"Cliff Notes - Wuthering Heights" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cliff Notes)

only at a distance.

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS: THE NARRATORS: MR. LOCKWOOD,
ELLEN (NELLY) DEAN

Mr. Lockwood is the only real stranger to the moors.
Presumably, he has had a life more like yours than like
Heathcliff's or Cathy's. He's pleasant, courteous, and
educated. Because of this, you can see him as a representative
of ordinary, or conventional, judgment. Haven't you ever wanted
to be free of everyone, as he does in the beginning of the book?
And haven't you ever behaved as irrationally as he did when he
rejected the young lady as soon as she returned his affections?
So Lockwood's amazed horror at what happens when Heathcliff
takes these natural impulses to their limits is your amazement
and horror, too.

But there is another way to look at him. Since Emily Bronte
is constantly undercutting him, you can see him as cold (his
love problems, unlike Heathcliff's, stem from the young lady's
returning his feelings), insincere (despite his declared love
for solitude, he craves company and returns to Wuthering Heights
when it's clear he's not wanted), and arrogant (he assumes that
the younger Cathy doesn't fall in love with him because she
can't recognize "a better class of people").

Your perspective on Lockwood is especially important when you
read about his dream. He pulls the icy little hand of Cathy's
ghost across a jagged windowpane until blood soaks the
bedclothes. Certainly this is just as horrifying as anything
Heathcliff does in the book. You can see Lockwood as an average
person caught against his will in the violence of Wuthering
Heights, or you can view him as no better than any of the other,
wilder, characters in the story.

Ellen Dean's tempered, scolding tone is a counterpoint to the
passionate ravings in the story she tells. She's sensible,
pious without being fanatical, full of homespun wisdom, and
admits her faults. She belongs to the moors; her position is
never undercut the way Lockwood's is. Even Heathcliff respects
her.

Ellen tries to be fair, and often acts as the "bridge"
between the worlds of Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights.
She's the one who goes to see the newly married Heathcliffs;
she's the one who takes Linton, and then the younger Cathy, to
Wuthering Heights.

So why shouldn't you take her many opinions at face value?