Emerald Fennel has repackaged the timeless Gothic classic for the TikTok generation. How should we, as Christians, view this latest adaptation?
Emerald Fennel earned her Gen Z bona fides with the 2023 release of Saltburn, a dark comedy loosely inspired by Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited. Her follow-up project, though it claims a more direct connection to the source material, can likewise only be described as “loosely inspired by” Emily Brontë’s classic Gothic novel Wuthering Heights.
In the book, Mr. Earnshaw returns from a business trip to Liverpool with a young orphan named Heathcliff. His son Hindley is wildly jealous of Heathcliff and the affection his father lavishes on the orphaned boy, and he takes his jealousy out on Heathcliff in brutish, violent attacks. Catherine (Cathy), Hindley’s sister, becomes Heathcliff’s protector, ally, playmate, best friend, and closest companion.
As the children grow, their affection for one another deepens into love, and they are united in their grief over the death of Mr. Earnshaw. But Catherine also longs for a better, more civilized life, represented by Edgar Linton, who lives on the neighboring estate. Heathcliff leaves home to make his fortune, hoping in that way to win Catherine, but while he is away, Catherine marries Linton. Heathcliff is enraged, and marries Linton’s sister, Isabella, as an act of revenge. From there, the novel follows the obsession, violence, brutality, and what modern audiences might call “generational trauma” that befalls the two families over ensuing decades.
Much of the novel’s action derives from the unfulfilled longing between Heathcliff and Cathy: They want to be together, but choices and circumstances keep them apart. Fennel’s adaptation has Heathcliff and Cathy succumb to their passions, both before and after her marriage to Linton, removing the essential tension that sustains the novel.
Fennel’s Wuthering Heights retains only the scaffolding of Brontë’s story and turns it into a bodice ripper that bears a closer resemblance to 50 Shades of Gray than the source material. I won’t go into detail about the content concerns – those are amply covered in published reviews of the film and on the movie’s IMDB page.
What I want to consider, instead, is how we as Christians should think about films like Wuthering Heights.
Both in my professional life as one who comments on media and culture, and in my personal life as a mother, I have often heard the argument that themes and content described above are just part of life, and it is better to let children learn about the world while they are still at home. That somehow early exposure will make them less likely to overindulge when they are older and living independently.
Ironically, the answer to that argument can actually be found within the pages of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, a book by Emily Brontë’s sister, Anne.
In it, Mrs. Graham refuses to expose her son to temptation merely to cultivate “virtue” through struggle. Mr. Markham asks her, “What is it that constitutes virtue? Is it the circumstance of being able and willing to resist temptation; or that of having no temptations to resist?”
She counters, “It is all very well to talk about noble resistance, and trials of virtue; but for fifty – or five hundred men that have yielded to temptation, shew me one that has had virtue to resist. And why should I take it for granted that my son will be the one in a thousand? – and not rather prepare for the worst, and suppose he will be like … the rest of mankind unless I take care to prevent it.”
We need to be discerning with the images and ideas we allow into our minds and hearts. Christian liberty is a gift, but Scripture consistently reminds believers not to exercise that liberty carelessly. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul reminds us that as believers, “’All things are lawful,’ but not all things are helpful. ‘All things are lawful,’ but not all things build up” (1 Corinthians 10:23). Instead, we are instructed to meditate on “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me – practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (Philippians 4:8-9).
Our freedom in Christ should not be viewed as license to consume whatever the culture offers, particularly when that content is crafted to inflame desire or numb the conscience.
Kevin DeYoung asks:
Does anyone really think that when Jesus warned against looking at a woman lustfully (Matthew 5:27), or when Paul told us to avoid every hint of sexual immorality and not even to speak of the things the world does in secret (Ephesians 4:3-12), that somehow this meant, go ahead and watch naked men and women have (or pretend to have) sex?
… The fact is our consciences should be smitten; steamy sex scenes are not the kind of art for which we can give thanks; and it’s hard to imagine Paul would have been cool with the believers in Ephesus watching simulated sex for a fee each month [or for the cost of a theater ticket] , so long as they don’t hook up in real life.
Stories shape us, often more powerfully than we realize, and Christians are called to approach them with wisdom, humility, and a desire to honor God. When we choose which movies to see or television programs to watch, let us do so in a way that guards the imagination, seeks what is good, and resists the numbing pull of a culture that often treats temptation as entertainment.
