Wuthering Heights, a classic novel filled with passion, jealousy, revenge and the overpowering forces of nature, is not intended for all but speaks a deep truth of the strength of love and the vindictive nature of human beings. This novel has been hailed as one of the greatest novels of all time, ranking thirteenth on the list of the top one hundred classics with its representation of masculinity, femininity and the difference in male and female roles (McCrum). The movie/television serial, Wuthering Heights, directed by Coky Giedroyc steps away from Emily Bronte’s original portrayal of these components of the characters and lumped most of the characters under a broad span of stereotypical characteristics respective to their gender.
The novel Wuthering Heights tells the tale of a young woman, Catherine Earnshaw who breaks the mold of the typical high-class woman in the late 1700’s and her lover, Heathcliff. From the beginning of their story, both Heathcliff and Catherine were members of a high-class family, Catherine by birth and Heathcliff by adoption. Catherine was a spirited girl from age six onward. According to Nelly, the housekeeper, she “was too mischievous and wayward for a favourite.” With the arrival of Heathcliff, Catherine became extremely tomboyish and spent much of her days running about on the moors, far from the conduct expected of a genteel woman. Her tomboyish ways are abruptly halted when she and Heathcliff are caught spying on a neighboring mansion by an angry guard dog, Skulker, who gravely injures her ankle.
Catherine is then forced to remain at the mansion with the Linton family, a well-esteemed family set on domesticating the wild young woman. During her stay, Heathcliff is not permitted to see her and she is cut off from the rough, wildness that is his nature and becomes surrounded by the civil and even docile characters of Edgar and Isabella Linton. Having been taken out of nature and placed indoors, Catherine transforms into the genteel woman that is expected of her. The former garb which she wore while exploring the moors is traded for pinned up hair and silken dresses. Thus, Catherine conforms to the required femininity of society and nigh loses all the masculine characteristics she exhibited when immersed in nature.
From this point on, Catherine spends much of her life confined indoors. She no longer rides her horse on the moors or runs along them. The one incident that she does end up running across the moors occurs when Catherine has learned that Heathcliff has disappeared and she runs out into a stormy night in a nightgown to search for him “in a fit of passion.” Having been domesticated, she remains within the guidelines of good societal conduct except on a few rare occasions. On these occasions, she displays a stubbornness and rage that intimidates many, including her husband, Edgar Linton.
This rage and stubbornness is a lingering masculine characteristic that, despite her domestication, never leaves her throughout the entire novel up until her death. As a young teenager, she grows angry with the housekeeper for not leaving the room and pinches and slaps her in a sudden fit of rage. Later in the novel, she feels wronged by both her husband and Heathcliff and remains in her room, refusing to eat for days because of her anger.
On the contrary, Heathcliff never truly becomes civilized as Catherine did. From the day he was adopted, he was an outcast and a wild child. Being accused of being a gypsy gave him a further appearance of having the raw and untamed masculinity of a boy raised solely in nature despite being raised in an esteemed household. Heathcliff spends a vast majority of his time on the moors with Catherine when they were young, and as he grows older he spends more time doing hard labor in the fields and with the livestock.
In addition to his hardness, Heathcliff embodies a deep cruelness to anyone who has wronged him. As a teenager, he swears revenge upon his adoptive older brother for pushing him into the lower class. Later, he gains revenge on the love of his life, Catherine, by marrying her sister-in-law, Isabella Linton. His marriage to Isabella is unhappy and he abuses her readily but openly declared to Catherine that the marriage was indeed revenge for her breaking his heart. In continuation, he goes so far as to force Catherine’s daughter to marry his sickly son after her death to hurt Edgar.
The description of Heathcliff given by Nelly is one of a dirty, unkempt teenaged boy who has a handsome figure but refuses to clean himself. Heathcliff is one of the strongest ties given by Emily Bronte to tie her view of masculinity to nature. In other characters, feminine aspects are exposed through shows of civility. However, Heathcliff’s displays of civility are a mere mask he puts on while exacting his revenge. He alone remains truly uncivilized in comparison to the other characters of Emily Bronte’s novel.
Yet another facet of the novel’s display of masculinity and femininity is Edgar Linton, Catherine’s suitor, husband, and Heathcliff’s rival. Edgar is a sophisticated young man, living at Thrushcross Grange. He embodies everything that Heathcliff is not. Educated, wealthy, refined and distinctly feminine. As society of the time dictated, Edgar remained sheltered from the roughness of nature both by the sheltering placement of his house, Thrushcross Grange and the wealth his family had. Man-made culture is what shaped Edgar in contrast to the nature that shaped Heathcliff. The difference in his femininity and Heathcliff’s masculinity is further highlighted when the two confront each other over Catherine’s love. When faced with the threat of a fight, Edgar becomes terrified, shaking and trembling when Catherine locks the door and throws the key in the fire to force Edgar to face Heathcliff. Upon gathering his courage and striking Heathcliff, Edgar flees the room immediately to seek help. At no other point in the novel does Edgar display any threatening action nor will he take action against his sister by disowning her, he merely says that “she has disowned herself.”
The characters of the novel are defined, strong characters in their own rights. Each displays individual characteristics unique to themselves despite similarities between those of the civil world and those in the wilds of the moors. On the other hand, Giedroyc’s movie glosses over the characters, lumping them into stereotypes of their individual gender and removing the appeal of the masculine characteristics in both male and female characters.
Catherine Earnshaw of the movie Wuthering Heights is fragile and often helpless. She displays a wicked temper and stubbornness akin to her counterpart in the novel, however she falls helpless several times, whereas Bronte’s Catherine did not. When attacked by the dog at Thrushcross Grange, Catherine falls into hysterics, yelling, screaming and eventually passing out. In comparison the novel portrays her as stoically enduring the pain and even laughing through the tears of pain. Another example of her overly exaggerated weakness was after her marriage to Edgar. Firstly, she broke down completely after meeting with Heathcliff and he accused her of having slept with her husband. She saw herself as impure and promptly fled his presence across the moors. Secondly, while pregnant she ran across the moors in a feverish stupor to search for Heathcliff, desperate for the comfort of his arms.
Heathcliff remains the same overall, being a gruff and generally uncultured man despite having somehow earned a massive wealth in order to return and buy up the estates. He in particular is associated with nature and the elements to portray his masculinity; many scenes showing him walking through the rain or braving the winds on his horse. Additionally, the movie lacks much of the violence that Heathcliff is so famous for in the novel. His character is greatly pacified in the cinematic portrayal. He remains gruff, cruel and overbearing but no longer possesses the violence that made the character in the novel who he was.
Edgar Linton also retains much of Bronte’s original description, although the producers exaggerated his masculinity to a certain extent so he would give the impression of being the man of the house. He does have a coldness that the novel character did not possess – upon seeing his sister on the road, pregnant and homeless while escaping the abuse of her husband Heathcliff, he turns her away to her face and denies her entry and shelter at his home. Nevertheless, he is still afraid of his wife and is terrified of Heathcliff, cowering when he threatens to strike him.
The movie Wuthering Heights catered to the audience of 2009, those expecting a highly dramatized story of revenge, forbidden love and redemption in the end. In doing so, it drastically altered the gender roles which each character held to fit the mold of modern society’s wants. The novel on the other hand did not cater to the wants of society at the time, her female character was strong willed and rebellious and several of her male characters were weaker and much more feminine. Each piece of work is unique in its own right, however the movie falls into the bland generalization of Bronte’s fiery characters.
The Ink Menagerie 