“Wuthering Heights”: Gothic Horror? Return to Nature? Or All of The Above?
My all-time favorite Gothic ghost story, and musical inspiration for this post, is Wuthering Heights, the classic Gothic tale published by Emily Bronte (under the pseudonym Ellis Bell) in 1847. It is the story of two horrifyingly dysregulated lovers who haunt the moors of Yorkshire, England, both alive and dead. Wuthering Heights was such a gripping tale, it inspired 18-year-old Kate Bush to write a song in response. She released the song, also titled, “Wuthering Heights,” in 1978 as her debut single and first #1 hit.
It’s such a creepy song! In it, Bush affects her voice to sound like a desperate ghost. Her exaggerated performance in her music video brings the ghost to “life.” By that, I mean, her performance is a luminously accurate depiction of the first ghostly encounter in Bronte’s novel. The story and the performance of the story lean into our deepest fear: loss of control with forces beyond us.
Wuthering Heights is such a juicy piece of literature because it is written in a way that it could be interpreted from so many angles, and in so many ways. Just ask opinions on any of the movie remakes – prepare for controversy. The brilliance of the book is that we can’t be certain about anything told to us in the narrative – the same way madness feels.
Emily Bronte passed away just one year after her masterpiece was published. She gave no author talks. So, we are left to speculate on her inspiration and intentions with the story. That said, one of my favorite perspectives on the book views the character Cathy’s great love, Healthcliff, as the personification of nature. Specifically, the harsh nature of England’s moors. He is rough, and untamed, and even deadly – yet, he is home, he is identity, he is love. You can read this book in so many ways. You can read it as a bad boy fantasy gone horribly wrong – a preventable nightmare. But at least in my latest reading of it, I am drawn to the idea that longing for Healthcliff is our longing for the wild.
The meaning of “wild” can be expansive. Wild can mean finding and being yourself. It can mean giant wig hair and beautiful big boobs like my girl, Dolly, may she rest in peace. It can mean LARPing as a Gothic ghost. What does “wild” mean to you?
Wildness is of particular interest to me as I write this blog because I just finished an amazing training in Nature Informed Therapy. I can’t remember that last time I was at a training where I was constantly losing my mind over how helpful and connected the information felt. I have so much wisdom to share from this training. It’s been a powerful reminder that nature is home, “nature is the greatest group noun in the world” (Robert McFarlane).
We are nature, just like Cathy says, “I am Healthcliff.”
What do the concepts of ghosts, horror, and nature bring up for you? Are they connected? Differentiated? Or does this line of questioning make you want to run away screaming?
All answers are interesting.
