Inquiring into Wuthering Heights: Where are the Moors?
Michiko Soya

Her [Emily’s] descriptions of natural scenery,

goblin-like, wrought from a granite block inare what they should be, and all they should

the moors that makes people tremble in fear.

be. (Charlotte Brontë)At the same time, she sees the work as halfrock, almost beautiful (328). Charlotte closes

To Ellis Bell (Emily Brontë), the hills

her preface to the book (second version) with

where she grew up were not merely “aa description of the untouched heath thatspectacle,” but were where she could truly

grows at the foot of the statue-rock. It is as if

live and through which she lived. It is forshethat reason that the natural scenes she

Wuthering Heights itself also “live[s] in, anddepicted were “what they should be,” “allby,” nature.

firmlythey should be” (325). The nature in

ArnoldWuthering Heights was also essential to theobservation:

believes

that

Kettle

the

makes

work

a

of

similarfilming of the work; it became a kind of
fundamental “equipment” for each of the

There is nothing vague about this novel;films. The statement quoted below is one

the mists in it are the mists of theCharlotte Brontë made about her younger

Yorkshire moors; if we speak of it assister, Emily. Emily’s scenery is secured andhaving an elemental quality it isassured by Charlotte, who was also a writer.

because the very elements, the great
forces of nature are evoked . . . theEllis Bell did not describe as one whose

realization is intensely concrete: we

eye and taste alone found pleasure inseem to smell the kitchen of Wuthering

the prospect; her native hills were far

Heights, to feel the force of the windmore to her than a spectacle; they wereacross the moors, to sense the very

what she lived in, and by, as much aschanges

the wild birds, their tenants, or as theconcretenessheather,mistiness but by precision. (139)theirproduce.

Her

of

the
is

seasons.
achieved

not

Such
by

descriptions, then, of natural scenery,
Yet, is this truly the case? If perceived

are what they should be, and all theyfrom a slightly different angle, don’t theshould be. (325)moors take on a different appearance? In thisCharlotte likens Wuthering Heights topaper I will examine the moors that shoulda half statue, a savage form terrible andhave been self-evident in Wuthering Heights
1－1－

universallyleaves the book with the sensation of

acknowledged,” to borrow that famous phrase

having experienced a realistic portrayalfrom Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

of the Yorkshire landscape.(9)asalmost“atruth

David Cecil points out that nowhere
does Wuthering Heights contain a “set-pieceShepoints

out

that

the

close

of landscape-painting” (174). He made thisrelationship between Wuthering Heights andobservation eighty long years ago.

nature is “a critical commonplace” and that

It shouldn’t be forgotten that while he
notes

the

lack

of

a

“set-piece

as examples of those who have had “theofsensation of having experienced a realistic

landscape-painting,” he adds that nature,

portrayal of the Yorkshire landscape,” Mark

which forms the backdrop of the work,

Shorer as well as the above mentioned Kettle

permeates the entire story (174). It is quite

are among them.

true that there is no “landscape-painting”; heIn actuality, Homans’s true aim is tonotes the fact that the work is neverthelesspose the following: “There are . . . very few

overflowing with nature. He continues:

scenes in the novel that are actually set
out-of-doors” (9). Just where then are theIndeed, no other writer gives us such amoors? The moors themselves in Homans’s

feeling of naked contact with actual

thesis are the target of analysis thatearth and water, presents them to us sopervades the world of Wuthering Heights. As

little bedizened by the artificial flowers

can be surmised by the words “repression”

of the literary fancy. To read Emilyand “sublimation” in Homans’s title, she uses

Brontë’s descriptions after those of mostFreudian analysis to discuss the work, as

authors, is like leaving an exhibition ofwell as images from the theories of Dorothy

landscape-paintings to step into the

Van Ghent, thus informing the paper with aopen air. (175)multiplicity of theories from which to begin
examining Wuthering Heights.

Cecil’s hypothesis is expressed artlessly

In temporal terms, there has been aand succinctly, if you will, but at the same

halftime it is pregnant with suggestion. Even inquarter-century between Cecil or Kettle andthis age when scholars have access to a

Homans. During this period, literary analysis

plethora of literary theories, this is a

has changed so dramatically as to present

provocative statement.

totally different viewpoints. Yet the lack of

century,

or

at

least

about

a

For example, let’s look at an excerpt

nature in Wuthering Heights, or morefrom Margaret Homans’s “Repression andprecisely, the lack of direct references toWutheringnature in the text, is the one consistent

Sublimationof

Naturein

Heights”:

thread common to both Homans’s assertions
andCecil’s.

Homans’sobservationthat

It is a critical commonplace that

“There are . . . very few scenes in the novel

Wuthering Heights is informed by thethat are actually set out-of-doors” is nearlypresence of nature . . . and the reader

identical to Cecil’s “There is not a single
2－2－

set-piece of landscape-painting in her book.”

simply begun the conversation through this(To state the conclusion in advance, Kettle’s

paradigm. Homans detects in this omission

observation,

mostthat Emily must have had a purpose, which“critical

achieves a “fine balance” between “fictional

which

representative

could

example

be

of

the

the

realism” and “overt fictiveness.”commonplace” noted by Homans, also hardly
differs from her own.)

The present distinction between the

Homans states that “It is difficult tocatalog something that is not there” (9). (Ofreader’s

course, her reasoning makes perfect sense.)

portrait of Yorkshire life and landscapeYet Homans is actually a more modern critic

and the actual absence of such athan Cecil. Although she refers to thepresentation is itself part of the finedifficulty,balanceshecarefully

analyzes

each

impression

Brontë

ofamaintainsdetailed

betweeninstance of what Cecil had declared was a

fictional realism and overt fictiveness.

lack

(10)

of

even

a

“singleset-pieceoflandscape-painting” to provide evidence for
Accordingwhat “is not there.”to

Homans,theauthorintentionally creates a “hole.” This becomes

Here I will give a representative
Catherine

the central theme of Homans’s article. But

Earnshaw makes the statement, “Nelly, I am

Homans’s aim lies elsewhere. I will briefly

Heathcliff . . .” (73), but Heathcliff, who wasintroduce Homans’s argument here before

supposed to overhear these crucial words inreturning to the gist of my own paper.

exampleofherevidence.

the shadows, does not. That is because they

Homans gives as a reason for Emily’s

are said after he has already dashed out onto

intentional avoidance of direct description of

the moors in the storm. Though it is athedramatic scene, the author does not trouble

According to Homans, nature is primary toherself to pursue Heathcliff out onto the

Emily, and it is out of deference to thismoors.

questionhighest priority that she avoids describing itprobably reflects that of many readers: “Whyimmediately. It is in the naming that things

does the author not give us one moment’s

lose their significance, and this is the case forobservation of Heathcliff struggling against

Emily vis-à-vis nature. In order to preserve

the storm?” (9). The silence of the author,

the priority of something, it is essential that

Emily, is deafening. Even Catherine herself,

the thing must not be named. The terms

who runs out onto the moors after Heathcliff,“omission” and “avoidance” (so to speak,does not begin her crucial narrative until

Emily’safter she arrives back indoors.

themselves

Homans’s(rhetorical)

Homans assiduously discusses eachlandscapeherintentionalthatrespectforschemes),appearnature.

terms

repeatedlyin

Homans’s paper, link to the creation of thelacuna to provide overwhelming evidence,“significant holes” in the text.

which is, however, naturally not merely an
addendum to Cecil’s observation. This is the

The only way to preserve the priority ofcommencement of her argument; she hassomething is not to have it named, so
3－3－

that what is primary is just that which

Let’s examine Wuthering Heights not

is left out of text, and surely thesefrom the point of view of the depths of Emily

omissions of descriptions of events inBrontë’s psyche as mentioned above, butnature are significant holes. (11)from the impressions made on the reader. In
otherwords,

psychologicalAccording to Homans, for Emily, nature

let’selements

considerinvolved

not

the

in

the

was not something that should be written

author’s creation of the literary work, as

about directly, which was the reason she

Homans describes, but the literature (that is,chose to use “metaphors” (12). Homans

putting aside whether or not it was the result

argues that behind this decision was Emily’sof psychological elements) that centers on

self-repression (19); Homans then develops

nature in Emily’s actual creation, which

her argument by invoking the theories of

unfolds before the reader’s eyes. Here I will

Freud.

return to the intentional “holes” created by

It may be said in this connection that

Emily’s avoidance of direct descriptions ofsuch directionality is similar to what Arnold

nature, and will proceed with my argument.

Kettle calls “oppression” at the end of his

Why is it that readers have such a sense

discussion on Wuthering Heights. The pieceof nature in Wuthering Heights if Emily does

predates Homans by a quarter-century.

not directly portray nature? It isn’t only Cecil

Wuthering Heights thewho feels that reading Emily’s descriptions is

Kettleseesinoppression of Emily herself:like“leaving

anexhibitionoflandscape-paintings to step into the open
This unending struggle, of which theair.” Clearly, Emily’s “metaphors,” as noted

struggle to advance from class society to

by Homans and many others, also play a

the higher humanity of a classless world

large role. To get right to the point, suchis but an episode, is conveyed to us in

metaphors in some ways can also be

Wuthering Heights precisely because theconsidered another kind of, or a transformed,

novel is conceived in actual, concrete,intentional “hole.” To avoid diffusion of theparticular terms, because the quality ofthesis, however, here I will confine my

oppression revealed in the novel is notargument to nature as a literal “hole.”
Emily’s nature as literary achievement

abstract but concrete, not vague but
particular.（155）is deeply variegated, even overflowing. It isalso related to directly portrayed nature.

Did Emily perceive this “oppression” asMore accurately, it is related to non-existenta social reformer who aimed at a classlessdirectly portrayed nature. That is, the naturesociety, or the “repression,” as defined bythat readers sense in Wuthering Heights

Homans? Perhaps both are accurate, ormaterializes precisely because there are noneither. It is impossible to determine at thedirect descriptions of it. As mentioned earlier,present which is true. Here I will put aside

the intentional holes (lacuna, gaps, orHomans’s Freudian analysis and return to a

spaces—, which, so to speak, “by any otherrather primitive reading of the text itself.

name would smell as sweet”) in the text
4－4－

constitute the very nature in Wuthering“critical commonplace.” It is quite true, as

Heights.

quoted above, that he savors the nature ofIf such is the case, the “omissions ofYorkshire, but, needless to say, he is not adescriptions” in this work, as Homans so

critic who is simply satisfied with thatperspicaciously notices, have active meaning,sensation.

and interestingly enough, they are connected

elements of nature are evoked, and as a

at a fundamental level in terms of, forresult,He“theexplains

that

realization

the

is

very

intensely“indirect

concrete . . . Such concreteness is achieved

language” and Ann Gaylin’s “eavesdropping”

not by mistiness but by precision.” Here the(though I must limit my examples here to twosimilarity to Barthes’s “indirect language”

because of space limitations).

becomes apparent.

instance,

RolandBarthes’s

Barthes says that the production ofindirect language is the first condition of

Emily Brontë works not in ideas but in

literature; the avoidance of naming things

symbols, that is to say concepts which

gives ultimate meaning to them.

have a significance and validity on alevel different from that of logical

One might say that the first condition ofthought. . . . logical analysis may

literature is, paradoxically, to produce

penetrate but is unlikely adequately to

an indirect language: to name things inconvey, so the significance of the moors

detail in order not to name theirinultimate meaning, and yet to retain thissuggested in the cold words of logic

threatening meaning, to designate the(which does not mean that it is illogical).

world as a repertoire of signs without

The symbolic novel is an advance on thesaying what it is they signify.

Now, bymoral fable just in the sense that aa second paradox, the best way for a

symbol can be richer—can touch on

language to be indirect is to refer as

more of life—than an abstract moral

constantly as possible to objects and notconcept. (140)

to

their

concepts:

for

the

meaning

alwaysvacillates,

Wuthering

Heights

cannotbeobject’stheKettle and Barthes are interested inconcept’s does not; whence the concrete

different things. Here, the former is rather

vocation of literary writing.（231-232)

interested in ethics, whereas the latter is
primarily concerned about meaning, or more
precisely, signification. Naturally, the eras toThough the expression of it differs
somewhat, Barthes’s statement that “the best

which

they

belongandtheircriticalway for a language to be indirect is to refer as

methodologies

also

differ,but

Kettle’sconstantly as possible to objects and not toassertion that the implications of the moors

their concepts” is reminiscent of Kettle’sin Wuthering Heights is not conceived inconcept.

“merely logical terms” or expressed as an

Homans starts her discussion with a“abstract concept” is reminiscent of Barthes’sreference to Kettle as an example of the“concept.” Not only did the sensation of
5－5－nature in Wuthering Heights please Kettle,

Gaylindevelops

herargumentbybut it probably gives clear insight into thestating that if Heathcliff hadn’t overheard

essence of Emily’s nature as well.

only part of what Catherine said or if he had

Emily’s nature resembles vestiges ofstayed long enough to overhear her entire

Barthes’s “indirect language.” Taking a

conversation, Wuthering Heights as we know

previous example, in spite of Homans’s

it would not have been written. Gaylin

complaint (or, to put it in more equable terms,

defines

Homans’sobservation),ofeavesdropping (that is, “narrative lack”) (27).

description

of

which

In support of her thesis, Gaylin refers to the

Heathcliff was supposed to have had aresearch of the linguist Graham McGregor,

struggle, “the moors” are actually and vividly

which has profound significance in relation toexpressed in the figure of Catherine coming

the current discussion:

“the

of

moors”

a

lack

with

her

argumentaroundthisback exhausted from the moors. “Catherine,”
in a wet, frenzied state, as well as the various

McGregor points out that interpretive“objects” she is involved with, functions in a

activity

sense“indirectaslanguage.”Inconstitutes

more

than

three-quarters of listeners’ responses to“Catherine,” it becomes possible for us tooverhearing.

read the moors, or perhaps even to create

interpretive

them.

creating

The moors in Wuthering Heights are a

Significantly,
responses

storiestomostconsistof

explaintheoverheard conversation.(27)blank. Yet the surroundings are enclosed indetail. To borrow Kettle’s wording quoted

People who eavesdrop make various

earlier, “the novel is conceived in actual,inferences about what they have heard.

concrete, particular terms” (though Kettle

Accordinguses this wording in reference to Emily’s

three-quarters“oppression”).

interpretative activity. In order to maketo

McGregor,
of

they

their

use

over

energyin

Emily’s nature is nourished by these

consistent their own understanding withdetails as it flows into the hearts of readers.

what they have overheard, they even create

The “hole” follows the temporal flow of thestories. Using McGregor’s linguistic evidence,

reader’sandGaylin asserts that eavesdropping is not asteadilypassive activity but an action that produces

expanding, and deepening in form. It is here

new narratives. She points out that suchthat the quintessence of the power of Emily’s

eavesdropping is also related to the fact thatnature lies.

Wuthering Heights is a dramatic tale.

experience,subconsciously

being

gradually
created,Considered in these terms, the reader(receiver) does not seem passive. Rather, weThus, eavesdropping begets additional

begin to perceive an active “something.” This

storytelling;something can be understood as active

passive, for it generates new narrations

behavior on the part of the reader, as is the(acts of telling) as well as retellings. . . .

case in Gaylin’s “eavesdropping.”

Eavesdropping
6

－6－

such

is

listening

aptly

is

suitednottonarratives replete with dramatic scenes,

however it may be inferior to his in

as Wuthering Heights is, abounding in

power.” (383)episodes―or as Emily Brontë’s sister
Charlotte Brontë would say, filled with

The Mysteries of Udolpho often has“story.” A great deal happens in Emilybeen criticized because it presents a grandBrontë’s novel precisely because thismystery yet discloses an anticlimactic ending.

eavesdropping scene occurs. (27)

It has even induced ridicule—so much so that
“It appears the labour of a Mountain, to bring

In

order

to

fill

in

the

gaps

in

forth a mouse” (Smith 182).

conversation created by eavesdropping (inotherwords,

conversations

filled

If

we

use

an

ironicandratherwith

farfetched interpretation, it can also be said

“holes”), the listener creates a new story.

that Radcliffe, the author herself, recognizes

Couldn’t it also be true in the case of asuch a flaw in her fiction well enough to“nature” full of holes? More precisely, of thesecretly

nature in Wuthering Heights that lacks

beforehand through the device of the sigh ofdirect depiction.

the artless Emily. On the other hand, if weinterposearationalization

Where, in reality, are the moors infollow the reasoning in this paper, those

Wuthering Heights? Here, to answer thisphrases uttered by Emily St. Aubert appear

question that would be better left unasked, I

surprisingly to have an insight into thewill quote another Emily, Emily St. Aubert.

essence of literature. Emily Brontë is surelyThis Emily is confined to an old castle in Italy,

even superior to the “poet” whose exquisite

and is literally psychologically restricted by(as might be thought) depictions of scenery“oppression” and “repression”(just like Emily

are favored by the protagonist of this Gothic

Brontë herself might have been to somenovel. This is, however, not because theextent if the observations of Kettle andauthor Emily is able to demonstrate nature

Homans are truly insightful.) Emily here isbetter than he is. On the contrary, it istheRadcliffe’s

precisely because she is able to depict (orTherather, create) it without describing it thatprotagonist

monumental

femaleofAnn
Gothicnovel,

Mysteries of Udolpho. Emily laments uponshe can indicate nature.
In reality, Emily Brontë has placed theher favorite book, which she holds before her:moors and nature in Wuthering Heights“Are these, indeed, the passages [of theintentionally into a void. Her “moors” are,visionary scenes of the poet], that have

without doubt, the result of “the imagination

so often given me exquisite delight?

of the poet,” but it is also something nurtured

Where did the charm exist? —Was it inin the hearts of each reader according to his

my mind, or in the imagination of theown individual character (or rather, his own

poet? It lived in each. . . . But the fire ofcreativity). In this case, it is something

the poet is vain, if the mind of his

intense and unique because the meaning ofreader is not tempered like his own,

the moors of Emily Brontë, as Barthes points
out, “always vacillates,” and is filled with7

－7－

“interpretive action,” as Gaylin notes. MoreWorks Cited:than anything else, it occupies the strongest
position, such as in the mind of the reader.

Barthes, Roland. Critical Essays. Trans.

The void (that Emily Brontë contrives)

Richard Howard. Evanston:occupies the mind—though it may soundNorthwestern UP, 1972.

paradoxical that it is because of that

Brontë, Charlotte. “Editor’s Preface to thephenomenon that her nature is always alive

New Edition of Wuthering Heights.”

and never grows old. It is something

Wuthering Heights.1847; Oxford: Oxford

imagined by the reader and precisely because

UP,1998.
Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. 1847;

of that fact, it will continue to exist as firmly
as the reader’s existence itself.

Oxford: Oxford UP,1998.
Cecil, David. Early Victorian Novelists. 1934;

Cecil savors “a feeling of naked contact
with actual earth and water” (175) in the

London: Constable, 1980.

nature of Wuthering Heights. He states that

Gaylin, Ann. Eavesdropping in the Novelher descriptions can be felt literally as thefrom Austen to Proust. Cambridge:

nature of the “open air” rather than as aCambridge UP, 2002.

landscape painting. On the other hand,

Homans, Margaret. “Repression andKettle makes the observation quoted earlier

Sublimation of Nature in Wutheringthat the reader seems to smell the kitchen of

Heights.” PMLA 93.1(1978): 9-19.
Kettle, Arnold. An Introduction to the

Wuthering Heights, to feel the wind on themoors, and to sense the changes of the

English Novel. London: Hutchinson

seasons. Perhaps this is as Kettle himself

University Library, 1951.

discerns; that is, “the very elements, theRadcliffe, Ann. The Mysteries of Udolpho. Ed.

great forces of nature” are aroused. This, too,

Bonamy Dobreé.1794; Oxford: Oxford UP,

is not unrelated to the omissions that Emily

1991.

uses in her text. In Wuthering Heights, theSmith, Elihu Hubbard. The Diary of Elihu

nature of the open air that Cecil breathes, theHubbard Smith. Ed. James E. Cronin.

wind from the moors of Yorkshire that Kettle

Philadelphia: American Philosophicalexperiences—they are all, no doubt, mostSociety, 1973.

vibrant, graceful, and tenacious.
This article is the English version of “Inquiring
into Wuthering Heights: Where are the Moors?”
written in Japanese in The Brontës and England in

the Nineteenth Century (Osaka Kyoiku Tosho, 2015),
with some revisions.

8－8－