57 pages • 1 hour read

The novel’s title provides a multifaceted motif. On a literal level, it refers to each point that Marnie and Michael reach on the Coast to Coast Walk. The novel’s subheadings, such as “Day Three: Borrowdale, Grasmere, Glenridding” (127), underscore the protagonists’ perpetual motion as they complete each phase of the route and encounter changing landscapes.

On a figurative level, “You Are Here” refers to the characters’ emotional development on the walk, highlighting The Transformative Power of Travel and Nature. The novel presents the route as an emotional journey for the protagonists as they transition from solitude and loneliness to meaningful connection. During the walk, they gradually lower the inner barriers they constructed as a result of painful experiences in the past. Thus, when Marnie points out the tag “You are Here” on a map, both protagonists fall “quiet for a moment, taking in how far they’d travelled, where they were heading” (235). Marnie and Michael reflect on not only the geographical distance they covered but also their personal growth and increased intimacy. The direction in which they’re heading alludes to the future potential of their relationship.

Water

The novel uses water to indicate the status of Marnie and Michael’s relationship. Water first appears as a motif when Michael dips his feet in the Irish Sea at St. Bees. Tradition dictates that walkers do so at the beginning of the Coast to Coast Walk and in the North Sea at its end. Marnie tentatively copies Michael, concerned about getting her new boots wet. Her hesitancy reflects her initial ambivalence about doing the walk and her anxiety about forging new social connections. Michael has conflicted feelings about the journey, and immersing his boots in the sea indicates a commitment to completing it. However, at this point, he looks forward to the rest of the group leaving so that he can finish the walk alone. Entrenched in his interior solitude, he isn’t yet receptive to meaningful connections with others.

As their journey progresses, Marnie and Michael contemplate getting in the water together several times. Each opportunity has baptismal connotations, representing an immersion in the natural landscape and a fresh start for both characters. Declining to get into the water at Grisedale Tarn, Marnie indicates that she remains undecided about the new experience of walking in the wilds and her feelings for Michael. However, on day four of the trek, Michael and Marnie’s decision to strip to their underwear and swim in a tarn reveals a shift in their relationship. Their sudden desire to immerse themselves in the water suggests that they’re on the brink of emotional commitment. While they wade to their ankles, their conclusion that the water is too cold reflects a residual fear of the exposure that love involves. At the end of the novel, Michael’s suggestion that they complete the Coast to Coast Walk suggests that the couple may finally dip their boots in the North Sea together, a sign of mutual emotional commitment.

Wuthering Heights & Twisted Night

Marnie takes two novels on the Coast to Coast Walk: Wuthering Heights and Twisted Night. Both symbolize the reality of love versus its fictional representation. Marnie chooses Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights to help immerse her in the landscape of the walk. Michael points out that their route doesn’t pass through “Brontë country,” the South Pennines of Yorkshire. However, to Londoner Marnie, the Yorkshire moorlands are indistinguishable from one another. In Wuthering Heights, the wild setting and weather conditions serve as a literary device reflecting the strength of the protagonists’ self-destructive passions. While the novel’s extreme representation of romantic love appealed to Marnie as a teen, on a second reading she notices herself “rolling [her] eyes more than I did first time” (87). From a more mature perspective, Brontë’s depiction of tempestuous passions is no longer in tune with Marnie’s ideal of a desirable relationship. Furthermore, Brontë’s Byronic hero, Heathcliff, has lost his former allure. Having experienced emotional cruelty from her former husband, Heathcliff’s dark and savage characteristics are unattractive to Marnie in later life.

Twisted Night, the erotic thriller that Marnie is copyediting, offers an equally hyperbolic depiction of passion. The novel’s portrayal of an orgy featuring outlandish sexual positions and improbably perfect bodies is designed to titillate its target readership. However, Marnie’s focus on the draft’s flawed grammar and logic highlights its artificiality. The book’s descriptions foreground lust while ignoring the emotional complexities of forging and maintaining romantic relationships.

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While You Are Here also presents a fictional representation of romantic love, the book offers an antidote to the excessive passions presented in Wuthering Heights and Twisted Night. Focusing on love in later life, the novel conveys a more nuanced portrayal of the experience. While landscape and sexual attraction play an essential part in Marnie and Michael’s developing relationship, their romance is understated and rooted in mutual like and respect. Nonetheless, insight into the protagonists’ inner lives demonstrates that they feel their emotions deeply.