Basically I've Read Emma By Jane Austen And Just Seen The Film Adaptation By Autumn De Wilde. I'm Not

Basically I've read Emma by Jane Austen and just seen the film adaptation by Autumn de Wilde. I'm not over it and have some points to get through:

The film is so awkward and yet so aesthetically pleasing at the same time, OMGGG.

Emma's sass at the beginning! particularly in the scene when she's opening the carriage window to listen to Miss Bates. Dear Lord, she's the epitome of sassines.

How Emma and Mr Knightley are always drawn to eachother. Even when they're arguing they cannot help it but get nearer and nearer and look like they're about to kiss.

When they laugh together after the baby scene! It was such a good way to make it clear that they were still comfortable with eachother and had definitely made up after their argument.

All the glances they exchange.

The ball, obviously the ball. In particular how they are focused only on eachother, how they miss a step because of that, and the hands at the end.

The scene at the end when they are all reading end exchanging covert glances.

How totally smitten Mr Knightley is by Emma.

Their talk about Mr Knightley coming to live at Hartfield. It is the wisest decision and yet few people would have made it in that time and age.

The kiss.

How Mr Knightley cries twice; once out of despair, once out of happiness.

The fact that the film ends with a shot of Emma's pleased expression, BECAUSE IT'S HER STORY.

Some other valuable reflections:

Mr Woodhouse is the keeper of my serotonin. How he is portrayed in this film has so good a comedic effect that I am not to complain about the differences of his situation from how it's described in the book.

The actors are amazing, so neat and expressive.

Even though the plot doesn't always follow the book I believe that the story is well depicted (but I still miss the scene where Mr Knightley almost kisses Emma's hand before leaving for London).

The quotes they decided to use are truly spot on.

even netflix itself seems to think wuthering heights and bridgerton are related

I wanna sit down and have a tea party with the bronte sisters and have branwell bronte paint us, while he adds himself in the painting

wuthering heights (2011, dir. andrea arnold)

Continuing some thoughts…so many use Catherine’s obvious ignorance of marriage and sex in her conversation to Nelly about Edgar’s proposal to say her relationship with Heathcliff is platonic. But this ignores that she’s a 15 year old girl in a time when women were kept in the dark as much as possible about anything that happens between men and women. Nelly herself says she is either “ignorant of the duties you undertake in marrying; or else that you are a wicked, unprincipled girl” - I think based on other knowledge of Catherine it should be assumed that she’s ignorant (which is no fault of her own). On Heathcliff’s part - he obviously already desired her as a wife at 16 which is why he ran away when she said she couldn’t marry him. 

By the time we see Catherine and Heathcliff as adults and more experienced, they still consistently choose each other. As we see throughout the novel he still holds his attachment with Catherine as more important than other potential physical/romantic relationships, such as with Isabella. These feelings may not be as clear on Catherine’s side but this could simply be because Heathcliff is alive through more of the novel so we don’t spend as much time with her. When we do though, it should be noted she was already pregnant by the time Heathcliff returns which I think would increase the unlikelihood of their pursuing anything physical. At this time she is being pushed and pulled by various forces into the Linton family and away from Wuthering Heights, her childhood, and Heathcliff. Still I think its safe to assume that she’s more knowledgeable about marital duties during this time period and she would have been taught that her husband should be her main focus, and yet she consistently treats Heathcliff has his equal, if not his superior.

Just because their relationship is never consummated does not mean it was meant to be seen as platonic. From what we know of Emily Brontë I don’t think she would have written about an actually physical adulterous affair; in part because of her own personal morality and that it probably wouldn’t have gotten published. It also (totally my own conjecture) seems to be deliberate to bolster the element of yearning, unfulfillment, and tension that is constant through the book. All of this to say, no, they are not platonic lol.