How Bronte Presents The Character Of Cathy

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Bronte presents Cathy as a very talkative child when she uses Nelly’s narrative voice to mention how Cathy’s tongue was “always going”. The fact that Bronte used the tongue as the subject gives the image that her tongue had a life of its own; perhaps she said things without thinking or babbled uselessly. This could also mean that she made no exception to who she talked to as she constantly talked. As the tongue is the subject it helps to support this point as it seems that the tongue has no prejudice against Heathcliff which may’ve resulted in Cathy’s close relationship with him. Bronte describes Cathy’s relationship with Heathcliff as “much too fond”. However, as it is said in Nelly’s narrative voice, this could be very biased as the phrase shows Nelly’s disapprovement of the relationship, making her a fallible narrator. Cathy was obviously close to Heathcliff even though she was “chided more than any of [them] on his account”. This hints that perhaps Cathy was mischievous with Heathcliff resulting in her telling off. Her mischievousness could’ve been influenced or even encouraged by Heathcliff. As Nelly narrates that the greatest punishment for her was to keep them separate, it shows that she found nothing wrong with the relationship even as other (Nelly) frowned upon it. Bronte also describes Cathy’s spirits as “always at high-water mark”. The phrase “high-water mark” gives the image of a high tide. One would expect the tide to go down sooner or later but “always” makes it sound as if Cathy was always hyper-active. This again could be hyperbole as Nelly’s fallible narrative voice narrates it and also she was the one who had to try and tame her and clean up her messes, which could make her biased. This could also mean that Cathy was very passionate; she may not necessarily have been always happy but she may have been passionate in her anger meaning she would have

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