Is Heathcliff a narcissist, a madman, a proto-Marxist? The enduring enigma of the Wuthering Heights' hero

"The devoted lover. The toxic narcissist. The sex symbol. The chaste beloved. The perverted necrophile. The Other. The one who lives among us. The protoMarxist rebel. The idealistic lunatic. The unscrupulous psychopath. The victim of the powerful. Or perhaps their ultimate executioner. All of these descriptions could be used to describe Heathcliff, the central male character of Wuthering Heights, the novel written by Emily Bronte"

"and published in 1847, just a year before her early death. Its latest film adaptation, directed by British filmmaker Emerald Fennell and starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, opens on February 13, and the promotional machinery has already begun to unleash the timely wave of Heathcliffmania. But long before Elordi and Robbie embarked on their exercise in gothicromantic cosplay before the press, Heathcliff was already one of the most deeply rooted literary icons in the popular imagination. He is also"

"one of the most complex and contradictory. Like other great novels such as Pride and Prejudice or The Princess of Cleves and it can hardly be a coincidence that all these masterpieces were written by women in eras not exactly welcoming to them Wuthering Heights has been interpreted in different ways at different times, and those interpretations say more about the era in which they were produced its expectations, prejudices, and neuroses than about the work itself. Jacob Elordi and"

Heathcliff appears as a manifold figure: devoted lover, toxic narcissist, sex symbol, chaste beloved, necrophile, Other, proto-Marxist rebel, idealist, psychopath, victim, or executioner. Emily Bronte published Wuthering Heights in 1847, and the character has long been rooted in popular imagination. Interpretations of Heathcliff and the novel change across time, reflecting expectations, prejudices, and neuroses of each era. A new film adaptation directed by Emerald Fennell, starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, foregrounds Heathcliff's sexual allure while the novel itself never implies consummation between Cathy and Heathcliff. Casting a canonical Hollywood sex symbol as Heathcliff can both underscore his feverish appeal and complicate interpretations.

Read at english.elpais.com