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Wuthering Heights’s Narrative Structure
the successive generations of Earnshaw’s and Linton’s through her eyes, although much of the dialogue is that of the characters themselves. As a narrator reporting the past from the present, she has the benefit of hindsight and can therefore depart from the straight chronological narrative to hint at the future.
A major contrast between Nelly and Lockwood is that she, to an extent, is a character within her own narrative, which causes several problems. At times she is involved in the action she is now describing and therefore cannot be trusted to be objective. She both encourages and discourages relationships. Her attitudes sometimes sway between approval and disapproval, depending on her mood. This is primarily evident in the role she plays in the love triangle between Heathcliff, Catherine and Edgar. There is an ambivalence in Nelly’s attitude and this, combined with her nosy nature, render her moral reputation inconsistent and even hypocritical. Despite these shortcomings, she is a vigorous, lively narrator with a formidable memory whose energy and tireless interests allow the reader an insight into the lives of characters.
In conclusion, the novel’s two main narrators provide disparate styles of narrating. Lockwood is objective, reliable, and trustworthy, but lacks the “insider’s touch” that is necessary for a lively narration. Nelly, on the other hand, has perhaps too much of the “insider’s touch”, often being involved in the stories she recounts and rarely remaining neutral. Together, the two narrators allow the reader to choose from the two sources to gain the most accurate information. In doing so, one must keep in mind that a certain narrator (particularly Nelly) is not trustworthy concerning certain people or events that she has a personal interest in.