Why is Nelly Dean the main narrator?

Nelly is a servant with access and judgment — close enough to see everything, invested enough to shape the story, and conventional enough to moralize. Lockwood’s frame needs her because he cannot understand the Heights alone. Through Nelly, Brontë filters passion through a voice that keeps calling it improper.

That filtering is part of the meaning. Readers must decide when Nelly is reliable and when she is protecting her own role in the disasters. The narrative structure — Lockwood listening to Nelly listening to Isabella — matches a novel about houses that mishear each other. Use this question to send readers back into the storytelling chapters rather than treating the plot as a transparent chronicle.