Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy and Heathcliff
Emerald Fennell’s film adaptation of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights has sparked controversy.
Jacob Elordi’s casting as Heathcliff, a person of colour in the novel, and historically inaccurate costumes meant book lovers were not enthused by the adaptation.
Elordi defended his casting. He described the interpretation of art as subjective, saying that “this is Emerald’s interpretation of the text”.
But Heathcliff’s race is central to his character. Being shown as an outsider, the racism he faces is one of the factors that drives his abusive behaviour throughout the novel.
The film depicts Heathcliff and Cathy’s love story as they drive one another wild. It unfolds against of the backdrop of excessive wealth in the Linton household.
Fennell draws on themes of sado-masochism, violence and obsession.
However, this depiction of darkness and depravity feels hollow. It lacks an understanding of what is at the core of the novel.
Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is not “the greatest love story of all time”, as the film’s tagline suggests.
It is a conversation around race, class, abuse and the danger of domestic spaces.
Bronte demonstrates how it is not the arrival of an outsider, Heathcliff, that is a threat to domestic space. It is the nature of the space itself.
Fennell’s omission of the second half of the novel, where the cycle of abuse is broken, completely misses the commentary the novel makes on society.
It is not simply their obsession with one another that drives Cathy and Heathcliff wild.
Rather it is social boundaries that push the story and its characters to a breaking point.
By omitting these dynamics, Fennell’s attempts to shock viewers with masochism and sex fall flat.
Fennell dissolves the character of Isabella Linton. In Bronte’s novel, she flees her abusive marriage with Heathcliff. In the adaptation, she is a woman who is a willing participant in her abuse.
Rather than an empowering agent of her own life, Isabella is simply a pet alongside Heathcliff’s plot for revenge against the Lintons.
As opposed to twisting the original story to push today’s boundaries, Fennell fills the space with unnecessary sex scenes and an almost romanticisation of abuse.
Taking a novel that’s driven by its commentary on the dynamics of society, Fennell has stripped the story of the backbone that makes it such an obsessive read.
