In Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, Nelly Dean is a housekeeper at Wuthering Heights and later at Thrushcross Grange. Nelly believes that women should be proper and civilized. Catherine Earnshaw grows up at Wuthering Heights with Nelly as her housemaid. As a child, Catherine is rambunctious and defiant. She plays with Heathcliff outside which disturbs Nelly and causes conflict between the two. Nelly is unable to understand what is outside of socially acceptable behavior. Thus, Nelly is not able to understand Catherine. This lack of understanding ultimately makes Nelly responsible for Catherine’s death.

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When Lockwood returns from his unfortunate night at Wuthering Heights, he asks Nelly about Heathcliff and his daughter-in-law. Nelly tells Lockwood that the daughter-in-law is Catherine Earnshaw who she describes. “She [Catherine] had ways with her such as I never saw a child take up before…Her spirits were always at high-water mark, her tongue always going – singing, laughing, and plaguing everybody who would not do the same. A wild wicked slip she was…” (77). Nelly illustrates Catherine as a rebellious and high strung child. According to Nelly, Catherine annoyed everyone who would not act like her. Nelly’s comments about Catherine reveal that she does not approve of Catherine’s unladylike manner. Gideon Shunami in his essay The Unreliable Narrator of Wuthering Heights discusses Nelly’s misunderstanding of the main characters in the novel. “Nelly Dean’s character, as an expression of utter normalcy, is not suited to a comprehension of the central figures. The result, moreover, is a misunderstanding…” (Shunami 450-451). Nelly believes in order and normalcy which contrast with Catherine’s unruliness so much so that she does not comprehend her correctly. Catherine’s behavior is different from that of the rest of her social class. She is loud, talkative and hyper. Nelly very much dislikes these qualities in a woman, and tries to stifle them in Catherine. She believes a woman should be quiet, docile and made for marriage to a gentleman. Furthermore, she believes Edgar would be a better husband for Catherine than Heathcliff. This is incorrect because Catherine shares more qualities and has more fun with Heathcliff than she does with Edgar.

Catherine marries Edgar. Three years later Heathcliff returns and befriends Catherine for a second time. Edgar becomes jealous of Heathcliff and Catherine’s relationship and forces Catherine to pick between himself and Heathcliff. She locks herself in her room and starves herself for three days. She believes that she is dying and cannot understand why Edgar has not come to her. Edgar asks Nelly why she hasn’t told him of Catherine’s illness earlier, “She’s been fretting here…and eating scarcely anything, and never complaining: she would admit none of us till this evening, and so we couldn’t inform you of her state, as we were not aware of it ourselves; but it is nothing” (Bronte 120). Nelly finally informs Edgar that Catherine is ill and not eating anything. However, Nelly has known that something is wrong with Catherine, yet hasn’t told Edgar or called a doctor. John K. Mathison describes how Nelly advises characters poorly, with bad consequences in his essay Nelly Dean and the Power of “Wuthering Heights”. “Nonetheless, her (Nelly’s) character, a representation of the normal at its best, is inadequate to the situation. As will be shown, failing to understand them, she advises them poorly, and her actions in relation to them are harmful” (Mathison 118). Catherine dies because of Nelly’s actions. Catherine is stifled by the conventions of Thrushcross Grange and longs for Wuthering Heights, starves herself and becomes. Nelly did not understand Catherine and her longing to be free and outdoors with Heathcliff. If Nelly had known the real reason that Catherine is ill, she might have advised Edgar or called a doctor. Thus Nelly is responsible for Catherine’s death.

Nelly does not understand Catherine and what she needs to survive, Heathcliff and freedom. This misunderstanding makes Nelly not give Catherine what she needs. Catherine dies due to Nelly. If Nelly had understood Catherine, Nelly could have informed Edgar and a doctor of Catherine’s illness. If this had happened, Catherine would not have died.