Tensions in Villette - 1692 Words

Tensions in Villette Villette is a narrative that seems constantly at war with itself, fraught with tensions of reason versus feeling, nature versus art and reality versus imagination, as I will attempt to illustrate. Lucy is anything but a one dimensional character and it throughout the novel, her emotional growth is charted. The important elements in the narrative seem to resist a one-sided reading. Read in context, perhaps Bronte recognizes that in the Victorian world, tensions of the aforementioned impinge upon and are all shaped by one another.[1] Reason/ Feeling In chapter 23, Lucy Snowe penned two replies to Graham’s letter, one under â€Å"the dry stinting check of Reason† and another â€Å"according to the full, liberal impulse†¦show more content†¦Nature/ Art The three couples in the story are all described differently and represent different values with regard to nature and art. Although we hear most about Lucy and M. Paul, what we are told about the other two pairs make Lucy’s tale even more tragic, given that Lucy suffers the most by the end of the novel. Ginevra and Colonel de Hamal, who is tiny in stature and looks like a doll to Lucy, are conceived as almost pseudo art objects. Ginevra is depicted as a butterfly flitting through life, having neither sense nor substance and quite happily so. Most of what we hear about Ginevra is about her outward appearance, thus making her primarily an object of beauty. We hear about her blonde curls, rouge, spangles and sashes, and her habit of often gazing at gaudy polished mirrors. Colonel de Hamal is figured as a dandy, â€Å"so nicely curled, so booted, gloved and crafted† (163). At one point, Polly and Ginevra are even contrasted as works of art or figures in a painting- â€Å"nature having traced all these details slightly, and with a careless hand, in Miss Fanshawes case; and in Miss de Bassompierres, wrought them to a high and delicate finish† (346). On the other hand, Graham and Polly are depicted as nature cultivated by art[3], something between nature and art that Robert Colby likens to sheltered greenhouse plants. Dr John’s features are said to be â€Å"though well cut they were not so chiselled, soShow MoreRelatedThe Perception of Women in the Early 19th Century1184 Words   |  5 Pagesnigger† (22). This shows how Antoinette’s struggle with her place and identity is at the center of her turmoil and at the heart of what Rhys is trying to expose. In Susan Lydon’s article, â€Å"Abandoning and Re-inhabiting Domestic Space in Jane Eyre, Villette, and Wide Sargasso Sea,† she discusses the ways patriarchs fail at providing safe spaces for women. Lydon addresses how both Brontë and Rhys expose the harms of the English patriarch, she writes, â€Å"[In] her modern remaking of Jane Eyre, Jean RhysRead MoreA Dialogue of Self and Soul11424 Words   |  46 Pagesbecause it is he who will initiate her into the mysteries of the ï ¬â€šesh. That both Jane and Rochester are in some part of themselves conscious of the barrier which Rochester’s sexual knowledge poses to their equality is further indicated by the tensions that develop in their relationship after their betrothal. Rochester, having secured Jane’s love, almost reï ¬â€šexively begins to treat her as an inferior, a plaything, a virginal possession – for she has now become his initiate, his ‘mustard-seed,’Read MoreDisneyland analysis8865 Words   |  36 Pagesblunders before and at the time of the opening cultural, financial and economic matters. A capital asset that cannot earn income has no value; it becomes a liability. It did subject Disney Company to some ridicule by the press (Solomon, 1994). The tension between globalization forces that led to it’s expansion in Europe and localization forces, the result of local differences in production and marketing techniques has forced Disney Company to change and adapt it s much prized know-how: for example