text: As Charlotte Brontë, Emily's older sister wrote, "Heathcliff, indeed, stands unredeemed; never once swerving in his arrow-straight course to perdition", which adds to the uncertainty over whether he not only repented for his sins but was actually a real human being after all; since Lockwood's vision of Catherine at the window was preceded by a dream of a fire-and-brimstone sermon in a church, it is possible that both Heathcliff and Catherine are damned; Catherine herself expresses doubt as to whether she could ever be admitted into Heaven. However, A Companion to the Brontës states "Charlotte seems to most willfully "misread" Emily’s tale in order to repackage it to a polite society", adding "Wuthering Heights is the very opposite of a linear novel, and there is nothing whatsoever "arrow-straight" about Heathcliff." The uncertain fate of Heathcliff's soul, combined with the mystery that Heathcliff's character leaves behind, ends the novel in a mesmerizing, eerie way, justifying Heathcliff's enduring status as an iconic anti-hero of literature.
  Depictions
  In 1939, Laurence Olivier portrayed Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, directed by William Wyler. He received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his performance.
  Indian actor Dilip Kumar played localized versions of the character in three film adaptations of the novel Arzoo (1950), Hulchul (1951) and Dil Diya Dard Liya (1966).