Does Wuthering Heights Have a Happy Ending? Catherine and Heathcliff's Story

As if publishing Wuthering Heights in the 1840s wasn't controversial enough, fans are left wondering if the Emily Brontë classic at least ended on a good note. Did Wuthering Heights get a happy ending between Catherine and Heathcliff? Here's what we know.

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the ending of Wuthering Heights, so proceed with caution. Keep in mind that the movie adaptation might have a different take from the source material.

What Happens at the End of Wuthering Heights? Does It Have a Happy Ending?

Credit: LuckyChap | MRC Film | Warner Bros. Pictures | Fair use for news and promotional purposes

Despite being set to premiere on the big screens on the day before Valentine's Day next year, Wuthering Heights is not a romcom.

Based on Emily Brontë's novel of the same name, the story showcases a generational trauma of breaking a cycle of abuse and the ambiguous ending that Catherine (played by Margot Robbie) and Heathcliff (Jacob Elordi) faced.

While Catherine and Heathcliff's passion for one another is a sight to see on the big screens, the books tell a different story.

Instead of being represented as forbidden lovers, Catherine is forced to marry someone else, someone closer to her family's social status than Heathcliff, the man she sought out for revenge years later.

If anything, their romance was rather tragic as it destroyed and harmed everything and everyone that got in the way. Their obsession with one another ultimately sent them to their own demise: with Catherine dying in childbirth and Heathcliff under a mysterious illness.

Up until the present day, their ending continues to be a debatable happy or solemn ending, considering that their toxic relationship destroyed each other, while others are led to believe they had been reunited in death, instead. But another question lies in that matter: how closely will the film adaptation follow the source material?

How Different Could the Wuthering Heights Movie Be From the Original Novel?

For one thing, the trailer looked rather misleading, especially to those who have read the original novel hundreds of times before the adaptation even happened.

Many are pointing out that Wuthering Heights might have been severely misunderstood, which the director Emerald Fennell (who also helmed Promising Young Woman and Saltburn) defended.

Fennell said in a previous interview that she wanted to "make something that made me feel like I felt when I first read it," which was "primal and sexual."

In another interview, the Oscar-winning director added that the twisted classic "cracked me open" after reading it at 14 years old, all while airing that Wuthering Heights is a "very personal material for everyone" and confirmed that they had only adapted the first half of the book (without covering Cathy's death).

Fennell explained that one of the reasons the novel remains powerful is because "no one is in agreement about any element of it", adding that, "I can't make something for everyone."

Wuthering Heights is set to premiere on the big screens on February 13 next year. What do you think about the upcoming adaptation? Let us know in the comments.

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