Wuthering Heights Character Analysis Essay

In the gothic novel Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte, the author, tells a tale of revenge and love as one man named Heathcliff, trudges through life. When Heathcliff was a child, the owner of Wuthering Heights, Mr. Earnshaw, took him in, and his presence in the house created conflict between himself and the other children living there. Most of it came from Hindley, Mr. Earnshaw’s son. Hindley later married Frances Earnshaw and became the head of the house after Mr. Earnshaw died. Shortly after giving birth, Frances died, causing Hindley to sink into a life of drunkenness, misery, and degradation. In the current passage, Nelly, Hindley’s foster sister, is shown as a motherly figure, a protector of the family, and Hindley’s son, Hareton, and takes on the role of a moral judge, dictating what was right or wrong in the house. Also, she stands up to Hindley and prevents him from ruining the family and Wuthering Heights. One of the most prominent ways this passage characterizes Nelly is by depicting her as a

After Hindley dropped Hareton, she scolds him and brings up Frances, his dead wife. ¨Oh! I wonder his mother does not rise from her grave to see how you use him.¨ She uses ethos by mentioning his dead wife (whom he dearly loved) to show him that what he is doing is wrong. In fact, it is so awful that it might cause his dead wife to rise from the grave. Nelly then followed up by saying: ¨You're worse than a heathen-treating your own flesh and blood in that manner!¨ This quote depicts Nelly trying to bring morality into the house and shows her role of moral judge: deciding what is right and wrong. She later states that everyone hates Hindley: ¨You shall not meddle with him… He hates you-they all hate you- that's the truth!¨ Her goal is to get the point across that no one likes him when he acts so savagely and brutish. She plays the role of moral judge and shows him that his behavior is