The function of Nelly Dean and the Dog in chapter 12 in Wuthering Heights

Essay from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 2, University of Freiburg (Englisches Seminar), course: Proseminar I 'The Brontës', 1 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The happenings in the given excerpt from Wuthering Heights, written by Emily Brontë, bring about an important turn in the action of the novel. It first describes a scene in Catherine Linton's room at Thrushcross Grange. After a quarrel between Heathcliff, Edgar Linton and Catherine, Catherine drives herself extremely mad to the point where she becomes mentally and physically ill. Nelly Dean is the narrator of the passage, she both observes and is involved in the action herself. As she witnesses how helpless Edgar Linton is - uncertain of what to think or do for his wife, Nelly calls the doctor in the village. As Nelly passes the garden to reach the road, she makes a terrifying discovery: Isabella Linton's springer Fanny is hung on a bridle hook, almost 'at its last gasp' (Brontë 1847: 144). Nelly releases Fanny, wondering who was capable of committing such a crime, and as she sets off to reach the doctor, she hears horses galloping in the distance. Both the dog itself and the action of its hanging have a symbolic meaning. That the dog is a symbol reflecting Isabella Linton and that Fanny's hanging represents Heathcliff's diabolical hate and brutality, shall be focused on in my essay through having a closer look at the characters of Isabella Linton and Heathcliff and by interpreting the given excerpt. I will start by analysing the role of Nelly Dean before moving on to symbolism and the function the excerpt has in the frame of the whole story.

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