Wuthering Heights (novel)/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions

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** Well, if that's what Emily Bronte meant, go, Nelly!
** Well, if that's what Emily Bronte meant, go, Nelly!
*** No, not that sort of experience. (Well, that too, just not always.) While unmarried females mostly remained Misses, senior servants would be addressed as Mrs., even though, by necessity, they would remain single. By the time Little Cathy is old enough to notice, Nelly is the housekeeper of the Grange. Housekeepers were bosses of large numbers of staff, often including some men if there was no butler or steward (and there doesn't seem to be.) They were always called Mrs. out of deference to their senior position in that mini-society. (They also usually weren't young, although Nelly comes to that job early, thanks to her connection with Catherine.) 'Professed' (i.e. trained) cooks were also called Mrs., as they had a highly skilled job.
*** No, not that sort of experience. (Well, that too, just not always.) While unmarried females mostly remained Misses, senior servants would be addressed as Mrs., even though, by necessity, they would remain single. By the time Little Cathy is old enough to notice, Nelly is the housekeeper of the Grange. Housekeepers were bosses of large numbers of staff, often including some men if there was no butler or steward (and there doesn't seem to be.) They were always called Mrs. out of deference to their senior position in that mini-society. (They also usually weren't young, although Nelly comes to that job early, thanks to her connection with Catherine.) 'Professed' (i.e. trained) cooks were also called Mrs., as they had a highly skilled job.
*** It's been generally forgotten, but "Mrs." is an abbreviation for "Mistress", and wasn't always an honorific specific to married women.
* Indirect evidence: If Nelly was Hareton's wetnurse, she'd probably been pregnant at some point to have been able to lactate. So if we don't hear about either a husband or any surviving children, it could just be she doesn't tell Lockwood about her own family.
* Indirect evidence: If Nelly was Hareton's wetnurse, she'd probably been pregnant at some point to have been able to lactate. So if we don't hear about either a husband or any surviving children, it could just be she doesn't tell Lockwood about her own family.
** Given the rest of the cast's frequent encounters with high-mortality diseases, it could just be the rest of her family's dead. I guess that also counts as [[Fridge Horror]].
** Given the rest of the cast's frequent encounters with high-mortality diseases, it could just be the rest of her family's dead. I guess that also counts as [[Fridge Horror]].
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