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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]From what I read, Heathcliff is described as a gypsy and a dark stranger in the novel. Could it just be that he’s dark in mysterious or does it imply that he’s from a completely different race? I never understood it this way. The actor who plays Heathcliff is tall, dark and handsome.[/quote]

I'm French and have lived in the UK.  "Gypsy" means traveling Roma people that mostly came from Eastern Europe but that have very distant Indian heritage (they migrated in the Middle Ages or something). They are not of African or Arab descent. In Bronte's time, gypsies would have looked like the gypsies of today, and since the settled populations looked down on them, they probably wouldn't distinguish between impoverished English folk without a home and actual Roma, if both looked relatively similar. If you walk in the streets of Paris right now, you can see gypsy women holding babies in their laps begging for money, usually near metro stations. They are purposefully scruffy to attract sympathy, but they do actually have relatively pale skin and dark hair (also today they're slaves to a begging racket, so don't give them money - they'll have to hand it over to the menfolk in charge).

So casting a Caucasian with dark hair in the role of Heathcliff is entirely appropriate.
[/quote]NOPE.

For the love, people. Can you do some reading. The evidence is in the book. You can google it. [/quote]

It was indirectly suggested that Heathcliff is of mixed heritage because he was adopted (or benefactee) by a white man who very likely fathered him out of wedlock. I thought gypsy or Spanish. 
Back in the day the "Black Irish" were the descendents of the Spanish invaders from the Armada - they tended to have darker skin, eyes and hair.
We have to remember that the people of the British Isles are typically very fair. The Roman colonization introduced pigmentation normally associated with the mediterranean.[/quote]

My family is "Black Irish" and this Armada thing is just total myth.  Dark haired Irish actually dated to antiquity.  The red-head gene was brought in by Viking invaders (probably most of the blondes too).  The Vikings ran all up and down the east coast of Ireland for centuries and left a lot of DNA while they were there.

I also think the term "Black" that a poster used would have been historically unlikely for 1840s England.  A mixed race child with some African or Asian or Roma heritage would have been described as dark, but a Welshman or Irishman might also be described that way.  (Look at Catherine Zeta-Jones, who is Welsh.)  I'd actually love to hear more from the English M.A. who wrote her thesis on WH....but my memory/understanding is that it's pretty important to Heathcliff's character and the love story that he was "othered" due to his financial circumstances/uncertain parentage, but also due to his coloring.  You could maybe overcome 1 or 2 of those in 1840s England, but not all three.  There were definitely people of all different races in Victoria society....Darwin's taxidermy teacher was Black.  There was a famous British Colonel who was the son of an Indian woman and British father.  The sun never set on the British empire....guys had children all around the world and not all of them just left those kids there.  Race/ethnicity issues were actually a big thing in early 19th century England, so it wouldn't surprise me if Bronte actually wanted to play on those contemporary social debates by creating a sort of ethnic ambiguity around Healthcliff.  It makes him more dangerous, more liminal, more exotic -- it all adds to the thrill and mystery of the character.  [/quote]

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