#making heathcliff into a brute is unforgivable. probably a good game though

[catacini]

i'll be the first to say wuthering heights could have benefited from another go round with an editor, or maybe some more time clarifying themes or what have you. but it's a very good book, and "for its time" it really surprised me. heathcliff's whole deal is that he's adopted into an upper middle class white family while definitely not considered white by those around him.

the book talks a lot about how some people are defensive of him as a kid while others are especially harsh, and kids who don't understand the reasons for those reactions grow bitter towards him for taking dad's attention away and angering mom. then there's catherine, who only sees him as a new friend, a best friend, and very honestly doesn't register any difference between them. and she's the one he forms a bond with.

but because she never really understood what he was up against in a coherent way, she doesn't know [how] to fight for him in the wider world. the earnshaws have brown hair, and catherine gets pulled into the linton family who are all blonde with blue eyes, and also are financially better off than the earnshaws. they looove catherine, but they're even more racist towards heathcliff, and cathy's approach ends up being to split her behavior depending on who she's with. this frustrates the lintons and breaks heathcliff's heart, because he thought they were a pair (so did she) but she has the power to simply step out of the line of fire directed at him, and she does so. now, according to her, part of her intention in marrying linton was to steal his money and buy heathcliff the respect he deserved, but that was never adequately communicated (nor was it "right") and then it was too late.

most movies only adapt the first half of the book, because that's ~the love story~ and then skip to the end where her ghost steals him away to walk with her forevermore. i respect this, as it's a long book, but i am very fond of the second half of the story as an exploration of a very understandably bitter man going out of his way to destroy the happiness of those around him out of spite. spite both for the actions of their forebears and spite for their banal naivety, remaining perpetually oblivious to aspects of the world that are perpetually leveraged against him. he gets his revenge. and at the end of the book, he finds happiness not through being compelled to apologize (he's not sorry) but by simply being too tired to care anymore, and relaxing his iron grip just long enough for happiness to slip into the house again. with happiness comes catherine's ghost, and he is free.

what really matters, though, is that heathcliff is an incredibly smart man, smarter than anyone else in the book, and extremely vindictive towards people that reduce him to being a stupid brute just because he's not white and has a large frame. the entire book happens the way it does because of the way he's treated. "his behavior isn't justified, but he's acting this way for a reason, and they're all blind to it." he's not an idiot. he's patient and calculating and relentless.

^ why i am principally opposed to playing l1mbus c0mp4ny