“Wuthering heights” vs a classic novel: a review on Fennell’s adaptation.

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The new adaptation of Wuthering Heights has audiences and fans of the novel divided due

to controversial and artistic changes to the story. Personally, leaving the cinema I felt as if

Fennell had missed the point of the book. She had stayed loyal to the angsty “romance”

shared between the characters, but missed central parts of the story, ones that make

Wuthering Heights the controversial book that it was. It may have aspects of love, but I don’t

believe that Wuthering Heights is a love story. It is a cautionary tale of revenge, suffering and

obsession - which is where the main sense of tragedy comes from.

To start with, Wuthering Heights is iconic for its use of gothic imagery. I thought that the

locations, especially the house of Wuthering Heights, were a strength in this adaptation. The house itself was unsettling from the beginning, with each and every room almost in ruin and continued to deteriorate throughout the film. The shiny, fresh looking tiles on the exterior of the house were also unnerving paired with the brutal farm work backdrop. However, I do think that Fennell missed the real gothic themes of the book by not including Catherine haunting the narrative after her death. By doing this, we do not see Heathcliff’s vengeful and destructive behaviour continue after her death and the generational damage that he did. It also felt that the role the moors played in the novel was neglected - in the book, the moors are a reflection of the chaotic and uncontrollable nature of the characters.

In terms of the actual relationships between characters, Fennell neglects certain aspects of

the story in favour of fitting into the inauthentic “freak” epidemic. For a start, casting Jacob

Elordi as Heathcliff was the wrong move. The novel’s central themes revolve around the

differences between Cathy and Heathcliff, with these being the main reasons they could

never be together. These include class, social standing and race. This did not translate

through Elordi. Another issue I found with the film was Isabella’s character and storyline. In

the book, Isabella is subjected to cruelty and abuse by Heathcliff before she escapes and

runs away to London to raise their son Linton as a single mother. In the film, however, the

film diminishes her character into a masochistic deviant who is willing to do Heathcliff’s

vengeful bidding.

The film was tragic and it was devastating to see these characters separated, however, I

almost viewed them as separate characters than the ones from the novel. That is the best

way to consume this film, and in that way it is a tragic lovestory. Although, going into this film and knowing the source material does make the changes and plotholes more evident than ever.

Edited by Daisy Coomb