Brontë’s Lovers, Facing Even More Storms
A New ‘Wuthering Heights,’ From Andrea Arnold
By DAVID BELCHER
SEPT. 28, 2012
WITH more than a dozen film versions, Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” is something of a cultural touchstone for ill-fated love. The title alone conjures up images of a brooding Heathcliff and a delicate Cathy clinging to each other or suffering alone on the Yorkshire moors. For many fans, the characters are synonymous with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in the 1939 movie. And yet, at least when it comes to screen adaptations, the novel may be the most misunderstood book of all time.
“I think it’s developed a cultural mythology, sort of like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ but there are so many other plotlines,” said Hila Shachar, author of “Cultural Afterlives and Screen Adaptations of Classic Literature: Wuthering Heights and Company.” The love story is appealing as myth, she continued, “but why do we remember it as a love story?”
By DAVID BELCHER
SEPT. 28, 2012
WITH more than a dozen film versions, Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” is something of a cultural touchstone for ill-fated love. The title alone conjures up images of a brooding Heathcliff and a delicate Cathy clinging to each other or suffering alone on the Yorkshire moors. For many fans, the characters are synonymous with Laurence Olivier and Merle Oberon in the 1939 movie. And yet, at least when it comes to screen adaptations, the novel may be the most misunderstood book of all time.
“I think it’s developed a cultural mythology, sort of like ‘Romeo and Juliet,’ but there are so many other plotlines,” said Hila Shachar, author of “Cultural Afterlives and Screen Adaptations of Classic Literature: Wuthering Heights and Company.” The love story is appealing as myth, she continued, “but why do we remember it as a love story?”
