As was discussed in class, Charlotte Brontë uses surveillance often throughout her classic novel Villette. When reading this book, the occasions where surveillance is used stand out among others, and it’s apparent that Brontë spends an abundance of time focusing on these scenes in particular. Lucy doesn’t want to experience life for herself, thus throughout the novel the reader is able to see Lucy watch and observe others. Surveillance is also used by Madame Beck as a means of keeping her students and faculty in check; she wants her school to be perfect. M. Paul, who is a nosy man that wants to know everyone’s business, surveils people simply for the pleasure of watching and not being found out. Bronte uses surveillance as a way to show the
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In fact, after meeting Beck it is blatant that surveillance is a pseudo-hobby of hers as well. When Lucy first moves in, Madame Beck assumes Lucy is lying in bed asleep, but being a light sleeper she wakes when Madame comes in the room. Lucy sees her look through her belongings and make a copy of her keys so she can look through her trunk latter. Lucy claims it was “unfair and unjustifiable” (77), but in a sense Lucy admired her for it. Lucy liked how deliberate she was with everything she did. We see here that Madame Beck doesn’t act maliciously towards Lucy, but she seems to act for the pleasure of knowing what’s going on with her faculty and students under her roof, as well as out of a “duty” (77) to her …show more content…
She uses it as a means to convey a theme, relating three of the books characters to one another. Surveillance is important throughout the novel to portray theme, to pull characters together, and to express a common motive among the characters. As the reader ventured through this novel it was apparent to them that Lucy was quiet and liked to hide out in the shadows, all while gaining pleasure through watching others, since she was too shy to act herself. Madame Beck sought to look after her school and students hoping to weed out the bad eggs, while also finding a certain pleasure in the tasks she undertook. Lastly, M. Paul was a very loud abrasive man, yet he still enjoyed, for no real reason, sneaking about and quietly watching others from a distance. Each of these characters have very different personalities, but the biggest reason each of them seems to venture into surveillance is for the purpose of pleasure. Under this observation, it’s easy to see Charlotte Brontë was trying to show the reader that though people are different, they can still enjoy similar things, in this case observing others; people finding pleasure in the act of
In fact, after meeting Beck it is blatant that surveillance is a pseudo-hobby of hers as well. When Lucy first moves in, Madame Beck assumes Lucy is lying in bed asleep, but being a light sleeper she wakes when Madame comes in the room. Lucy sees her look through her belongings and make a copy of her keys so she can look through her trunk latter. Lucy claims it was “unfair and unjustifiable” (77), but in a sense Lucy admired her for it. Lucy liked how deliberate she was with everything she did. We see here that Madame Beck doesn’t act maliciously towards Lucy, but she seems to act for the pleasure of knowing what’s going on with her faculty and students under her roof, as well as out of a “duty” (77) to her …show more content…
She uses it as a means to convey a theme, relating three of the books characters to one another. Surveillance is important throughout the novel to portray theme, to pull characters together, and to express a common motive among the characters. As the reader ventured through this novel it was apparent to them that Lucy was quiet and liked to hide out in the shadows, all while gaining pleasure through watching others, since she was too shy to act herself. Madame Beck sought to look after her school and students hoping to weed out the bad eggs, while also finding a certain pleasure in the tasks she undertook. Lastly, M. Paul was a very loud abrasive man, yet he still enjoyed, for no real reason, sneaking about and quietly watching others from a distance. Each of these characters have very different personalities, but the biggest reason each of them seems to venture into surveillance is for the purpose of pleasure. Under this observation, it’s easy to see Charlotte Brontë was trying to show the reader that though people are different, they can still enjoy similar things, in this case observing others; people finding pleasure in the act of