Nelly Dean

[susanne]

DOes anyone agree with James Hafley's opinion that Nelly Dean is the real villain in wuthering height?

I have read part of his article and I am not quite convinced, because afterall, Nelly is only human

what do you think?

[maroctam]

I read Wuthering Heights 2 years ago (so i don't remember it that well), and I haven't read about Hafley's opinion, but I agree.

I wouldn't say Nelly is the ONLY villan though. I, personally, didn't like Heathcliff and (big) Catherine at all, and of course I hated Hindley, just as every reasonable person would.

To be honest I think the whole family is pretty messed up, and the way Nelly handled situations on worsened them - yet she always pretends like she's so innocent.

Edited April 13, 2013 by maroctam

[Smita]

I actually think practically all the characters had a dark side to them, some more than others. And if you think about it, their actions, atleast partially are justified by what they went through.

Take Hindley as an example - He hated Heathcliff, but only because his father was always partial to him.

I personally think almost all of them displayed a dark side at one point or another, but I dislike stamping them with the term "villain."

Edited April 15, 2013 by Smoo

[flinquinnster]

I read Wuthering Heights, and I just feel depressed afterwards Really, I agree with the posters above, and I think all the characters are fairly villainous. I guess you would say that Nelly Dean as the narrator has a different sort of culpability in the situation - of shaping and narrating Heathcliff and the other characters in a negative light to the reader - which distorts their reputation when compared to the 'facts' of the situation. Skimming the article now, I do think that Hafley is taking a bit too much of a speculative approach in calling Dean the major 'villain' of the novel. However, keeping that in mind, the issue of narrator reliability is still a huge issue - and yeah, I don't doubt she is changing the facts to suit herself in some cases. Personally, I feel that the whole novel is comprised of human error and fallibility - and Nelly Dean is one example of how we can generally do stupid things and then get caught up in huge webs of tragedy. Wow, I'm glad I'm not writing any form of essay on Wuthering Heights, because clearly I can't express my thoughts on this novel coherently.