In this passage from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Nelly Dean describes the violent acts demonstrated by Hindley Earnshaw attempting to make her swallow the carving-knife and dropping Hareton from top of the staircase while he was drunk. Bronte uses literary techniques such as dialogue, comparison, and simile to reveal Nelly’s biasedness, protectiveness, and peacekeeping. Since Nelly is narrating in 1st person point of view in the novel, so it is debatable whether certain events are accurate and reveals her to be an unreliable narrator.
Nelly compares Mr.Earnshaw in two extremities. She explains that Hareton “ran a chance of being squeezed and kissed to death, and in the other of being flung into the fire or dashed against the wall him when he ran a chance of being squeezed ...dashed against the wall” by his drunk father, Hindley. This reveals that Nelly exaggerates
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Nelly tries to make Hindley guilty after he gets worried whether Hareton was injured after falling into Heathcliff's arms and realizes his actions were unacceptable by saying “If he’s not killed, he'll be an idiot. Oh! O wonder his mother does not rise from her grave to see how you use him. You’re worse than a heathen-treating your own blood in that manner.” This shows that she is trying to be justifiable and advocating for what is right. Nelly tries to stop Hindley from drinking after the chaotic event by advising him “Nay, Don’t!..do take warning. Have mercy on the unfortunate boy, if you care nothing for yourself!” Her character is painted as a person who wants to maintain peace in the family and the drinking will ruin them all together, however, Hindley refuses. Nelly is portrayed as a counselor who is advising what is best for the entire family. Since she is narrating, she has control over how she interprets events that took place and how she makes Lockwood perceive her are as an extremely justifiable person as she tells him the