Villette

Bookworm. It’s something I have always been, even before I was interested in science and before I learned algebra (one of my absolute favorite things in the world). I read voraciously as a little kid, and although some of what I read was lit.-lite preteen stuff (think Ramona Quimby), for the most part, I stuck with the classics. Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Leo Tolstoy, the Bronte sisters - they were all my favorites (and remain so). My father encouraged me to read difficult books (rather than “fluff”) when I was as young as eight. Before my twelfth birthday, he promised to let me watch Lord of the Rings if I read the Hobbit and the entire trilogy beforehand. Talk about motivation - I finished everything in three weeks.

Jane Eyre I read when I was eleven and it was an instant favorite. I read some of Charlotte Bronte’s other books. When I came across Villette, I began reading it and finished about one fourth of the book before growing bored; I then broke the unspoken rule of reading, and peeked at the end of the story. I was furious to discover that the main character ended up with the short guy that I disliked intensely. I refused to read anymore of the book. About a year or so later, I picked up the book again and read it through in its entirety. Here is my personal take on it.

THE STORY
The protagonist, Lucy Snow, relating to the reader in first person, begins her story at age ten at which time she is residing with her godmother, Mrs. Bretton, Mrs. Bretton’s teenaged son John Graham Bretton, and a little girl named Paulina Mary who was given to Mrs. Bretton’s care.  We pick up with Lucy as an adult, who, after being forced to eek out a living on her own, leaves for Europe, and is hired as an English teacher by Madame Beck, the headmistress of a girls’ boarding school, Pensionnat de Demoiselles, in the city of Villette.  In the school, Lucy meets Ginevra Fanshawe, a vain, self-absorbed student.  Ginevra takes an interest in Lucy and makes her a confidante, relaying the various tales of her many suitors. 

As Lucy becomes acclimated to living in school, she meets Monsieur Paul Emmanuel, another teacher at the school.  He is a fiery, passionate, noble little man: temperamental and irascible but kind-hearted.  Though she respects him, Lucy initially finds M. Paul and his denunciations and reproofs annoying, but gradually develops a strong friendship with him.  In Lucy’s words, he “... was born honest, and not false – artless, and not cunning – a freeman, and not a slave...his devotedness, his sincere pious enthusiasm blinded his kind eyes sometimes, made him abandon justice to himself to do the work of craft, and serve the ends of selfishness.” M. Paul is around forty in the book - to me, that sounded slightly older than my grandfather, especially since likes twenty-four year old Lucy. Despite that, his personality is very amusing, and he is a much more fascinating character than, for example, the handsome, golden-haired John Bretton.

MY OPINION
So I have to admit, I loved Villette the second time around. It is beautifully constructed and more complex than some of Bronte’s other novels. Various subplots occur.  One of Ginevra’s suitors, “Dr. John,” is revealed to be Graham Bretton, who, at first enamored of her beauty, eventually glimpses her shallow and self-centered character, and rejects her.  Graham befriends Lucy in a particularly lonely and bleak period when she is apparently having some sort of hallucinations, and is able to cheer her up.  Another character is reintroduced when Graham helps save a young lady at a theatre, to find out that she is little Paulina grown into a lovely woman (they eventually get together).     

I honestly consider Villette Charlotte Bronte’s best novel; she skillfully crafted a masterpiece that perhaps outshines even Jane Eyre.  Though Jane Eyre had already revolutionized the literary world with its strong characterization of the female main character, Villette probed deeper into this concept of a woman standing firmly on her principles, wrestling with sorrow, loneliness and despondence and emerging victorious.

The situation and story of Villette is not as melodramatic as Jane Eyre, thus highlighting character development more than plot.  Whereas Jane’s childhood is a tempestuous onslaught of adversity and abuse, Lucy’s is a quieter swirl of sadness and neglect, flecked with a small measure of contentment.  As Lucy matures into adulthood, she is tentative, but displays strength, and will not compromise her morals simply to please others.  Calm resignation overlays her deeply feeling, defiant nature.  She seems to possess a reserved, albeit sardonic, nature, making her desperate outburst toward the end of the book quite powerful.  
THE

DESPERATE OUTBURST

The incident transpires after Lucy discovers that M. Paul, whom she now loves dearly, will be leaving for the West Indies on business. Madame Beck (the lady in charge of the girls’ boarding school), selfishly wanting M. Paul’s hand in marriage and intent on keeping Lucy from him, has contrived every conceivable device to prevent Lucy and Paul from seeing one another. A few days before Paul’s departure, the couple finally meet.  Just as Paul is about to tell Lucy something, Madame Beck intrudes and claims his attention.  Lucy, genuinely fearing that she will never see Paul again, “Pierced deeper than [she] could endure, made now to feel what defied suppression…,” releases her pent-up emotions with her poignant cry: “My heart will break!” This motivates Paul to action; he orders the domineering woman out of the room. Afterwards, Paul shows Lucy a cottage with a schoolroom he has made arrangements for her to live and teach in while he is gone and declares his feelings for her. “Lucy, take my love. One day share my life. Be my dearest, first on earth.”


WHAT’S INTERESTING

However, Villette is not bundled up nicely and neatly. Lucy does find happiness in her love for Monsieur Paul and is transformed beyond recognition by Paul’s love for her, but Bronte leaves the ending ambiguous for the reader to interpret whether Paul returns and marries her or dies on his voyage home in a violent storm.


MY CRITICISM

The only slightly annoying this is that many of the conversations are in French. This was fine for people living in 19th century Britain, but kind of inconvenient for me (even after I took a year of French). Maybe there are some versions of the book that have the translations. If so, it would be awfully nice to get my hands on.




OVERALL

Loved it, loved it, loved it. Throughout the novel, Bronte conveys isolation and sadness without causing us (her dedicated readers) to be depressed; rather, we empathize with Lucy in her struggles and partake of her joy.  The superior handiwork of Bronte is evident in the sharp, witty dialogue of Villette, blended with the melancholy, but ultimately hopeful, tone.

END