In this narration and as a narrator, Nelly subtle and blatantly gives her perspective and bias on Catherine and Heathcliff, which remains unchanged until adulthood. Despite Nelly’s young age, she shows the audience the understanding of social politics within the Earnshaw family and its effect on Catherine and Heathcliff. Due to this knowledge and Nelly’s position in the family, she demonstrates her negative view on the two said characters when Catherine returns from Thrushcross Grange:
“Cathy stayed at Thrushcross Grange five weeks: till Christmas. By that time her ankle was thoroughly cured, and her manners much improved … instead of a wild, hatless little savage jumping into the house …
and then she looked round for Heathcliff. Mr. and
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Nelly’s reason for sharing this event was in the process of explaining the backstory; however, with this narration she also includes her perception on the two kids as a child. As previously mentioned, Nelly has a negative bias toward the Catherine and Heathcliff; however, her` bias towards Heathcliff is more apparent and blunt compared to Catherine. Nelly is a maid, so it is her duty to care for the house and its occupants, but she did not do that: “If he were careless, and uncared for, before Catherine’s absence, he had been ten times more so since. Nobody but I even did him the kindness to call him a dirty boy, and bid him wash himself, once a week” (Bronte 82; ch 7). Nelly knows Heathcliff is “dirty boy”; however, she does not put the effort to make sure he is clean. She does make a slight effort by calling him a “dirty boy”; however, it is rather an insult than a message for him to clean himself up. In addition, Nelly provides the information no one else cares for Heathcliff’s well-being. By indicating “nobody” pressured him into maintaining a proper hygiene and look, it shows no one in the family loves Heathcliff. Nelly states Heathcliff is uncared for “ten times more” without Catherine’s presence. This shows Heathcliff is not looked at as an individual who needs caring, but rather a pest who is attached to Catherine who needs tendering. In addition, this narration shows Nelly does not love Heathcliff herself by not exerting herself from the rest of the family and caring for
To further contrast Edgar’s and Nelly’s opinion s of Catherine ways, Edgar sees Catherine as docile, calm, and loving. This side to Catherine can be attributed to when she stays at the Linton’s home. Catherine spends five with the Linton’s and while she is there she does not show her rough rude side in their company. As describe by the narrator, she took care not to act like a young ruffian and worse than a brute; comparing her to Heathcliff (her lover). While on the other hand, Nelly recognizes this calm behavior displays by Catherine as one of double standard; she being deceitful to get her own
During the winter of 1801, Lockwood stays at the manor where he meets his landlord Heathcliff, a very rich man who lives in Wuthering Heights. Consumed by curiosity Lockwood asks his maid to recall the story of Heathcliff. Nelly Dean consents to this idea and begins to reminisce while Lockwood writes her tales in his diary. Nelly remembers when she was a young girl that she worked as a servant to Mr. Earnshaw who adopts an orphan from Liverpool. He intends to raise him with his own children, who at first have a distaste for the new child. Catherine, Mr. Earnshaw’s daughter, grows to love him and the two become very close. After Mr. Earnshaw’s wife passes, he begins to prefer Heathcliff, the orphan, over his own son. This causes Mr. Earnshaw’s son, Hindley, to mistreat Heathcliff but ultimately ends with Hindley being sent away to college, away from Heathcliff. Three years pass and Mr. Earnshaw dies, leaving Wuthering Heights to Hindley. He returns with his wife and a taste of revenge that is reserved for Heathcliff. Heathcliff begins to have to work in the fields as a common servant, but continues a friendship with Catherine. One night the two run off in hopes to tease the rich children across the fields. Catherine ends up bitten by a dog and has to stay at the Grange for five weeks to heal. During her stay there she is taught to be a proper young lady and becomes fainthearted for Edgar, leaving her friendship with Heathcliff unresolved with complications. Frances, Hindley’s wife, dies after the birth of the baby boy named Hareton. Hindley becomes an alcoholic and starts to be even more cruel and abusive to Heathcliff. Catherine’s desire for a higher social quota drives her to accept Edgar Linton’s proposal, despite her true love ...
From the beginning of the novel and most likely from the beginning of Heathcliff's life, he has suffered pain and rejection. When Mr. Earnshaw brings him to Wuthering Heights, he is viewed as a thing rather than a child. Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out the doors, while Nelly put it on the landing of the stairs hoping that it would be gone the next day. Without having done anything to deserve rejection, Heathcliff is made to feel like an outsider. Following the death of Mr. Earnshaw, Heathcliff suffers cruel mistreatment at the hands of Hindley. In these tender years, he is deprived of love, friendship, and education, while the treatment from jealous Hindley is barbaric and disrupts his mental balance. He is separated from the family, reduced to the status of a servant, undergoes regular beatings and forcibly separated from his soul mate, Catherine. The personality that Heathcliff develops in his adulthood has been formed in response to these hardships of his childhood.
The initial downward spiral of Heathcliff’s life was predominantly caused by harsh influences in the environment in which he was raised. Heathcliff, an adopted child, grew up in Wuthering Heights, a desolate and dystopian estate when compared to the beauty of the neighboring Thrushcross Grange. In childhood, Heathcliff displayed evidence of a sympathetic personality through his emotional attachment to Catherine and kind attitude towards Nelly. At the time of Mr. Earnshaw’s death, Nelly describes a scene where, “Miss Cathy had been sick, and that made her still; she
Heathcliff is a character who was abused in his childhood by Catherine’s brother, Hindley, because of his heritage as a “gypsy”, and Hindley was jealous of the love that Heathcliff got from Mr. Earnshaw, Hindley’s father. This is also selfishness upon Hindley’s part since he only wanted his father’s love for his sister and himself. So to reprimand Heathcl...
Heathcliff’s arrival at Wuthering Heights impacted him both positively and negatively. Catherine Earnshaw was highly welcoming of him, but her brother Hindley
Catherine is free-spirited, wild, impetuous, and arrogant as a child, she grows up getting everything she wants as Nelly describes in chapter 5, ‘A wild, wicked slip she was’. She is given to fits of temper, and she is torn between her wild passion for Heathcliff and her social ambition. She brings misery to both of the men who love her, ultimately; Catherine’s selfishness ends up hurting everyone she loves, including herself.
Nelly Dean is quite knowledgeable about Wuthering Heights and the events that transpired there; however, she is blunt and opinionated. She does not fail to mention that he has taken a genuine interest in Heathcliff sinc...
This book is very much about love and hate, and Nelly is the one who is totally un-opinionated about the characters. She was like a mother figure, always there for everybody, and listened to them. That is what made her a good narrator because she always knew how everyone felt. She lived At Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange all her life, and experienced the first and second generation, therefore she knew exactly what went on. If Heathcliff was the narrator, you would not know how Isabella or Edgar felt due to their lack of communication or friendship. Although Heathcliff's opinion’s are valuable, Nelly's knowledge is more valuable because she got along with and talked to everybody.
Catherine is trapped between her love of Heathcliff and her love for Edgar, setting the two men down a path of destruction, a whirlwind of anger and resentment that Catherine gets caught in the middle of. Catherine is drawn to Heathcliff because of his fiery personality, their raw attraction and one certainly gets the sense that they are drawn together on a deeper level, that perhaps they are soulmates. C. Day Lewis thought so, when he declared that Heathcliff and Catherine "represent the essential isolation of the soul...two halves of a single soul–forever sundered and struggling to unite." This certainly seems to be backed up in the novel when Catherine exclaims “Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being...” This shows clearly the struggle Catherine feels as she is drawn spiritually to Heathcliff, but also to Edgar for very different reasons. Edgar attracts Catherine predominantly because he is of the right social class. Catherine finds him "handsome, and pleasant to be with," but her feelings for him seem petty when compared to the ones she harbours...
Heathcliff and Catherine have loved each other since their childhood. Initially, Catherine scorned the little gypsy boy; she showed her distaste by “spitting” at him (Brontë 27). However, it was not long before Heathcliff and Catherine became “very think” (Brontë 27). They became very close friends; they were practically brother and sister (Mitchell 122). Heathcliff is intent upon pleasing Catherine. He would “do her bidding in anything” (Brontë 30). He is afraid of “grieving” her (Brontë 40). Heathcliff finds solace and comfort in Catherine’s company. When Catherine is compelled to stay at Thrushcross Grange to recover from her injury, she returns as “a very dignified person” (Brontë 37). Her association with the gente...
The presentation of childhood is a theme that runs through two generations with the novel beginning to reveal the childhood of Catherine and Hindley Earnshaw, and with the arrival of the young Liverpudlian orphan, Heathcliff. In chapter four, Brontë presents Heathcliff’s bulling and abuse at the hands of Hindley as he grows increasingly jealous of Heathcliff for Mr. Earnshaw, his father, has favoured Heathcliff over his own son, “my arm, which is black to the shoulder” the pejorative modifier ‘black’ portrays dark and gothic associations but also shows the extent of the abuse that Heathcliff as a child suffered from his adopted brother. It is this abuse in childhood that shapes Heathcliff’s attitudes towards Hindley and his sadistic nature, as seen in chapter 17, “in rousing his rage a pitch above his malignity” there is hyperbole and melodrama as the cruelty that stemmed from his abuse in childhood has been passed onto Isabella in adulthood.
Her criticism of the other characters and her loyalty towards them not only make her a good narrator, but also an excellent servant and a confidant to the characters. Even though she is a servant, her intelligence and knowledge of self-worth create equality between her and the other characters, giving her the ability to speak her mind. Nelly’s narration comes from being closely and privately involved in the lives of the characters in the story. She not only acts as a witness to the events in their lives, but also as somewhat of a judge and critic to their actions. Nelly is our guide through the story, and without her voice, we would never be aware of the strange and amazing events that occurred in Wuthering Heights.
...he was able to interpret the events of her life, and for the first time tell a visitor of everything that has gone on. Since Nelly’s life was not personally haunted by regrets, like Catherine and Heathcliff’s, she is able to recite the past and present in a clear and rational way. Lockwood believes her story and is so intrigued by all the dreadful events that took place across a lifetime on these Yorkshire moors. From the outside looking in it may appear that the Earnshaws and Lintons were just a private family living their lives, but nobody really knows what goes on behind closed doors, except for the help, our Nelly. This is why her narration is crucial and without it, the story of Wuthering Heights may still exist, but would not be as believable.
Mr. Earnshaw believes that “the young man, [Hindley], should be sent to college”(45) as Hindley is not treating Heathcliff properly. This shows how Mr. Earnshaw is favoring Heathcliff to Hindley and is forcing Hindley to leave. Catherine becomes good friends with Heathcliff. One night, they spy on the Lintons, their neighbors, and are caught. Mrs. Linton is disgusted that “Miss Earnshaw [was] scouring the country with a gypsy”(53). Catherine is expected to behave like a proper lady, implying that she should not associate with those inferior in status to her because she is part of the middle class. Even though Catherine and Heathcliff have a strong friendship, he ruins her reputation in the eyes of the Mrs. Linton. While having connections proves to benefit Heathcliff status, they appear to be detrimental to his connection’s