Gen Z Surprised to Learn of Wuthering Heights’ Tragic Conclusion

Yet, it seems that some members of Gen Z may have overlooked the not-so-happy ending of Wuthering Heights.

The latest film adaptation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 literary classic premiered in theaters yesterday, featuring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi in the roles of the ill-fated lovers, Cathy and Heathcliff.

Shortly after the screening, social media platforms were inundated with posts, primarily from young women, who were moved to tears by the movie’s emotional conclusion.

And before long social media was awash with messages from mostly young women in floods of tears as the final credits rolled.

The Daily Mail is not giving away what happens in the movie – but given that the novel has been taught in schools for generations and filmed many times, we probably don’t need to.

However, that hasn’t stopped Gen Z fans who finished the film issuing the warning: ‘Do not see Wuthering Heights without knowing the plot.’

One girl filmed her friend who was sobbing in the darkened cinema and posted a video on TikTok with the caption: ‘I fully thought Wuthering Heights had a happy ending. I really thought I was just gonna watch Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi make out for two hours.’

Another, also hysterical on camera, said: ‘We are crashing out. I don’t know how to go back to real life. Also, it’s a sad ending if anyone else didn’t know.’

One film-goer (pictured) was filmed hysterically crying on TikTok after watching Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights

Another viewer (pictured) was unaware of the tragic events interspersed throughout the film 

Jacob Elordi (left) and Margot Robbie (right) star as Heathcliff and Cathy in Emerald Fennell’s adaptation of Emily Bronte’s 1847 classic novel

The new version is from British director Emerald Fennell, whose tinkering with the text has divided critics.

Some have branded her take on the Gothic romance as an ’emotionally hollow, bodice-ripping misfire’ that would have the author ‘rolling in her grave.’ Others, however, praised the ‘swoonily romantic’ movie.

Speaking before the film’s launch Ms Fennell, 40, encouraged such a hysterical reaction from her audiences and admitted she was hoping for it.

She told Time Out: ‘I want lots of snogging [in the cinema]. I think whatever you can get away with – sorry, Cineworld. There will be some of that, there will also be a lot of people having to be carried out because they’re crying so much.

‘I really love seeing movies where people have a visceral experience. I think screaming and laughing and crying and gasping, we want a connected experience.’ 

But Ms Fennell, who won an Oscar for her directorial debut Promising Young Woman, has warned fans of the novel that her adaptation is a loose, eroticised interpretation that ‘files’ the classic novel down to its ‘pretty and sexy bits.’