Nelly’s dislike of Catherine contrasts sharply with Edgar’s nearly unconditional positive regard for his wife. Nelly’s role in Catherine’s life was different from Edgar’s, and she got a more unrestricted view of Catherine. This difference contributed most greatly to the disparity in the attitudes that the two characters possessed. Both Edgar and Nelly experienced hardship at the hand of Catherine, Edgar perhaps more so, but even as Catherine’s personality changed, neither would give up their conceptions of Catherine. The only major similarity between Edgar and Nelly’s attitudes, then, was their unwillingness to recognize change in Catherine of any sort.