Since the news of its production, the Wuthering Heights movie has been all over social media, marketing itself as the best love story ever written. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi’s faces have been plastered all across Instagram and Pinterest for all moviegoers to enjoy. From a reader’s perspective, however, the movie gets it all wrong; the differences between the screen adaptation and Emily Brontë’s novel are staggering, impossible to ignore. Lovers of the novel have spent recent months complaining about the discrepancies between the book and the movie – and they have good reason to do so.
Perhaps the biggest qualm readers have with Emerald Fennel’s adaptation of Wuthering Heights is its inaccurate casting. Predominantly, people take issue with Jacob Elordi’s involvement in the film because Brontë’s Heathcliff is described as being dark skinned. In the novel, he is frequently referenced as being evil and manipulative because of his complexion; even his presence in the novel is attributed to his mysterious ethnic background because he is taken in as an orphan by Catherine’s family. His ethnicity and his character are intrinsically linked.
Readers take offense with the casting of Margot Robbie as Catherine because of her age; throughout the story, Catherine does not reach past the age of eighteen. She is either a child or teenager for the duration of the story and, since Robbie is 35, there is a clear inaccuracy to the story as Brontë wrote it. Book Catherine is also a brunette, where Robbie is obviously blonde. While both Elordi and Robbie are talented actors and objectively attractive, their appearances are far removed from the characters they play, altering the themes and plot of the story.
Another part of the film that readers, and fans of historical fiction, are angry about is the costumes. Taking place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the wardrobe of the characters should be reflective of the Georgian era of England. Earth tones, handmade clothes, and natural fabrics would be expected for the film; however, Fennel went in a completely opposite direction with the costumes for her film, using bright red latex and iridescent cellophane for several of Catherine’s costumes. Certain elements, like the silhouettes and the men’s fashion, are accurate, but Catherine’s wardrobe is heavily vamped up for wow-factor.
Despite all of these inaccuracies, there is one theory about the movie that may explain these creative choices; fans suspect that the film could be from the perspective of Margot Robbie’s character – who is not explicitly named as Catherine – envisioning herself as the heroine while reading the novel. This would explain the inaccurate fashion, and could explain Heathcliff’s looks as she pictures her own dream man as the love interest. The theory comes from the use of quotation marks around the film’s title, potentially implying that it is not a shot-for-shot adaptation of the novel. It could also explain the marketing of the film as a romance, whereas the novel is a gothic fiction and explicitly not a love story; as readers know, Catherine and Heathcliff do not marry in the book, nor do they have any intimacy other than their emotional connection. Heathcliff is a manipulative, evil man who spends most of the novel working to tear Catherine’s family apart. That, however, would not sell as many tickets as a sordid love affair.