I was looking for an article that discussed the two narrators of the book, and how reliable they were. Something I did not think of until the end of the book is that most of it is told through the eyes of Nelly, and some through Lockwood; not through an author like a more traditional novel. This became apparent to me as the book went on, and especially near the end of it. When Nelly is discussing young Catherine with Lockwood right before he leaves, she insinuate the only way to save Catherine is through marriage. Nelly obviously cannot marry her, but Lockwood can. She also comments on how she thinks Lockwood is/or will fall in love with Catherine. She was not so subtly telling Lockwood to go for Catherine, then for both of them to go away together. Around this time, I also noticed that Nelly, in her descriptions of Catherine, was really forgiving of her weaknesses and really praised her. This struck me as odd because Catherine seemed very similiar to her mother Catherine, and Nelly was not kind in her description of her. I thought young Catherine possibly even teased Hareton in a worse way then her mother ever teased Heathcliff, but Nelly makes her out to be much kinder than her mother. This occurred near the end of the book though, and I did not really catch Nelly telling subtle lies earlier in the book. I thought it was very possible they were there, though, so I searched for an article that discussed this subject.
The article pointed out three possible reasons why Nelly was an unreliable narrator. The first reason pointed out something that did not even occur to me. Near the end of the novel, I was able to see a probable gap between the actual reality and her narration of it to Lockwood. She did not blatantly lie, but told stories in a way that would benefit her goal. I thought that she was deliberatly doing this, but the author said that "her pedestrian approach to the tempestuous characters of the novel manifests her essential misunderstanding of them." This is something I think that is pretty important to think about. She could misunderstand some events going on because of her education level or how she has been trained to act and think out of function more then reason. She could then misdescribe events because she was confused or did not fully grasp people's thoughts and intentions rather then the fact that she is stretching events that happened intentionally in her favor.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, a critic named James Hafley believes that Nelly Dean, not Heathcliff, is actually the villian of this novel. Hafely believes that Nelly Dean is trying to gain control of both of the estates, but can only do this after Heathcliff is gone and if she has control over Cathy; or if both are gone. This is also interesting to me because Nelly used to play with Heathcliff when they were younger, but then because of some abritrary class labeling (all the class labeling seems absurd to me in this novel because they are in complete isolation; it seems worthless) she is now a servent to Heathcliff. I could see, from human nature, greed, and jealousy; Nelly wanting to gain control of both properties. This could explain her wanting Lockwood to take Cathy away as well. I think this is unlikely though, but worth thinking about.
Another possibility the article pointed out was that Nelly only lied to benefit some characters she liked or felt sorry for. I think this is probable, 99% of the lies I tell fall into this category. If I go home on break, and lets say go visit a bunch of buddies, my mom might ask if I saw one friend. Instead of explaining everything I did for 20 minutes, I might just say yes to avoid a worthless conversation. A better example might be if your girlfriend asks if she looks good at a particular time; you always say yes. In kind of the same mindset, Nelly lied at times to avoid conflict or improve people's feelings. So one article discussed the possibility that Nelly just had a misunderstanding of events and the characters which led to inconsistencies, whereas another article tried to persuade us that she told minor lies to benefit other characters she was close to, and the last article talked about the possibility that Nelly was plotting her takeover of both properties which directed the way she told her story to Lockwood.
The article, then attempts to prove that Nelly is an unreliable narrator. My opinion is that Nelly is not 100% reliable; only Lockwood could have the potential to be that, because he is an outside source. He does not really have emotional feelings that could force him to sway the facts. I think it is impossible for Nelly to be completely objective because she has seen everything that has happened and been close to some characters, and despised other characters. I think human nature would prevent the possibility of her being 100% accurate. My opinion is that Nelly tells lies, but they are to benefit other people. There is history of this in the book as well. Near the middle of the book, she told Linton that Heathcliff was a kind and generous man. She also told Edgar, when he was dying, that Catherine was safe and would be home soon, when that was not the case at all. Neither of these lies really changed anything, and especially not in her favor. They were more to make the person she was lying to feel better. So my opinion is that Nelly is a fairly reliable narrator but does not comrehend some actions, thus she cannot retell them accurately. I think she also lies a little, but insignificant lies that save the characters' feelings from getting hurt. I do not think that she alters the story considerably though. Although it was interesting for me to think about the idea that she was planning her dominance over both properties, I think that this is more humorous then anything near the truth at all.
The article, then attempts to prove that Nelly is an unreliable narrator. My opinion is that Nelly is not 100% reliable; only Lockwood could have the potential to be that, because he is an outside source. He does not really have emotional feelings that could force him to sway the facts. I think it is impossible for Nelly to be completely objective because she has seen everything that has happened and been close to some characters, and despised other characters. I think human nature would prevent the possibility of her being 100% accurate. My opinion is that Nelly tells lies, but they are to benefit other people. There is history of this in the book as well. Near the middle of the book, she told Linton that Heathcliff was a kind and generous man. She also told Edgar, when he was dying, that Catherine was safe and would be home soon, when that was not the case at all. Neither of these lies really changed anything, and especially not in her favor. They were more to make the person she was lying to feel better. So my opinion is that Nelly is a fairly reliable narrator but does not comrehend some actions, thus she cannot retell them accurately. I think she also lies a little, but insignificant lies that save the characters' feelings from getting hurt. I do not think that she alters the story considerably though. Although it was interesting for me to think about the idea that she was planning her dominance over both properties, I think that this is more humorous then anything near the truth at all.
No comments:
Post a Comment