Anonymous wrote: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.

Quotes:
“A little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway.”
“dark skinned gypsy”
“You’re fit for a prince in disguise. Who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen?”

He was initially discovered in Liverpool, a reference to a major port in the transatlantic slave trade, and characters often refer to him with racialised language that would have allowed readers to connect the dots at the time. Things like calling him a “heathen”, or speaking “different from the others.”

https://thetab.com/2026/02/14/all-the-wuthering-heights-quotes-about-heathcliffs-race-as-director-responds-to-whitewashing

Anonymous wrote:Heathcliff was not white in the novel? I didn’t realize that.

Him not being white is the main plot. I'm guessing you were really clueless or your English teacher was terrible.

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.

Anonymous wrote:It’s better if you haven’t read the book.

+1, I have not read the book and I enjoyed it as just a weird, visually OTT story of people making bad decisions. I assume/hope the "greatest love story" tagline was ironic.

People who wanted it to be faithful to the book, or to say something about the book, seem to hate it. Better to go in with no expectations.

It was not that spicy, btw.

Heathcliff was not white in the novel? I didn’t realize that.

It was crazy and over the top and I enjoyed it very much. But I remembered very little about the novel other than there was a doomed, turbulent romance between Catherine and Heathcliff, so I had no expectations about characters, plot lines, or fidelity to the novel.

I thought Margot Robie was too old for the role. The sex made sense in the passion of the story, but there was a lot of BDSM imagery that was disturbing. Heathcliff should not have been white, but that man was hot.

It’s gross that in this day and age she made Heathcliff white. WTF. Other races exist, and even Emily Brontë was aware of them and gave the character a fully realized personality, not just one of slave or peasant.

I read Wuthering Heights (and other Bronte sister novels) in my early teens, and was completely turned inside out by them. They were so powerful and transgressive. So wildly different from Austen novels, which I read immediately after.

I don't want to see any Wuthering Heights movie, to be honest, OP. None will do justice to the original work. I don't think the actors chosen look like the protagonists, and I don't love the chosen sets. The movie team at least has the courage of their convictions, and they made bold choices. But they're not my convictions.

It’s better if you haven’t read the book.

Loved!! Got my husband and I super spicy

People who know the source material pretty much hate it or laugh at it.

People who have no clue about the source material seem mixed.

I don’t have a problem with a director doing a movie based on her vision of a book.

Two things I’ve read about the movie turned me off from seeing it.

1. The recent interview where the director explained why she made Heathcliff white. She removed race as a theme entirely because that’s how she saw him when she read it as a teenager? Rolled my eyes so hard.

2. Walls made of skin? Eww. Not my thing.

What are your thoughts on the "Wuthering Heights" movie? Critics' reviews range from "absolute trash" to "fabulous" and everything in between. I'm not sure I've ever seen such bipolar opinions of a film.

I'm traveling and haven't seen it yet but came here since DCUM is insightful about movies and TV and I know many on here will have also read the book.