Villette Setting

“ It is true that madame had her own system for managing and regulating this mass of machinery; and a very pretty system it was: the reader has seen a small specimen of it, in that small affair of turning my pocket inside out, and reading my private memoranda. ‘Surveillance,’ ‘espionage,’ –these were her watch words” (Brontë 67). When in a situation people are often blinded by the chaos around them, only a person on the outside looking in can truly give insight to what is happening to all parties involved. Villette, by Charlotte Brontë, gives this perspective of an outsider going through life and seeing all the components that comprise a situation. Lucy Snowe, as the character is named, is the main focus of the plot of Villette. Her life is …show more content…
To initiate the discussion of how the settings of Villette take on meanings themselves, it is imperative to look at the different locales that Lucy finds herself in throughout the story. There are quite a few different locations discussed in Villette, but only a couple will be discussed here. There is her godmother’s home, Miss Marchmont’s house, the school in Villette, and the small schoolhouse in Faubourg Clotilde; all of these places are of great significance to the story of Lucy Snowe. Of most import though, the school in Villette itself must be first addressed. When Lucy first hears of Villette, it is from the mouth of Miss Fanshawe and with great disgust. She tells Lucy, “The natives, you know, are intensely stupid and vulgar… ,” which is quite an odd way to introduce to the reader the main setting to a book but nonetheless quite effective (Brontë 50). To continue the train of thought started before, it is simple to see that Lucy, as soon as she begins to think about the school in Villette, analyzes it and seems to find some hidden meanings and immediately decides that that is the place she should first look for work. Robert Colby, in his comments about Villette, shows that the setting Miss Brontë creates, a school that is “…desultory in pace…” is quite an optimized and an almost unrealistic setting for Lucy to find herself in after all the misfortune that has befallen her. While it is the authoress’ prerogative to write as she wishes, many critics find this stroke of luck that Lucy gains a bit odd from the rest of the plotline. While this is an interesting facet of the plot, it must also be noted the peculiarities of how the schoolhouse in Faubourg Clotilde is given as a future-present setting. Lucy is delighted as her professor gives the ‘grand’ tour and speaks of the house in the present, but a quick shift is then made to