As 2018 marks the bicentenary of Emily Brontë’s
birth it seems like the perfect time to re-read Wuthering Heights (1847). Ahead
of the next GRG, Hannah Moss (a self-professed Wuthering Heights super-fan) takes
us through some of the best (and worst) adaptations of Brontë’s novel…
No question about it Wuthering Heights has to be one of my
all-time favourite novels, and in many ways it’s Emily Brontë I
have to thank for reigniting a love of literature that has led to me pursuing a
PhD focused on women’s writing. Uninspired by the prospect of studying Sons and Lovers (apologies to any D.H.
Lawrence fans reading this), I was having doubts about whether I wanted to study
English Literature at A-Level when I was handed a particularly battered old
paperback edition of Wuthering Heights
to read over the summer holidays. I couldn’t put it down, and ever since this
has been a novel I can return to again and again.
Fair to say Wuthering Heights was not what I had been expecting. I had made the
assumption (as I suspect many others had done before me) that this was going to
be some soppy love story about star-crossed lovers who are forced to meet in
secret out on the moors. What I found in those tattered pages was a gripping family
saga of obsession and revenge. Never before had I read a novel where every
character was utterly detestable, and yet been so compelled to read on. If
you’ve not read it before, I urge you to do so now. Persevere through the pages
of sometimes impenetrable dialect representation (my Pan Classics edition from
1975 includes a glossary, explaining that ‘it would be a pity’ for readers
outside Yorkshire ‘to miss Joseph’s sardonic humour), and you’ll see how
powerfully Brontë writes of love and loss, rivalry and revenge. It’s often
brutal, sometimes blasphemous, but always brilliant.
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| (Kate Bush singing her version - aka the best adaptation - of Wuthering Heights) |
Now, Kate Bush’s
Wuthering Heights is arguably
the best adaptation (dancing along to
this is a highlight of the IGA Goth disco), but
Hark A Vagrant’s comic
strip adaptation has to be a close contender for the crown. If you’re after a
quick and hilariously funny recap of the story, look no further - just don’t
say ‘Lockwood was obviously high’ next time you come to submit a paper on
Wuthering Heights.
Wuthering Heights has inspired so many artists, writers, musicians
and filmmakers that there are too many adaptions to list them all here. There
has been an opera, a ballet, a Bollywood musical, and an MTV teen movie, not to
mention concept albums, comic strips, and countless literary reimaginings, including
Alison Case’s Nelly Dean (2015) which
tells the story from the servant’s perspective. Then there are the erotic
retellings (Wuthering Nights), and forays
into vampire fiction (Wuthering Bites),
as well as Children’s stories (Goth Girl
and the Wuthering Fright). Basically, there are so many unanswered
questions that there is ample scope for fanfic: what are Heathcliff’s origins
and why does Mr Earnshaw bring him home to live at the Heights? What exactly
did Heathcliff get up to during his prolonged absence and how did he make his
fortune? Is Dr Kenneth a serial killer? Well, the harbinger of death sure
doesn’t seem qualified to give medical advice!
However, the complex structure of
the novel makes adapting Wuthering
Heights for the big screen a notoriously difficult task. What’s more, the sheer
number of characters all with variants of the same names can be difficult to
keep track of! The 1939 film starring Merle Oberon and Laurence Olivier tackled
both problems by focusing on Cathy and Heathcliff. Setting the tone for many
subsequent adaptations, this film doesn’t develop the plot to include the next
generation of Lintons and Earnshaws. Yes, this makes life easier for the
screenwriter, but a vital aspect of the novel’s revenge plot is lost as a
consequence. Is Hollywood to blame for making Wuthering Heights seem like a love story when it is actually so
much more than that? As for the most recent film adaptation, Wuthering High (2015) *groan*, well this
version perhaps owes more to 90210 than
its source text. Relocated to sunny California, Cathy is a kooky rich girl who
falls for a boy from the wrong side of the tracks. Heath is a second-generation
Mexican immigrant and Ellen Dean is the high school bitch, but the interesting
choices end there. With stilted dialogue, no connection to the natural landscape,
and no real sense of the supernatural, it barely feels like Wuthering Heights. This is not a Gothic
adaptation. If you want Wuthering Heights
with a Gothic aesthetic, go for Peter Kominsky’s 1992 adaptation starring Ralph
Fiennes and rather giggly Juliette Binoche. Cue flashes of lightening, creaking
floorboards and a soundtrack of screeching violins. Subtle, it ain’t.
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| (Filmic adaptations of Wuthering Heights) |
Billed as Emily Brontë’s
Wuthering Heights, this version frames the narrative with an introduction
from EB in which she explains her authorial process from a ruined house she
visits out on the moors:
‘First I found a place. I wondered who had lived there, what their
lives were like. Something whispered to my mind and I began to write. My pen
creates stories of a world that might have been – a world of my imagining.’
It feels as if she’s been called
upon to answer the same old question: how could a vicar’s daughter from Howarth
possibly be able to write such a work of fiction? Including an actress playing Brontë
in the opening scene does enable her to lay claim on a work that was originally
published under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, and allows her to answer the criticism
she was subjected to, such as that which appeared in Graham’s Lady’s Magazine:
‘How a human being could have attempted such
a book as the present without committing suicide before he had finished, is a
mystery. It is a
compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.’[i]
However, with Brontë’s
creation of the story forming another frame to the narrative taken over by
Lockwood and then Nelly, her life and her fiction become inseparable,
illustrating how the lives of the Brontës become entangled with the reception
of their work.
Personally, I like the adaptation
written by Peter Bowker and directed by Coky Giedroyc which aired on ITV in
2009 – and not just because it stars Tom Hardy *swoon*. This version opens from
the perspective of Cathy’s ghost with a low level camera shot rushing through
the moors up to the Heights. The breeze conveys Cathy’s eternal, elemental
connection to the landscape more effectively than a glowing figure knocking on
the window.
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| (*Swoon*) |
Heathcliff has to be one of the
most covetable roles for an actor to land, and has been taken on by Laurence
Olivier, Timothy Dalton, Ralph Fiennes and Tom Hardy – even Cliff Richard has
had a go. Sally Wainwright’s Sparkhouse
(2002) flipped the gender roles with Sarah Smart taking on the Heathcliff
character in this modern day reimagining of Wuthering
Heights, whilst Andrea Arnold responded to the debate surrounding
Heathcliff’s race by casting a black actor, James Howson, to play the role in
her 2011 film adaptation. We could easily spend the two hours of our next
meeting debating who we’d cast as Heathcliff, but I want to take the
opportunity to write about a form of paratextual adaptation, if you will – the
cover art.
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| (Different Wuthering Heights book covers) |
Some people collect stamps,
postcards or pin badges - I collect copies of
Wuthering Heights. Friends and family know I’ll gladly give shelf
space to their unwanted copies, and I can’t walk past a second hand bookshop
without taking a look at what editions they’ve got in stock. I’m equally amused
and bemused by how different artists have interpreted the novel. Cover designs
tend to fall into one or more of the following categories: a passionate embrace
between Cathy and Heathcliff; a mean and moody depiction of Heathcliff, who
sometimes looks more like the Incredible Hulk; the ghost of Cathy knocking at
the window; a windswept natural landscape; an equally windswept, or ruined Wuthering
Heights; or if all else fails, Branwell Bront
ë’s portrait of the author is a
popular choice. Then there are the covers that make absolutely no sense
- why Emma Hamilton was chosen to grace the cover of the Bantam Classics
edition is beyond me! From the pulp fiction of the 1970s to the somewhat
controversial
Twilight covers, each
edition is a product of its time revealing where different publishing houses
have chosen to position
Wuthering Heights
in the literary marketplace. HarperCollins’ decision to use the imagery of a red
rose on a black background (a snowdrop on the UK edition), imitating of the
cover art of Stephanie Meyer’s
Twilight
Saga in the hope of cashing in on its success,
brought accusations that the ‘classics’ were being ‘dumbed down’
to appeal to a young, predominantly female, readership.
[ii]
Whatever packaging the text comes in, the content remains the same, but the
cover imagery does have the power to shape our expectations and suggest
intertextual links. No doubt the
Twilight
connection helped to bring a new generation of readers to the text, and that’s
definitely not a bad thing. There’s no need to shame readers for their literary
tastes or reading habits. However, I am curious how the novel is interpreted
when it is read through the lens of being ‘Bella and Edward’s favourite book’? Does
it encourage the reader judge the toxic relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff
in a more favourable light?
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| ('Twilight' versions of Wuthering Heights book covers) |
To quote Lady Gaga, Cathy and
Heathcliff have the ultimate ‘Bad Romance’. Their love is an obsession that eventually
hurts everyone around them, but how do different adaptations portray such a
complex relationship? Sounds like a suitably appropriate discussion for
Valentine’s Day, right? We’ll be meeting 4-6pm in Seminar Room 8, Jessop West
to discuss adaptations of Wuthering
Heights, along with any other examples of Gothic Bad Romance you’d like to
share. See you there!
Hannah 'Wuthering Heights Super Fan' Moss is a PhD researcher at the University of Sheffield exploring the figure of the artist in Eighteenth Century Literature. While she is at home in every country house across the UK, this year you might find her wandering the Moors in search of Tom Hardy.
[i] From an anonymous review of
Wuthering Heights published in Graham’s Lady’s Magazine, July 1848.
