Wuthering heights as a childlike fairy tale

Many of the difficulties we experience in understanding Wuthering Heights are removed when it is regarded as a fairy tale. Yet, even then, the novel does not fit the standard structures proposed, for example, by Vladimir Propp. Some of the difficulties which have prevented previous critics from seeing fairy-structures as central to an interpretation of Wuthering Heights are removed when we combine this perspective with the well-established narcissistic framework of the story. Kristin Wardetsky’s practical study of fairy tales written by children, and especially by girl-children, may prove to be the crucial link enabling us to see the fairy tale as the pervasive structure, rather than as an incidental feature, in Wuthering Heights.