MY CLASSIC - VILLETTE

I've just finished reading Villette by Charlotte Bronte and honestly I don't really know how to feel about it. It was hard to get into, it was time commitment, it was slow paced, very introspective, but it was intriguing.

Villette tells the story of Lucy Snowe, and girl at the beginning of the story who, at 14, has experienced great loss. The losses she has suffered in the past are never detailed, but they are clearly integral to Lucy's psyche and therefore the story; Villette is very much a story of the inner turmoil Lucy experiences throughout her life as a result of dealing, or not dealing, with losing her family.

The story opens with Lucy staying with her godmother and her godmother's son Graham, the Brettons of Bretton. Also a resident in the house at the time is another young girl, Polly, who was seemingly dumped upon the Brettons while her father dealt with the death of his wife. During this time, Lucy is very much an observer; it is unclear to the reader who the female protagonist of the novel will be. However, once this little party at Bretton breaks up, the reader follows Lucy on her path towards whatever it is she is looking for, escape perhaps.

First she ensconces herself with an old, invalid lady, acting as companion until the lady's death. Next Lucy travels to London, where on a whim she boards a boat to France. On the journey to France she meets Ginevra Fanshawe, who mentions in passing the school she attends and a vacancy for an English speaking teacher. Words spoken casually by Ginevra lead Lucy to the town of Villette and a school run by Madame Beck, who takes her in and employs her.

The past that Lucy is perhaps trying to forget has an uncanny way of emerging in Villette; Lucy is soon reunited with Dr. John Graham Bretton, her godmother Mrs. Bretton, and Polly and her father (now a rich count going by a different name). Lucy seems to have mixed feelings about all of these people returning to her life; she relishes their company while in it, but she never seems to want to become to close to any of them. She keeps herself isolated throughout the novel. At points I questioned her sanity as she experiences a sort of mental breakdown and seemingly has several run ins with the ghost of a nun.

In addition to her mental turmoil, Lucy also comes into a lot of flak for her religion. Villette seems to be quite the Catholic town, as a Protestant she is seen as quite the oddity; people don't quite know what to think of her. A fellow teacher at Madame Beck's school, M. Paul Emanuel, tries, unsuccessfully, throughout to convince her to convert to Catholicism. This is, apparently, a constant point of strife in their relationship.

Villette seems like a very personal novel. The reader is constantly in the head of Lucy Snowe, privy to all of her whims, fears, neuroses; the reader sees happiness within her reach and watches her continually let is slip away due to her seemingly overwhelming doubts about her own worth, first in her relationship with John Bretton and then in her relationship with Paul Emanuel.

Despite the personal success Lucy manages to achieve for herself (she begins the novel with nothing, a poor orphan, and ends as the Directrice of a school), is not a particularly uplifting or happy novel. I think someone could make quite the study of the mental state of Lucy Snowe, she seems to be a character begging to be analyzed ad infinitum. I personally chose not to analyze the flaws in her character and the coarse her life took because of those flaws anymore and instead take her advice, "let them picture union and a happy succeeding life." And since I love a happy ending, this is what I will do.