Protagonist in Wuthering Heights

"... Mrs. Dean's value as a source of moral standards. First, she is honest about her own failures, admitting her errors of judgement and her complacency... Second, many foolish things she does are required by the necessities of plot, and are more accurately seen as clumsiness or obviousness of contrivance than as deliberate devices to discredit her. Third ... She is shown to be fairly perceptive, kindly, loyal, and, in particular tolerant... Since we see the story through her eyes and she is not presented ironically, her verdict carries great weight with the reader"

                                                          ___ Philip Drew, Charlotte Bronte as                                                                    a Critic of Wuthering Heights

The above paragraph is Charlotte Bronte's description of Nelly Dean's character. It would not be wrong to agree with Charlotte Bronte, the way she has drawn the sketch of Nelly dean's character shows Nelly Dean can be considered as a protagonist. In fact, Nelly Dean is the one who plays several roles in the novel. Firstly, she plays the role of the narrator in Wuthering Heights. Secondly, she works as commentator and last but not the least she is supposed to serve as the housekeeper in the novel but we learn that she plays something more than a housekeeper. I will consider all these role of Nelly Dean as the protagonist of the novel Wuthering Heights through the glass of liberal humanism.

As I have mentioned above, the most important and eminent role that Nelly plays is that of the narrator, the plot of the story is driven from Nelly's own experiences that she had at Wuthering heights and Thrush cross Grange. Nevertheless, one thing that should not be left out is that Nelly is not an omniscient narrator, though she knows all the secrets and gives details about the two houses. She does not talk about the circumstances of Heathcliff when he was away for three years and other things that took place in her absence she does not know about that. Therefore, Nelly's judgement is based on her own experiences. As Michael Macovski asserts,

"The reader's degree of acceptance of her explanation and moral judgement determines the understanding of the meaning of the novel"

If Nelly is not an omniscient narrator, it does not mean that she is not reliable. It means that the readers are supposed to interpret her judgements through their own understanding and this is how Emily Bronte wants her readers to grasp the plot and themes of the novel. Michael Marcovski comes up with same view that,

 "It is this person whom we come to know well, whose judgment we finally interpret"

Furthermore, we come to notice that before Nelly begins with her story, she remarks to Mr. Lockwood, "You'll judge as well as I can, all these things; at least you'll think you will and that's the same thing"

The above utterances highlights the fact that here the author appeals to her readers to question their own judgement of what Nelly has presented, and that is what make Nelly central character that she compels the readers to think over on the picture she has presented of the two houses and dwellers of the two houses.

The second role that supports Nelly of being a protagonist is the role of commentator, which is more or less the role of narrator that she plays throughout the novel.  Since it is shown that Nelly is familiar with all the characters and their deeds, she is prone to comment on the characters and their actions. For instance, in Chapter: 17 when Isabella runs away from heathcliff while talking to Nelly about Heathcliff's strange attitude she compares him to an animal but here Nelly comes up with her comment that "he is human being", in view of the fact that Nelly knows Heathcliff very well and she knows how he has been through the gloomy days of his life. This is how she sympathizes with Heathcliff and enables the readers to judge and infer her comment.

Thirdly, Nelly plays the role of the housekeeper but she serves more than a housekeeper. It is evident in the novel that all the major characters share their secrets with Nelly and she hears them carefully. For example, Catherine confesses her love for Heathcliff to Nelly. In addition, she also works as a guide for the characters, she warns them when they do something wrong. For instance, she advice Cathy not to marry Edgar. Such examples are found in abundance in the novel. As David Sonstream says, "She stresses the faults and limited scope of human insight"

In addition, she points out the mistakes of other characters not out of jealousy but she does out of love and her fidelity.

Now who is Nelly Dean? She is the narrator, the guide for the characters, she is more than a housekeeper to the characters who share their secrets with her, and she is someone who is equipped with knowledge of every character. In short, Nelly is someone who takes up multiple roles in single novel WUTHERING HEIGHTS and plays them all effectively. Emily Bronte has appropriately used her character of Nelly Dean in compelling the readers to understand the novel by interpreting Nelly's thoughts. It would be an injustice to Nelly if we do not call her a protagonist, because there is no other character in the novel who can reveal things about other characters so efficiently as Nelly did. Therefore, I call Nelly Dean a protagonist of Wuthering Heights!















Sarah Sarhandi