“Wuthering Heights”

I am going to be honest: the race change is the least abhorrent thing that Emerald Fennel did.

North York Moors National Park. Credit: Paul Kent, BBC

This article was going to compare and contrast the film and the novel, but there are honestly few similarities between the adaptation and the original novel. So, let’s talk about it.

Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell. The novel is notoriously argued to reflect the ideals and social norms of 19th-century Victorian England, which of the time were incredibly conservative. People of color were rarely ever noblemen or above the social class of laborers and professionals. The novel had some pushback due to the ideas and darkness of the novel, as it goes from a tragic ‘love story’ to a haunting ghost story, ending with an ending of generational trauma and stopping the repeat of history with a twist of depravity, cruelty, and violence within the tragic story. Many critics remarked things as such: “How a human being could have attempted such a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished a dozen chapters, is a mystery. It is a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors” (Britannica).

Wuthering Heights family tree

Our story follows the Earnshaw family: Catherine, Hindley and his wife Frances, and their father; Heathcliff; the Linton family: Edgar and Isabella; and the subsequent children that these characters have, as well as Ellen “Nelly” Dean, Joseph, and Mr. Lockwood.

The Moors

So, what did Fennel get right? The Moors. For those who haven’t read the novel (which I highly recommend reading), Brontë wrote the Moors as a hauntingly romantic and forebodingly uncomfortable setting. If you haven’t been to England, it honestly is very foggy, it is rainy, and clouds are common, which, of course, Brontë would know as she took inspiration heavily from where she grew up in Thornton, Yorkshire, England.

I do believe that Fennel depicted the Moors correctly. The setting in which the film takes place is picture-perfect to what they look like as it was filmed in Yorkshire. Probably the easiest thing to get right as well, since Brontë’s landscape setting is real. Another thing I believe Fennel got right was where the houses are in reference to each other…a website talking about the Moors actually featured a map as well. ​​

Map of the moors

The running, breathlessness and having to take a car or horse between houses makes complete sense, while I do think the way they had Heathcliff and Catherine sneaking around as a little farfetched because the novel and film showed these places as being rather far apart, close enough to walk during the Victorian age yes, but how Edgar wouldn’t have figured it out sooner makes no sense, even if he is out during the day, the servants are not stupid.

This film was so incredibly, aesthetically beautiful, and while I do not believe that was something Brontë intended for her setting, I do think that is something done to many adaptations of gothic novels, no matter the form of media in which they are adapted.

Heathcliff

Let’s talk about Heathcliff. Now, as I said earlier, the race change was the least abhorrent, as Heathcliff is not a white character. He is quoted as “a dark-skinned gypsy in aspect” in chapter 1 by Mr. Lockwood, or as “if you were a regular black; and a bad one will turn the bonniest into something worse than ugly” by Ellen in chapter 7. While you can try to make the argument that this man is just a tanned white boy since his son with Isabelle is a pale, sickly boy, it would negate all the complex, sadomasochistic, degrading, and micro-aggressive undertones within the novel that Fennel just does not touch.

Now, the reason the race change is the least abhorrent thing I witnessed is because Fennel still makes nods to the fact that this man is not supposed to be white. Certain parts show close ups to Jacob Elordi’s (Heathcliff’s actor) skin that are a lot darker than that of Elordi’s natural skin color. And this may have just been my own personal perception and take, but Elordi is not usually that tan, and during that time, a white man, in a foggy moor, would also not be that tan. They barely see the sun, and we are meant to believe that this man just tans or is just that tan? Even while he is rather pale in other scenes, which weren’t always scenes that were time jumps, so season changing and tanning and working in the sun don’t quite add up.

Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff and on red carpet (tell me if I am imagining this guys)

Ghosts

The film ends about halfway through the novel’s plot. It ends with Catherine’s death and the death of her baby. While the novel has Catherine die during childbirth, they combine Catherine’s death and Heathcliff’s death as he dies in the novel by not eating and going into a depression after being haunted by Catherine’s ghost and waiting for her to come back. Instead, they have Catherine die that way, mixed with a miscarriage. Fade out.

They took out the entire ghost story from the novel and the tragic ending to the rest of the family members, and the children’s happy(ish) ending after their families are gone and they are no longer haunted by Catherine’s absence and Heathcliff’s presence. I believe this does change the point and plot of Brontë’s novel from the intergenerational trauma and interracial struggles of the time period that caused the pushback it received after its publication.

Opinions

There is so much more I can talk about, but I think I’ll let some other people go into way more detail than I can for this article. So, mentioned below are some video essays, podcasts, and/or social links for you to check out the opinions of others. But for now, in short, the movie sucked. If you want soft porn or a shirtless Jacob Elordi, then this film is for you. Otherwise, only the historically inaccurate and aesthetically pleasing outfits, and the Moors, are the good things about this film.

Sadly, Wuthering Heights Discourse Is That Deep

i watched wuthering heights so you don’t have to 💔📖🍳 (2026 wuthering heights review)

Wuthering Heights: Analyzing Heathcliff’s Whitewashing | TikTok

Emerald Fennell Comments on Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff | TikTok

glossing over the british “raj,” partition, star vat-ion, g*cide, and ... | Margot Robbie

Exploring the Controversial Wuthering Heights Adaptation | TikTok

Comparing Wuthering Heights and It Ends With Us | TikTok

Understanding the Significance of ‘Wuthering Heights’ Title | TikTok

---

Edited by Sonal Butley

---

Works Cited

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. Penguin Books, 2003.

Ostberg, René. Edited by Britannica Editors, Wuthering Heights | Book, Movie, Characters, Summary, & Facts | Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/Wuthering-Heights. Accessed 3 Mar. 2026.

Thompson, Paul. “The Moors.” The Moor around Wuthering Heights, wuthering-heights.co.uk/locations/the-moors#google_vignette. Accessed 2 Mar. 2026.