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Wuthering Heights - The Silent Villain


            When initially diving into a novel, it is common knowledge that there is an already preconceived agreement of trust that the reader instills in the story's narrator. The reader virtually always relies on the narrator to illustrate the story in an honest unbiased manner, but the story teller in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights appears to break the chains of trust understood by the audience. The novel is heard through the keen ears of Mr. Lockwood who is being told the history of the Earnshaws, Heathcliff, and the Linton family by his housekeeper, Ellen Dean. Establishing herself as the primary narrator, Nelly reminisces upon her experiences at Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. She fails to give Lockwood and ultimately the reader a precise narration of the affairs that took place in the past. Throughout her vivid flashback, Nelly on numerous occasions lessens the impact of her role and participation in certain events to keep her hands clean from the tragedies that more or less ruined those among her presence at Wuthering Heights.  .
             As Nelly Dean embarks on her tale to Lockwood, she is caught uttering the words, "I am to follow my story in true gossip fashion" (Bronte 51). By her own confession it can be inferred that her account of what actually took place could quite possibly be exaggerated to tell a more fascinating version of the truth. It is apparent that Nelly creates the identity of herself as only being a key witness instead of the manipulating agent that she truly is. The fact that she has some sort of interaction with all the characters in the novel makes her more than just an onlooker. Furthermore, one critic reiterates that Nelly is too close to the action and is often up to her neck in the world of Wuthering Heights (McCarthy 12). In the beginning of her story to Lockwood, Shunami implies that, "Nelly Dean already notes the position of equality which she occupied when young, with the owner of the estate's children, in her simple years as adolescent" (7).


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