Comment on the type of narration techniques used in Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte? Is Nelly only a narrator?

Essay by mikhlafyUniversity, Bachelor'sA+, February 2004

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Wuthering Heights is the only novel written by the Victorian writer, Emily Bronte besides her poems. It is one of the most passionate and heartfelt novels. It is also, considered highly original and deeply tragic. This novel is about the relation between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, the orphan boy brought to Wuthering Heights, and his tyrannical revenge excited on everybody for the rage and humiliation he suffers throughout his life.

The novel is based on a group of flashbacks which are organized chronologically and told by a number of narrators. Each participates in the part which conveys the theme most efficiently. So, the type of narration used throughout the novel is first person point of view. However, the writer does not intrude in the narration to give any enlightenment about any character or event, nor does she comment on anything. We learn a lot about the nature, morals, and social class of each character indirectly through their narration and comments.

Emily leaves us totally in the hands of her narrator characters, through the absence of her authorial intervention. This novel is mainly narrated by Nelly; the house keeper at both houses where the novel takes place; Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange. However, she follows a symmetrical pattern of narration by having the same narrator in the beginning and at the end of the novel. But also, other characters take part in narration occasionally. Each character differs greatly from the others and we perceive their personality and morals through each different narration language.

The first narrator we encounter upon beginning the novel is Mr. Lockwood; a tenant at Thrushcross Grange. This narrator is a flat unchanging character with a minor role which is to introduce us to the novel. He narrates the opening chapters of the novel, the last...