The reader finds the first contradiction in the very name, Lucy Snowe, for, while the first name suggests light, the last suggests cold. These oppositional tendencies play themselves out in the central character as the narrative progresses. Just as our narrator tells us of herself, she contradicts her assertions by acting otherwise. For, she stresses her cold, contemplative nature from the first: “I, Lucy Snowe, was calm.” (22) She avows that she “had wanted to compromise with Fate: to escape occasional great agonies by submitting to a whole life of privation and small pains.” (38) However, fate does

Just as Lucy’s nature seems to fluctuate between periods of calm and outbursts of vivacity, so does the setting change without warning between periods of content sunlight and vicious storm. These changes of scene virtually mirror the tonal shifts in the novel, as Bronte vary between blocks of everyday diction and description to scenes of gothic intensity. For example, though Lucy declares the legend of the haunted Nun “romantic rubbish” (106), the tone is quite different when Lucy actually sees the NUN for the first time and is quite shaken. (245) Another startling difference of tone and description is that between the rest of the novel and Lucy’s narcotically-enhanced midnight escapade to the fete in the park. (450) The tone of the novel also swings between basic description of events and complex musings on abstract subjects. For example, Lucy takes her leave of Dr. John and then enters abruptly into a discourse upon the struggles between Reason and Imagination within the human mind. (229)

Surely such a play of opposing forces on a grand scale cannot be coincidental. On the contrary, it is the very vehicle through which Bronte is able to skillfully engineer her novel and lead her audience. This is done often through direct statements made from narrator to reader. Each of these statements serves to justify or qualify Lucy’s character. For example, upon arriving in London, she apologizes to the reader for her lack of poesy in setting description. (45) Much later, she acknowledges that the reader may ask “Why were you so glad to be friends with M. Paul? Had he not long been a friend to you? Had he not given proof on proof of a certain partiality in his feelings?” (408) Through the answer to the supposed question, Lucy is able to unobtrusively give the reader more in

Some topics in this essay:
Dr John, Lucy Snowe, Miss Snowe”, Paul’s Caribbean, Villette Lucy, Reason Imagination, Miss Lucy, Dr John’s, Bronte’s Villette, Ginevra Fanshawe, dr john, lucy snowe, novel lucy’s, opposing forces, central character, ginevra fanshawe, lucy able, lucy takes, lucy’s nature, tone description,