The Matter of Souls: Philosophical Aspects of Wuthering Heights

Many interpretations of Wuthering Heights have focused on the love of Catherine and Heathcliff and neglected Catherine’s love for Edgar Linton. Both Edgar and Heathcliff represent values in human life. Catherine’s unwillingness or inability to choose between material pursuits and her true self gives the novel its tragic import. In the second part of the novel Heathcliff faces the same dilemma. For both the only way out is death, when they will be reunited. The world view that underlies the novel is a platonic philosophy, which can also be recognized in Emily Brontë’s poetry and in her life (and death).