"Love Conquers All, Right?"

         Wrong! So very wrong!--After watching the movie Wuthering Heights, a 1939 movie directed by William Wyler and based on Emily Brontë's 1847 novel, I was in a very bad mood. This mood was not brought about because of the movie itself, but because I thought Cathy was such a bitch throughout the whole movie to Heathcliff. During the movie, there were many examples of the way Cathy mistreated Heathcliff.

         At the beginning, when Mr. Earnshaw (Cecil Kellaway) first brought Heathcliff (child--Rex Downing) to Wuthering Heights, Cathy (child--Sarita Wooten) was pretty open to spending time with Heathcliff. They played with each other everyday and spent a lot of time together. It was at this time in their lives that Cathy saw past the ragged and dirty little boy that Heathcliff was. Heathcliff became the slave to the family when Mr. Earnshaw died and his son, Hindley (child--Douglas Scott/adult--Hugh Williams), took over the household.

         The time Cathy and Heathcliff were seen as equals was over, and so was the open friendship they had. Even though Cathy was the authority figure to Heathcliff, they loved each other and sneaked off many times to a mountainside close to the house. They spent time holding each other, telling each other how they felt, and just getting away from the usual way they had to act around each other.

         When Cathy (adult--Merle Oberon) and Heathcliff (adult--Laurence Olivier) spoke to each other in the presence of others, Cathy talked down to Heathcliff and treated him as though she had no feelings at all towards him. How can someone who loves someone else act like that every day? I just do not understand nor could I act like that. Cathy thought she could not stand up and tell anyone her feelings towards Heathcliff. She believed she could not run away from Wuthering Heights with the man she loved. Wuthering Heights did not look very special to me. Heathcliff wanted Cathy to run away with him, but I guess that would not make for a good movie now would it?

         With everything going on during the movie, the way Cathy treated Heathcliff was the one thing that stood out in my mind. Her actions really said a lot about the kind of person she was. Every time she talked down to Heathcliff or when they had to run off to the mountains to proclaim their undying love for each other, it made me wonder how she could really sit there and play those head games. Cathy was just a little girl who could not decide what she wanted until it was too late.

Ryan Peabody

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