Notes on Wuthering Heights
How does the 2026 Wuthering Heights film stack up against Emily Brontë’s classic novel? Read my take in today’s post, then leave a comment to join this dialogue. And don’t miss today’s writing prompt.
I went to see the most recent rendition of Wuthering Heights in theaters on Valentine’s Day and still can’t stop thinking about it. But this is primarily because others won’t stop talking about it and how much they vehemently loved or hated it— though somewhere deep down, I believe such controversial and contradictory takes would have been more than enough for Emily Brontë to appreciate the film, you know, after she got over the shock of coming back to life and learning films existed at all… yet that is a fantastical tale to write about some other time.
So far, I have seen a lot of critics and reviewers upset by the film’s depiction of Heathcliff, portrayed by Jacob Elordi, as well as the onscreen depiction of his relationship with Catherine, portrayed by Margot Robbie, and how it abandons the novel’s supposed and elusive ‘point.’ And I agree with them in a lot of ways… but also don’t.
First, as someone who holds a master’s in English and has studied drama and dabbled in film studies, I can unequivocally say that speaking at length about what Emily Brontë ‘intended’ or may or may not have wanted revealed on screen 177 years after her death is a major analytical faux pas, and colossal waste of time. There is no way we could ever know, unless Emily is literally (forgive the pun) resurrected somehow.
However, I do think it’s worth reminding audiences that Emily’s older sister, Charlotte, edited Wuthering Heights after Emily’s death so that it could be republished in 1850 as the version we know today, as initial reviewers of the first-ever edition of Wuthering Heights (published under the name Ellis Bell in 1847) found it to be too vulgar, depraved, brutally violent, diabolical, immoral, strangely dark, etc. (Many of those are direct quotes.)1 And their family received a lot of backlash for it, as well as for Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, and their sister Anne’s, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.
So, how much of the version of Wuthering Heights we read today includes Emily’s original and elusive ‘intention’ anyway, I wonder, especially once we consider how much self-editing she would have had to undergo as a woman author trying to have her work published in the midst of an ultra-conservative Victorian England, even after agreeing to publish under a male pseudonym? (There is so much more to include and analyze regarding this matter, I realize, but this will have to suffice for now, and the purposes and limitations of this post.)
I also think it’s worth reminding audiences that Wuthering Heights was published at the downturn of the Romanticism era, which was an artistic era that prioritized intense emotion, individualism, nature, and ‘the sublime’ over reason, focusing on imagination and subjectivity, in direct response to the scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment and the effects of the Industrial Revolution. And how it’s undebatable that Emily Brontë was a quintessential example and product of her era and who and what she was writing about (Don’t even get me started on the details of her death.). Emily also traversed the moors and was obsessed with the dark enchantments of nature and passion, as seen in the text of her work, yet was highly impressionable and naive (presumably due to what she read and experienced), as highlighted by her older sister Charlotte in the Biographical Notice Charlotte included in the 1850’s edited version of Wuthering Heights… Or was she?
Why are such inquiries and reminders important?
Well, the 2026 Wuthering Heights film also prioritizes emotion over reason, and is designed to shock audiences by showcasing depravity and passion, while never completely crossing the line into outright pornography, as we are mostly shocked by what we do not see (fully nude bodies or sexual organs), and are shocked instead by what we imagine is happening on screen or off screen. Similarly, in the novel we are largely left to speculate and imagine what physically and technically happens between Catherine and Heathcliff (as well as Heathcliff and Isabella and other pairings in the novel), though we are consistently left with visceral emotions regarding their intense attachment to each other and how other-worldly and dark that attachment is, which is magnified (ironically?) by the broody moors, especially when it ventures into and beyond the literal grave.
There are also many scenes in the film that explicitly equate passion and sex to death and violence and immorality, which mimics the emotional tone and literary essence of the novel. There is constant talk about death and dying in the novel, as well as morality and violence and intimacy. After watching the film and reading the book (I reread the book before and after watching the film.), I felt the same emotions, which resonated with me and how I understood both. After experiencing both, I felt shocked and had strong and conflicting emotions regarding love and death and life and how they all intermingled, and wondered what the point of it all was, and is— which is hardly romantic if you’re relying on the overly-commercialized and saccharine Valentine’s Day definition of ‘romance’ with a happy ending, but incredibly romantic if you’re relying on the passionate ‘emotion over reason’ definition the actual Romanticism era (in which Wuthering Heights was scribed) should elicit.
The 2026 film also captures the broody emotions elicited by the moors and the natural dreary, rainy, and gory environments the characters find themselves in, or orchestrate themselves, like in the novel. Without the broody setting of the moors, I wonder whether we’d be able to fully get lost in the dark emotions and passions of Heathcliff and Catherine, or any of the other characters, and whether we’d be fully confronted with the tried-and-true ‘nature vs nurture’ argument in either.
In both the film and novel, thanks to a broody natural backdrop, audiences are constantly confronted with answering questions regarding Heathcliff’s fate and how he understood the world and love based on how he was not nurtured as a youth, while grappling with other characters’ accusations of his biological, fixed ‘nature’ and what he cannot or will not change about himself. So, we’re constantly torn between his softer inclinations toward humanity and domesticity and his drive for wild, unhinged vengeance, especially when we occasionally believe that he cannot help himself and might be justified.
Now, would I say the film accurately reflects the novel, overall?
Yes and no.
If we’re assessing the film on its successful reincarnation of Romanticism era vibes, I would say, full-heartedly, yes.
If we’re assessing the film on capturing the novel’s shocking yet never explicitly depicted and only imagined passionate relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff, I would also say, yes, though the film does explore this imagining through a more (arguably) sexually exposed and experienced twenty-first century viewers’ lens.
If we’re assessing whether the film captured the novel in its entirety, I would say, full-heartedly, no, as Catherine senior dies before the middle of the novel (in chapter 16 out of 34), and is in fact not a main character in most of the novel, in spite of her ghost and its haunting legacy.
Heathcliff is also a much more complex and darker character in the novel, both literally and figuratively, with his drive for vengeance superseding his attachment to Catherine for most of the novel, even if it is ignited and fueled by that attachment in his youth, until it and he are eventually subdued once he accepts and meets his fate at the end of the novel (I would love to explore this thought further some other time.). Overall, the novel itself explores socio-economic concerns, and the ‘nature vs nurture’ argument surrounding Heathcliff’s character, as well as Catherine’s character, in ways that the film decidedly does not.
The film also omits the core narrative perspective of the novel, which is told by third parties who are not Catherine or Heathcliff, and how the novel’s narrators recollect events after they have actually occurred, providing a modicum of emotional distance for readers that is not present in the film, often reading more like a diary or intimate letter, though residents of Victorian England would have probably disagreed with me there?
And the film omits most of the scenes and events in Wuthering Heights, as large portions of the novel do not include or refer to Catherine senior and her intimate relationship with Heathcliff. Yet the film chooses to focus only on the mostly imagined and passionate relationship between Catherine and Heathcliff, which the novel does absolutely include and inspire, if we’re going off Romanticism era vibes anyway, forcing the audience to reckon with their characters’ unreasonable passions in the mist of the moors.
There are plenty of other similarities and differences between the film and novel to highlight and analyze, but for now, I will leave my notes on Wuthering Heights here.
To be continued… (?)
What are your thoughts on this topic? Leave a comment to join this dialogue, and don’t forget to share this post with others so they can join this dialogue too. (Keep scrolling to see additional reading related to today’s post, and to see today’s writing prompt.)
© This work is not available for artificial intelligence (AI) training. All Rights Reserved by K.E. Creighton; Creighton’s Compositions LLC.
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Today’s Writing Prompt
Writing Prompt: In the Mist of the Moors
Write a scene that occurs at a place like the Moors in Wuthering Heights, or a place that is gloomy and or in the English countryside. Or write a journal entry about your last experience in the coutryside or nature, or your experience watching the most recent Wuthering Heights film.
Writing Tip:
Before you start writing, close your eyes for a few minutes and imagine you’re standing in the Moors at Wuthering Heights. What do you smell, feel, hear, etc? Keep in mind that this is fiction. However you imagine Wuthering Heights to exist does not need to precisly mimic how it exists in the novel.
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You may also enjoy:
Read more about the initial reviews of Wuthering Heights at the bottom of this Smithsonian magazine article. “Five Things to Know About ‘Wuthering Heights,’ Author Emily Brontë’s Only Novel”. 2.13.2026 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/five-things-to-know-about-wuthering-heights-author-emily-brontes-only-novel-180988196/
Further reading to form a more nuanced opinion of your own:
Yes, I believe you should actually read the actual novel first, to form a more nuanced opinion for yourself.
Literary Hub. “Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights is a Deranged, Half-Assed Bodice-Ripper That Entirely Misses the Point”. 2.25.2026. https://lithub.com/emerald-fennells-wuthering-heights-is-a-deranged-half-assed-bodice-ripper-that-entirely-misses-the-point/
The New Yorker. “The Timeless Provocations of ‘Wuthering Heights’ (the Novel)”. 2.26.2026. https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-timeless-provocations-of-wuthering-heights-the-novel
Vogue. “What Kind of Love Story Is Wuthering Heights, Anyway?” 1.29.2026. https://www.vogue.com/article/is-wuthering-heights-actually-a-love-story-at-all