Charlotte Brontë and Victorian mental sciences

Lucy's Journey to Villette

From the beginning of the story, Lucy proves to be a woman with a volatile temperament: she is determined, but at the same time conscious of being so alone and sad. Although she is so fragile and frightened, like a little bird, a flame burns inside her. She has a temperament with a strong willingness and stubbornness, full of hope: though the cloud of doubt would be as thick tomorrow as ever; the necessity of exertion more urgent, the peril (of destitution) nearer, the conflict (for existence) more severe. She decides to go to London first and then take a ship to "Labassecour" – that we could place in – although she can't speak French at all. After her arrival at the imaginary Villette, Lucy finds a job as a teacher with M.me Beck's school for girls. However, no one believes in her, first of all M.me Beck who controls her, spies her movements and rummages in Lucy's drawers, looking for who knows what inconvenient secret. Her stay in this.

girls' school brings Lucy in a vortex of events, between adventure and romance.⁵⁸

Charlotte Brontë, Villette, Oxford University Press, 1984, p. 71

By working at the school, Lucy meets the young doctor who takes care of the girls: the charming John, who treats her with extreme indifference, as if she was almost invisible. He is caught up in his love afflictions for one of the girl students, the gorgeous but cruel and flirty Ginevra, who has with Lucy a strange relationship. She looks for Lucy to talk to her, she asks for her advice, but at the same time, she taunts her, makes fun of her, judges her cold and incapable of any form of affection.

One feels tenderness and often can be outraged to read how the shy and reserved Lucy is treated as if she was invisible, insignificant. Lucy is surely sad about this, but she also has the opportunity to observe people with her innate perspicacity and attention.

The girl knows she has neither the looks nor the personality to attract the

Attention of others, especially men, and this inevitably makes her feel more alone and miserable. In these conditions, it is natural that she undergoes a kind of physical and mental illness that, although it is a negative thing, a sort of dividing line in Lucy's life at school because it will change many things. It will become at school, Lucy also finds herself often fighting against the literature professor, the crusty Monsieur Paul, an irritable little man with glasses, hostile towards English people, sharp and clever, but also a troublemaker and sexist. Lucy will have lively verbal skirmishes with him that, although they make her sad or angry, they will also make her feel alive, considered, appreciated, finally no longer invisible. Slowly, she begins to want to be his friend, while she falls in love with someone else. Page after page the reader will be submerged by Lucy's tormented thoughts and visions and will be engaged in small adventures that will be enriched with mysterious.

introspection and inner turmoil are particularly intense and captivating. The reader is drawn into the protagonist's inner world, feeling her conflicting emotions and desires. The use of vivid descriptions and poetic language adds depth and beauty to the narrative. Throughout the novel, the theme of societal expectations and the struggle for personal freedom is explored. The protagonist, torn between her desire for love and her fear of societal judgment, must navigate the complexities of Victorian society. The novel also delves into themes of identity, self-discovery, and the search for meaning in life. Overall, Villette is a compelling and thought-provoking novel that delves into the complexities of human emotions and the constraints of society. The use of various literary techniques and the richly developed characters make it a captivating read.loneliness and experiences at the limit of hallucinations and delirium, in which the descriptions of the natural environment abound, are the external representation of the protagonist's inner feelings, capable of passing from self-control and passivity to mood swings and nervous crisis, prostration and deep sadness.

The final pages are ambiguous, as if Lucy wants the reader to be free to imagine the ending, happy or tragic at his own discretion.

Lucy Snowe

When we start reading the first chapters of Villette, we do not know anything or very little about the protagonist. We know nothing about her parents or her family, or even what part of England she comes from. We do not even know her age and we can only assume she is Graham's age. All through the first three chapters we feel as if she is invisible, we know she belongs to the story because she is the one who tells us, but she is more like an outside observer. No one seems to talk to her, to take care of her.or take notice of her. What we know about her character, comes fromshe doesn’t possess Polly’s sensitivityher negative thoughts: or emotional nature because Lucydescribes it as different and difficult to bear in this harsh world.… How she will get through this world or battle with his life? How she will bear the shocks andrepulses, the humiliations and desolations, which books, and my own reason tell me are prepared for59all flesh?Finally, the impression we have from the first two scenes is that she is quiet, thoughtful and has athe Bretton’sphilosophical mind. She also appears to be passive, virtually invisible and cynical. Withan observer than a participant of the household’sfamily, Lucy exists on the margin, she is more likedomestic activities. After Lucy leaves the Brettons and all the components of her family die, she findsShe doesn’t fit ina job with Miss Marchmont to whom she becomes a companion and nursemaid.Bretton’s household,this

In this chapter, we see Lucy in an environment where she is treated like a servant and someone who will listen. She has a capacity and a sort of fatalism to deal with suffering and sadness. After leaving the Bretton's, it seems like she is making a grocery list, expecting suffering and not expecting any joy in her life.

The emotional battles Lucy faces are even more discouraging because of their realistic difficulties. Her rivals in love, Ginevra and Paulina, aren't completely despicable, and Lucy is lucid and mature enough to recognize their virtues and love them despite her jealousy. The enigmatic school mistress, Madame Beck, will certainly conspire against Lucy, but Lucy admires her willpower and leadership. Lucy's sensitivity and talent in manipulation are evident.

–facing ambiguity emerge in a novel that shows an affection towards its characters especially in–women and that does not pretend to impose models but underlines the positive sides and acceptsthe other characters’ negative ones. Brontë’s interest in ambiguity is so evident that even the factstold in Villette remain unsolved. Lucy’s complete loneliness seems to be broken by differenttragedies, but as already said, she hesitates to describe her sufferings directly, offering instead to thereader the possibility to believe in a better truth. Always in chapter four, the author skirts Lucy’s hugepersonal loss:… I will permit the reader to picture me for the next eight years, as a bark slumbering through–alcyon weather, in a harbour still as glass the steersman stretched on the little deck, his face up toheaven, his eyes closed: buried, if you will, in a long prayer. A great many women and girls are60supposed to pass their lives something

in that fashion; why not I with the rest? Although she tells us her pain, Lucy offers the readers a happy choice, giving us permission to read the story in a different way. We must decide whether to accept the truth of her pain or choose the pleasant path of stubborn ignorance. The novel finishes similarly with a puzzling ambiguity. In Jane Eyre, Brontë presents clear choices, while in Villette makes us work to understand, to formulate a moral judgement and even to determine what facts to accept as real. The finesse of Villette culminates in an ending that is revolutionary but that is skilfully minimized. In an instant, the author puts aside the plot of marriage and replaces it with the plot of a career and she does this very quickly. The modest Lucy finally finds love with Mr. Paul, an angry but caring school colleague, but he is sent abroad for many years before they can start a life together. Before leaving he promises to come back to her and help her to open her school. The school

flourishes and its success allows her to live independently. But suddenly Brontë insinuates that storm that happens on Paul’s ship, Lucy stops:

After describing a terribleHere pause: pause at once. There is enough said. Trouble no quiet, kind heart; leave sunnyimaginations hope. Let it be theirs to conceive the delight of joy born again fresh out of great terror,60 Charlotte Brontë, Villette, Oxford University Press, p. 42 25the rapture of rescue from peril, the wondrous reprieve from dread, the fruition of return. Let them61picture union and a happy succeeding life

It seems as if Brontë is giving us a lifeline, the fragile possibility of marital bliss for Lucy but the clear: Mr. Paul died during the shipwreck. Lucy doesn’t remain withoutmessage is very anythingbecause she has her school. The protagonist’s story is not built on a marriage, but on her satisfactionsobtained through her work.

Finally, the

Author gives us the vision of a single successful woman, also incarnated by Madame Beck. Where Jane Eyre wavered, Villette challenges the readers to imagine a valid path for a female character that doesn't end in marriage.

Polly

Polly, whose name is Paulina Mary Home de Bassompierre, is a beautiful young lady who marries Bretton. She first appears in the story as a lonely, small girl who arrives at the Bretton's house Doctor because her father, Mr. Home, is forced to leave to recover from his depression.

Polly embodies Lucy's disdain for public displays of emotion in public. She's a little porcelain doll made of sugar, spice, and everything nice, except there's no spice, it's only sugar, lots of sugar. She's so sickly sweet. She's described consistently as a 'doll', and that is really the best way to describe her, since she literally is just a little perfect doll to be manipulated and moved by the men around her... She appeared

exceedingly tiny; but wa