Nelly Dean is the housekeeper and principal storyteller who tells most of the history of *Wuthering Heights* to Mr. Lockwood.
The novel uses a framed narrative. Lockwood, the new tenant at Thrushcross Grange, initially describes his visits to Wuthering Heights and his unsettling encounter with Heathcliff. After Lockwood becomes ill, Nelly visits him and recounts the earlier events involving the Earnshaw, Linton, and Heathcliff families.
Nelly is not the only voice in the novel. Lockwood remains the outer narrator, while Nelly’s account contains reported speech, memories, diary entries, and occasional sections connected with other characters. This layered structure can make the story feel like a series of testimonies rather than a straightforward third-person narrative.
Readers sometimes confuse Nelly with Catherine Earnshaw, whose diary Lockwood discovers, or with Joseph, the servant at Wuthering Heights. Nelly’s full name is Ellen Dean, but “Nelly Dean” is the standard form used in the question and in most discussions of the novel.