In 1847 Emily Brontë published Wuthering Heights; a novel as eccentric as it is unsettling, its themes including the oppositional natures of horror and beauty, dreams and reality, hate and adoration, fused into one strange and dark novel. This essay is a comparative analysis of two film adaptations of Brontë’s novel; the thesis being the 1939 film adaptation, titled Wuthering Heights and directed by William Wyler, presents the story within the romance genre. By comparison the 2011 adaptation directed by Andrea Arnold, also titled Wuthering Heights presents the story within the realist genre. Using comparative analysis to engage with these two strikingly different genres and adaptations, this essay will seek to understand the ways in which the
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Hollywood is shaped by commercial drives; Maltby (1992) argues that Hollywood uses adaptations; ‘to convert the cultural capital of the novel back into the economic capital of a successful motion picture.’ Therefore, the 1939 adaptation can be seen as a re-interpretation of Brontë’s novel, adapted because romance was integral to the commercial interests of Hollywood. In the final scene, Heathcliff accuses Cathy, saying that she; ‘wandered off like a wanton greedy child to break your heart and mine.’ She renounced the visionary romantic dream expressed on Penistone crag in favour of otherworldly pride, social status but also restrictive lifestyle represented by Edgar. In a heartfelt scene Cathy and Heathcliff reconcile, and she dies in his arms whilst looking out over the crag (appendix 5.) Cathy’s body is no longer adorned with jewels or constraining clothes, her, hair no longer wound in curls, freed from physical fetish and artificiality. As she looks out over the moors she is reconciled with nature and with Heathcliff, once an image of unified oneness.
The Wuthering Heights 2011 adaptation is an example of realist filmmaking. Realism grew out of the Enlightenment of the 17th century, and developed in film through the 1895 Lumiere documentaries. It can be understood on its own terms as a philosophical movement; however, it can also be seen as a rejection of romanticism. Within realism, the character’s reality is bound to a wider social and cultural reality, the story exploring the values of the individual’s society, so that the director and audience can attain awareness of themselves and their own versions of the reality of their
Hollywood is shaped by commercial drives; Maltby (1992) argues that Hollywood uses adaptations; ‘to convert the cultural capital of the novel back into the economic capital of a successful motion picture.’ Therefore, the 1939 adaptation can be seen as a re-interpretation of Brontë’s novel, adapted because romance was integral to the commercial interests of Hollywood. In the final scene, Heathcliff accuses Cathy, saying that she; ‘wandered off like a wanton greedy child to break your heart and mine.’ She renounced the visionary romantic dream expressed on Penistone crag in favour of otherworldly pride, social status but also restrictive lifestyle represented by Edgar. In a heartfelt scene Cathy and Heathcliff reconcile, and she dies in his arms whilst looking out over the crag (appendix 5.) Cathy’s body is no longer adorned with jewels or constraining clothes, her, hair no longer wound in curls, freed from physical fetish and artificiality. As she looks out over the moors she is reconciled with nature and with Heathcliff, once an image of unified oneness.
The Wuthering Heights 2011 adaptation is an example of realist filmmaking. Realism grew out of the Enlightenment of the 17th century, and developed in film through the 1895 Lumiere documentaries. It can be understood on its own terms as a philosophical movement; however, it can also be seen as a rejection of romanticism. Within realism, the character’s reality is bound to a wider social and cultural reality, the story exploring the values of the individual’s society, so that the director and audience can attain awareness of themselves and their own versions of the reality of their