A RETURN TO ORDER: MORAL LESSONS IN WUTHERING HEIGHTS

                              “So put aside every trace of malice” (1 Peter 2:1)

Critics have mentioned that Wuthering Heights is ambiguous when it comes to providing an over-arching moral to the harrowing tale, and argue that this ambiguity might have been deliberate by the author. Thus, one famous critic of Wuthering Heights speaks to the “absence of anything” in the tale “one could confidently name a moral.” The critic continues: “…it is not a moral tale. The author’s preferences are not shown” (G.D. Klingopulus). And a very early review of Wuthering Heights makes the same point: “What may be the moral which the author wishes the reader to deduce from her work it is difficult to say; and we refrain from…