“Wuthering Heights” is a classic novel in English literature written by Emily Brontë and published in 1847. It follows the narrative from a housekeeper named Nelly Dean on the estate of Wuthering Heights as she explains the story of the family residing there.
With the movie coming out on Valentine’s Day weekend, promotion for the release is grabbing people’s attention. In all honesty, the promotion has been somewhat misleading for those who have not read the book and are going in blind.
“Wuthering Heights,” at its core, is a story about suffering and the consequences of obsession. While there is some romance within, that is not the main theme.
The story begins 30 years in the future, when a new tenant of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights, Mr. Lockwood, meets with his landlord, Heathcliff.
There, he finds a strange home situation where everyone seems a bit off-putting. He meets with Heathcliff, a servant named Joseph, a young man named Hareton and a young woman who is introduced as Mrs. Heathcliff.
Having to stay the night at Wuthering Heights, Lockwood sleeps in a room upstairs where he dreams of being haunted by a lady named Catherine. When he arrives back at Thrushcross Grange, he is desperate to know the history of the family he met.
Dean agrees to tell the story to Lockwood, going back 30 years in time.
It begins with a young Heathcliff being brought to the estate of Wuthering Heights by Mr. Earnshaw, who found the boy as an orphan. Upon return to Wuthering Heights, the rest of the house meets Heathcliff, including Earnshaw’s wife, his son, Hindley, his daughter, Catherine, and Dean.
From there, Nelly explains the events of the past 30 years and how things turned out the way they did. Love is what started the downfall into darkness for Wuthering Heights, but jealousy, obsession and suffering are what set the tone for most of the story.
For those going into the movie expecting a love story, they will be very surprised by the plot if it follows the book closely. I was expecting a romance novel similar to “Pride and Prejudice,” but it was a pleasant surprise seeing how the story took a turn.
The book is truly about suffering and how people deeply unhappy in their circumstances can become obsessive over jealousy and revenge. Heathcliff faced so much childhood trauma and deceit that it drove him mad.
When he loses not only his love but also a part of his heart and soul, as described in the book, he begins to act differently, as if he is haunted. This becomes a major part of the story as well.
Heathcliff’s descent into madness and cruel revenge is hard to form an opinion on because he himself was abused not only for classist reasons, but also for his looks, demeanor and more. He is a very complex character, and in his final moments, I truly felt bad for him.
In this story, I saw the will to live be taken away from some characters because of the cruelty and suffering of others. Each character slowly falls into a trap of misery and it is because of this obsession with love.
It is hard to imagine the dire situation that these characters lived through, but, in the end, most of them found peace. After all the darkness, misery did not persevere.
It was a beautifully written story, and if the movie sticks close to the plot, it will also be a beautiful movie. The meaning behind this story is so deep that I hope for those who do not read, that this movie has the same emotional impact as the book.
