们可以知道，因为他是来求婚的，很可能已经和妹妹通过气儿了，所以伊莎贝拉也就没跟着来。埃德加来的时候，凯瑟琳正没好气儿，而有趣的是，辛德利竟然暗中授意艾伦盯着他俩，于是艾伦理直气壮留下来当电灯泡(Mr. Hindley had given me directions to make a third party in any private visits Linton chose to pay)。辛德利的授意有点不可理解，仿佛他不同意凯瑟琳与埃德加接触，但既然艾伦这样说了，读者也没办法。但她的坚持却引发一场更大的争执

She, supposing Edgar could not see her, snatched the cloth from my hand, and pinched me, with a prolonged wrench, very spitefully on the arm. I’ve said I did not love her, and rather relished mortifying her vanity now and then: besides, she hurt me extremely; so I started up from my knees, and screamed out, “Oh, Miss, that’s a nasty trick! You have no right to nip me, and I’m not going to bear it.”

“I didn’t touch you, you lying creature!” cried she, her fingers tingling to repeat the act, and her ears red with rage. She never had power to conceal her passion, it always set her whole complexion in a blaze.

“What’s that, then?” I retorted, showing a decided purple witness to refute her.

She stamped her foot, wavered a moment, and then, irresistibly impelled by the naughty spirit within her, slapped me on the cheek: a stinging blow that filled both eyes with water.

“Catherine, love! Catherine!” interposed Linton, greatly shocked at the double fault of falsehood and violence which his idol had committed.

“Leave the room, Ellen!” she repeated, trembling all over.

好一幕惊心动魄！前面余怒未平，转身转嫁给艾伦，先狠狠地掐一下，再甩一个大耳光，艾伦是半个家人一样的仆人，当然受不了这个。在场的埃德加也极为震惊，那个贤良淑德的小公主怎么突然间啪啪打人了？！一时间大人叫孩子哭（小哈里顿正坐在艾伦身边），闹得不可开交。凯瑟琳的人设第一次人间崩塌，震得埃德加三观尽毁，希斯克利夫直呼内行（这句是我编的，他不在场）。但这还没完，凯瑟琳丝毫没有收手之意，哈里顿的哭叫令她精神崩溃，于是接下来的一幕发生了！

she seized his shoulders, and shook him till the poor child waxed livid, and Edgar thoughtlessly laid hold of her hands to deliver him. In an instant one was wrung free, and the astonished young man felt it applied over his own ear in a way that could not be mistaken for jest. He drew back in consternation. I lifted Hareton in my arms, and walked off to the kitchen with him, leaving the door of communication open, for I was curious to watch how they would settle their disagreement.

凯瑟琳不仅打仆人，孩子也不放过，最后连赶来解围的埃德加也一并遭殃。这下埃德加可不干了，把救下来的小少爷交给艾伦，惊愕地退到一旁。看热闹不嫌事大的艾伦跑到有利位置幸灾乐祸，要看看这俩人如何收场。

“Where are you going?” demanded Catherine, advancing to the door.

He swerved aside, and attempted to pass.

“You must not go!” she exclaimed, energetically.

“I must and shall!” he replied in a subdued voice.

“No,” she persisted, grasping the handle; “not yet, Edgar Linton: sit down; you shall not leave me in that temper. I should be miserable all night, and I won’t be miserable for you!”

“Can I stay after you have struck me?” asked Linton.

Catherine was mute.

“You’ve made me afraid and ashamed of you,” he continued; “I’ll not come here again!”

Her eyes began to glisten and her lids to twinkle.

“And you told a deliberate untruth!” he said.

“I didn’t!” she cried, recovering her speech; “I did nothing deliberately. Well, go, if you please—get away! And now I’ll cry—I’ll cry myself sick!”

She dropped down on her knees by a chair, and set to weeping in serious earnest. Edgar persevered in his resolution as far as the court; there he lingered. I resolved to encourage him.

“Miss is dreadfully wayward, sir,” I called out. “As bad as any marred child: you’d better be riding home, or else she will be sick, only to grieve us.”

面对要打道回府的埃德加，凯瑟琳可一点没觉得自己做得不对，相反，她是最委屈的那一个。

埃德加明确表达了自己的不满，他觉得凯瑟琳撒谎、暴虐，让他感到害怕和羞耻。这话不比凯瑟琳前面批评希斯克利夫的话轻些，甚至更伤人。凯瑟琳大小姐面对指控当然不能坐以待毙，当下坐下来嚎啕大哭，她的自卫手段也非常的“女王”：“I should be miserable all night, and I won’t be miserable for you!”听起来比希斯克利夫还要自大，但可比希斯克利夫更具威慑力。果然和男人不能讲理，哭就对了。要不怎么埃德加当下就心软犹豫了，即使一旁盯梢的艾伦在旁添油加醋都说不动他，非要留下来当炮灰。结果当然是涛声依旧了。在艾伦眼中，他落入了他的命运（Ah, I thought, there will be no saving him: he’s doomed, and flies to his fate!）瞧瞧这奋不顾身、飞蛾扑火一般的爱情：

I saw the quarrel had merely effected a closer intimacy—had broken the outworks of youthful timidity, and enabled them to forsake the disguise of friendship, and confess themselves lovers.

最后一句隐晦地表达了男方求婚成功，继而引出下一章极为精彩，名留文学史册的一段独白。且听下回分解。

Wuthering Heights (1939)

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