I know a million people have already explained why continuously casting grown ass white men to play what’s most likely a romani or south-east asian teenager in every adaptation of Wuthering Heights is brainless at best and grotesque at worse, but here I come to piss on the dead horse with something that has more to do with subtext, rather than text.
The line: Nelly make me decent.
Every part of that 4word sentence is so deliberately chosen and so specific in its context, as spoken by a person of color.
First off, it’s the fact that it’s not a question, but an order. At that point Heathcliff’s position in the house has been reduced to no more than a servant, but he still ‘orders’ Nelly to fix him up, as would a man of the house, more so for his innate aggression and resignation, rather than a false sense of superiority.
Secondly, he calls her ‘Nelly’. Not Ellen, like how Cathy calls her in front of Edgar when she wants to appear like a proper mistress. It’s almost affectionate in its ever-present informality when it comes from Heathcliff, so it sort of strips the “command” of any real authority.
Then it’s the “make me”. He is not asking for “help” tidying himself, or for her to pick some clothes for him, or comb his hair. “Make me” is much more brutal, to the point, and efficient. Like he doesn’t know exactly what it is that will make him look better, specifically, and just wants to be “fixed” all around. ‘Make me’ removes all agency from Heathcliff, and places him entirely in the hands of Nelly, like he is a dog to be groomed.
And obviously “decent” is layered as well. In a more modern context, “decent” could also be something of a measurement. Something “good enough” or “okay” but not great by any means. Passable. Tolerable. Mediocre. But also, with the context of the era, “decent” also used to mean generally dressed or presentable. (ie: “don’t enter the room, i’m not decent” meaning im not wearing all my clothes).
But obviously, when Heathcliff is saying this, he is not naked, just in his normal, every day clothes that have been dirtied with mud and all sorts of stains associated with stable work. In this scene, for the first time, Heathcliff has come to perceive his default appearance as unsightly, but not something that can just be done away with a new set of clothes and a shave,, because part of his indecency, he realises, are his innate features. His status of birth.
The concept of people of color having to be “trained” or “tidied” or “cleaned up” to match their ‘betters’ has been around since forever. They have been told their appearances are inherently inferior. They can be helped with some grooming,, like clothes, and hair and a bath,, though it’s been hammered into them that will never measure up to the “real deal”. They can only ever afford to be “decent.” Not great, not beautiful, not handsome— just decent.
Nelly make me decent as in: Nelly tame me.
And it all means fucking nothing if Heathcliff looks like Jacob Elordi.