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A review by sidharthvardhan
Villette by Charlotte Brontë
5.0
Almost everyone compares Lucy Snowe to Jane Eyre. Given that neither of them thought of herself as beauty, the comparison seems natural too. Jane is more assertive and less observational compared to Lucy if my memory serves. Jane is heroine of her story and you always feel that. She wants to grow and cherishes dreams.
Lucy doesn't - her lack of assertiveness and low opinion of herself means she is a bit like narrator of The Great Gatsby; people are willing to share their secrets with her, be themselves around her and often, to paraphrase her, won't pay any more attention than they would to furniture. This makes her witness to scenes that people would have hidden from a more assertive or selfish person.
As a result, she is like an invisible observer for a great part of the novel. At one point, she is caught off guard when one of character she is observing looks back and takes a notice of her. That said she holds her ground when she feels that someone else's opinion is being imposed upon her (catholic debate apart, there is another example when suitor of a pretty girl wants her to admire the girl like a big brother).
There is a lot more earnest chase in here after what we call stream of consciousness than Jane Eyre and narrator's working life is more visible. Those maybe reasons why Virginia Woolf and George Eliot held it in higher regard than Jane Eyre.
Lots of reviewers seem to think that Jane Eyre had a better plot. I don't. Jane Eyre's is a pretty straight forward story, Villete is a more life-like novel in its lack of a cliche plot (its not another love triangle). No one can call it a product of romantic wishful thinking
- Bronte was writing from lived experience, rather than from imagination. It also seems to have characters are more completely written (Jane Eyre leaves you to guess a lot). That said, the gothic element (the ghost) in villette seemed forced and spoil it a little pointlessly. If you are looking from a feminist element, there is a powerful scene where Lucy is being chased on street by two men - one of earliest such scenes. She even has a love that remains unrequited but gracefully gotten over with - probably a first for heroine of an English novel.
Lucy doesn't - her lack of assertiveness and low opinion of herself means she is a bit like narrator of The Great Gatsby; people are willing to share their secrets with her, be themselves around her and often, to paraphrase her, won't pay any more attention than they would to furniture. This makes her witness to scenes that people would have hidden from a more assertive or selfish person.
As a result, she is like an invisible observer for a great part of the novel. At one point, she is caught off guard when one of character she is observing looks back and takes a notice of her. That said she holds her ground when she feels that someone else's opinion is being imposed upon her (catholic debate apart, there is another example when suitor of a pretty girl wants her to admire the girl like a big brother).
There is a lot more earnest chase in here after what we call stream of consciousness than Jane Eyre and narrator's working life is more visible. Those maybe reasons why Virginia Woolf and George Eliot held it in higher regard than Jane Eyre.
Lots of reviewers seem to think that Jane Eyre had a better plot. I don't. Jane Eyre's is a pretty straight forward story, Villete is a more life-like novel in its lack of a cliche plot (its not another love triangle). No one can call it a product of romantic wishful thinking
- Bronte was writing from lived experience, rather than from imagination. It also seems to have characters are more completely written (Jane Eyre leaves you to guess a lot). That said, the gothic element (the ghost) in villette seemed forced and spoil it a little pointlessly. If you are looking from a feminist element, there is a powerful scene where Lucy is being chased on street by two men - one of earliest such scenes. She even has a love that remains unrequited but gracefully gotten over with - probably a first for heroine of an English novel.