Heathcliff's skin colour: the debate

James Howson's role as Heathcliff is being much talked about even if all we know about it is the colour of the young actor's skin. The Guardian makes a good case for a dark-skinned Heathcliff:

Age: 163.
Appearance: Handsome, brooding and dark-skinned, like Laurence Olivier.
Laurence Olivier wasn't dark-skinned. Maybe more like Ralph Fiennes – you know, swarthy.
Sorry, but they're both white guys, and both quite pasty with it. OK, but they both played Heathcliff in adaptations of Wuthering Heights. And Heathcliff was basically a black guy.
You have evidence for this? As a child, Heathcliff was plucked from the streets of Liverpool and taken in by Mr Earnshaw. His actual provenance is unknown, but in Brontë's 1847 novel the boy is variously described as being "dusky" or "a gipsy". One character says he looks like "a little Lascar, or an American or Spanish castaway".
Fascinating. What's a Lascar? It's a 19th-century term for an East Indian sailor.
Right. So he's dark-skinned but he has never been played by a dark-skinned actor. Until now, that is: a new adaptation directed by Andrea Arnold (who won an Oscar for Fish Tank) will star an unknown black actor called James Howson.
And about time, too. More to the point, Howson, in his early 20s, is about the right age for the young Heathcliff. Olivier, on the other hand, was 32 when he played the part. Timothy Dalton was 36[sic; that was when he played Mr Rochester. He would have been 25-26 when he played Heathcliff], and Cliff Richard was 56.
[...]
Do say: "I'm sure James Howson is a fine actor, as well as being the right colour."
Don't say: "At last someone is making an adaptation that is faithful to the spirit of this boring book for girls."

The collective image of Heathcliff, though, is erroneously white, such as this description of actor John Waters in the Wentworth Courier:

His Heathcliff good looks, both rugged and gentle, have helped give him the range to present Play School for nearly 20 years, play the cruel Pontius Pilate in Jesus Christ Superstar and appear as the hero in countless musicals and dramas since his first Australian performance in 1969. (Margaret Rice)

As for the other Brontë film to come, Jane Eyre, IndieWire wishes for a Sundance release:

Jane Eyre, directed by Cary Fukunaga. Two years ago, Cary Fukunaga took Sundance by storm with his very well-received feature debut “Sin Nombre.” Given his anticipated follow-up - an adaptation of Charlotte Brontë “Jane Eyre” - already had an April release date [last we heard the official release date was March 11], a return to Sundance seems like an inevitable place to launch it. Featuring an impressively drool-worthy cast including Mia Wasikowska (as Jane Eyre), Michael Fassbender (as Edward Rochester), Sally Hawkins (as Mrs. Reed), Jamie Bell (as St. John) and Judi Dench (as Mrs. Fairfax), “Eyre” is a far cry from the entirely unknown cast that filled “Sin Nombre.” But one can hope that the films will have in common their use of Fukunaga’s clear talent and further suggest he’s a filmmaker to pay attention to. (Peter Knegt)

The New Straits Times arguably defends that no other classic can hold a candle to Moby Dick:

What would be their crowning glory in an otherwise successful life of reading.
It is something picked up and put down again. And far too quickly. A novel that is read five to six pages at a time. A book that forces us instead, to read The Waverly Novels, or Wuthering Heights, or The Brothers Karamazov. As if they were some kind of consolation. Unfortunately, no matter how long the literary resume, it would always feel incomplete. It would be lacking Ishmael’s lonely voice. Something that no amount of Scott could ever make up for.

Also arguable is this argument made by The Awl:

If it were up to J.K. Rowling, I think Jean Rhys would have been thrown in jail for daring to write Wide Sargasso Sea. Which is fanfic, too, come to that. (Maria Bustillos)

Arguable of course because of the huge difference in the situation: J.K. Rowling is still alive and well while by the time Wide Sargasso Sea was published in 1966 Charlotte Brontë had been dead and buried for 111 years.

And definitely not arguable but decidedly wrong is this statement from Jaunted:

Entrance fees are a hefty 15 GBP ($24) per person, which seems a lot until you realize that you're hanging out with the graves of Chaucer, Charles Dickens, the Brontë sisters, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin and a slew of other cultural and royal figures from ages past.

There's a Brontë sisters memorial in Westminster Abbey's Poets' Corner, but the Brontë sisters, as we all know, are buried in Haworth (Charlotte and Emily) and in Scarborough (Anne). So those are the places to go in case anyone does want to 'hang out' with their graves.

The Brontë Parsonage Blog has a very interesting account of Juliet Barker's recent talk. Inspired with Elegance and Creativity and La canción de Arcadia (in Spanish) both post about Jane Eyre. ScribbleManiac writes about a trip to York and wonders what sort of 'old-fashioned' dress Emily would have worn.

Categories: Jane Eyre, Movies-DVD-TV, Talks, Wide Sargasso Sea, Wuthering Heights