19 changes Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights makes from the book – from missing characters to ending
"I AM Heathcliff!" – are you, though?
In case you missed it, the latest adaptation of Wuthering Heights is stirring up some controversy.
The classic novel by Emily Brontë has been adapted for the screen countless times, and now provocative director and writer Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman, Saltburn) has taken on the challenge of bringing her version to the screen.
The film, as many will be aware, charts the dramatic love story of Catherine Earnshaw (Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) as they are raised together on the majestic Yorkshire moors in Victorian England and develop a connection which cannot be denied.
Speaking to Fandango, Fennell said: "The thing for me is that you can’t adapt a book as dense and complicated and difficult as this book. I can’t say I’m making Wuthering Heights. It’s not possible."
In fact, this has been given as the explanation for the film's title being stylised as "Wuthering Heights" with quotation marks.
The backlash from many Brontë purists was swift and unrelenting once marketing started for the film and shows little sign of abating now that the film is released and reviews have been divided.
However, just how much of the original novel has Fennell changed when adapting Wuthering Heights for the big screen?
**Spoiler warning for Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights and the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë**
21 changes Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights makes from the book
1. The narrative structure of the story
The novel employs a non-linear structure where a tenant of Heathcliff’s named Mr Lockwood is told the story of his new landlord and Cathy by Nelly Dean, meaning the story is, for the most part, framed through Nelly’s eyes.
This forms the majority of the book before the action switches to the present day and continues to tell the story of a now-middle-aged Heathcliff and the next generation of characters who are totally absent from this version of the story.
There is no point-of-view character or narrator, and the film occurs in a linear structure and only covers one part of the novel.
2. Heathcliff’s background
Now, this is probably the aspect that has generated the most discussion in the run-up to the film’s release. The subject of much academic discourse over the decades has been the ethnicity of the story’s leading man.
In the book, a number of phrases penned by Brontë would suggest that Heathcliff is not a white man, particularly given how his appearance is also used to “other” him by other characters in the story. He is referred to as "dark-skinned g**sy" and "a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway" by various characters.
Mr Earnshaw also says he found Heathcliff at Liverpool Docks - a location historically associated with the Transatlantic slave trade.
This ambiguous facet of Heathcliff’s character only further adds to the novel’s interrogation of discrimination, with the intersection of Heathcliff’s mysterious familial origins, class and ethnic identity.
There is no discrimination based on ethnicity in Fennell’s film, with white Australian actor Jacob Elordi in the role. Fennell told the BBC that the casting came about after working with Elordi on Saltburn and said he "looked exactly like the illustration of Heathcliff on the first book that I read".
Some have argued Elordi’s casting to be a blatant case of ‘whitewashing’ and something of a step back, considering director Andrea Arnold cast multiracial actor James Howson as Heathcliff in her 2012 adaptation.
3. Cathy and Heathcliff’s ages in the story
Unlike Fennell’s film, where 35-year-old Margot Robbie portrays a "spinster" Cathy before much of the action begins, much of Brontë’s Cathy is depicted in childhood and adolescence, and she doesn't make it into her third decade of life.
The toxic relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff in the novel is also viewed through a very different prism, considering how young they are during the entirety of their relationship.
It is unknown who else was in the running for the parts, but outside of physical attributes, Robbie is playing a character who was originally over 15 years younger.
This is, however, absolutely not the first adaptation to age-up Cathy or have her be portrayed by an older actress; if anything, it’s more common than not.
4. Mr Earnshaw
In the novel, Mr Earnshaw brings Heathcliff home from Liverpool’s docks to live at Wuthering Heights and treats him very well and nicely, giving Heathcliff the happiest period of his life as he is raised as a sibling of Cathy and her brother Hindley, even favoured above them.
Mr Earnshaw is so kind to Heathcliff that many have interpreted this as meaning Heathcliff is his biological but illegitimate son, with his close bond with Heathcliff earning the ire of Hindley – and even the envy of Cathy.
However, Mr Earnshaw grows more abusive and unkind before his death, but this is unexplained – some have interpreted this to be due to the corrupting influence of the moody Heathcliff, whose arrogance some have laid at the feet of Mr Earnshaw, though that seems a tad harsh!
In the novel, as Cathy grows, she also becomes more wilful and regularly clashes with her father. When Mr Earnshaw dies, however, he is mourned by all of his children.
In the film, there is still sadness at Mr Earnshaw's death, but his loving side is harder to see here, particularly towards Heathcliff.
5. Cathy’s brother
In Fennell’s film, Cathy’s only brother is dead at the start of the story and was also named Heathcliff, with Cathy giving the name to the destitute boy whom Mr Earnshaw brings home randomly one day. Thus, the film firmly casts Heathcliff as a surrogate brother but steers away from suggestions of him as her potential half-brother.
In the novel, Mr Earnshaw also names Heathcliff after a sibling of Cathy's who did not live.
However, in the novel, Cathy has an older brother, Hindley Earnshaw, who acts as an antagonist and nemesis for Heathcliff, going on to abuse and exploit Heathcliff following his father’s death out of jealousy for the favours Mr Earnshaw gave Heathcliff.
Hindley becomes the master of Wuthering Heights and makes Heathcliff’s life hell by forcing him into servitude, until Hindley's wife, Frances, dies and Hindley spirals into alcoholism and depression.
After Heathcliff returns from his self-imposed exile as a vengeful gentleman, Heathcliff helps aid Hindley’s downfall, before going on to repeat a cycle of abuse towards Hindley and Frances's own son, Hareton, whom he forces into a similar role of servitude and victimhood that Hindley dealt Heathcliff himself.
6. Catherine Earnshaw's role
Aside from being older than the novel's Cathy, the film's Cathy suffers the burden of being her father's only legitimate heir and also suffers even more at the hands of his alcoholism and abuse alongside Heathcliff for the majority of her life.
In the book, Cathy is envious of the attention that her father gives to both her brother Hindley and, more importantly, Heathcliff, but is shown to grow more antagonistic towards her father as he ages and she, too, reaches womanhood.
The film also gives Cathy a Received Pronunciation accent, serving to underline her higher social standing in comparison to Heathcliff, which many historians believe would not have existed in Victorian-era Yorkshire.
Finally, but most importantly, Cathy's downward spiral in the book feels much more extreme and resembles a psychotic episode. Cathy's extreme behaviour in response to Heathcliff's abuse has led to some academics characterising the character as having Borderline Personality Disorder – though it can be murky territory attempting to diagnose a fictional character with mental health issues.
While Cathy suffers from deep melancholy in the film from being parted from Heathcliff, it doesn't quite reach the levels of darkness in Brontë's book.
7. Heathcliff's role
In the novel, Heathcliff is a much more explicitly toxic individual – but one shaped by trauma, abandonment and a desire for vengeance.
In the film, Heathcliff is a much more idealised romantic figure for Cathy, his peak moral failings being to seek to make Cathy jealous, acting as an adulterous lover, and entering into a sadomasochistic relationship with Isabella (though this is something he is very upfront about, and one she embraces wholeheartedly).
In the book, Heathcliff seeks to punish Cathy for choosing to marry Edgar, marries Isabella to torture Cathy and Edgar, abuses Isabella in their marriage, pushes Hindley into alcoholism and financial ruin, seeks to obtain both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange to punish everyone, and then seeks to make the lives of the next generation full of suffering, namely his and Cathy's children, and Hindley's son, Hareton.
Despite his undying devotion to Cathy, Brontë's Heathcliff is very much an anti-hero at best and a villain at worst, not a straightforward romantic lead, which he leans more towards in Fennell's film than anything else.
The cycle of abuse and generational trauma that Heathcliff characterises in the novel is not really present here.
8. Edgar Linton
Like in the novel, Edgar Linton is generally a nice guy in the film and, if anything, is much more reasonable and understanding than his book counterpart. Edgar here is even more empathetic towards Heathcliff and much less haughty and insipid.
In the film, Edgar is always the master of Thrushcross Grange as his parents do not feature here. Unlike the novel, however, Isabella is Edgar's ward, not his sister.
Also, unlike the novel, there is never the suggestion that Cathy is in love with Edgar. In both the book and the film, Cathy certainly is motivated by class issues to marry the wealthy Edgar, but she also has a romantic love for Edgar, even if that cannot withstand the eternal and uglier love that she feels towards Heathcliff.
As Cathy says to Nelly in the novel: "My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff!"
In the book, Edgar and Heathcliff's rivalry continues following Cathy's death, as Heathcliff seeks to wreak vengeance on Edgar, while the latter seeks to secure his daughter's happiness. However, Heathcliff ultimately ends up with control of both Thrushcross Grange and the younger Cathy.
In the end, Edgar ends up buried on one side of Cathy and Heathcliff on the other – the triangle continuing even in death.
9. Isabella Linton
Isabella has certainly undergone some adaptational changes. Unlike the novel, as mentioned, Isabella is Edgar's ward here and not his sister.
Similarly, while the film's Isabella remains quite delicate and (at least initially) less fiery than Cathy, she is much quirkier than her literary counterpart, with some very specific hobbies.
Like the novel, Isabella develops a fixation with Heathcliff that vexes Cathy and Edgar, but in the film only, Isabella is aware that Heathcliff is using her to make Cathy jealous and consents to a marriage and sexual relationship brimming with degradation and dog role-play.
Meanwhile, Isabella in the novel falls for Heathcliff's manipulations and suffers an abusive marriage at his hands, regretting their marriage and then fleeing him while pregnant with a son that she later gives birth to and names Linton Heathcliff.
Eventually, Isabella dies, and Linton goes to live with Heathcliff. Very happy indeed.
10. Nelly Dean
Ellen "Nelly" Dean is one of the most important and one of the most divisive characters from the novel, acting as the voice of much of the story, with some interpreting her as an unreliable narrator to the action, and it's clear she has strong feelings about everyone involved.
In the book, Nelly is a servant who is the same age as Cathy's older brother Hindley and considers him like a foster brother to her. Nelly serves multiple generations in the story and also acts maternally towards much of the cast of characters.
She occasionally interferes in the various romantic triangles in the story by acting as a go-between, but not as much as the film's Nelly, who evokes a more manipulative role similar to the Nurse in William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet – a parallel that Fennell herself even plays with by referencing the character in her story. Nelly is the deliberate cause of multiple misunderstandings and huge emotional suffering in the story, born out of jealousy.
The film's Nelly is a 'companion' for Cathy and the bastard daughter of a nobleman, a backstory that is not present in the novel, and she is also the victim of remarks from other servants in the story, which isn't in the book.
However, the novel does make clear that Nelly is better educated than other servants, which is never fully explained.
Fennell told Attitude: "The thing about Nellie and Cathy is, they’re like sisters, but they’re not. It’s the same as Heathcliff and Cathy. There is jealousy there. There is possessiveness."
Ultimately, Fennell takes the more antagonistic reading of Nelly's character and really runs with it!
11. Joseph
In the film, Joseph, played by Ewan Mitchell, is a labourer at Wuthering Heights who is also seen engaging in a sexual relationship with fellow servant Zillah.
In the novel, Joseph is a self-righteous and devout Christian, but one who lacks any kindness and particularly detests Heathcliff – an intense hatred absent from Fennell’s film.
Instead, Joseph here serves as another example of heartbreak after a time jump reveals he has lost his relationship with Zillah.
12. Cathy’s pregnancy
In the film, Cathy miscarries her pregnancy – one she is always aware of – and is killed by sepsis. However, in the novel, before her death, Cathy gives birth to her and Edgar’s daughter, who is also named Catherine.
As the film does not adapt the story of the younger Catherine, it is less surprising that the baby is depicted as not living.
The novel’s younger Catherine goes on to be manipulated into an unhappy marriage to Heathcliff and Isabella’s son Linton, but ultimately her heart lies with Hareton, the abused son of Hindley Earnshaw, who is also her maternal cousin. Another incestuous romance delivered from trauma and grief, albeit without the obsessive codependency shown by the older Cathy and Heathcliff.
13. Zillah
In the novel, Zillah is the housekeeper working at Wuthering Heights in the later years of the story.
While kind to Linton Heathcliff in her time at the Heights, she resents the younger Catherine due to her haughty ways and also follows the instructions of her bitter master, Heathcliff.
However, in the film, Zillah is working at the house earlier in the story and has a sadomasochistic sexual relationship with Joseph.
Later in the film, Zillah is revealed to have left service in the house, married and had a child, now ignoring Joseph when she sees him.
14. Cathy’s death scene
In the film, Cathy dies in her bedroom with only her husband Edgar beside her. By the time Heathcliff arrives at her side, Cathy has already passed away.
In the novel, Cathy and Heathcliff have a final explosive but illicit encounter with the aid of Nelly, where Cathy accuses Heathcliff of killing her after her heartache pushes her to the point of a mental and physical breakdown.
Edgar ends up witnessing the pair’s stormy encounter in Cathy’s bedroom, causing Cathy further distress before she gives birth to her daughter and dies mere hours later. Heathcliff begs Cathy to haunt him following her death and even longs to dig up her corpse to look upon it.
15. The removal of the entire second half of the book - and original ending
As already mentioned and in line with most of the adaptations of the novel, Emerald Fennell’s film ends the story with Cathy’s death and does not tackle the story of the younger Catherine Linton, Linton Heathcliff, and Hareton Earnshaw.
Unlike many other adaptations, however, the film also does not depict the eventual death of Heathcliff either.
As such, the themes of generational trauma are absent, along with any images of a morbid reunion between Cathy and Heathcliff in death.
Fennell told ScreenRant: "The thing is that this book is so dense, it's so complicated, and it's so epic. It takes place over generations."
She added that the eventful book meant one has to either "make a miniseries, or even a series of 10 episodes, where you give everything the attention that it would need to be completely faithful to the book" or "you do what I've done here and make your own kind of response to the book and the things that it made you feel; things that you wish happened or didn't happen".
16. Other absent characters
As already mentioned, the film most notably removes the following characters from the story, but here's the full list...
- Hindley Earnshaw - the older brother of Cathy Earnshaw, the heir and eventual owner of Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff's tormentor.
- Mr and Mrs Linton - the wealthy and high-status owners of Thrushcross Grange; the parents of Edgar and Isabella, who pass away and leave Edgar as the master of their large home.
- Frances Earnshaw - the giddy wife of Hindley and mother of their son Hareton; Frances's death causes her husband's downward spiral.
- Hareton Earnshaw - the son of Hindley and Frances Earnshaw, who is ultimately raised by Heathcliff but forced into a role of service by him in a parallel to his own treatment by Hindley.
- The younger Catherine "Cathy" Linton - the only child of Edgar and Catherine Linton (the elder), said to resemble her father, but carry the spirited will of her mother.
- Linton Heathcliff - the insipid and sickly son of Heathcliff and his wife, Isabella Linton, who is said to resemble his mother only and appears more like Edgar and Isabella in disposition than Heathcliff.
- Mr Lockwood - one of the narrators of the story, who is also relayed much of the tale by Nelly Dean, a shallow and judgmental figure who is a new tenant of Heathcliff's at Thrushcross Grange in the present day.
17. Aesthetics
Leaning into Fennell’s most maximalist tendencies, the clothes, the architecture, the interior design, and the music, of course, are all rather anachronistic, meaning they do not entirely match the historical period in which Wuthering Heights is set.
Of course, this is a stylistic choice and Wuthering Heights is a fictional story, not a historical tale.
18. Sex
Of course, this is Emerald Fennell, and themes around sex have already featured prominently in her previous directorial efforts, Promising Young Woman and Saltburn.
Here, the film not only makes Cathy and Heathcliff’s romance explicitly sexual, but it also adds a sexual relationship between Joseph and Zillah, along with depicting the stale sex life of Edgar and Cathy, and showing the BDSM-style relationship between Heathcliff and Isabella.
Sex here appears to also be a comment on class, with the working-class Heathcliff and Joseph shown to be more satisfying lovers, unlike the wealthy and refined Edgar.
Outside of these relationships, the beginning of the film includes casual sexual activity in public around a town square hanging.
Of course, given that it was published in Victorian times, the book does not depict any explicit sex.
It is debated how erotic the relationship between Heathcliff and Cathy is in the novel, with some arguing it is more spiritual and emotional than sexual, but the pair do still show some tactile behaviour.
Heathcliff kneels and grips Cathy in a charged scene in Cathy's bedroom in the novel, displaying his servitude to their bond but also arguably being as erotic as Brontë could go in their union.
19. The removal of supernatural elements
Wuthering Heights, as a novel, is a supreme work of romantic gothic fiction and the moodiness of its setting is only further emphasised with supernatural and spiritual elements.
In the book, Mr Lockwood is visited by the spirit of a young Cathy as she arrives at her bedroom window in Wuthering Heights, looking for Heathcliff.
We later learn that this is exactly what Heathcliff begged her to do, when as she lays dying he compels her: "Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living; you said I killed you – haunt me, then! ... Be with me always – take any form – drive me mad! Only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you!"
Heathcliff is even driven to look upon her corpse and when he dies at the end of the novel is obsessed with reuniting with her and wants to be buried beside her. He gets his wish too.
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However, a servant claims to have seen the ghosts of Cathy and Heathcliff roaming the moors – something which is dismissed by Mr Lockwood, who imagines a peaceful rest for Cathy, Heathcliff and Edgar in their graves.
The film does not delve into such gothic territory; even if the central romance is undying, it's not quite, well, undead.
However, Heathcliff does lie beside Cathy's corpse in the film's final scene.
If you want Wuthering Heights ghosts, we'll always have the Kate Bush song.
Emerald Fennell's "Wuthering Heights" is out now in cinemas.
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Authors
Lewis is the News and Trends Editor at Radio Times and leads our approach to news, reactive content, and serving audience demands and interests. An obsessive fan of television and film, Lewis is a Nicole Kidman fanatic with a side of passion for science-fiction, art-house cinema and the latest HBO drama. Lewis has a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Film Studies. After working in advertising, Lewis worked at The Mirror for three years in community management and SEO, showbiz, film and television reporting.
