Abstract
Wuthering Heights is conspicuous for references to a wide variety of animals, some of which serve a specific structural or aesthetic function. Thus dogs may be symbolically linked with Hareton Earnshaw's presentation, just as cats seem to have some symbolic relevance to the characterization of Heathcliff and Lockwood. Of particular significance is the use of animals in figurative language. But whereas some animal images are poetically affirmative, mainly with respect to Hareton and the younger Catherine, a good many are dubious, especially when they are vituperative, and seem rather to reflect on the mentality of those who resort to them than to enlighten us about those to whom they refer. And though such language may seem in its very rhetorical force to justify the tendency of some characters to break down the barriers separating the species, a careful reading of the novel suggests that, despite their physical and psychological similarities, human beings and animals are for Emily Brontë not on the same spiritual plane.
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