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Deep Character Analysis of Wuthering Heights' Book.
Typology: Summaries
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Main Points Catherine Earnshaw Introduction Wild Nature Tendency to Own Everything Status-conscious Social Climber Conflicted Loyalties Prejudiced More of a Ghost Ellen "Nelly" Dean Introduction Personality Auto Biographer The Unreliable Housekeeper Double Agent
Brief Explanation Catherine Earnshaw · Introduction Catherine Earnshaw is the main female protagonist of the novel “Wuthering Heights”. To give a brief introduction to her and the role she played in the novel, she is the daughter of Mr. Earnshaw, sister of Hindley, foster sister and true love of Heathcliff, wife of Edgar, mother of Cathy. There are basically two sides to Catherine: Catherine Earnshaw and Catherine Linton. (She also fantasizes about a third, Catherine Heathcliff—which her daughter later becomes.) Gorgeous and fiery with dark curls and penetrating eyes, Catherine is a woman in conflict— she craves the luxury, security, and serenity of ultra-civilized Edgar, even as she runs wild across the moors with brooding and unkempt Heathcliff. She loves Heathcliff with a huge and overwhelming passion. She is impetuous, proud, and sometimes haughty. · Wild Nature Catherine possesses a wild, passionate nature which initially is presented when she spat at Heathcliff on discovering that he was the reason for her father losing the whip she was to get. Further evidence of Catherine's wildness can be seen from the pledge she and Heathcliff made: "promised fair to grow up as rude as savages" in response to the tyranny of Hindley. It was as Nelly said-: "one of their chief amusements, to run away to the moors in the morning and to remain there all day, and the after punishment grew a mere thing to laugh at." Catherine is defiant of authority and seemed to enjoy the wrath of others-: "she was never so happy as when we were all scolding her at once" Catherine's passionate nature, evident throughout her childhood, seemed not to exist in her early months of her marriage to Edgar. Her passion was described as-: "gunpowder which lay as harmless as sand because no fire came near to explode it"
· Conflicted Loyalties At the end of Catharine’s role in the novel, it remarks a significant characteristic of Catherine. The location of Catherine’s coffin symbolizes the conflict that tears apart her short life. She is not buried in the chapel with the Lintons. Nor is her coffin placed among the tombs of the Earnshaws. Instead, as Nelly describes in Chapter XVI, Catherine is buried “in a corner of the kirkyard, where the wall is so low that heath and bilberry plants have climbed over it from the moor.” Moreover, she is buried with Edgar on one side and Heathcliff on the other, suggesting her conflicted loyalties. · Prejudiced In the beginning of the novel, we find Catherine Earnshaw as a prejudiced character. Her prejudice towards Heathcliff plotted the climax of the whole novel. Subsequently, her prejudice was proved false as Heathcliff became a rich man and Catherine’s life with Edgar was not happy. · More of a Ghost In terms of Gothic elements, Catherine is more of a ghost. Even after being haunted, she never forgets Heathcliff, and she wants to fulfill her desires which she couldn’t fulfill in her life time. Catherine’s actions after becoming haunted make us to think that she is trying to repent for her deeds.
Ellen "Nelly" Dean · Introduction The main narrator of the novel is referred to as Ellen, her given name, to show respect, and as Nelly among those close to her. The novel is from her point of view; we see every character (aside from Lockwood) through her eyes. Nelly is a servant to three generations of the Earnshaws and two of the Linton family. Humbly born, she regards herself nevertheless as Hindley's foster-sister (they are the same age and her mother is his nurse). She grows up with Hindley, Catherine, and Heathcliff and works at both Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. Nelly is confidante to many, including both Catherines, Isabella, and even Heathcliff. She cares for Hareton when he is an infant and is a mother-figure to the younger Cathy. Though a servant, she is educated and articulate. Frequently, she does more than observe; she becomes very involved in her employers' lives. · Personality Nelly has advanced not only house management and cleaning skills, but also an innate ability for telling a good story. She is also a capable caregiver. Above all else, Nelly is a gossip, not afraid of telling stories and injecting herself into everyone else's business. It is unknown, though, how much of a liar Nelly is. Inconsistencies in her story lead many to believe that she has a higher opinion of herself than others do. Nelly is a decent housekeeper and does have a knack for taking care of children, especially those very young. Despite her meddling, she is not a very good manipulator, as things very rarely go her way.
· Double Agent As Lockwood figures out pretty quickly, Nelly Dean has the inside scoop on the Earnshaw-Linton melodrama. She is trusted by the members of both houses, so she is a pretty good source for the story. Nelly has been excommunicated from Wuthering Heights at least two times that we know of. When Heathcliff first arrives as a child, she leaves him on the landing of the stairs and, as she tells Lockwood, "Inquiries were made as to how it got there; I was obliged to confess, and in recompense for my cowardice and inhumanity was sent out of the house" (4.50). She further confesses, "Hindley hated him, and to say the truth I did the same" (4.52). All of this suggests that the very person we rely upon for the facts was a participant in Heathcliff's childhood humiliations. When Heathcliff reaches the climax of his manic behavior, Nelly wonders, "Is he a ghoul, or a vampire?" (24.46)—only to remind herself of the infant he once was and that such musings are absurd. Another issue to consider is Nelly's reliance upon several other narrators to piece together the story—Isabella, Dr. Kenneth, gossipy villagers, and credulous shepherd boys. While she is a much more useful and informed narrator than Lockwood, she is also flawed, biased, and overly identified with the Lintons. When Nelly begins narrating to Lockwood, we don't suddenly get the "real story," but rather another representation of the "truth." It's easy to forget that the novel is Lockwood's journal, which is itself a recording of Nelly's oral narration. Lockwood hopes to find in Nelly a "regular gossip," though she believes herself to be a "steady" and "reasonable" character whose familiarity with books qualifies her as a storyteller. She will indeed provide some clarity to the complicated family tree, but she is no omniscient narrator—not by a long shot. By her own confession, she and the other villagers (several of whom fill in the gaps of her story) don't like outsiders, and they have a tendency toward
superstition. Finally, Nelly seems to find the whole conflict between the families pretty entertaining. Works Cited
