Throughout Villette, Lucy has two potential suitors—Dr. John Graham Bretton and Monsieur Paul Emmanuel. Although initially her devotion takes a decided course, her affections for each man takes a pivotal turn roughly midway through the novel in Volume II.
Prior to this turning point, in Volume I, the reader senses Lucy’s affection for Graham in the flippant manner she adopts to describe Paulina “Polly” Home during their concurrent visit at Bretton. As the novel progresses, Lucy slyly observes Dr. John while he ministers to residents at Madame Beck’s penssionate; however, she withholds his true identity from the reader until she falls ill and is forced to recover in the home of Mrs. Louis Bretton and her son, Graham—Dr. John. For a lengthy interval, Lucy gravitates towards Dr. John, accepting five letters from him as well as invitations to outings to the theater and art museums. The letters she receives from him are “the letter[s] of [her] hope, the fruition of [her] wish, the release from [her] doubt, the ransom from [her] terror… a morsel of real solid joy” (265). Meanwhile, Lucy and M. Paul introduced when Lucy is forced to substitute for an actress in M. Paul’s play who falls ill on Madame Beck’s fete day. They interact frequently and often capriciously at the school on Rue Fossette. M. Paul is constantly the pedantic master who instructs Lucy in all manner of Labassecouerian learning, as well as the recurrently hotheaded friend whom Lucy constantly frustrates.
In the chapter entitled “The Hotel Crecy” of Volume II, during a party in the home of M. de Bassompierre, Dr. John remembers Polly’s childhood attachment to him at Bretton and appeals to Lucy Snowe to aid him in his endeavor to renew Paulina’s interests. Lucy refuses. Along the way of his request, Graham tells Lucy that, were she a man, they would be best friends, for “[their] opinions would have melted into each other” (349). Lucy contrarily questions his statement, wondering if the very opposite would not be true. “We may see the same objects,” Lucy replies, “yet we estimate them differently” (349). He then reveals his ignorance of Lucy’s true character by deeming her “a being inoffensive as a shadow” (351). Evidently, despite the copious amount of time they have spent together, Dr. John has remained ignorant of Lucy’s true feelings for him—unobservant of her frustrations, her pent-up passions and desires. Suddenly, the eaves dropping M. Paul appears and contradicts Dr. John’s words, revealing his depth of knowledge of his protégée and colleague, Lucy Snowe. She describes him as “the sudden boa-constrictor” as he violently terms her a flirt, a coquette with fire in her soul and lightning in her eyes (352). Though he exaggerates because of his jealousy toward Graham, M. Paul discloses in his insult that he sees Lucy in a much truer light. These two statements from her potential suitors at the end of Volume II serve as a turning point for the romance of Lucy Snowe. Not only do they initially alter how she spends her time, but also affect the rest of her life.
By way of concretely terminating her former passions for Graham, Lucy decides almost immediately to bury his previously treasured letters in a sealed jar in a tree stump. Along with his letters, Lucy buries all but familial affections for the man she once obsessively loved. “In all this,” writes Lucy, “I had a dreary something—not pleasure—but a sad, lonely satisfaction” (328). During the ensuing relationship that develops between Lucy and M. Paul, Dr. John quickly fades from Lucy’s scope of thought and consideration. As time goes on and the novel draws to a close, Lucy achieves a sort of indifference that allows her to listen without envy to Paulina’s commendations of Dr John (412-418). When Graham and Paulina develop a romance without any outside help and decide to marry, Lucy ultimately acts, not unhappily, as a mediator between the couple and M. de Bassompierre (472-483).
On the other hand, a romance blossoms between Lucy Snowe and M. Paul during the remaining volume of Villette. Not only does he tutor and converse with her every day, but they interact as friends as well. When, once, Lucy Snowe begins to make a man’s watch guard, M. Paul becomes frightfully incensed because he envies the unknown recipient, whom he wrongly believes to be Dr. John (366-368). Not only is their relationship built largely around jealousy and passion, but it has several other odd conventions as well. M. Paul is always snooping in Lucy’s things, as well as filling her desk with chocolates and a variety of literature. Next, they are constantly annoying one another. For example, on M. Paul’s fete day, after everyone has given him a present, M. Paul is angry because Lucy has offered him nothing. She, however, is quite annoyed at his impatience, and therefore withholds out of spite the watch guard she had always intended to give him (376-385). Oddly, Lucy and M. Paul also spend a significant amount of time trying to convert one another. In “The Apple of Discord,” they discuss her Protestantism versus his Catholicism at length. Then, for a time, M. Paul completely avoids Lucy because his mentor, Pere Silas, instructs him not to consort with Protestants who refuse to convert. Although neither converts, they reach an accord to accept one another’s nonconformity.
Towards the end of the novel, in the chapter entitled “The Dryad”, M. Paul reveals to Lucy that he too sees the mysterious Nun-apparition, and uses this revelation as a venue to express his affection for Lucy (407). His words to her sharply contrast with Graham’s earlier reference to Lucy as being “inoffensive as a shadow” (351). M. Paul goes beyond the surface level of who Lucy is and why he is attracted to her and points out the kindred nature of their spirits. Unlike Dr John, he acknowledges that they do not see everything through the same lens, pointing out their differences of faith as an example. However, in hopes of proving to Lucy that they are meant to be together, he notes that they have similar faces, implementing the Victorian ideals of physiognomy and phrenology as further proof of their similar destinies. He sees the Nun as further connection between them, and even goes so far as to claim possession of Lucy, saying, “I perceive all this, and believe that you were born under my star…where that is the case with mortals, the threads of their destinies are difficult to disentangle” (407).
When M. Paul decides that he must leave Villette and travel, Lucy becomes overwrought at the prospect of losing her only love. However, just when her only chance at human love seems to be fading and the world to be conspiring against her, M. Paul reveals that he has lovingly arranged for Lucy to have her own home and school to work from until his return three years hence, at which time they are to be married. Before taking his leave of her, M. Paul at last declares his love to his “coquette,” saying, “Lucy, take my love. One day share my life. By my dearest, first on earth”(541).
In conclusion, Dr John’s fateful words that deem Lucy “as inoffensive as a shadow” terminate all affection that Lucy has for him, while M. Paul’s subsequent determination that she is a “coquette” creates the spark that ignites the flames of passion for the two teachers. The conversations at Hotel Crecy serve not only as a turning point in Lucy’s romance, but also as pivotal moment that redirects the remaining course of the novel.
Works Cited
Brontë, Charlotte. Villette (Penguin Classics). New York: Penguin Classics, 2004. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment