Charlotte Brontë’s Villette is a novel that follows the life of Lucy Snow. Lucy is a woman who goes through life in isolation, which eventually causes her to fall into a deep depression. This novel has been my favorite one we have read in this class because I thought Lucy was an extremely interesting character to read about. Some of my favorite aspects were the unreliableness of Lucy as a narrator, the nun character, and I also found the French interesting.
Lucy Snow is a very interesting character, especially the way she narrates the novel. I found Lucy to be an extremely unreliable narrator, especially the way in which she presented “new” characters. The two main characters that she misrepresents to the readers are Dr. John vs Graham, and Polly vs Paulina. Lucy deicides to not let the reader know that these two characters have two different names that she calls them by, instead she lets the readers think that they are all different characters. The fact that Lucy does this with her characters makes me want to reread the novel with the knowledge that I have now, regarding who these characters are. Another character that she withholds information of who they are is Professor Paul Emanuel. Lucy seems to describe this one character as two characters, Professor Paul and Professor Emanuel. I thought these were two characters until late in the book when he says his full name, “All I say to you, Miss Lucy Snow, is—that you ought to treat Professor Paul Emanuel decently” (323). When I read that line, I was very surprised because when she talked about Professor Paul and Professor Emanuel, she would describe them in such different ways, even to a degree that she would appear to like one more than the other. Therefore, I was completely fooled by her into thinking they were two different characters. Because Lucy is such an unreliable narrator in this way, she kept me on my feet because I was not sure what to believe and what not to believe. Once again, after knowing all of these characters are the same people, I would love to reread this book.
The nun character was very intriguing in this book. The way that the nun would randomly show up when Lucy was in a heightened emotional state made me feel like she might have some sort of mental illness, like schizophrenia. Because that was my thought process for the longest time, I was anxious for the nun to return so that I could read what would go through Lucy’s mind when she would see it. This excitement was a lot more for me that with Jane Eyre and the unknown “supernatural” being. The reason for that is because I never thought that Jane Eyre was crazy, but for a while I thought Lucy was. This created a difference in how I felt about the nun vs. the supernatural monster, because I find mental illness for interesting than a supernatural being. However, I did find it funny that in both Jane Eyre and Villette Brontë in the end reveals that there is a realistic explanation for the nun and supernatural monster. When I read that the nun was Ginevra’s boyfriend in a nun costume, I laughed out loud because I realized I should have known Brontë was going to pull the rug out from under my feet just like she did with Jane Eyre.
The amount of French in Villette was interesting. At first, I was very frustrated by it because of the inconvenience of having to flip to the back of the book every five minutes. Although the more I read and got used to it, I began to appreciate Brontë’s choice in having so much French in this novel. Having to translate the French was a great way to imagine how Lucy felt when she first moved to France and created an appreciation for her adventurous decision to leave England and move to France, even though she did not speak any French. Another aspect of the French that I enjoyed was a few time Lucy would address the reader and tell them that she is telling us in French for a certain reason, for example if the words were mean and she did not want to say them in English.
Charlotte Brontë’s Villette is a novel that I really enjoyed and that I know I will read again. The way that Brontë portrayed Lucy Snow was amazing and interesting. Lucy being an unreliable narrator made this novel one that the reader needs to pay attention to details in order to tell if she is withholding information, particularly with the characters. Overall, this novel was exciting and a super interesting read.
Work Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Villette. Edited by Dr. Sally Minogue. Wordsworth Classics, 1993.
