Wuthering Heights is presented from a number of different points of view. The first narrator is John Lockwood, who offers first-person narration. Readers are given Lockwood’s perspective on people, places, and events and are limited to learning information along with him. Lockwood’s arrogant and self-absorbed perspective makes him unreliable; for example, he reflects on how he “must beware how I cause her to regret her choice,” assuming that Cathy Linton will be attracted to him. Lengthy sections of the novel are narrated by Nelly Dean as a first-person retrospective as she recalls her memories of the past. However, it is still Lockwood who compiles and records what he hears from Nelly, and he admits to telling it “in her own words, only a little condensed,” which implies he omits some of what Nelly tells him. Nelly is also an unreliable narrator in that she has strong biases and emotional attachments to the characters she talks about.

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