The biggest movie of the year has finally arrived with Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights arriving in theaters on February 13. The hightly anticipated film tells the story of the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. However, if you're expecting this to be a page to screen adaptation, think again.
Fennell has been open about the movie being her interpretation of the nearly 200-year-old text, revealing she wanted to create a movie that felt closest to the feelings she had when first reading the novel when she was 14 years old.
"I wanted to make something that was the book that I experienced when I was 14," she said back in September, following the release of the trailer.
As a result there a lot of differences between Emily Bronte's original novel and the movie on our screens this weekend, particularly when it comes to plots and characters, with many from the original text being omitted. So what are the key differences? Here are 13 very big differences between the Wuthering Heights book and movie.
The 13 biggest differences between Wuthering Heights the movie and the book
Cathy’s brother
In the book: Cathy has an older brother called Hindley, who is quite frankly a bully to Heathcliff and extremely jealous of his father's close bond with Heathcliff, up until Hindley goes to university. After their father dies, Hindley returns with a wife Frances and continues to be cruel to Heathcliff. Frances gives birth to their son Hareton and dies later. After her death, Hindley plunges the Wuthering Heights estate into ruin with gambling and drinking. He ends up dying less than a year after Cathy.
In the movie: Cathy mentions she has a brother who died but he is never mentioned again.
Cathy’s father
In the book: Cathy's father, Mr. Earnshaw, is a kind man who brings Heathcliff back to essentially be his adopted son. He later dies when his son is away at university.
In the movie: Cathy's father (played by Martin Clunes) is a cruel tyrant and appears to beat Cathy and Heathcliff. He later plunges into debt, excessive drinking, and gambling. It appears Emerald Fennell has taken Hindley's storyline and merged it with Mr. Earnshaw.
Heathcliff’s origin story
In the book: Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff back from Liverpool as a boy. There are some interpretations of the novel that suggest Heathcliff was Mr. Earnshaw's biological illegitimate child.
In the movie: We see Heathcliff arrive into town with a father-like figure before Mr. Earnshaw returns with him later as a "pet" for Cathy.
Heathcliff’s ethnicity
In the book: Heathcliff is largely agreed by Brontë scholars to not be Caucasian and is described as a "dark-skinned gypsy" and "a little Lascar [a sailor from India or south-east Asia], or an American or Spanish castaway."
In the movie: Heathcliff is played by Caucasian actor Jacob Elordi, a decision that was heavily critiqued as "white-washing" by fans of the original novel. Emerald Fennell has since responded to the comments in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying of the ethnicity of Heathcliff, "I think the thing is everyone who loves this book has such a personal connection to it and so you can only ever kind of make the movie that that you sort of imagined yourself when you read it."
She continued, "I don’t know, I think I was sort of focusing on the kind of sado-masochistic elements of it… That’s the great thing about this movie is that it could be made every year and it would still be so moving and so interesting.”
Nelly’s job
In the book: Nelly is in much more of a housekeeper role, coming from humble beginnings and her own mother having nursed Hindley when he was young.
In the movie: Nelly is Cathy's companion and is less of a caretaker. She doesn't seem to do the chores and jobs she does in the novel to serve the family.
Joseph
In the book: Joseph is an older man, thought to be in his 60s. He's often quite cruel and basically hates everyone.
In the movie: Joseph is a younger man (played by Ewan Mitchell) and is often a sort of comic relief character, who appears to suck up to Cathy. He also has a sexual relationship with one of the maids.
The opening scene
In the book: The novel starts with the narrator Mr Lockwood visiting Thrushcross Grange before going to meet his landlord Heathcliff.
In the movie: Emerald Fennell's adaptation starts with a stark and graphic scene of a town rejoicing in the hanging of an unknown man.
Mr. Lockwood
In the book: Mr. Lockwood is a mysterious character who we hear the story of Wuthering Heights through. He's a visitor from London, who goes to stay in Yorkshire and resides at Thrushcross Grange.
In the movie: Mr. Lockwood is never mentioned nor present in the movie.
Edgar and Isabella’s relationship
In the book: Edgar and Isabella Linton are brother and sister, who Cathy and Heathcliff have known since childhood.
In the movie: Edgar is an older gentleman and Isabella is his ward, rather than his sibling. They arrive at Thrushcross Grange when Heathcliff and Cathy are adults.
All the sex scenes
In the book: While Cathy and Heathcliff have a deep tortured romantic connection and the kiss once, there are no sex scenes implied or written about in the novel.
In the movie: Cathy and Heathcliff have sex a lot, with many montages of the pair's sexual relationship shown in the movie.
The rock scene
In the book: Throughout the novel there is no real suggestion of Cathy's exploration of her sexuality and pleasure.
In the movie: About a third of the way through the film we witness a scene of Cathy's sexual awakening, where she watches Joseph and Zillah have sex in the stables. After seeing this it awakens something in Cathy who goes onto see everything as sexual and goes onto pleasure herself on the moors hidden behind a rock.
Cathy’s child
In the book: Before Catherine dies at the end of part one, she gives birth to a daughter who Edgar later goes onto call Cathy (inventive).
In the movie: Cathy gets pregnant by Edgar, but she loses the baby before she dies.
The ending
In the book: The book is split into two parts, and the first part ends with Cathy dying. It then goes onto have a whole second part, which tells the story of Cathy and Edgar's daughter and Heathcliff and Isabella's son Linton.
In the movie: The movie ends essentially at part one, with Cathy's death. This is pretty common for many adaptations of the novel, as to condense both parts into a two-hour movie would be a pretty big feat.
