By Ella Lowry
I recently watched Wuthering Heights, and let me just say… it absolutely destroyed me. I’m talking full-on sobbing-all-the-way-to-the-car emotional damage. This film is not for the faint of heart, and if you’re someone who gets attached to tragic romances, consider this your official warning: spoilers ahead and tissues required.Â
The story is based on the classic novel Wuthering Heights by Emily BrontĂ«. Even though I hadn’t read the book beforehand, the last name BrontĂ« immediately caught my attention. I remembered the famous BrontĂ« sisters from my AP Lit class, where I read Jane Eyre by Charlotte BrontĂ«. That novel also had its emotional punches, but compared to this story, it almost feels optimistic. It’s honestly wild to think about how writers from the Victorian era captured love in such dark, haunting, and obsessive ways. A note about the movie even thought it is based off the book it does not follow it entirely. In fact there are lots of differences.Â
From the very first scene, the film caught me off guard. It opens in a way that feels mysterious and slightly unsettling, immediately setting the tone for a story that is more storm than sunshine. At its core, the plot centers on Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, whose bond begins in childhood after he’s adopted into her family. Their connection is intense from the start—raw, complicated, and impossible to ignore.Â
One thing I noticed early on was Nelly’s jealousy toward Catherine’s closeness with Heathcliff. That tension simmers quietly at first, but it becomes clear that Nelly’s influence will have serious consequences. As Catherine and Heathcliff grow older, their attachment only deepens, but their circumstances begin to pull them apart. When the neighboring
Lintons enter the picture, Catherine sees opportunity and social advancement, which leads her to leave for six weeks. Heathcliff’s reaction to her absence is heartbreaking—he grows distant and bitter, and when she returns, he doesn’t even seem happy to see her.Â
Then comes the turning point. Catherine confides in Nelly that she’s been offered marriage by Mr. Linton, even though she has always loved Heathcliff. In one of the most frustrating moments in the film, Nelly manipulates the situation, pushing Catherine toward a decision that changes everything. Heathcliff overhears Catherine say marrying him would “degrade her,” but he doesn’t hear the part where she passionately declares her love for him and insists he is part of her soul. Devastated, he runs away.Â
From there, the story becomes an emotional battlefield fueled by longing, jealousy, pride, and revenge. Catherine waits for Heathcliff for over a year, delaying her marriage and clinging to hope that he’ll return. Eventually she tries to accept her life, even becoming pregnant—only for Heathcliff to reappear, signaled symbolically by eggs left in her bed, echoing a childhood memory between them. Their reunion reignites everything: they sneak away together, share stolen moments, and exchange confessions like, “So kiss me again and let us both be damned.”Â
What makes the tragedy even worse is how close they are to happiness and how consistently it slips through their fingers. Heathcliff writes Catherine letters pouring out his love, but Nelly, still resentful, throws them away. Catherine never even knows they existed. That detail alone made me want to scream at the screen.Â
The ending is what truly crushed me. Catherine dies of sepsis without Heathcliff by her side. Meanwhile, he’s left reading a letter and waiting endlessly for her, repeating, “I will wait for you every day and every night. Why do you not respond? I love you. I love you. I love you.” As if that weren’t painful enough, the film closes by showing them as children again, with young Heathcliff promising he will always love Cathy. Emotional devastation. Curtain call.Â
Overall, I genuinely loved the movie. All of the hidden symbolism truly stood out to me the simplest things made this movie what it was. But I absolutely despised Nelly, who I truly see as the story’s hidden villain.
More than anything, the film drives home how one choice, just one, can alter the entire course of a life. It’s a haunting reminder that love stories aren’t always about happily ever after. Sometimes, they’re about what almost was.