The Heath as a Liminal Space: Love, Desolation, and Homelessness in Wuthering Heights

Zhenhong Cai

doi:10.70711/cle.v2i4.5632

The Heath as a Liminal Space: Love, Desolation, and Homelessness in Wuthering Heights

Zhenhong Cai

Abstract

In Wuthering Heights, the narration of domestic spaces and the wilderness intertwines with the themes of physical and mental confinement or freedom, mirroring Victorian fascination with spatial boundaries and extension. The novel presents Wuthering Heights, Thrushcross Grange, and the heath as the sites where freedom coexists with oppression; fantasy hovers over reality, traumas over peace, and the supernatural over natural. This essay will specifically focus on the study of the heath, arguing that the heath shows a sense of homelessness born from the chaos of spatial confinement and emotional turmoil. The essay aims to explore how in Wuthering Heights the heath functions as a liminal non-place, where as two “orphans”, Heathcliff and Catherine experience the clashes between Victorian culture and human nature and are trapped in their spiritual home; and investigate the heath as a temporary utopia- a shelter for Heathcliff and Catherine’s love and a place of desolation from Victorian society.

Keywords

Heath; Homelessness; Liminality; Non-Place; Victorian Age

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References

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/cle.v2i4.5632

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The Heath as a Liminal Space: Love, Desolation, and Homelessness in Wuthering Heights

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