Re-Reading Wuthering Heights just to defend Nelly Dean - Part 2

So again, re-reading Wuthering Heights just to defend Nelly Dean from this "she's the real villain" nonsense (post one) and the thing that's occurring to me is that if anything, Nelly exaggerates her role in events. I don't think she has half as much influence as she thinks she has.

Yes, Nelly didn't tell Catherine that Heathcliff overheard her until he's already fled, but that guy was going to leave. Like maybe not that very night in a dramatic storm, but the causes for him leaving were inevitable. Catherine was already engaged to Linton. Heathcliff might have make Catherine feel worse if he stayed, but ultimately he can't beat Edgar in status or wealth and Cathy was never going to run off with him to live in poverty. Nelly only helped contribute to the Romantiscm of the whole thing.

Same with Cathy 1's illness. That woman was dead-set on breaking her heart to death, I'm not sure that earlier intervention could have helped a person who can will themselves into a brain fever. If the doctor was right and Cathy 1 just can't get that worked up, this conflict was going to kill her no matter what. Cathy 1 blames her death on Edgar and Heathcliff, Egdar ultimately blames Heathcliff. No one blames Nelly after the first day.

Nelly feels very badly about not telling Edgar about Isabella's elopement sooner, but given the head-start they had already and Edgar's chronic inability to actually do anything about Heathcliff on top of the fact that Catherine was so ill... they weren't getting Isabella back even if they tried. Nelly just saved them riding out for nothing. And Edgar's reaction when he finally finds out is to leave Isabella to her fate.

Even Cathy's secret relationship with Linton. Nelly doesn't tell Edgar about the letters or the first meeting at the Heights, but once Edgar gets the whole story, he figures the marriage is a good idea anyway because Linton is the legal heir to Thrushcross Grange. And Cathy 2 is completely determined to keep visiting this horrid dying cousin no matter what he does or anyone says to her, I really don't think Nelly could have stopped her. In the end, Edgar died before Linton, so Catherine would have lost her home either way.

For a woman who has been helplessly watching the people that she loves drive themselves to death, turn evil, and be ripped away from her care, without her being able to stop them, it kind of makes sense that she'd frame herself as being more in control as something of a coping mechanism. If only she had told Catherine sooner. If only she had believed that Cathy was sick earlier. If only she had told Edgar right away. If only she'd been able to stop Hindley from drinking himself to death. If only she could have stayed with Hareton. But in the end, she was always powerless.