Not Quite a Stoic

"If life be a war, it seemed my destiny
to conduct it single-handed (296).
Charlotte Brontë's Villette (1853)

Points for Reflection

C. Brontë's Villette (1853), chps 1-7

1. at what points does Lucy draw attention to the artifice of storytelling and, more explicitly, the possible inaccuracy or incompleteness of what she relays to the reader?
2. Lucy is obviously a close observer of others, one interested deeply in human psychology (30-31, 38, etc.)  Does she prove an able amateur psychologist, one capable of understanding those she assesses?
3. as a young girl, Lucy Snow visits her godmother, Mrs. Bretton (in the village of Bretton), about twice a year and “well . . . liked the visit” (5 top).  Ten years later, her life has changed so dramatically that she dislikes remembering the happier times.  What do you think changed in the interim?  She’s quite unwilling to divulge, directly, any details about this important personal tragedy.
4. Lucy appears quite attuned to changes in the weather (7, 38, 43, 109).  Do wind and storm frighten her, or delight her?
5. why might Brontë have given so many odd features to little Polly Home?
6. does Polly/Paulina have some special connection to the dead?
7. is Lucy constrained by social expectations concerning female mobility and vulnerability?
8. Paulina at one points asks Lucy if she is “‘a wise person’” (33).  What answer does the novel itself provide (thus far) to this pointed question?
9. does Lucy configure Fate/Destiny as a benevolent or hostile entity, a soothing or anxiety-provoking presence?
10. when and why does Lucy seek out solitude?  What types of situations prove capable of drawing her out of her native quiescence?
11. does Lucy’s rational-emotive approach to life—whereby she attempts to dispassionately process intense feelings—serve her and others well?
12. is Lucy correct in her affirmation that she is, herself, “guiltless of that curse, an overheated and discursive imagination” (12)?
13. comparing herself to Polly Home, Lucy maintains that she has a “cooler temperament,” one “secured from participation in . . . angular vagaries” (13).  Is Lucy, indeed, the proud owner of a cool temperament?
14. does Lucy evince confidence or anxiety following Miss Marchmont’s death?
15. does Lucy see herself as a viable candidate for romance?  Is she even interested?
16. is little Paulina’s deference to sixteen-year-old Graham Bretton implicitly mocked or subtly idealized?

C. Brontë's Villette (1853), chps 8-14

1. what fundamental differences between the English and the Belgians (“Labassecouriennes”) does Charlotte Brontë explore through Lucy’s experiences and perspective?  Does the novel treat the two cultures as equals, or place one above the other?
2. what type of education does Madame Beck provide the young charges at her school?  Does her system resemble in any particulars that which you received?
3. what of Isidore’s deference to Ginevra Fanshawe?  Laudable or risible?
4. is Madame Beck’s affection for Dr. John romantic in nature?
5. does Lucy admire Madame Beck?
6. what criticisms does Lucy lob at Belgian Catholicism?
7. consider those moments where Lucy confronts her own reflection (145, 166, 207, 209).  Do the mirrors before her either reveal or hide important truths about herself?
8. does the novel construct the immaterial mind (and/or soul) and the body as discrete entities which orbit one another but never intersect each other’s path?
9. do acts of physiognomy (reading one’s character in their facial features) carry weigh in this novel, or is this practice implicitly interrogated?
10. what new evidence does Brontë provide that Lucy consciously withholds information from the reader?
11. does Lucy engage in either conscious or unconscious self-deception?
12. how does Lucy’s response to wind and storm during the school’s eight-week vacation (157) compare to her earlier interactions with intense winds (7, 38, 43, 109)?
13. is it possible that Lucy’s dislike of St. Pierre owes anything to sublimated jealousy?

C. Brontë's Villette (1853), chps 15-21

1. is Lucy willing to peer beyond the grip of inexorable Fate to catch a glimpse of Hope?
2. should we fault Lucy for her inability to compassionately care for Marie Broc, the “crétin” (156-58)?
3. is Lucy capable of recognizing any positive elements in Catholicism?
4. how does one reconcile Lucy’s independence of thought and imagination with her desire to be “owned” (160) and her comfort yielding to another’s “patronage” (172)?
5. is Lucy’s relative solitude self-enforced: does she hold such high standards for intimacy that she essentially prevents herself from forming friends?
6. why does Lucy find it so difficult to consider herself lovable?
7. does Lucy identify emotion and reason as adversaries, or partners?
8. what is that softer “spirit” or “good angel” (230) which sometimes relieves Lucy of her from Reason’s hard edicts?
9. what does Lucy’s experience with acting reveal to herself? Is this similar to what the reader realizes, or does our own epiphany differ from Lucy’s?
10. should we consider Lucy a connoisseur, lover, or friend of the arts?
11. is Lucy—ever attentive to Truth—willing to engage in sarcasm?
12. is Lucy truly happy adopting the passive role of wallflower, an isolated observer of life more than a participant in it?
13. is the reader led to concur with Lucy’s claim that Ginevra—however haughty and selfish she may be—evinces both honesty and goodness (146), that she has “‘no great harm in her’” (219), that her ignorance should exonerate her of most faults she betrays (224)?
14. is Lucy right to, during the school’s eight-week vacation, imagine Ginevra as happy and ever followed by “True Love” (159)?
15. does Lucy consider Dr. John to be a near-perfect specimen of masculinity?
16. what of the reader—do we observe, first hand, any failings in Mr. John Graham Bretton?
17. does Dr. John’s playfulness ever compromise his kindness?
18. does M. Paul demonstrate any good qualities, or is he a mere irritant to both Lucy and the reader?
19. at one point Monsieur Paul casually refers to men as the “nobler sex” (139). Is such a sexual distinction supported by the novel?

C. Brontë's Villette (1853), chps 22-28

1. does Lucy challenge those traditional gender roles of her time which would cast the male as the dominant, proactive agent in romance, and the female as the passive and patient object of desire?
2. does Graham adore Ginevra against his better judgment, or is he oblivious to her imperfections?
3. which word best describes Lucy's feelings for Dr. John: "respect," "pity," "love," or "amusement"?
4. does Lucy’s religious faith inspirit her to attempt new things, to push beyond the familiar and comfortable?
5. does Lucy retain that close connection with the wind identifiable in earlier chapters?
6. which appears to win the internal battle waged across chps 23-31, reason or feelings/hope?
7. which other characters demonstrate an enviable comfort with their own feelings?
8. does the text as a whole assert Mr. Home’s assertion that Lucy’s struggles have gradually refined and strengthened her (286)?
9. does this novel correlate socioeconomic status with moral virtue in any way?
10. does Paulina engage in needlework (289, 291) for the same reasons that Lucy does (328)?
11. does Lucy either condemn or condone the performance of the female actor playing Vashti?
12. does Paulina understand Graham Bretton’s character better than Lucy does?
13. do Graham and Paulina understand one another equally well, or is one more perceptive than the other?
14. what exactly draws Graham Bretton towards Paulina?
15. is Lucy one of those women whose mind wanders “through dark ways” (279) she dare not visit bodily?
16. why does Lucy refuse Mr. Home’s kind offer (298)?  Is this choice consistent with her character?
17. is Lucy’s highest aspiration to start her own new school?  Does she think this goal, if realized, would bring her happiness?

C. Brontë's Villette (1853), chps 29-35

1. do Lucy’s poor estimations of her own intellect and creativity (234-35, 351, 356, etc.) prove accurate, or does she sell herself short?
2. what of Lucy’s relational prospects (361-62, etc.)?  Is she too optimistic—or pessimistic—about her likely future? Also, does she embrace hope or despair in disqualifying herself from romantic fulfillment (360-62)?
3. is M. Paul Emanuel a kind, considerate individual beneath his apparent gruffness, or a creep?
4. do Graham Bretton & M. Paul view women similarly?  Is either a chauvinist pig or misogynist?
5. early in this tale, Lucy wonders how Polly will manage to “‘get through this world, or battle with this life? How will she bear the shocks and repulses, the humiliations and desolations, which books, and my own reason tell me are prepared for all flesh?’” (34).  Does the latter part of the novel answer this question?
6. does the following, early description of Ginevra apply equally well to Paulina, or not?  “Many a time have I noticed, in persons of Ginevra Fanshawe’s light, careless temperament, and fair, fragile style of beauty, an entire incapacity to endure . . . the man who takes such a woman for his wife, ought to be prepared to guarantee her an existence all sunshine” (57 mid).
7. is Paulina a chameleon, ever changing to fit a new role, or are her different modes mere facets of a unified personality?
8. do the women in this novel prove static in terms of personality and position, or mobile?
9. does Lucy’s vision of education match that of Paulina Home and her father?
10. who is more responsible for the plenteous bumps run into by M. Paul and Lucy in their joint movement towards friendship?
11. under what circumstances does M. Paul show Lucy kindness, and what provokes his ire towards her?
12. is M. Paul a power-hungry tyrant?
13. does M. Paul foster Lucy’s attempts at self-improvement?
14. does Charlotte Brontë apply Gothic touches and tones to her novel for dramatic effect alone?
15. should Lucy’s observation that M. Paul’s “bark [is] worse than his bite” (355) be applied to his words about women?  Should he be categorized as a misogynist?
16. does Lucy fear M. Paul?

C. Brontë's Villette (1853), chps 32-42 [questions generated by our very own grad students!]

1. Lucy is critical of Catholic rituals, but engages in rituals of her own, such as burying Dr. John's letters.  Are there other "ritual" acts like this in the text?.  What might she and/or the reader understand as the difference between Lucy's and the Catholic church's rituals?  Do they (the ritualized acts) achieve the ends they are designed to achieve?
2. Lucy at times says she values control of her feelings during emotionally charged situations, seems proud when she can suppress emotions, and weak when she gives in to them.  Does this value tend to help or hinder her in both the short and long term?
3. do later developments in the novel involving both Dr. John and M. Paul recast their earlier depictions/actions in the novel in a different light?  For example, what can we make of Lucy and M. Paul's encounter in the museum when we think back on it having finished the novel?
4. compare Lucy’s feelings regarding Polly resting against her arm (373) with Lucy’s feelings when Ginevra rests against her arm (379). Which relationship seems more honest? Does Lucy value honesty in her relationships in these last 10 chapters?
5. are Paulina and Lucy the same character realized through opposing fates, one sunny and one stormy?
6. on p. 149, Lucy asks Ginevra which of her suitors she means to accept, “the man or the monkey.”  Ginevra chooses the monkey, which later prompts Lucy to say, “The reader will no doubt expect to hear that she came finally to bitter expiation of her youthful levities” (476). But this proves not to be the case. Ginevra, according to Lucy, suffers "as lilttle as any human being I have ever known" (478). Did Genevra choose correctly between Graham and de Hamal?
7. what motivates the eventual unveiling of the "nun" in chp. 40? Is it a dismissal of the supernatural, a way for Brontë to illustrate society's construction of feminine hysteria, or does it serve some other function/
8. does the depiction of M. Paul as a "lamb" (382) seem plausible after the depiction of him as a "tiger" (325)? Does the animalistic depiction of M. Paul (382) change your opinion of his character? What about his depiction as a "shepherd" (384)?
9. do we really believe Lucy when she claims she does not have a good memory (486)? Can it really be plausible that she does not remember certain key details about what occurred when M. Paul gave her the school? Or is she just being secretive?
10. when Lucy states she will be M. Paul's "faithful steward" (487) is she contradicting her desire to be independent?
11. how does the disguise of Hamal (474) complicate or add to the previous moments of performing/acting gender, especially in Lucy's acting as a man (139) and the description of Vashti (259)?
12. why does Lucy hide from M. Emmanuel when she knows that he is desperately seeking to find her and deliver important news (385)?
13. why does Lucy describe Paulina’s loving references to John Bretton as “molten lead” (425)?. What is it about the potential union of Dr. Bretton and Paulina that causes her so much pain?
14. are M. de Bassompierre’s references to Paulina as a “little pet” and “pretty infant” (429) demeaning or endearing? Does her behavior up to this point in the novel support his notion that had it not been for Dr. Bretton, “she would have remained a child for years yet” (427)?
15. does Lucy imply that M. Emmanuel is a Christ-like figure when she refers to his letters as “real food that nourished, living water that refreshed" (494)?
16. having already refused M. de Bassompierre’s proposal to live as Paulina’s companion, Lucy decides that opening her own school will be her way to “take another step towards an independent position” (360). Lucy values earning her own keep, rather than living comfortably as “a bright lady’s shadow” (298), so how does Lucy’s acceptance of M. Paul’s gift at the end of the novel complicate her aforementioned desire to earn independence instead of relying on others? Have her values changed? Or is her original desire for independence indicative of something else beyond pride?

Waiting (1854)
John Everett Millais

Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu