Hopefully you’ve read my other musings on this novel. (If not, click on the tag.)
We know that Heathcliff and Nelly Dean are the only characters who are present at the beginning, middle, and end. It’s natural to look to them as potential protagonists.
However, film versions focus also on Catherine. In movies, she and Heathcliff are the main romantic pairing, even though the book portrays them as beyond romance. In the novel they have no sexual chemistry or desire to build a married life and family — they are simply one person in two bodies. For love in the book, look to Cathi and Hareton. Every meeting they have is described in the language of a romance novel. They begin star-crossed, overcome their adversities, and become a couple. We see them being ‘shipped at every step of the way and enjoy the unfolding of their love. All of the remaining characters who strike at and torment each other are forgotten due to the winsome duo at the end. We are redeemed by their tenderness and forgiveness. I don’t know how a faithful adaptation could leave them out and focus instead on the Catherine relationship.
Film versions also downplay Nelly’s character. She’s just the narrator, they say. That attitude ignores how often she moves the story forward. The conflict between her role as an innocent storyteller and an interfering servant is essential to the plot. She wins in the end. Her two “children”, the babies she nursed, fall in love and achieve happiness. Heathcliff’s plan to tear down the households is defeated. These competing objectives, Heathcliff vs. Nelly, are the foundation of the story. We need both of these characters in complete detail. To focus on Catherine is to miss the tension. Also, adding to the complexity, Nelly is one of the only people Heathcliff doesn’t treat with malice. They are comrades and adversaries simultaneously. Their objectives are opposite; neither can let the other win. Yet, they are kind to each other. They are the only characters who consistently treat each other with charity.
If I were to write a screenplay adaptation of Wuthering Heights (this whole deep dive into the story began from that premise, way before any current adaptations were known to me) I would need to weigh Heathcliff and Nelly equally. Half of the plot goes to Catherine, half goes to her daughter. How Nelly and Heathcliff react to each is key. The unanswered mystery of the story is: why does Catherine choose Edgar? If Catherine “is Heathcliff”, as she says, why go with another man? Looking at the entire arc of the novel, it’s possible the choice is a writing device. It might not be about Catherine, but about an author’s desire to build Heathcliff’s pain. As we would say nowadays, Catherine is fridged — she is killed off so that someone else can suffer.
Another possibility: Catherine chooses Edgar over Heathcliff because his love is traditional. He loves her as a woman, lives quietly after her death, and respectfully visits her grave until his own death and his rightful burial beside her. It’s all socially normal and respectable. Contrast that with Heathcliff’s burning obsession. He even tries to usurp Edgar’s grave position. Every choice Heathcliff makes is the opposite of normal. He’s described often as demonic. His devotion is to the worldly, not the divine. Although Catherine longs to join her spirit with Heathcliff, she joins her body with Edgar. She chooses a traditional wife’s role and rejects whatever alliance Heathcliff might propose. He never actually steps forward with a plan; he pines and froths.
Whatever Catherine’s reason, her choice to marry Edgar puts Nelly and Heathcliff in separate corners. The moral clash — Nelly the champion of good, Heathcliff of bad — is a critical theme in this novel. Placing Catherine’s plot too forward and making her the protagonist, as modern movies do, undercuts that.
As to the question of who is the protagonist, I think I answered it above. Nelly ultimately wins. Heathcliff fails. That makes him the antagonist. While Heathcliff lies dead (and possibly wanders the moors as an impotent spirit), Nelly lives contentedly with Cathi and Hareton, overseeing the generations that will come from them. Guess what, screenwriters! The housekeeper is the hero.
Whoever may do justice to the entirety of this book, I don’t think those hands are mine. I can’t imagine writing a screenplay that must portray all the violence and evil that Heathcliff presents. I do long for a respectful interpretation of the material. Maybe someday someone else will write it.