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.
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.
**Spoiler warning for Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights and the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë**
1. The narrative structure of the story
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.
Read more: Wuthering Heights review: Emerald Fennell's radical revamp will almost certainly provoke pearl-clutching2. Heathcliff’s background
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.
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.
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.
Read more: Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights cast: Saltburn star Jacob Elordi and more3. Cathy and Heathcliff’s ages in the story
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.
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
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.
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
View Green Video on the source websiteIn the novel, Mr Earnshaw also names Heathcliff after a sibling of Cathy's who did not live.
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
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.
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 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).
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
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.
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 end, Edgar ends up buried on one side of Cathy and Heathcliff on the other – the triangle continuing even in death.
9. Isabella Linton
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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
As the film does not adapt the story of the younger Catherine, it is less surprising that the baby is depicted as not living.
13. Zillah
In the novel, Zillah is the housekeeper working at Wuthering Heights in the later years of the story.
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.
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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
Unlike many other adaptations, however, the film also does not depict the eventual death of Heathcliff either.
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."
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
Of course, this is a stylistic choice and Wuthering Heights is a fictional story, not a historical tale.
Read more: Wuthering Heights 2026 soundtrack: Full list of songs from Charli xcx18. Sex
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.
Outside of these relationships, the beginning of the film includes casual sexual activity in public around a town square hanging.
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.
Read more: From Wuthering Heights to Bridgerton, how did period dramas get so sexed-up?
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.
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.
View oEmbed on the source websiteThe film does not delve into such gothic territory; even if the central romance is undying, it's not quite, well, undead.
If you want Wuthering Heights ghosts, we'll always have the Kate Bush song.
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