"Man cannot prophecy. Love is no oracle. Fear sometimes imagines a vain thing. Those years of absence! How had I sickened over their anticipation! The woe they must bring seemed certain as death. I knew the nature of their course: I never had doubt how it would harrow as it went." (Villette, Chapter 41)
Art by John Jellicoe for the 1906 edition of Villette
Greetings, dearest Janeites! Again I bid you a hearty welcome to the Austen-Brontë reader series and to the third and final week covering Villette. Like this post, Villette was Charlotte Brontë's third and final novel. The task left to us all today is to succinctly peruse Volume III, which encompasses Chapters 28-41. With two potential love interests on the horizon, a dash of Gothic mystery, and, as of last week, the end nowhere in sight... why don't we get started?
Summary and First Impressions
Our final selection to cover, Volume III, begins by illuminating the dynamic between Lucy Snowe and the domineering M. Paul Emanuel. He is a very particular man and very critical of our reserved yet resolute heroine. In a few different circumstances– first, the classroom, then at dinner– the two characters parry back and forth. The pressing question remains, however. Does Lucy resent M. Paul for his frank judgement, readily shared at every opportunity? The answer? No, she does not; in fact, Lucy behaves toward M. Paul with care, confidence, and civility that seem to leave a good impression. M. Paul even relaxes slightly from his austere views near the chapter's close, leaving the reader to wonder what the next surprise may be.
Madame Beck soon throws a party in M. Paul's honor. The celebration is eventful for quite a variety of reasons, but ends up having a positive outcome for Lucy and the honoree. This tranquil state does not last, however, and soon the relationship settles back into the way it has always been, with the two quarreling about Lucy's burgeoning academic achievements. But no sooner than their disagreement seems final than Charlotte Brontë whirls her readers around to find M. Paul and Lucy speaking kindly and seriously about important matters. The latter decides she would like to open her own school– which is no small feat for a woman of very little wealth– as she walks on a secluded path within the school grounds.
"But I learned in time that this benignity, this cordiality, this music, belonged in no shape to me: it was a part of himself; it was the honey of his temper; it was the balm of his mellow mood; he imparted it, as the ripe fruit rewards with sweetness the rifling bee; he diffused it about him, as sweet plants shed their perfume. Does the nectarine love either the bee or bird it feeds? Is the sweetbriar enamoured of the air?" (Villette, Chapter 33)
Soon after this decision is made, M. Paul and Lucy begin to quarrel again, but are cut short my yet another vision of the spectral "nun" Lucy witnessed in the attic a few chapters ago in Volume II, reminding readers that Villette is no stranger to the Gothic genre.
Paulina and her father, who had been away traveling for some time, return and the frequent dinner parties commence once more. Polly reveals to Lucy that she and Dr. John are in love, but that she has not told her father, a protective worrier, about whom, incidentally, Paulina worries herself. (A situation, I must say, that reminds me vividly of Jane Austen's Emma.)
Madame Beck tasks Lucy with bringing a basket of food to an elderly woman, and while she is there she meets Père Silas, who was the priest she met at the Catholic church all the way back in Volume I. After Lucy notices a beautiful portrait on the wall, Père Silas tells the story of the painting's subject: Justine Marie, the granddaughter of the elderly woman who, unable to marry her love joined a convent and died soon after. This bereaved girl's love– a young man burdened by the debts of his father– was none other than M. Paul Emanuel. Lucy realizes that she had been sent to the house not just to deliver the basket, but to learn about M. Paul's past. Eventually, Lucy speaks to M. Paul about what she has learned about Justine Marie and, bringing to mind the ghostly nun, they both wish for the sightings to be rationally explained. (...is there a rational explanation? With the authoress reveal all?)
Finally, Dr. John consults with Paulina's father, asking for his daughter's hand in marriage. This does not go too well at first, and Dr. John waits anxiously with Lucy, not knowing of her love for him, finishing his speech with the words, "God will be in the right! Lucy, say, Amen!"
"He turned, and waited till I said 'Amen!', which I did to please him: the old charm, in doing as he bid me, came back. I wished him success; and successful I knew he would be. He was born victor, as some are born vanquished." (Villette, Chapter 37)
Even though Lucy believed a match between her and Dr. John to be impossible, she cannot help but grieve slightly at the match. That being said, her love for both Polly and Dr. John soon outweighs her feelings when she realizes how right they are together.
M. Paul and Lucy eventually become close friends, much in the same fashion as Lucy and Dr. John earlier in the novel. This concerns Père Silas and Madame Beck, as they and M. Paul are Catholics, compared to Lucy's devout Protestantism. Despite the discontent of these individuals, things seem to be on the up and up for the pair. But happiness is short-lived as the authoress pulls out the rug and reveals that M. Paul is leaving Villette for Guadalupe. Lucy believes this is a conscious decision, prompted by the priest and headmistress. (At this realization I am yet again reminded of an Austenian plot-point, this time from Pride and Prejudice. Does "the separation of potential lovers by friends who collectively deem the match unsuitable" ring any literary bells?)
One evening, Lucy discovers the costume of the phantom nun on her bed and notices that it seems too large for a woman, but questions who would perform such an odd deception. It is soon revealed that the "nun" was in fact Count de Hamal– with whom Ginevra Fanshawe has eloped– who disguised himself as a nun in order to secretly visit Ginevra at school.
M. Paul comes to bid Lucy farewell before he departs on his journey and in a heartfelt scene they converse on the topic of their true friendship. He leads Lucy to a building in a recently developed area of Villette and reveals that he has taken the building as Lucy's future school. He also expresses his love and wish that the two of them marry upon his return to Europe. Despite their turbulent relationship, Lucy discovers that she truly loves M. Paul in return.
"...he held both my hands, he consulted my eyes with a most piercing glance: there was something in his face which tended neither to calm nor to put me down... I knew not till now that my nature had such a mood; he gathered me near his heart. I was full of faults; he took them and me all home." (Villette, Chapter 40)
There is something incredibly modern about the end of Villette, as Charlotte Brontë largely leaves the ending vague. Lucy enjoys great happiness during the three years that M. Paul Emanuel is away and her school prospers. But even still there is still no clean ending, for it is strongly hinted that, on his return voyage, M. Paul's ship is lost in a storm. But, even in the midst of this tragedy, in constancy with her character, Lucy Snowe says, "trouble no quiet, kind heart; leave sunny imaginations hope. Let it be theirs to conceive the delight of joy born again fresh out of great terror, the rapture of rescue from peril, the wondrous reprieve from dread, the fruition of return. Let them picture union and a happy succeeding life."
Sadly, here we must conclude our whirlwind reading journey of Charlotte Brontë's Villette. Keep an eye out for a brief wrap-up post released next Friday, September 13th, and if you happen to be curious about what JASP has in store for you next, please check out this post. As always, I appreciate you reading along with me, dearest Janeites. Farewell!
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