New Wuthering Heights film sparks controversy

The gothic novel Wuthering Heights was written by Emily Brontë in 1847, focusing on themes of racial prejudice and class inequality. Emerald Fennell has directed a new movie adaptation of the book with the title in quotation marks as it follows alternate themes of love and desire. This change has caused much controversy with debate over its story, costumes and casting. 

Brontë’s book focuses on the character of Heathcliff and his struggles with the outsider status he is given as a "dark-skinned gipsy". This leads many academics to believe that he is not white and that’s the reason for his mistreatment by the other characters. Fennell, however, took a different approach with Heathcliff’s character casting the white actor Jacob Elordi in the role. Although the original novel does not identify a fixed racial identity for Heathcliff, scholars commonly believe that Brontë is commenting on the racial prejudice of the time while Fennel does not include that theme in her interpretation.  

Another key difference in the 2026 film is the age of the characters being significantly older than the original book characters. Catherine dies at only 18 in Brontë’s novel whereas Margot Robbie as Catherine in the new film dies in her late 20s. This allows for the characterisation of Catherine and Heathcliff as young teenagers to be changed, to extend their story and focus on the theme of sexual desire, which was not a focus in the novel. The film included many erotic scenes, which some critiqued as unnecessary for the original storyline and took away from deeper motifs.  

Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ also does not continue into the story of the second-generation characters, as it ends when Catherine Earnshaw dies, and she does not give birth to young Cathy as in the 1847 book.  This change brought on mixed opinions, as it allows for more depth of the first generation’s story but pushes the film further away from the original novel.  

However, while the new movie does not stay entirely true to Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, it is Emerald Fennell's personal interpretation of the classic book and was not advertised as perfectly accurate. The use of quotation marks in the title allows the audience to be aware of the many changes made not just to the storyline but also including a more modern soundtrack and costume style. The novel’s supernatural and gothic elements allow for creative freedom to be made as nothing is as straight forward as it seems.   

Matilda Hodgkin