The Characters of Wuthering HeightsAt first glance, Wuthering Heights shows us a conflict between a landlord, Heathcliff, and Mr. Lockwood. Heathcliff, one of the main characters of the novel, is portrayed as a sadistic and uncompromising tyrant, and arouses in Lockwood's character a desire to know more about his past. Bronte uses the character of Lockwood to implicate his main narrator, Nelly Dean. Nelly was a first-hand witness to Heathcliff's story and so tells the story, as she remembers it, to Lockwood. It becomes apparent very quickly, after the story begins, that Nelly Dean is the protagonist. She seems more than happy to stir up conflict, which goes a long way to keeping the story interesting and moving forward. Wuthering Heights is set in the “isolated moors of Yorkshire” (680), on that “dark peak” where “the earth was hard with black frost” (686). Almost all the characters in this story have a very cold and antagonistic side and Nelly introduces us to Catherine and Hindley, when they were children, on the eve of Heathcliff's entry into the family. Nelly seems to make this narration as simple as possible, but her feelings for Heathcliff cannot be concealed. When she went from playmate to nanny of the children during the measles episode, her feelings towards Hindley and Catherine hardened and she softened so much. towards Heathcliff that “Hindley has lost his last ally”. Heathcliff "was the quietest child a nurse ever looked after. The difference between him and the others forced me to be less biased. Cathy and her brother bullied me terribly, he was as imperturbable as a lamb..." (702). Nelly developed alternative feelings for Catherine: “she made us all run out of patience fifty times and more a day.” “She loved Heathcliff too much.” "In the game, she really enjoyed playing the little mistress... but I couldn't bear to slap and order; so I let her know" (704). The class distinction, after the measles, became a clear and hard line: Nelly, on the side of the servants with Joseph, and Catherine and Hindley, on the side of the servant owners. This further accelerated Nelly's malicious feelings towards Catherine when Mr. Earnshaw died. Hindley came home with a new wife, and Nelly was physically installed in the servants' quarters and Heathcliff was installed with the animals in the stables. In her story so far, Nelly has presented herself as a concerned family member who was ultimately relegated to where she knew she would end up anyway, a servant.