The race of Heathcliff, the brooding antihero of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel Wuthering Heights, is a much-discussed element of the classic tale.

Brontë variously describes him as “a little lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway”, “that gypsy brat”, not “a regular black”, the offspring of the “Emperor of China”, and the son to an “Indian queen.”

But in her recent film adaptation, director Emerald Fennell has cast white Australian actor Jacob Elordi in the role. What does this mean for our understanding of the story?

Is Heathcliff white?

Scholars, especially since the late 20th century, have debated Heathcliff’s racial identity without forming a consensus. They continue to examine the text for evidence. He has been variously identified as Irish, a migrant fleeing famine; African, found at the Liverpool docks (then England’s largest slave-trading port); or Romani, often shorthand for a racially ambiguous and “threatening” outsider.

I do not feel the novel invites us to identify Heathcliff with a fixed racial identity. The book’s strange, otherworldly and almost hallucinogenic nature resists clear interpretation.

Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff wasn’t white. In the new film adaption of Wuthering Heights, Jacob Elordi is. Is that a problem?

In 19th-century Britain, post-Enlightenment Europe and the United States, the concept of race was categorised and studied, and exerted a strong influence on government policies and popular culture. People were placed into hierarchies of humanity to justify slavery, colonialism and genocide.

This system of “scientific racism” — as it has come to be known — placed “whiteness” at the top. But this notion of whiteness was different to the one we hold today, which explains Heathcliff’s racial “otherness” as being associated with Irishness. Brontë’s novel, and Gothic fiction of the age more broadly, depicts race as something more malleable and fantastical.

In the case of Brontë’s Heathcliff, his racial identity seems to shift and morph, sometimes rendered supernatural and demonic in the eyes of other characters. His darkness and inhumanity are emphasised and seem to intensify in moments of brooding anger and villainy.

His complexion darkens and his eyes become, in the words of the maid Nelly, “black fiends” that glint and lurk “like the devil’s spies” with “a half-civilised ferocity.” Heathcliff’s inhumanity, as tied to his non-whiteness, seemingly rises to the surface, as if the stain of his moral degradation seeps through his soul to appear on his face.

Critics of the casting

The casting of Elordi as Heathcliff has come under scrutiny. Some readers and critics have interpreted Brontë’s book as a critique of British institutional racism in the late 18th century, when the novel is set, and the Victorian era (1837-1901), when it was written.

One such reading is that the novel links the oppression of white women to that of non-white subjects of the British Empire, to critique social structures of violence, cruelty and inequality. This reading sees the novel’s representation of female subjugation as a mirror image of the oppression that people of colour faced at the time.

Many critics of the film have said it isn’t an accurate adaptation, and it misunderstands what Brontë’s text is really about. But an argument around “intent” is hard to make, since we can never really know what a novel “is about.” We can only guess.

And there are limitless interpretations of a text, especially one as strange and enigmatic as this one. As such, though race is a part of the original Wuthering Heights, assigning a singular, definitive meaning to the novel’s representation of race is complicated.

In Brontë’s novel, nothing is as it seems. The ever-shifting image of Heathcliff — at once appearing to be a lascar, a Native American, Spanish and black — would be difficult to depict effectively on film. Film lacks the imaginative malleability of the reader’s mind’s eye, which can hold all these descriptions of Heathcliff’s image at once, allowing this Gothic strangeness to occur.

Race in Fennell’s film

While Heathcliff is cast as white, Fennell casts people of colour in other roles.

Fennell’s film is not interested in the racial commentary many critics have found in Brontë’s novel. The characters in Fennel’s created world do not appear to engage with race the same way people do in our world.

American-Vietnamese actor Hong Chau plays Nelly Dean (a housemaid in the novel, but an illegitimate daughter to a nobleman in the film), and English/Scottish-Pakistani actor Shazad Latif portrays Edgar Linton, Cathy’s wealthy and respected husband. The casting of Edgar, a man of wealth and status, as a person of colour undermines the intersections of oppression and race that existed at the time.

I think Fennell’s decision to ignore race is a missed opportunity to foster a more nuanced discussion of race in the late 18th century and Victorian Britain.

Victorian Britain was shaped by the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade, the presence of black people on its soil (who in some instances, had in the past been enslaved), and its colonies in Asia and the Middle East.

While it would not have been common to find people of colour in the Yorkshire moors in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Britain (including Yorkshire) wasn’t as white as is widely believed. Fennell had an opportunity to highlight this fact.

Instead, in the film’s casting of Elordi as Heathcliff and Latif as Linton, we see a reticence to engage with the question of racial oppression at all. While this doesn’t make the adaptation “wrong”, it adds to the film’s almost complete lack of depth.

The writer is Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Wollongong in Australia

Republished from The Conversation

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 19th, 2026

Eid Mubarak! This is the ‘Meethi Eid’, the time when the sweetness of friends and family get-togethers, and mouth-watering sheer khurma, mithai, halwa and other delicacies fill our hearts and plates with happiness and gratitude.

Keeping this in mind, here is a recipe that blends the traditional taste we love with a fun new twist. Gulab jamun trifle is very simple and easy to make, and brings together two favourite party desserts in the same dish.

In this versatile recipe, you can add your signature twist to it by substituting gulab jamun with any other mithai of your choice. You can also use any custard or cake flavour, and add fruits, jelly or anything else you fancy.

So this time, surprise your guests with this easy recipe that is ready in minutes! This recipe is enough for about four cup-sized servings.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (500ml) milk
• 2 tablespoons vanilla custard powder
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 4–5 slices of pound cake
• 10-12 gulab jamuns (small ones)

Method

First, assemble your cups. Add a layer of sliced pound cake to the bottom of the cups.

Drizzle some of the gulab jamun syrup over the cake. Line the edges of the cup with halved gulab jamuns. Now that your cups are prepared, let’s start on the custard.

In a small bowl, mix the custard powder with a quarter cup of milk. Stir until it dissolves properly.

In a pot, bring the remaining milk to a boil over medium heat. Add the sugar and vanilla, and stir. Once the milk boils, reduce the heat and gradually add the custard mixture to the milk.

Whisk continuously to prevent lumps. Keep stirring until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Take it off the heat and pour the custard into the prepared cups. Let them chill until the custard settles.

Enjoy!

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 19th, 2026

If you enjoy sports, like movies with funny animals and cannot miss inspiring stories about never giving up, then GOAT might be the perfect movie for you.

The film has an energetic style that may remind some viewers of Space Jam, while also telling a classic coming-of-age story about courage, friendship and believing in yourself. Packed with colourful animation and exciting sports action, the movie entertains while delivering an uplifting message.

The story takes place in a lively world where animals live like humans. The most famous sport in that world is roarball, which is similar to basketball, but faster and more dramatic. Players race across the court, leap high into the air and perform spectacular moves to score points.

Basketball superstar Stephen Curry produced the film and voices one of the characters.

At the centre of the story is Will Harris, a small goat with very big dreams. Will, like all the kids, loves roarball and hopes to become a professional player someday. But Will is tiny and inexperienced, while most players in the league are huge and powerful animals like rhinos, horses, panthers and even a giraffe.

Will represent us, with high hopes and ‘will’, but need a boost, and that boost comes when he gets an unexpected chance to join a professional team. But many of his teammates doubt him and believe that a small goat simply cannot compete with the biggest and strongest athletes in the league. Will refuses to give up and, through hard work, determination and clever thinking, proves that skill and heart can matter just as much as size and strength.

The voice cast is strong, bringing the characters to life. Caleb McLaughlin voices Will with warmth and enthusiasm, and Gabrielle Union plays Jett, a legend in the game who is past its prime. The intimidating rival Mane Attraction is voiced by Aaron Pierre, who also voiced Mufasa in Mufasa: The Lion King.

The roarball matches are the highlight, featuring wild tricks, fast passes and dramatic last-second plays that keep the excitement high. Overall, GOAT is an entertaining family movie filled with humour, sports action and heart.

Published in Dawn, Young World, March 19th, 2026