Friday, March 12, 2010

Group 5

5) Nelly Dean is an ideal narrator for the story, as she is not motivated by revenge or malice.

Posts are due by Monday before class and the reply by Wednesday before class.

12 comments:

  1. False: Catherine has abused Nelly in the past and so Nelly fails to be unbiased in her tale. When Nelly is trying to clean the room when Edgar is in her presence, Catherine orders her to stop. Nelly does not wish to do so, so that she can keep an eye on Catherine and her suitor: “I’ve said I did not love her, and rather relished mortifying her vanity now and then” (65). Nelly then causes a fiasco because Catherine pinched her, and takes pleasure in causing Catherine problems. Her bias makes her un-ideal for telling this story about Catherine.

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  2. True: Nelly Dean is an ideal narrator for the story because she is not motivated by revenge or malice. For instance, Mr. Heathcliff kept Little Cathy and Nelly as prisoners at his home, Wuthering Heights, for five nights/days to force Little Cathy into agreeing to marry his son, Linton, a mean and terminally ill boy. During this time period, Cathy’s father, Edgar Linton, was dying at his home, Thrushcross Grange, but Heathcliff would not allow Cathy to leave to see her father. Nelly managed to escape W.H., and so she visited Edgar on his deathbed. Edgar asked about their imprisonment. Nelly narrated: “I uttered as little as possible against Linton; nor did I describe all his father’s brutal conduct—my intentions being to add no bitterness, if I could help it, to his already overflowing cup” (265). Linton and Heathcliff had treated Cathy and Nelly horribly for the past week, but Nelly did not complain about it to Edgar. She wanted Edgar to die peacefully and happily. Nelly never let her own emotions and feelings get in the way with others. She kept to herself and was always doing things in the best interest of others.

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  3. True: Nelly Dean is an ideal narrator because throughout the story, Nelly remains an innocent character by continuing to be neutral. By remaining neutral, Nelly became the a buffer between Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights as no one really liked or disliked her. She becomes the mediator between the two houses as she helps to arrange times for Heathcliff to visit Catherine. When giving Catherine the letter from Heathcliff she says: "'he wishes to see you,' said I, guessing her need of an interpreter. 'hes in the garden'"(149). Nelly acts as a middleman between the families as she arranges meetings between them. She herself remains unbiased as she arranges the meetings and that makes her an ideal narrator for this story.

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  5. True: Nelly is an ideal narrator for novel. She gives us a good perspective of the happenings in the novel, with her insight. Nelly is trustworthy. Nelly knew what was right for Catherine and Heathcliff's relationship. "...die without each other..."(155).

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  6. false: Though Nelly sees both sides of the story (as she attends to both Catherine and Heathcliff), she seems biased toward Catherine because she is often bothered or disappointed by Heathcliff's behavior. For example, after Catherine dies, Heathcliff expresses a sort of anger toward her though he should be grieving. Nelly doesn't like this, thinking " 'Poor wretch...you have a heart and nerves the same as your brother men! Why should you be anxious to conceal them! Your pride cannot blind God!'" (157). Nelly recognizes that Heathcliff has human emotions and should stop trying to hide them, therefore is somewhat disappointed in his behavior.

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  7. I agree with Alison that Nelly is not driven by revenge or malice, therefore she may be the right person to tell the story. Not worrying Edgar is a good example of her not acting out of self interest. But I think that though the story is told truthfully and neutrally, Nelly often regards Heathcliff as a wretched man. An example of this is when young Cathy wants to leave Wuthering Heights to visit her father, Edgar. Of course, Heathcliff wants to see Edgar suffer for taking his Catherine long ago, so he tries to force her to stay. Nelly cries, " 'Let him dare to force you!..There's law in the land, thank God, there is! though we be in an out-of-way place. I'd inform, if he were my own son, and it's felony without clergy!' "(257)

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  8. Post for Rashma:

    Nelly, would make for an insightful narrator as she is one of the few characters who seem to see more sides of the story going on. However, she is definately not unbiased in her judgement of the characters around her: "'Because you [older Catherine] are not fit to go there [heaven] ,' I answered. 'All sinners will be miserable in heaven.'" (pg. 75)
    so, being part of the storyline, she does make a good narrator... just not an ideal one, for the same reason.

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  9. I previously said that the statement was true and that Nelly was unbiased. Reading further in the book, I feel more that she is biased. I agree with Geena, Nelly is biased towards Catherine and her daughter. Nelly, although acting as a mediator, stays with and defends the younger Cathy. Nelly is kept in Wuthering Heights against her will by Heathcliff and she is also separated from Cathy for days. This turns Nelly's bias against Heathcliff and towards Cathy. Lockwood recognizes this bias as he returns to Wuthering Heights and sees Cathy: " 'She does not seems to amiable,' I thought 'as Mrs. Dean would persuade me to believe. She's a beauty, it is true; but not an angel' " (281). After hearing Nelly's story and getting to know Cathy through the story, Lockwood senses that the 'angel' Cathy that Nelly told him about is different from the real Cathy who stood in front of him.

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  10. Even if Nelly is unbiased as according to Alison, which we have shown is not true; she still exaggerates what happens in the story. After Catherine dies, Nelly describes the reaction from Heathcliff: “He dashed his head against the knotted trunk; and, lifting up his eyes, howled, not like a man, but like a savage beast getting goaded to death with knives and spears” (158). This vivid description is almost too colorful. She describes Heathcliff’s hands and forehead stained with blood as if he severely injured himself. This description is almost too fantastic because if these descriptions were exact, Heathcliff would be in horrible condition reflective of his great self inflicted wounds.

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  11. Nick, the “but not an angel” (281) is a great piece of evidence supporting the idea that Nelly is not an ideal narrator because she is biased and makes Little Cathy sound much better than she really is. However, I think you should look at the situation that Cathy was in that made her not act like the angel to Lockwood. Cathy had been captured by Heathcliff and forced to live in Wuthering Heights until she agreed to marry Linton. Once she married Linton, Heathcliff burned all of her books and refused to let her see her father, Edgar. “‘I was always reading, when I had them,’ said Catherine: and Mr. Heathcliff never reads; so he took it into his head to destroy my books. I have not had a glimpse of one, for weeks’” (282). Heathcliff had taken away all of Cathy’s freedoms and human rights. Therefore, when Lockwood arrived at W.H., she was not as “amiable” to him because she had been treated with no respect for the past few weeks. Her life was now miserable, and so she wasn’t exactly in the mood to act kindly towards any visitors to W.H. Therefore, Nelly was not completely biased towards Catherine. She narrated the story exactly as it happened, and it just happened to turn out that Heathcliff truly was the "bad guy" and Catherine was the "good guy".

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  12. Response by Rashma:

    Allison, I think that if Nelly were truly to be unbiased then her version of the story wouldn't have a "good guy" or a "bad guy". I do think that though she may not be the 'ideal' story teller for this she is a good one overall. As I mentioned earlier, she has known of the characters since children and know more of them as well as more sides of the story she is telling, giving a better understanding to the listener about what is truly happening. However, that is not to say she hasn't decorated her tale with her own opinions along the way, which she does do often: "Is he [Heathcliff] turning out a bit of a hypocrite.. I mused." (p. 91). And as some of you guys noted, as the story continues she becomes more biased toward little Cathy and against Heathcliff. And while I don't think that Nelly is the ideal narrator of this story, I also don't think there would be one. I think that Nelly is one of the better choices for narration.

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