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Wuthering Heights and the Beauty of Darkness: A Reverse Interpretation through Thomistic Aesthetics

Hongjing Lu

Advances in Linguistics Research / 2026,8(2): 113-125 / 2026-05-26 23 16

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• Information:

  Henan University School of Foreign Languages / School of Translation & Interpreting, Kaifeng, China

• Keywords:
  Thomistic Aesthetics; Wuthering Heights; Beauty of Darkness; Recontextualization; Gothic Literature
• Abstract: This paper examines the unique aesthetic of darkness in the Gothic classic Wuthering Heights through the theoretical lens of Thomas Aquinas’s three conditions of beauty—integritas, consonantia and claritas— and proposes a methodological innovation by using these three conditions as an analytical framework for interpreting the novel’s Gothic aesthetic. While Thomistic aesthetics has traditionally been associated with ideals of harmony, order, and sanctity, Wuthering Heights is noted for its turbulent emotions, distorted relationships, and somber narrative tone, which appear antithetical to the former. Beyond this apparent opposition, this study uses close reading to show that the novel recontextualizes Aquinas’s principles by analogy, constructing dark wholeness, deformed correspondence, and secular illumination rather than directly inverting the three conditions. This approach represents a cross-disciplinary synthesis of theological aesthetics and literary criticism. By testing Aquinas’s framework against Wuthering Heights, this study shows that the novel does not simply reject Thomistic aesthetics but enters a critical dialogue that revises and expands its conceptual boundaries. Ultimately, this paper contends that such an interpretive approach places Gothic dark aesthetics in critical dialogue with Thomistic aesthetics, demonstrating the conceptual elasticity of Aquinas’s three conditions while providing a new framework for analyzing Gothic and non-classical literary forms.
• DOI: 10.35534/lin.0802010 (registering DOI)
• Cite: Lu, H. J. (2026). Wuthering Heights and the Beauty of Darkness: A Reverse Interpretation through Thomistic Aesthetics. Advances in Linguistics Research, 8 (2), 113-125.