SOURCE: “The Incest Taboo in Wuthering Heights: A Modern Appraisal,” in American IMAGO, Vol. 45, No. 2, Summer, 1988, pp. 217-24.

In the following essay, McGuire explores the incest theme in Wuthering Heights in the context of modern psychological breakthroughs in the study of incest; the critic draws on Ernest Jones' thesis of the relationship between incest, Satanism, vampirism, lycanthropy, and necrophilia, stating that Heathcliff demonstrates all these traits.

Wuthering Heights has long been admired as a unique and powerful novel. The brooding atmosphere of Wuthering Heights, the intense characters, and the disturbing theme lure the reader into a world at once repelling and seductive. Who or what is the mysterious Heathcliff? Why does the mutual passion between Cathy Earnshaw and him remain unrequited when there is no apparent obstacle to their union? Why is their consuming physical attachment superseded by a morbid fascination with union after death? I propose that...