It's interesting that in your discussion, you mentioned about her having pre-eclampsia. That totally makes sense since that's when she descends into madness and gets sick, dying at childbirth right after it. I also feel Nelly was somewhat envious of Cathy, since she was wealthy but didn't behave like a lady. Nelly is a devout Christian, strong to her faith, while portraying Cathy & Heathcliff the opposite of all good things. There's a part where Cathy reminds her that she's not the lady of the house as well: "You are not the mistress of Wuthering Heights, nor will you ever be, Miss Catherine!". There is enough evidence that Nelly under the pretext of being a nice housemaid, and a supportive character has sabotaged Cathy & Healthcliff many times. She never signaled Cathy when she knew Heathcliff was listening into their conversation about Linton proposing to her, and letting him run away from the Heights.Another evidence when she chose not to share Heathcliff & Cathy's interactions with Linton and keep it all hidden. In the book, it appears that Nelly is helping to ease the tensions, but probably is aggravating it more. This was an interesting conversation, thanks for posting it. I had the chance to review it myself recently, here's the article: https://chaosandpoetry.substack.com/p/what-heathcliffs-toxicity-tells-more
It's interesting that in your discussion, you mentioned about her having pre-eclampsia. That totally makes sense since that's when she descends into madness and gets sick, dying at childbirth right after it. I also feel Nelly was somewhat envious of Cathy, since she was wealthy but didn't behave like a lady. Nelly is a devout Christian, strong to her faith, while portraying Cathy & Heathcliff the opposite of all good things. There's a part where Cathy reminds her that she's not the lady of the house as well: "You are not the mistress of Wuthering Heights, nor will you ever be, Miss Catherine!". There is enough evidence that Nelly under the pretext of being a nice housemaid, and a supportive character has sabotaged Cathy & Healthcliff many times. She never signaled Cathy when she knew Heathcliff was listening into their conversation about Linton proposing to her, and letting him run away from the Heights.Another evidence when she chose not to share Heathcliff & Cathy's interactions with Linton and keep it all hidden. In the book, it appears that Nelly is helping to ease the tensions, but probably is aggravating it more. This was an interesting conversation, thanks for posting it. I had the chance to review it myself recently, here's the article: https://chaosandpoetry.substack.com/p/what-heathcliffs-toxicity-tells-more