Book to Film: Wuthering Heights

Book to Film:

Wuthering Heights

        Wuthering Heights is the 1847 romantic novel by Emily Bronte, as well as the title of the 1939 film directed by William Wyler and the 1992 film directed by Peter Kosminsky. The book is considered a literary masterpiece and the original film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Is it worthy of this high praise? Does it deserve to be remembered and revered down throughout the years? No, not really. In fact I have to admit I don't know why this book is so loved by so many. Its overly dramatic, implausible, misguided, and almost every character is either heartless, childish, annoying, nearly unintelligible (actually difficult to read some of the servants' dialogue), or flat out stupid. We have a bunch of these characters thrust on to us and care about what happens to them despite most of them being terrible people who manipulate and lie to get what they want, and more often then not, what they don't really want to make everything more dramatic.

        This is not to say these are boring or uninteresting characters. I wont even say all of them are entirely unlikeable. Characters like Nelly and Lockwood are generally decent people, but no one escapes without flaws. These are well written characters though, even if they mostly end up being ones I couldn't like. This is how I am going to structure my essay. Going through each major character in the book and looking at how they are portrayed on screen in both film adaptations.

   Heathcliff

        Heathcliff is an orphan who was found on the streets of Liverpool and brought to Wuthering Heights by kindly old man Earnshaw. Heathcliff grows up with Hindley and Catherine and grows to love the girl. He later buys Wuthering Heights for himself. Cathy later marries Edgar Linton even though she still loves Heathcliff, and then soon after has a kid and dies, sparking Heathcliff's lifelong revenge plot on everyone involved. He marries Edgar's sister Isabella to get back at Cathy (marrying people is how you bestowed vengeance back then) and has a child with her. Later he forces his son Linton and Catherine and Edgar's daughter Cathy Jr. to marry so he can eventually become in possession of Wuthering Heights. Throughout the story he is a wild, ruthless man who abuses the people around him, hating everyone but his dead love Catehrine, who he is separated from until his own death. 

    In the original film, Heathcliff, played by Laurence Olivier, is portrayed as a much more sympathetic character than he is in the novel. He is more man than monster, where in the book he is definitely a despicable human being. Although it is hard to tell how his character fully develops, as the film cuts off at the halfway point (a decision that angers me). If it were to show his later deception he would not have got off as well as he does. In the 1992 film the portrayal is much closer to the character in the book. Heathcliff, played by Ralph Fiennes, is shown to be the evil, conniving brute from the book. A good scene to contrast the two is one featuring him and Isabella after they have married. In the original film Isabella seems to be neglected, in the other film she has a cut lip and is frequently being manhandled by Fiennes.

   Catherine Sr.

        Catherine the first was by far the most insufferable character in the book. She is whiny and cruel and makes every choice on impulse, resulting in her destroying her own life and ruining her true love. In a lot of ways she really is Heathcliff's soul mate, she's just not as good at the plotting. Despite her love for Heathcliff she decided to marry Edgar for the money and security, having no foresight into how this would make Heathcliff feel or her feel in the long run. She dies in childbirth with her only daughter Catherine Jr. 

        Cathy is also spared the most in the transition from screen to film. Her wildness and whininess is greatly toned down for the movie adaptations. The performance closer to the book is from Merle Oberman. She portrays her as pretty crazy, but still not reaching the excruciating heights of the character in the book. Juliette Binoches performance is considerably quieter compared to the other and the person in the book. In fact, out of the two , it is probably the better performance, just not as faithful.

   Edgar

        Edgar is one of the more likable characters in the book. He marries Catherine, and is therefore forever hated by Heathcliff. He was shown to be a good father, husband, and overall man in context of the times. After what happened happened between the Lintons and Heathcliff, he just stayed away from the situation instead of antagonizing Heathcliff further, winning him bonus points. Both performances from David Niven and Simon Shepherd are good but not particularly notable. The former is a more interesting performance, but both work for their respective stories.

   Isabella

        Isabella is basically the stereotypical 19th century waif-like, fawning female character. She is Edgar's sister, who marries Heathcliff, has Linton Earnshaw, then goes off somewhere to die. This is the continuing trend of the story: once a character can no longer serve the plot they go off somewhere, contract a fatal disease, and die. Isabella is played by Geraldine Fitzgerald in the 1939 film, and by Sophie Ward in the 1992 version. There were good performances in both, but better in the latter, with the actress being given more to do with her relationship with Heathcliff.

   Hindley

        Hindley is Catherine's brother and the father of Hareton. From a young age he bullied Heathcliff, and continued to do so after his father died and he became the master of the house, his rival still just a servant. Later after Hareton is born he becomes a drunk and eventually has to sell his property to Heathcliff because of financial debt. He dies later from chronic lack of necessity to the story. Both portrayals of Hindley serve the story well, and both are equally pretty forgettable from Hugh Williams and Jeremy Northam. 

   Catherine Jr.

        Cathy is much like her mother in character, just slightly more tolerable. She is the daughter of Cathy and Edgar Linton. She later falls in love with Linton Heathcliff (more sort of likes in the movie) and is then forced to marry him by Heathcliff. After Linton and Heathcliff die she begins a relationship with Hareton, Heathcliff's other son who can't manage to read his own name. For some reason she keeps falling in love with her cousins. She is one of few characters to survive to the end of the book. Cathy is portrayed by Juliette Binoche (also playing her mother in the same 1992 film) but does not appear in the 1932 film because of the entire half of the book being cut out of that version. Binoche does a good job of playing a similar character but keeping her different enough to be able to stand on her own. She is also played more truthfully to the original character in the book, finding a better balance than the actress did with Catherine Sr.

   Hareton

        Hareton is Heathcliffs illiterate adopted son of Hindley and his wife. He is treated like a servant just as Heathcliff was, fulfilling part of his crazy revenge thing he needs to happen. He was never taught to read or write but begins trying to develop those skills after he begins his relationship with Cathy. Hareton is played by Jason Riddington who isn't given much aside from a few scenes with Catherine. He's is a much easier character to watch and hear as opposed to read convoluted dialects.

   Linton

        Linton, coming in closely behind Catherine Sr., is the second most annoying, infuriating character in Wuthering Heights. He is a feeble little brat who sometimes literally cries to get his way. He is the son of Isabella and Heathcliff, is used by his father to obtain Thrushcross Grange (home of the Lintons), and afterwards dies. His fathers response to this can be essentially summed up with "meh." He is portrayed by Jonathan Firth in the film and manages to salvage some scraps of dignity from the character, which the character itself truly does not deserve.

   Lockwood

        Lockwood is the weary traveler who takes refuge at Wuthering Heights and ends up becoming fascinated by the tale, which is pretty much entirely told in flashback. He is essentially us in the story. He isn't a character of much consequence, but still a good way to start and end the story. In the 1939 film he is portrayed by Miles Mander as a bumbling, but likable, old man. In the 1992 version he is played as a less bumbling, less old, but more likable guy by Paul Geoffrey. 

   Ellen

        Ellen is my favorite character from Wuthering Heights simply because she's the one who seems to have everyone's best interest at heart and is trying to do the right thing. She is the maid/nanny for Catherines one and two. She was their surrogate mother and always advised them to do the right thing, which they rarely did. She never worked for personal motives, only ever trying to keep everyone happy. She was the through line over the course of the whole book. She also liked to gossip, as she proved by telling everyone's life stories to Lockwood over the course of 200 some pages, never leaving out a single detail, exactly how it happened. What patience Lockwood must have had.

        Ellen is given a more significant role in the first film. In that version she narrates the story as she did in the book, as opposed to it being mostly told in purely flashback or someone dressed up as Emily Bronte for the second film. The performance by Flora Robson in the first film is also better than Janet McTeers in the latter. Flora got the character more and was able to do more with it. Janet was good too, just not as much material given and not as good an understanding of the character.

   The Moors

        The Moors are possibly the most distinctive character in the book. If there is one thing the book does not fail at it's tone and atmosphere. The entire story has a Gothic despair about it that makes the book bearable enough to get through. You seem to always feel the presence of the wide open fields, and its easy to see Wuthering Heights atop a hill on a rainy or snowy day. The 1939 film does alright, but where the 1992 version really excels is in its imagery of the Moors. Its a very well shot film, at least when its outside looking at a tree on a rocky vista or the beautiful old castle-like building used for Wuthering Heights.

   Conclusion

        In the end, I did not enjoy Wuthering Heights. As for all its well written imagery and admittedly well written characters, those characters still were hard to bear for most of the book. I'm not sure which version to say was the best because they all had their problems. I think I would have to say the first film in the end, despite the lack of second half of the story. Something about the performances brought it together better than the other film, and maybe shortening it did help the story in the end.

- The Novel: 4.5/10

- The 1939 Film: 7/10

- The 1992 Film: 4/10