Ellen (Nelly) Dean

Ellen "Nelly" Dean is a female character in Emily Bronte's novel, Wuthering Heights. She is the main narrator for the story, and gives key eyewitness accounts as to what happens between the characters. Ellen is for the most part called Nelly by all characters.

[edit] Story

A stranger named Lockwood visits the household of Wuthering Heights at the beginning of the story, and is overcome with shock when he believes he has seen the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw at a window in one of the chambers of the Heights. Eager to know the story of the master of the Heights, Heathcliff, Lockwood returns to Thrushcross Grange, where he asks Nelly, the housekeeper, to tell him all that she knows.

Nelly's mother was a servant at the Heights and helped raise Hindley Earnshaw, and thus Nelly was a foster sister and servant to Hindley and his sister, Catherine Earnshaw, at Wuthering Heights. Nelly is the same age as Hindley, which is about six years older than Cathy. When an orphan boy named Heathcliff is brought to live at the Heights, Nelly is witness to the misfortunes that he brings with him: the affection Mr. Earnshaw has for him, which leads to Hindley's bitter jealousy, and above all, the childish companionship between he and Catherine, that eventually turns into passionate love. When Edgar Linton of Thrushcross Grange asks Catherine for his hand in marriage, Catherine explains her distress by confiding in Nelly. As a result, Nelly is the only witness to Catherine's famous "I am Heathcliff" speech, which has becomes an iconic moment in literary history. A more significant event witnessed by Nelly is the rapid loss of health and sanity from Hindley, which leads to Nelly nursing the infant Hareton Earnshaw after his mother dies of consumption.

After Catherine marries, and Heathcliff mysteriously disappears for three years, Nelly goes with Catherine to Thrushcross Grange. Thus,Nelly is witness to Heathcliff's ominous return, and his quest for revenge on both Hindley and the Linton family. She is also present for Catherine's maddening illness and psychological illusions, as well as Cathy's final meeting with her soulmate Heathcliff.

Catherine's death after childbirth causes Nelly to nurse another child, Catherine Linton. Nelly tenderly adores Cathy, and because of their worries and fears for her, she and Edgar try desperately to keep the innocent yet curious girl from falling into Heathcliff's machinations of marriage with his son. Heathcliff achieves this, however, and Cathy is forced into a marriage with Heathcliff's weak and quickly dying son Linton. Cathy's misery at Wuthering Heights is the only sequence of events that Nelly does not witness, for she has been ordered by Heathcliff to remain at the Grange; nevertheless, Nelly manages to hear it from the housekeeper at the Heights, Zillah.

Nelly continues to fight to restore peace at Wuthering Heights, and at the conclusion of the novel, she is asked by Heathcliff to come back to work at the Heights. She is the one who finds Heathcliff dead in his chamber, which enables the New Year's Day marriage of Cathy and Hareton, as if to say that the Nelly has finally created content in the household.

[edit] Character

Nelly is a loyal, good woman. She is described to be stout, and is a strong and healthy Yorkshire woman who can survive the cold climates. Emily Bronte seems to carefully make sure that the narrator for the story is one that is forever trustworthy and noble, and who does not let her opinions and feelings take a hold of her. She insists that she does not love Catherine Earnshaw because of her "saucy," strong-willed manner, but she cries bitterly at her death. Nelly nurses both Cathy and Hareton, although it is the former that she truly raises and forever adores. As noted before, little is known of Nelly's life, and although she is called "Mrs. Dean" by Mr. Lockwood, it is most likely a form of a respectful address, as there is absolutely nothing to support the fact that she had time to marry. Although Nelly is constantly complaining about the Earnshaw and Linton family's struggles, she never once ceases to pursue her wish to finally bring peace to both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange.

While this has been the common interpretation of Nelly, James Hafley's 1958 article, "The Villain in Wuthering Heights"^[1] chooses to differ. This article argues that she only seems like the moral center of the novel because of the instability and violence of the world she describes. Yet, if looked at objectively, she is the true villain in the novel who drives most of the conflicts.

Nelly often gives hints towards being in love with Hindley Earnshaw; she dislikes Frances, cries bitterly when he dies, does not want to leave Wuthering Heights, loves his son as his nurse etc.

[edit] References