Analysis of Brontë's Villette
Charlotte Brontës Villette, which is loosely based on the authors time as a student in Brussels, Belgium, is a first-person narrative of development, with Lucy Snowe at its center, both as protagonist and as a sometimes unreliable narrator. In the course of the novel, Lucy grows from a shadowy, self-effacing adolescent into an independent, self-possessed woman, learning to live her own life and tell her own story. She narrates that story from within the framework of the conventional female narratives of domestic or romantic love even while her story critiques those conventions.
The novel moves about her decisions in life and the courses of action she takes in order to either better herself or get away from something. In her living a troubled past in England she takes shelter in France to start a new life. (Retrieved from http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC00096/villette1.html)The novels first two scenes, which are centered on other characters, reveal Lucy as passive, virtually invisible, and cynical. At the Bretton home, Lucy exists on the margin, and she observes and describes the households domestic activities rather than participating in them herself. The lives and loves of Mrs. Bretton, her son Graham, and little Polly Home are the central focus. After Lucy leaves the Brettons and is orphaned by the deaths of her own family, she again experiences life vicariously through Miss Marchmont, a wasted woman for whom Lucy is a companion and nursemaid. In neither place does Lucy feel a part of the scene, and in both places she is treated as little more than a hand to serve and an ear to listen. Lucy is defined, and she defines herself, within the narrow confines of her duties to others.
It is at Madame Becks school in Villette that Lucys struggle for independence and self-definition begins. Here, despite the restrictions of being female, she first encounters the opportunity to distinguish herself in opposition to those conventional restrictions. Adamantly Protestant and unable
The novel moves about her decisions in life and the courses of action she takes in order to either better herself or get away from something. In her living a troubled past in England she takes shelter in France to start a new life. (Retrieved from http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC00096/villette1.html)The novels first two scenes, which are centered on other characters, reveal Lucy as passive, virtually invisible, and cynical. At the Bretton home, Lucy exists on the margin, and she observes and describes the households domestic activities rather than participating in them herself. The lives and loves of Mrs. Bretton, her son Graham, and little Polly Home are the central focus. After Lucy leaves the Brettons and is orphaned by the deaths of her own family, she again experiences life vicariously through Miss Marchmont, a wasted woman for whom Lucy is a companion and nursemaid. In neither place does Lucy feel a part of the scene, and in both places she is treated as little more than a hand to serve and an ear to listen. Lucy is defined, and she defines herself, within the narrow confines of her duties to others.
It is at Madame Becks school in Villette that Lucys struggle for independence and self-definition begins. Here, despite the restrictions of being female, she first encounters the opportunity to distinguish herself in opposition to those conventional restrictions. Adamantly Protestant and unable
Cited: llott, Miriam, ed. Charlotte Brontë: Jane Eyre and Villette: A Casebook. London: Macmillan, 1973, p78-111. Allott, Miriam, ed. The Brontës: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974, p100-115.